George McGinnis: action star, day 3

Arrived to the set "Peterson Event Center" - just across the street from a Pittsburgh medical training center. Checked in and headed for wardrobe. A lot of us ended up taking our own stuff, which was helpful for them (wardrobe) and more comfortable for us seeing as how they were our own articles of clothing. I wore as much sponsorship stuff as I could, but we ended up changing pretty regularly...

I didn't hit the actual set for work until "noonish". I worked in with one of the guys that I had the day before. At one point, things got really really slow for us due to them taking us out of the one angle. I ended up laying down off to the side "cage area" along with some of the other fighters and dozed off. The set is always hectic, but this part was a taste of how fast things can happen. Sue, "a film crew assistant" must have received word to put me and my partner back in the scene. It must have been urgent because the next thing I knew, she was waking me up and grabbing my arm to toss me back into position. I had about 30 seconds to get up, find my place, put my mma gloves back on and get ready for the infamous words of "and ACTION!" The funny thing is - is that I did it! I no sooner wrapped the Velcro around the second glove, raised my hands and heard the call, which I answered with a classic hands combination that finished with a leg. Its almost like I knew what I was doing (ha ha)...

The one specific scene ended up taking much longer. This was most likely due to Tap Outs "Skyskrape" missing and or rearranging his lines and doggin the scene. Over Actor! (Just kidding Skrape. Well, sort of lol). Punkass did well. In Skrape's defense, he did have a bit more to say than Punk, but it worked out twelve plus takes later. In all honesty, I probably couldn't keep a straight face for the simplest of lines, so my hats off to all those who actually acted and performed legit dialog...

The film crew ended up showing mercy and allowed us eat around 5:00pm. That's only a measely eight and a half hours after start time. No sweat right? Well, what made this even more frustrating is that they suggested that we grab our lunch and come right back to the set where we would have about 15 minutes to eat before going right back to action. I must admit that I was personally becoming a little pissed off at the situation. It also didn't help that they had set assistants walking around with grilled chicken appetizers and other convenient stuff that resembled real food while we were held to meal bars and warm water (Bastards!), but it all worked out, and I now appreciate it even more because I am learning and understanding first hand what goes on behind the scenes. It can be really rough back there. Long hours, camera down time and shortened tempers are quite common amongst the territory of every day on the set for real actors and hard working camera crews...

It was now late in the day and fighters are exchanging numbers, emails and contact information because we anticipated it being our last day. The film staff had asked many of us to stay on for other scenes for the film. "Who's willing to stay for the next four weeks?"..."Who's able to come back on Monday and stay through Saturday?"... and the bidding began. A lot of the fighters and club owners announced their departure (including myself) due to us having to get home to our families as well as our operating academies. If the money would have been right, but more importantly the timing, I would have likely stayed. I can go for a few days then come home for a couple and then return for a few more, but they were adamant that those who stayed, would need to stay the entire time. The most common reasoning behind their lack of schedule and inconsistency on the set is really quite simple... their needing to deviate. A scene is decided upon and can be scraped all together just moments before the action call. Some dialog was generated just moments before the scene was to roll. There's a lot that we don't see. Not just from the comfy seat of an anxious theater, but from the actual set itself. Lighting, angles, spacing, time allowance, actor ability, back ground flow, noise level and equipment are all things that are relevant and ever-present on the set. In a nut shell, the set can be very finicky. I learned a lot from the experience. I can further appreciate what extras go through as well. We joke about it regularly from home (prior to this experience), about a dude being seen for a fraction of a second, or how a scene could have looked so much better if they did this or had considered that. The set is crazy though. The environment can be occasionally chaotic. Wires everywhere, people shoulder-to-shoulder hustling to get their job done, film equipment and crew staff everywhere you turn, multiple people talking at the same time, noises, bells, whistles to signify this and a flashing light to tell the crew that, etc. You have to have decent multi tasking skills to work on the film crew. Even the apprenticing assistants (rookies in college) have their hands full with tending to the crew's needs, the actors' needs, baby sitting the extras and so on...

They had at one point given us a half hour plus lay over. Pretty much the entire set cleared off to get a bite to eat, drink, rest, discuss the film and so on. I stepped into the ring to stretch and to hopefully encourage others to "roll" to kill some time and to alleviate some of the frustration and boredom. The film director (Head Honcho) walked by and approached the ring to visualize the angle of his next shot. I looked at him and moved my legs about and invited him into the ring for some play time. He smiled and said "Nah George, I'm good. I know when to pass on certain opportunities". He said so with a big grin and well informed tone. One of the other fighters jumped in and modestly suggested his interest in rolling. I moved about lightly and during my playful negligence he ended up finding a leg lock. I tapped and nodded in respect. He unfortunately become momentarily cocky which immediately provoked the pride of my actual ability. I thought to myself "you gotta be freakin kidding me", so from there I decided to step it up a little bit to assure him that I wasn't there as a stand in poser. A few minutes and many taps later, he grew exhausted / enlightened and "excused" his way out of the ring. I then landed another taker. This gentlemen was very experienced and felt decent on the floor. He was confident yet extremely respectful. He watched a good bit of my movement which most likely peeked his curiosity. I allowed him to move and play so that I / we could fell one another's game plan and intentions. He swept me to my back and transitioned to side. This is when I decided it was probably best to get a move on and then began to transition and execute my normal style of movement. We rolled a few matches and then called it quits when the film crew returned to set up for the next shot.

Its the end of the night and time for us all to head out. I shake several hands and offer a few hugs to those who made my experience more pleasant and eventful. I will compose a final email tomorrow to finalize and touch base on a few details that I have not had the opportunity to elaborate on.

I appreciate your reading this and sharing the experience. It has not only been motivating, but potentially career changing...