Yes… I had a chance to be on the set of the new Batman movie. It was a quite excellent experience… something I couldn’t quite describe in words – wait… that’s what a blog is for! I guess I’ll try to capture what I felt when I was on the set. First of all, I was an extra in 3 scenes. I cannot say what the scenes were because then that would ruin the story for you!

To be on the set and see the camera, the lights, and how they set up everything was an amazing thing to see. I was also about 3 feet away from Gary Oldman, one of my favorite actors of all time, and at one point I was lost in his acting. He was so good that I stopped feeling the “oh wow, this is Gary Oldman” thing and started actually becoming part of the movie. I actually felt the emotions that he was trying to have the watcher feel – it was something I never knew existed before. Now that’s acting! Being a director, this was an experience that has taught me so much about the direction of actors. I now watch movies in a completely new light and can now also tell if there was good casting for a film, and also if the actor/actress was good or not. These are things that I thought I knew but only now realize how little I knew about it.

I think the main thing that I took with me from my experience was that all of the people on the set are just normal people - they do movies just like accountants do accounting. They are just normal people. The reason why the average person puts actors and filmmakers on a pedestal is, I believe, because of this falsehood that these people aren’t normal -they are supernormal for some reason. Well, the truth is, no matter how much people idolize them, that they are just normal people. They all have mothers and fathers; they all grew up with childhoods ranging from good to bad and everything in between. They are all just people - just like you and me. Every person has a gift - whether a person has found that gift or chooses to use that gift is another story. Actually, now that I write this, there is a slight difference in the actors and filmmakers than that of your average person. Most, NOT ALL, people feel that they are being pushed into a life that they don’t want; “I have to do this because,.” Or “Oh, I can’t do that because my,” whereas the actors and filmmakers are people, again mostly, not all, who have said that they want to make movies or act in movies, and have done so even though people have said “That’s just a pipe dream.” The difference is something that we all posses - we can all be movie stars in our own right. If what you want to do is to grow tomatoes and you love doing that, then when you choose to grow tomatoes then you will be like the movie stars, you will be on your own pedestal. Gary Oldman is a master of his craft - he’s an amazing actor. He’s doing what he loves to do - at least I think he is (I didn’t quite ask him if he loves doing it!). I love watching movies and I also love making them, but I would have never known I loved making movies if I never tried to. I want to master the craft of making movies and make no mistake - I am becoming a master of it. I’m learning - just as Gary Oldman is still learning. We are all still learning - we are all normal people. Even when we stop learning, we are STILL learning. We are learning how to be inert. If you have a love for something, however big or small of a thing it is, just try it. Take your excuses and forget them for a day and just try on your love.

So, that being said… It was AWESOME to be on the set and to see Gary Oldman acting only 3 feet away from me!