Well, after a long blogging absence, there is definitely a lot to retell. In my previous posts I talked about being part of a movie and organizing the International Banquet, not to mention the Opera production. These two consumed my life, and that's the reason for my absence. This entry will be dedicated to retelling my adventurous path as actor, producer, and singer (talk about multi-tasking!).

Well, principal photography finished about two weeks ago, and I couldn't believe it! About 70% of my free time was dedicated to the movie. It was very rough, especially knowing that while most of my senior friends were partying at Howl at the Moon every Thursday, I filmed in a dirty garage. We ran behind of schedule in our morning scenes, so we had to schedule two extra filming sessions during the week at 7 am. So, my schedule for the last two weeks of filming was Thursday to Saturday: morning workout scenes at 7 am and night/event scenes from 8 till midnight, plus afternoon shots on Saturday from 2 to 6. Sunday we had afternoon and night shots as well. I was so busy and sleep deprived that I quickly fell asleep during several shots where I had to "pretend" I was sleeping. There were also some scenes where water was involved. By this I mean, I had to be bombarded with water balloons (one of which made an unfortunate landing in my crotch, without exploding), railed with Super soaker fire and get cold water dumped on me from a bucket. I guess a movie about fraternity pledging has to feel like you're actually pledging one. Although I still have to go and do some voice recording to dub into the movie, but the hard part is done.

Yet my glee was short-lived since the International Banquet came a week after I was done filming. The stress before the event was quite nerve-racking, to be perfectly honest. Making sure the performers had everything they needed (microphones, stands, chairs, etc.), finalizing a script for the MCs, making sure all the tables and decorations were setup, as well as the silent auction items; lots of pressure for an event that has grown to be very important for faculty, staff and students. President Brazil and VP Michael Fischer were there, so we were obliged to deliver a spectacular show. In the end, things went pretty well. We had varied performances, from traditional Vietnamese dances, to Salsa-Belly dancing fusion. We even had 16 performers on stage for a grand final act: an Indian dance based on the Slumdog Millionaire end credits dance. The crowd was very pleased about that one. We also took some time to thank President Brazil for his contributions to the international student body at Trinity. Thanks to him more of us can attend Trinity and his vision for internationalizing the institution made many of our stories possible.

Yet, the last haul was the Opera. As part of the Opera Workshop class, we put together the first full opera production at Trinity: Die Fledermaus (The Bat). This is a comedic opera where Dr. Falke (me) plays an embarrassing joke/revenge on his friend Eisenstein. Eisenstein played a joke on Dr. Falke several years ago, and so Falke's revenge includes embarrassing him before his wife and the prison director, at a rich prince's mansion full of distinguished guests. Before I was done with filming rehearsing for the opera was not very productive, since I could only go to Sunday rehearsal's, which were very short and progress was slow since not all cast members were able to get there. Nonetheless, the two weeks before opening night (last Friday) we rehearsed almost every day to memorize our lines and polish the acting. I think the best run we ever had (including dress rehearsals) was on opening night. The crowd was laughing enthusiastically and we got a standing ovation at the end. It is very fulfilling to have complete strangers come up to you and congratulate you for your performance, even a couple of days afterwards. Today I say I'm very glad I was part of it, but had you asked me a week ago, I would be cursing myself for making that choice. It paid off the effort.

Well, I promise to have two more posts within the next two weeks: one full of pictures from last month craziness and a final blog post before graduation. Yes... btw... I'm graduating in two weeks. Crazy. I'm sure all the implications of it haven't hit me yet, but when I do, you will probably have a tear-shed blog in front of your screen. Hahaha... just kidding... or maybe not.

Posted by Sebastian at 4:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)