Day In The Life Of A Greystones Actor

Suddenly, the picnic kicks off

nless Ireland sees the remake of Castaway or 2001: A Space Odyssey landing in their inbox, it’s looking rough for our filmmakers right now.

Sure, there’s some work but, as with pretty much all other performance-based arts, there’s a lot, lot less than this time last year.

A lot, lot, lot less.

From musicians to magicians, from acrobats to actors, it’s been a long and whining 2020. And it may be some time before 2021 starts to treat them right either.

Which is why we got in touch with Greystones actor Gerry Cannon, to find out what his typical day has now become…

A Day In The Life Of An Actor? It’s akin to – to paraphrase Samuel Beckett – Waiting For Normal.

In reality, we are actually now in the new normal. Aside from empty performance spaces, the live audition in a room with a director, producer and other actors is on hold. The new normal is learning new skills and becoming more proficient with technology. So far this month I’ve had two auditions via Zoom. Yesterday, I ordered a clamp to hold my iPad onto the mic stand that I use. The problem with using a camera phone is that the app is locked into portrait mode so when you put the camera into landscape mode it appears at the other end as if you are levitating in a lying position!

As part of my upskilling I’m learning the basics of video editing. Over the past few years the audition process involves the actor doing a video recording of the part, referred to as a self tape, and from all those submitted a smaller number are invited into audition. During the past year many roles for TV and film have been cast directly from the performance on tape, which means that to stand out you need the production value e.g. the lighting and sound to match the quality of the performance.

Last year, I was cast in a day role in the upcoming TV drama Valhalla. The self tapes were submitted in March/April. By June, decisions had to be made, and as live auditions were unable to take place I was offered the role based on my performance over two of these tapes.

Voiceover work, which I have relied on for income, has also undergone change, some of which will be permanent. In 2019, I would have recorded in city centre studios on average once a month. Over the course of 2020, it was three times. This week, I recorded two audio demos for possible work. Currently nearly every job advert has the question ‘Do you have a home studio?’ It’s something that I have been researching for a while but with building work due to commence behind my house next month I’ll have to put that on hold.

Killian!

Fortunately, Killian Fitzgerald of Avatar Post Production relocated his studio from Dublin to the harbour at Greystones last November and I was able to do the narration for the short film Merrow there. It worked out well with the director Baz Black on a live link from his home in Dundalk and without the three of us having to trek into the city centre.

What I miss most is the lack of personal interaction with other actors and creatives. Several projects have had to be put on hold which inevitably means that some won’t get to happen.

I’ve also missed the opportunity to network at film festivals. So while we’ve been unable to shoot some short film projects myself and fellow filmmakers Oisin McFarland Smith and Megan Robinson have done three music videos for rapper Bobby Basil since last August.

One of the things I miss the most is live entertainment locally. I have tickets for a show in The Whale for my actor friend Pauline O Driscoll’s one woman show The Seven Ages Of Mam. Another actor and musician Jack Healy was supposed to play in The Hot Spot last March with his Tom Waits tribute band The Bone Machine. That show has already been rescheduled for last May, then September and now this coming April. It’s been devastating for performers who relied on live gigs for an income.

Despite all the pain and damage inflicted on those who work in the arts sector hopefully we might see a fresh perspective from those who control the purse strings on how performance and creativity can enhance the lives of our citizens.

This pandemic has challenged many old-fashioned concepts about how we can live our lives.The fact that people can work from home, school can take place via zoom or that the Abbey theatre would embrace film industry techniques to bring theatre into peoples home.

It’s not just about entertaining people, practitioners in the arts sector need to be employed to involve the people in their local communities in creative activities. Whether this is to combat rural isolation or assist people recover from addiction or just there so anyone can have fun and social contact.

Every county council has an arts officer and this can be rolled out in any location. The beauty of this is that if we ever end up in a lockdown situation again, the community creativity can continue online and the mental wellbeing of the population need not be adversely affected. Get onto to your local politicians now!

Next up for me is a reading of a feature film script with a bunch of actors on February 6th via Skype and a day in a studio to do voicework on an animation project. In the meantime, they better start building the new Greystones film studio because the word is that Netflix are spending nine billion on productions worldwide over the next year.

Oh, and I must keep practicing my self tape technique.