Guest Story of the Day 4/ 7/ 2013

Guest Story of the Day by Cynthia Harp

I worked as a very minor character in a film today. The filmmakers are deaf. This does not present the problems you would think -- it presents others.

Filmmaker A, whom I will call Sarah, does not pay much attention to my comments, because she has known how hideous my signing is. Unless obscenity is called for (and when is it not, really?) or some very basic reproductive information. Then I am your woman. Sarah has known I am either very stupid or communicatively challenged (or both), so she smiles and nods a lot.

Aaron , AKA Filmmaker B, is deaf but seemingly psychic (how does he know what we are talking about when we are speaking softly and looking away?), so he is very capable of understanding my contributions.

However, Aaron is terminally kind. It used to get in the way. Now it is merely amusing. After our first hideous take, comprised of mistaken dialogue, awkward body movements and inattention, Aaron said, “That was...good.” He would make a great therapeutic director of recovering or non-recovering actors. “That was great,” he would say, theoretically, “...just try not to pass out before the scene ends next time. At least not during your line.”

So Max did his first line and added the second to it. It really disrupted the rhythm of the scene. Aaron said, 'That's ok...but can you try to just, you know, separate them a little bit? And Max said, "Is this you, yelling at me?" Max only knew this was a correction, albeit a nearly imperceptible one, because he had known Aaron so long. This is as rough as it gets

Is it possible that deaf people are extra quiet? Griffin spent the morning in the basement. He came up as Sarah and Aaron were about to leave. Now, his time was spent in the basement with the dog, who was specifically put there so she would not interfere with the filming and also not run away while we repeatedly opened and closed the door for said scene. (What part of the door do most people use to knock? Eddie reaches for the uppermost part he can reach. Is that typical? But I digress...) Griffin was truly surprised when he came upstairs and Aaron, Sarah and Eddie were there filming. They had been there for 45 minutes. He was pleased and surprised to see all three, even though he had never met Eddie. Truly, Aaron and Sarah have such sunny demeanors, it almost does not matter who else is there. Almost.

It could be Griffin recognized Eddie from his previous work in Margolis-Greenbaum productions. He was wearing white face in that film. But that is not something Griffin tends to notice.

Sarah and Aaron thanked us for our time and headed for the door. I asked when they were going to film the scene with Alice, our dog. Another day, is what Aaron told us Sarah told him. It could have been “Hell, no!” but Aaron would never say that.