Did I ever think actors have it easy? No, of course not.
I had a definite plan. The stage was rented. The help hired. The ideas ready…
However, the day started with one catastrophe after the other. I‘d slept terribly, having dreamt about forgetting everything – from props to the actual words; all night having mares about how nothing would work and filming would be a disaster.
Of course the day had to start badly with me forgetting to put on make up and wearing my costume inside out. If I could have lost my head, I surely would have.
Another disaster was of course – the unfinished music!
Since musicians in general seem to have trouble keeping deadlines, I had planned the filming a few days after my deadline. However, even that was actually too soon. I still didn‘t have all the piano tracks and especially not all the singing recordings. So, even though I had been working on combining all the music and making the list on my iPad & iPhone (just to be save – I had to have a backup!) it was not ready!
Thus what did I do? I panicked… Hyperventilating and stressed is not a good look on me, I admit. Since I had help, however, I was able to calm down and get the set ready.
Having all prepared I had planned to rehearse it once – actually for the first time – with the actor, to make sure we knew what to do, what to feel, which music to expect (even though I knew everything by heart by now – even the baritone‘s parts), how to react to the other person etc.
This idea was of course not implemented. After about five minutes of rehearsing, just talking about the beginning, the crew decided to start filming.
I‘m sure you’re asking yourself: „What already? Without warning? Without true rehearsal(s)?“
I can only answer: „Well, yes. Why not?“