I spoke with Mike Evans, my actor playing the Homeless Man and suggested a meeting to run over the script as he had a few suggestions for re-phrasing some of the lines so they felt more natural.
I spent the evening reading through the script with him so he could grasp the lines. We attempted running through using the 'homeless forms' that I'd created (shown in a previous blog entry) with Mike improvising his lines. This proved very useful as it made the interview conversation seem much more natural, it also made Mike feel more confident overall about the coming film shoot.
Having spent this time briefing Mike on the coming shoot, I called Lewis (who lives in Exeter so was unable to meet with us this evening) and took him through all the changes and suggestions we had gone through.
One of the main changes I have made to this scene came following a discussion with my workshop leader Rod. Rod suggested that rather than have the Homeless Man instantly start interviewing the Support Worker, I lead up to the change with both characters taking on their normal roles - so the Support Worker beginning the interview then the Homeless Man taking over. This was a good idea as it played on the existing stereotypes with each character acting the way the audience would expect. I decided to have the Support Worker ask the initial, basic questions (name, date of birth and so on) and Mike suggested that the turning point could be asking for the Homeless Man's national insurance number.
These are the additional lines/stage directions I have added following this:
SW: Okay, and what's your national insurance number?
HM: (taking questionnaire and pen from SW) Why don't you tell me your national insurance number?
SW: (confused) I'm not telling you that! Why are you asking me the questions?
HM: These are just routine questions we ask anyone who's staying in our night service.
The interview conversation will then continue as per the original script.
I ran through all of this with Lewis over the phone and he understood the changes and is happy to go ahead with them.
In terms of costume I have asked Mike if he can bring some old trousers and an old t-shirt that are slightly mismatched and ill fitting if possible. This will give the impression that they are either really old, or items he has had donated from various other shelters that weren't selected out of fashionable choice, but out of lack of other options. I am going to provide a large black puffer jacket, a woolen hat and some fingerless gloves - the hat and jacket to suggest he has been using them to shelter from the elements, and the fingerless gloves as they are something I feel are commonly associated with homeless people. For the support worker, I have asked Lewis to wear normal clothes, jeans and a shirt - working in the night shelter required us to dress comfortably but not overly smart in a way that deliberately separated us from the service users visually, making them feel uncomfortable in their clothes.
In preparation for the shoot on Saturday, I am clearing the room of all it's clutter - there are lots of filing cabinets and bags of old papers and so in there which are quite distracting. I want the scene to be as visually simple as possible so as not to distract the audience from the conversation and the characters.
No comments:
Post a Comment