Child of God isn’t my first improv project. It’s not even my first improv film (Antero Alli’s The Invisible Forest occupies that place on my resume). What’s new for me with Child of God is that I’m developing a character with a full story arc. I’m not an abstract representation of the protagonist’s psyche, I’m not a 10 second expression of a dystopian concept (Canary), but a fully fleshed out person in this film.
Most of us are using our own names for our characters, and we had very little information about our characters to start with. The lines between the actors and the people we portray were very, very thin. We knew a basic starting scenario, a few pertinent facts about what had happened before the film begins, and that the first shot was going to be the troupe discussing our options.
The cameras were upon us without so much as an “action.” The game was afoot. We shifted immediately from talking about what we might do in the scene to doing the scene itself.
Sixteen hours of shooting later, I’m much more aware of how Dan the character is different from Dan the actor. He’s much more tormented, lonelier, and he has much more at stake than I originally imagined. The troupe is everything for him. It’s literally all he has. Little endowments given to him by the other actors/characters may never make it into the film, but they have drawn a world for him to inhabit: unemployed, living at home in his mother’s basement, bitter and discouraged in his relationships with women…
He has a lot of fears about what will happen by bringing the troupe into this church building. He talks a lot about how much the community needs them. “We are the only counterculture available!” It’s all smoke and mirrors, however. He is the one who needs the troupe to continue. Clearly there are other people in this nameless town who are doing exciting things, and you’ll get to see some of them in the film. The comedy troupe isn’t the only chance people have to break out of their stagnant lives, but it’s the only chance “Dan” has to break out of his own life.
Comedians are funny because it’s how they have learned to deal with their own pain and fear and loss.
I didn’t know this about him when I showed up, but I know it now.
How will this impact “Cindy’s” story? The film is about her after all, not “Dan”.
I have no idea. And that’s the fun of it.
