I wrapped out of Scream of the Banshee after working 15.5 hours on my last night, starting at 7:30 PM on Thursday and finishing at 11:00 AM on  Friday. Wide awake at wrap, I made the crazy decision to drive 1.5 hours home to NOLA from Baton Rouge. Thankfully, I made it home safely, however not without stopping to rest on the side of the road twice.

I made better decisions while shooting. Most of the stunts involved actor’s scuffles, but I also performed stunts that I coordinated. Without giving away too much, let me say that it wasn’t easy to wear two hats at the same time, especially when you can’t monitor what you are doing on camera. During the car stunts, I couldn’t get out of the car to look at the monitor (and I don’t think they had playback, regardless). I had to rely on the Director and AD to guide me through and trust their explanation of adjustments I needed to make. This is quite common on shoots with limited budgets. You just have to do your best, hope for the best and have faith.

The entire shoot took only a couple of weeks and will to go the film festivals looking for distribution. I have no doubt that it will get marketed. The production crew was young, but very dedicated and professional. I have a lot of confidence in this production team. Keep an eye out for Scream of the Banshee, directed by Steven C. Miller and starring Lauren Holly, soon.

Starting off my professional film experience as a Louisiana-local talent  with a stunt performing job or an acting gig didn’t happen. It was with a Stunt Coordinating job instead.

Upon moving to Louisiana, I always intended to apply for stunt coordinating jobs. However, I figured that even though I felt qualified they would be harder to get than stunt performing or even acting jobs since the vast amount of my experience is in front of a camera. It appears I might have been wrong.

Last Spring, four majors action films blew through New Orleans. Hundreds of stunt jobs were filled. Only three of those stunt jobs, totaling about fives days of work, were for women. Only one of those days was filled by a local stuntwoman. The Screen Actor’s Guild keeps statistics showing that only 15% of all Guild stunt work goes to women. However, I realize now that outside of Hollywood and New York, it is far less.

Therefore, in spite of my extensive stunt performing experience, my interest in submitting for stunt coordinating jobs got ratcheted up when I realized I may not be able to contribute to the family income through stunt performing the way I had hoped.

My first production meeting and location scout for Somnambulist, the movie I’m coordinating, was last Friday. Turns out, without giving away too much about the script before it’s released, this thriller has a couple of  major stunt scenes featuring five characters. Ironically, three are women. The women are both heroes and villians, an interesting catch since the new young writer/director of Somnambulist is a woman, too.

Kismet.