La Fin

"Cahiers du Cinema" is a wrap. My scenes went pretty well. My dialogue as Eline Michel, the French sister of the mad filmmaker, Martin Michel, with my partner as Thomas Ritter, who's on the investigative trail of my brother's life and passions, was eased by a few rehearsals and repeats. Getting the rhythm and lines down with another actor after rehearsing alone can be a bit tricky. I didn't use the phone memorization technique this time, and I probably should have, or borrowed a friend as stand-in. Anyway, Brian made it really easy to get it right. We even had a moment to goof on our lines in Western cowboy style while Diana, the director, stepped out of the room. If you can play your character as a completely different person, then you know you know your lines.

I'm still getting used to the cutaways where you have to redo sequences for the camera angles and close-ups from wherever the director asks. Anyway, after our takes, Brian patted me on the back and told me I did well. Very kind of him. But that was early in the evening! My original call was at 3 PM but we didn't shoot my scene til after 6 PM, and then we actors had to wait for a series of other sequences – including the movie music, played by a talented young composer named Justin, to be shot, at the spooky grand piano in the mansion living room.

By the time I played Eline - dead on the balcony - it was midnight and the Berkeley hills fog was rolling in. The crew was very kind and the prop master made sure I had a blanket over me and a pillow under my head between takes. Still, I was freezing and shivering. I said, "rigor mortis is setting in," at one point. That blood smells like chocolate, which almost makes it tolerable. And here I had imagined that this would be shot on a brilliant, sunny day...

This is the most interesting shoot I have been involved in as an actress so far. It had drama, mystery, talent, innovation, suspense…and, of course, the most superb and original set imaginable for a low-budget short. Oh, and the treat of the evening was a brief visit by the producing team's new investor, who seems to be a cool, hands-off kind of guy.

There was also a change in the script. Rather than a scream into the wind from a balcony that I had rehearsed, I was asked to improvise a bit of business with a computer and a frightening scene with the multi-talented Dick Martin who plays my brother. We will have to see the movie to find out what it was that so frightened Eline that night…