'M' IS FOR… MOVIES

That's what it's like to watch a movie. The characters and story often take us through a range of emotions, allowing us to feel what it's like to live someone else's life for a change. We live in a new reality for the time we're sitting in the theatre. But the reality is quite a bit different when we're acting in movies.

Here's the scenario:

• the actor and actress playing the hero and heroine get up at 4:30 a.m. in order to be in makeup by 6. The assistant director brings in the line changes for the day, and they run lines as the makeup crew gets them ready. They're driven to the location, and by 8 a.m., the temperature in the jungle is 97°. Their trailers are air-conditioned, but they spend a large portion of their time in the heat, ready to act a scene at a moment's notice.
• After waiting for almost two hours for the set crew to arrange the cameras and some jungle growth, they begin filming:
• The actor playing the hero courageously fights his way through the jungle (and after three minutes of back-breaking swinging with no results, the crew discovers that the machete needs sharpening, and the actor sits for another twenty minutes while they sharpen the prop).
• The actor playing the hero courageously fights his way through the jungle (but his face is too shiny, so the makeup crew is called to powder him down).
• The actor playing the hero courageously fights his way. . . (and trips over a vine that no one saw on the jungle floor).
• The actor playing the hero courageously fights his way through the jungle (but the sun is at the wrong angle now, and palm leaves have to be rearranged).
• The actor playing the hero courageously fights his way through the jungle, and sees the heroine in the distance. (Finally! The director says, "Cut. Print it.")
• Lunch break. The actor playing the hero runs gratefully to his trailer to take a cool shower, taking care not to ruin his makeup.
• After lunch, the actress stands by the waterfall for 45 minutes while the sound is adjusted. She can't sit, because her costume will get rumpled. With a signal from the assistant director, and a sigh of relief, she finally arranges herself on the rock, gazing sadly at the waterfall. The director decides that he'd rather have a profile shot, so she rearranges herself. Her face is shiny, too, so makeup is called to powder her face. The sun goes behind a bank of clouds, so the cameraman readjusts the camera. The sun comes out again, so the cameraman readjusts the camera . .
.
• . . . .By the time the actors are filming the reunion scene, it's 4:30 and 104°, and because the sun goes down by 6:15, everyone is in a bit of a rush. Since this is the final scene of the movie, the director wants a certain quality from the actors, and asks them to run it again and again, with slight changes here and there. Hot, sweaty, and tired, the actor takes the actress into his arms for the fourteenth time, whispering that he'll never leave her again, and a large bird flying over throws a shadow over her face. Back to the beginning of the scene. . . .