Feedback on George's teaser

While shooting the teaser for our webisode series In the Wood, I received some interesting feedback for the voice over that I wrote for George, a character in the piece.

I have only written for theatre, so I haven’t had an opportunity to shoot on a location before. Fun day, though it didn’t begin so well. The bar owner ran late and we couldn’t get inside at the scheduled time. It was beastly cold on the corner of 213th and Broadway, dirty snow on the sidewalk, windy, bitter . . . February. We all stood near Irish Eyes and sipped coffee near a collection of desk and floor lamps that we collected for lighting . . . low budget filmmaking!

Roman, who is playing George Kazlowski, had some exterior shots anyway. So the director started preparing shots. Details became important. What tie should he wear? Purple? Is the blue one too nice? How about the paisley? Why is he wearing that suit anyway? Does he need to wear a tie? Can he wear jeans? Well, I think he wears a tie, a full suit. Why? Well something will happen with that suit later. What happens?

We talked it over, made our choices, and soon enough, Roman was walking to the bar in his suit, a camera following him. His hair shot up as he crossed 213th Street. The wind smacked him sideways. He crunched his shoulders a little as he walked. He squinted into the sun as he checked for traffic. I saw much of myself in his walk to work. This is funny and disturbing. When you see George Kazlowski in action, these mixed feelings will make sense.

Anyway, the bar owner arrived and we camped inside Irish Eyes with our equipment, bags, folders, notebooks, and so on. Roman changed out of his suit and was now wearing his waiter uniform, finishing the last part of the teaser. As he served drinks to his customers in the scene, we played a scratch track of his voice over, an inner monologue, his secret thoughts at work, which are not so kind or sensitive (or remotely appropriate). After we wrapped up the George teaser, I walked to the bar and ordered a beer. One of the bartenders smiled and asked if we were making a porn. My first thought was “hmm . . . too much? A little too much? Maybe?” I don’t want people to think this is smut. But we all have wayward thoughts at jobs that we hate (or love) or when we talk to people who do not really hold our interest. We are all George, at least a little bit. And maybe there’s a little porn in that, but I’d rather think of it as . . . I don’t know . . . something that isn’t porn. But I must confess something: I also liked that she thought that about the piece. It might even be perfect. I told her that the scene was just a guy who didn’t really want to be working at this place and these are his private thoughts and she said, “oh I sure know that!”

-Tom Matthew Wolfe