I Dreamed a Dream

I was hired for a bit part in a TV show, a crime drama. The lead detective was played by Vincent D'nofrio and I played the smart alecky assistant. The scene was small and the dialogue was bad, but it was fun. We shot the scene in a parking lot in Wilmington. The scene required me to walk into Vincent D'nofrio's office (it was just set up between 2 cars) and hand him some papers and make small talk about mosquito bites. Bernadette Peters enters the scene, has some exposition about the crime, we ad lib some more stuff about her nasty mosquito bites and I exit.

I'm thrilled that I was able to ad lib and it seemed to be ok (I'm not great at that) and the director didn't yell "cut" as soon as I went off script. The scene continues and I go hang out with Keith behind the camera (he's doing costumes). I'm hanging out with him and the costume crew starts flying this large remote controlled helicopters. The copters are as large as oven ranges and they zoom about while everyone goes back to 1 to shoot the scene again.

I'm only half paying attention by this point. The helicopters and the conversation behind the scenes is much more interesting than the scene they're shooting, but I desperately want to impress Bernadette Peters.

I then realize they've shot the scene several times without me and I'm a little hurt but guess they realized I wasn't bringing anything to the table, I wasn't adding anything, maybe my mosquito ad libs sucked and decided to just do the scene without me. Whatever. My loss.

The Writer's Office is set up between another set of cars and I overhear chatter about the bad script.

The actor and directors are walking across the parking lot and I join in timidly (I have been just goofing off) and the director says, "You got anything to write?" and I say, "Write with?"

"No, this script is bad. Can you help us punch it up?"

I'm elated now and someone decided to pilot those helicopters again during the break and they lose control of them. One curse is let out by the owner has he realizes that these expensive copters are about to become a total loss but then the mood shifts and we all decide to just enjoy the inevitable crash and fireworks.

The first copter goes up and up and finally explodes like a balloon after its gone too high. There's a shower of sparks and fireworks and everyone is happy.

The second copter crashes behind a building with the devastation of an actual helicopter crash. People in the streets are screaming, people are dead. The blades spin over a building and crash into our set. I run and dive between two cars and feel the explosion behind me and glass and gravel skim along my back. I'm otherwise ok and thankful to get out of a close call alive.

I push myself up from the parking lot and see a bicycle fly over my head. I know it's going to cause another explosion so I run and duck in another direction but then the bike stops before it hits the ground. It stops and just floats and then changes direction mid air to start following me.

 

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