The Proposal and the Valentine’s

Real life, as we will know it the next eight months (though dreamy it may still seem to me), is about to blossom. As the hassle of settling down slowly dies out, challenges of school is coming to life, growing over the heads of its students.

So far, it seems, these challenges encompasses love, despair, big laughs, tears, fights, humiliation – just like normal student life, I guess. Except, here it all get’s captured on tape. 

As this is «the most hands-on intensive program in the world» (quote: NYFA website), casting for student films started this week already. As mentioned earlier, there’s this inconvenient little detail about auditions and me; they scare the life out of me.

Without a word of how and what to prepare, we were simply sent into room after room with a bunch of filmmakers. Standing in front of them, empty-handed and «naked», they take turns of telling us things like «your girlfriend just told you she’s pregnant. Show your reaction», or «you’re making love with your mistress in a bathtub when you get a call from your wife. Go!» And all we can do is our best not to seem like total idiots with zero experience – although that’s exactly what some of us are.

As humiliating as it was, it turns out I may not have seemed like the pale white, stressed out, shaking, bewildered space-head I felt like in there; not many days after, I am already signed up for several films. And that’s the story of how Petter Egge got his film debut in Griffith Park last Monday.

Shot on real old school no-sound film tape, I got to break up with one girl in favor of another. Terrible acting from the main character (me), I’d say, but all the more an educating experience. Not to mention the awe of working with different directors; artist, they are – and accordingly diverse.

Where one took a million takes and giving as many detailed instructions, the other does the whole film in one shot, saying no more than: «Do your thing, man.» When finished, it turns out he didn’t have film in his camera, so there was actually NO shot.

Advancing quickly, our next day of filming happened at Wisteria Lane, Universal Studios. An actual film set, high-end equipment, instructors, directors – «the real thing». Right by Susan Meyer and Bree Van De Kamp’s houses, I once again got the pleasure of sticking love’s despair onto tape – this time by getting my utterly romantic proposal turned down.

Playing with a severely convincing actress, the scene came out almost too real. There was crying, there was fighting. There were feelings. I guess that’s the perks of being an actor; I’m prepared now, for whenever some girlfriend may turn down my request of marrying me…

Luckily, life is sometimes way better than fiction. To pick me up again from this frightening experience, Valentines Day came in surprisingly handy. I have never cared an inch for such commercial hypes, but when and where else would I start than in the very cradle of its kind? Although it might be connected to the fact that it is also my first, the truth remains that this V-day came out as my best ever.

Without going into details, I’d say the Word was fulfilled that day; «For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.» Sometimes a little bit of investment is paid back to you with interest – and as cliché as it might be, I think love must be the one that grows the most when returned. And this day, I laughed all the way to the bank.

Life 2.0 is Khrono’s new blog, and will be presented with new blogposts every week. Petter Egge is a former student from HiOA and journalist at Khrono. He has decided to do something quit different. This is his stories.

Feb. 11th 2014: 
Chronicle #3: «Life’s a like a box of chocolate»

As we still can’t seem to get friendly with our apartment (at least our rent), it took my roommate and me no more than three days to decide to move out again. Already stretching our comfort zone with one bedroom, we are now downgrading to NO bedroom.

The whole chronicle #3 here.

Feb. 8th 2014: 
Chronicle #2: Move-in Day and monologues

When gas, water, power and insurance companies got back in to business on Monday morning, Murphy’s law did the same; what could go wrong – well, you know. For the landlord to let us move in, they needed confirmation letters faxed from all of the above – which should be no problem, since we asked them all to do so when opening our new accounts. After half a day of waiting by an empty fax machine, we dared to call them back with a friendly reminder – only to discover that they’d forgotten all about us. When they eventually faxed it, only one name was on the paper – and we’d really prefer that both of us could move in. 

The whole chronicle #2 here.

Feb. 5th 2014: 
Chronicle #1: «I need a dollar, dollar is what I need»

Ok, just to make it clear right away: I am NOT a blogger. Since the dawn of the blogosphere, my prejudices have kept me far away from its kind. But as we all know, the first unwritten rule of a struggling actor in Hollywood is that «Everyone must accept some kind of prostitution in order to survive up until the big breakthrough.» So, I could have fulfilled the stereotype of waiting tables between my auditions, or I could do a «Sylvester Stallone» – but instead I am now spreading trivialities about my still-to-be famous self. Oh, the irony.

The whole chronicle #1 here.