Training Reels

Date: May 2010
Job: Training Video
Location: Suburban office

I’ve heard other extras talking about doing ‘training videos’ and now it’s my turn. I arrive at the office and meet the crew of two. The director says, ‘So you’re an actor, right?’ Not wanting to disappoint or lie to him, I mumble something about 'doing bits and pieces'. I feel like an impostor. Which is a bit like an actor, right?

I’m playing an OHS officer who’s using a DVD on workplace safety. So it’s a training video about a training video. I have to fiddle with the computer and pretend to have a telephone conversation. Easy peasy.

Except that I can’t seem to lower the fancy office chair. But neither can they, so they bring in another one. I find it hard to 'show warmth' towards a workplace safety video (now I know how actors in TV commercials feel) and in each take I have trouble closing the DVD case. Then when they do a close up of me operating the mouse my hand gets stage fright. It becomes completely unco and my middle finger dances a random solo with every click.

We move into the ‘board room’. The director’s assistant sticks on a hard hat and they rope in a guy from the warehouse and a female employee. I have to improvise running a meeting with staff. Fortunately I rock at this (it’s just like teaching, only without the abuse) and really show those amateurs how it’s done. After all, I am the professional actor here.

I change out of my suit in the ladies’ toilets, wedged between the basin, the hand-dryer and the cubicle door. I’ll have to have a word to them about a caravan.