What can you say about Doug Jones? He’s a hard one to capture in just a few words, but if I had to choose just one I think it would be “sincere.” I think it would be easy for an actor to come work with a few pros and a bunch of college kids and roll their eyes every time something went wrong because of it, but I don’t think I ever once caught Dougie in a bad mood. Instead, he was encouraging, thoughtful, and just damn fun to be around (as the embedded YouTube video can prove).

He graciously took some time from his current overseas project to answer a few questions about MNIJ. Below his answer’s I’ll answer the questions that were left on the last few blogs.

What was it like to work with a crew of college students? What was good about it? Was anything bad about it?

For me, working with this crew of college students was not at all unlike working with a professional crew in Hollywood.  Before I arrived for my first day of filming, these kids had already been through a couple weeks of "production boot camp" where they learned everything from film vocabulary to what lights are called what, how to coil up a cable, set up a C-stand .... and what the heck a C-stand even is!  The student crew had professionals from the film industry at the head of all departments, which enabled this whole process.  Aside from them all being between the ages of eighteen and twenty-nothing, I never would have known this was largely an amateur crew.

What do you think the students learned? Describe an interaction or work relationship you had with a student.

I had the privilege of witnessing students in all departments learning hands-on.  Things like camera work with dollying, framing, and hand-held techniques, what light set-ups best enhance moods and enrich a face, what make-ups best keep shine off that same face for high-def filming, sound work with hiding lapel mics, setting levels, and that tedious art of being an invisible boom operator, along with some students doing smaller acting roles and their excited absorption when I would whisper what-to's and what not-to's in certain moments.  I worked most with Theatre student Betsy Holt, an actress assigned to me as a personal assistant.  I couldn't have survived this shoot without her.  She not only took care of essentials like running all the errands I had no time for, and thank heaven Wallmart is 24/7, but she also ran script lines with me after wrapping every day for the next day’s scenes.  She told me more than once how fascinating it was for her to see this dialogue go from reading out loud, to memorized out loud, to a full-blown real moment while filming it the next day.  She also learned a lot about the world of publicity, as she did all my press scheduling, personal appearances while in Muncie, and assisted all my interviews with journalists.  That is a side of the industry that comes later in an actor's career that has no way of being taught in the classroom.

What were the biggest challenges of the production? How were they met?

The biggest challenges of this film were not enough budget and not enough time.  Sound familiar?  Most indies go through this, but I have never seen it all handled with such diligence on everyone's part.  The amount of sacrifices made in blood, sweat, tears, and personal time, not to mention people's personal finances, brought this production in on time and within budget.

How was this film different from other jobs you've had?

Having acted in more than 40 feature films, and as many TV shows over the past 23 years, I can honestly say I have never been on a production with this much team spirit, this much excitement, this much heart.  Everyone involved had something to gain from it, realized how much they were learning, and seemed so grateful for this whole experience.  Including myself.  That attitude alone will set a film shoot apart from most others.

What made you want to be a part of a project like this?

Well, it didn't hurt any that our director, Morgan Mead, came up with this story specifically for me, so that I could headline a feature film with my own face, sans prosthetic make-up.  I admire Morgan and his creative genius so much.  Then add to that some more genius .... glorious re-writes by David Hamilton, beautiful cinematography by Nathan Wilson, amazing production design by Michael Bricker.  Then add to all that the chance to go back home to my alma mater, Ball State University, and be involved with so many fresh young student's minds with such hope for their futures, and this became one of the most meaningful projects I have ever worked on.  Ever.

Thanks to Doug for taking the time to answer some questions. Below are answers to reader questions posted on the blog.

skilmer on Tue, 02/03/2009 - 20:07
Doug Jones reminds me (just a very little bit) of Jim Carrey.   Does he adlib like Carrey, or does he stick to the script?   Did he change any dialogue?

Ha. I can see the similarities mostly in terms of physicality… being able to bend one’s body for maximum humor. We didn’t really ad lib all that much on the set. Of course there were some small ad libs here and there, or sometimes an actor would say a line wrong and we’d realize it was better. Doug did some occasional ad libbing, but most of that was handled by resident comedy expert Don Stark!

By debmontoya on Wed, 02/04/2009 - 09:51
I'm curious about these eleventh hour script changes , when you were "at the locations, with the crew heads, and small things became apparent that would have been difficult." Could you and David provide some examples?  As a writer, I'd love to know about these things in advance!

Interesting question, mainly because I’ve blocked out all those traumatic moments. I think most of them came from logistic problems that you either don’t realize on a tech scout or can’t picture until everyone is really there. We had an actress fail to show for an important scene. She was an elderly lady, and we couldn’t get another “Grandma” there quickly so the character was rewritten as a 23 year old cousin…. And we promoted an extra into the role. Stuff like that. Usually the art department had worked very hard on beautiful signage for an office, and then we’d have to change the location to a hallway because of noise or something and then the art department would want to kill us. I think we did that to those poor guys two or three times.

Thanks to everyone for sticking with this series. It’s been a blast to look back on our experience, and we hope to see you at a screening hopefully late this year. Stay tuned at http://mynameisjerry.com.

(photo by Kyle Peters)