King Kong is coming

Cringing, I drove off for a “shoot” in my makeup, sure hoping I wouldn’t be stopped by a cop. One of my acting instructors, Michelle DeLong, with Actors Casting and Talent Service asked me if I would be interested in working on a short film to help promote an exhibit at Universal Studios in Los Angeles. There was to be a competition among participants to promote the new King Kong exhibit at Universal Studios. The most unique short film would win and it was to be filmed on Memorial Day afternoon, for a couple of hours – hey, I could do that! I was to play a crazy person (good type casting according to my wife) who’d spent several nights on the street. I’d be wearing a hand made cardboard sign that said “King Kong is coming”, and I’d be ringing a bell. My wife insisted that a homeless person would have irritated red eyes and several days growth of beard, and she did magic with her makeup. I make a very credible “wino”.


James Price, an advertising executive with his own company (Grapevine Media) in Oklahoma City, had heard about this promotion and entered the contest. I had not met James, but I have known his father (Bill) and very talented mother (Mary) for many years. James assembled a team of local actors and used Michelle’s office for his filming. Background was a green screen set up for most of his shots. Film makers use a green screen for special background effects. From the video at the bottom of this blog, you can see the effects. All but few very scenes were shot in front of the screen. The director will film the scene with a green or blue (the most common colors) background. These are the common colors since they are not naturally in our skin tones. That is unless Kermit the frog is related to you. Once the actors are filmed, the director will lay in a background with his computer. Pretty neat.

I didn’t work in front of a green screen. James and I went downtown so he could film tall buildings behind me. Since it was Memorial Day, we did not have many people who were going to be in and around the shoot and we finished without anyone asking for autographs. Darn.

Enjoy the video. James is imaginative and professional, and I think his film is the best! But, unfortunately he did not win the contest. In reviewing a few others on the internet, I can attest he blew their socks off.




You will have to click on the below link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OM8FsbVRhqM&feature=email