Where in the world am I today?: North Vancouver, BC, Canada, Off to Ketchikan Alaska in the afternoon.
Got a call out of the blue a while back from a production company that was looking for someone to teach one of their actors some hat manipulation moves. The actor, Andrew Lee Potts, is playing the role of the Mad Hatter in a show that’s taking it’s cues from the Alice in Wonderland mythology and having the Hatter being able to manipulate his hat seemed reasonably important.
Now anyone who’s don’t much hat manipulation will realize from the picture that the hat that they hat selected for the role wasn’t the ideal hat to be manipulated. I got the picture that accompanies this post to help me get a sense of what the actor was going to be working with.
Long story short, I hooked up with Andrew yesterday in his hotel and spent a bunch of time discussing how the hat was being used in the show and which basic tricks would be good for him to learn. The basic routine went something like – I demo a trick, he’d say yes or no to whether he wanted to learn it and how it might be used. I’d then walk through the mechanics of the trick with him, get him to try it a number of times, then he’d film me doing it both at slow speed and at regular speed and then we’d move on to the next trick.
I figured he’d need about a half dozen moves to pull off the appearance of knowing how to manipulate a hat and by the time we were done he had 5 – 10 things to work on which seemed about right. We didn’t actually use all of the time that had been scheduled for the session, but Andrew admitted to having a bit of a hang-over and after getting what he needed from me, he seemed content to work on the moves himself…
It’s a bit insane to think you can become a master of a skill in one teaching session, but I think the trick for me was to figure out which tricks were going to be easiest to learn reasonably quickly and would have the greatest effect on-camera. Also a lot can be cleaned up in the edit, so hopefully the Hatter will be able to pull it all off when the director calls “ACTION!”
Working as a coach for the Film or TV industry isn’t insanely lucrative, or wasn’t this time around for me, but it was an interesting way of spending a couple of hours on a Tuesday. Vancouver is a hotbed of work for Film and TV production and along with opportunities like the one I had yesterday I’ve also been called and asked to come in and work as a special skills extra on shows that require a circus/carnival sort of feel. My friends Peter Boulanger and Ninon Parent from the Underground Circus often get hired to work in the Stunt Industry which does pay better and often offers really interesting challenges.
So… Depending on where you’re located and whether there are any Film/TV productions happening in your area, getting the word out that you’ve got a set of skills that a production company might need may lead to some time coaching or woring on Set. Just remember to bring a book because the expression ‘hurry up and wait’ is pretty synonymous with being involved in this industry.
What type of hat is this? I would love to get one! Its a fascinating story about teaching Andrew the tricks! Although I did wonder whether the trick he did in Alice where he threw it in the air, it went off camera then landed back on his head, was that a trick you taught, or was that a trick done by the filming?
Zoe
It’s a Straw Top Hat that was made specially for the show… If you do a google search for “Straw Top Hat” you should be able to come up with something similar though it won’t be an exact match