As part of the 25 Days of Sine Fine Films extravaganza leading up the 25th Anniversary I have decided to write a series of posts celebrating the 25 actors who have been the most dedicated by participating in the most productions.
Actor of the Day: Diana Neatrour
Diana joined the company in the summer of 1998 when we filmed The Vigil. She has participated in 10 productions as cast and/or crew.
I've been friends with Diana since I was nine or ten having met through our older sisters who were friends. Despite how long we've been friends, and writing buddies, she somehow managed to escape my clutches didn't film with me until 1998. Unlike most of my friends at the time Diana wasn't really into theater and had no desire to be in front of the camera. However, if you are friends with me - or even just acquaintances - you will eventually be shoved in front of the camera asked to film.
While filming the The Vigil in the summer of 1998 I ended up needing someone to play the part of Mary Lee Brown, one of the people at the vigil. The character had no lines and just had to stand there and hold a candle so with a lot of begging asking I was able to get Diana to agree. Mwahahaha! Little did she know that was just the beginning! She did a good job.
When I needed help coming up with episode titles for the Destiny Mini-Series in the spring of 1999, I turned to Diana. She not only helped me with that but also with Pandora's Box. She actually did a lot of work on Pandora's Box, co-writing episodes 21-23 and being the script editor. Diana was also the script editor for The Curse and The Gift Bearer. I've already talked about her writing contributions, so if you want to learn more check out the Top 5 Writers post.
Pandora's Box also featured her return to being in front of the camera. When we were about to film the big fight scenes for the final episode of Pandora's Box in the summer of 1999 where I needed as many extras as possible, I suddenly had several people quit on me at the last minute. In a panic I called Diana and begged and pleaded with her to please come and be one of my horde of soldiers. She agreed with the condition that she wouldn't have to fight much. I could work with that.
Needing lots of soldiers and only having...five...I decided to add a cloning machine into the script to explain why the same soldiers kept getting killed over and over again. And why some of the rebel also look like the soldiers. Clones. When in doubt say they're clones. I could never explain the lack of dead bodies, but that's okay. I'm not exactly known for continuity anyway. Diana would run in with the other soldiers and be the first to die. It was super hot that day and miserable wearing dark clothes in a place infested with mosquitoes, but she bravely did it anyway so thank you!!!
That was the gateway into my dark world . She agreed to film with me again when I needed extras - mostly rebels but sometimes renegades - and eventually she even agreed to play a part with a name and lines! The more episodes I wrote the bigger her part became. She was my muse as a writer and helped me with plot structure. Gina Fenric, who started as a Captain but becomes a Major, is Zarina's sidekick after she joins the army, and since Diana got to play her she also got to have a say in Fenric's character development.
By the end of the series her character had grown into a three-dimensional person with her own morals and principles and had a LOT more lines and screen time. There's even a wonderful scene where Fenric discusses her philosophy about the rebels and the Army Faction through the symbolic use of muffins. It's still one of my favorite scenes ever written and filmed. Diana was now solidly a reappearing actor as well as a crew person. My evil plan was complete! She did a great job. I really love Fenric's character and the vast majority of that is due to how Diana developed her.
Because she was such a big part of the behind-the-scenes of filming for Pandora's box as a writer, actor, crew, and muse, it seemed fitting that she be the narrator/host for the Making of Pandora's Box special that featured interviews with the cast and a whole lot of bloopers. This required additional filming from her and traveling to multiple locations to film the introductions for each segment but I didn't make her dress up in a costume so it wasn't too bad.
Diana didn't help as much with the writing of The Gift Bearer, but she was the series script editor. She also was willing to come down to Carbondale, IL in the fall of 2001 where I was going to college for the first weekend of filming for the new show. Helping out as my Assistant Director and general crew I was able to show her off introduce her to my SIU friends and we had lots of laughs on the set. She continued to give me advice and edit my scripts for the rest of Season 1 and for the original Season 2.
I didn't film with her again until I returned to CU and was in the middle of filming my latest show, Eidolon, in 2004/2005. Since we were filming mostly in Champaign I was able to draw from actor pool ask my friends who lived there to help out when I needed extras or actors for small parts. When I needed someone to play one of the actresses in Sorcerer, the TV show in Eidolon that Mordecai stars in, I was once again able to call on Diana for help.
She agreed to play Marie/Erika Redwood and spent one or shoots doing random things in random places for five second clips that would work in the opening credits of a fake TV show. It was a pretty fun day but definitely one of the wackiest shoots because there was no script or plot just me saying "jump in that shopping cart", or "cook those pinecones". Weird but fun.
In the spring of 2006 I filmed the 10th Anniversary production - The Cursed Destiny of Pandora's Gift Box. As you can see from the title it was a movie spoofing all the tropes from my previous productions. Diana actually got to play herself in one scene. All the extras are dancing except her, and she's marking up a script. When the actors need the script they call for Diana by name and she hands it to them.
She was also willing to be one of the extras in a later scene where one of the characters is "sorting" the extras into their various Yibble tropes. I needed as many people as possible so luckily she agreed. Diana and her sister were in the "everyone who needs to resolve an issue that is unresolved and can only be resolved if you get locked in a cold dark space with your mortal enemy" category.
When I decided to do the filming experiment called Quatrain I sent out a call for writers and Diana answered it. Again, for more on that refer to the section about her in the Top 5 Writers post (she's #2). That was in the late summer of 2007, but we didn't actually film anything until the summer of 2008. Diana showed up to be crew and help out as a camera person, Assistant Director, and general crew for the various short films.
In one scene I needed a bunch of extras to be friends at a birthday party and pretty much everyone who was on set was thrown in that scene as an extra, Diana was no exception. Hey, if you show up to film as crew chances are pretty high that will also get thrown in front of the camera at some point. That's the risk you take when you show up. I mean, it's lovely an fun, nothing bad every happens, and everyone should definitely film with me!
In the fall of 2009 I sent out a call for people to write scripts that take a twist on a traditional fairy tale in a series of short films called Twisted Tales. Diana wrote Hulde, a film about two girls who get magicked away for an adventure and have to complete three tasks before they can go home. Although she managed to escape didn't act in that film she did join the set as a crew member.
By the summer of 2010, I was filming more Twisted Tales script. I wrote one called Magic, Inc. where a woman gets a job as a Fairy Godmother thinking it's an acting gig and it turns out to be a real job. We filmed on the 4th of July (that was exciting) and Diana agreed to come and join us as crew. She was my Assistant Director for the day and got to enjoy the in-jokes and bloopers without having to wear a costume so it was a win-win for her. She also let us film in her house -thank you!
Later that summer I asked Diana and Jen Weber to have lunch, then I ambushed them afterwards and forced them to film a short scene for the How to Be a Godmother DVD. Not only did she have to wear a costume, she also had lines! She didn't accept any offers for lunch outings for a while after that. I'm not sure why.
Diana was an indispensable actor, writer, assistant, and muse for the many years she was involved in SFF and I will always be grateful for her help. However, as always happens when people grow up, get jobs, and actually have a life, Diana became busy. I still saw her from time to time, mostly at the SFF Holiday parties, but I haven't had to the chance to film with her again, although we've stayed connected through Facebook. It's been ten years, so she probably thinks she's safe. Maybe she is. Maybe.
Hey Diana, do you want to have lunch on Saturday?
No comments:
Post a Comment