Oh my goodness, REHANNA, what a star!
The previous week at Eastenders was not the finest hour for some of us and we all got some negative notes from Kelly. But this week would be a whole new ball game.
The teams were mixed around and changed and this week I found myself working alongside Rehanna, Janice and Luca; 3 lovely lasses filled with talent.
Workshop
The workshop was in the form of a crime scene and what you didn't see in the footage was us having to deliver to the audience our initial assessment of a murder victim, played out by a white lined invisible man on the floor.
You will have seen the exercise where we were asked to show authority when entering a room. There was a door and all that was asked of us was to open the door and deliver a line in an authoritative voice. Easy for some but for Rehanna, her visual impairment meant that she needed some help and guidance on where the camera was positioned.
I wont go into detail but we were all on a very steep learning curve, including the crew and production team and they had overlooked certain aspects of Rehanna's condition.
Auditions
The audition, for me, was OK I guess. Much the same as the previous one for Eastenders but I guess some of the lines got lost for me and I missed one or two key factors such as ALGAM FILLINGS.
Now it's easy to criticise but when faced with unfamiliar dialogue, cameras and the pressure of an audition, I guess fluffing your lines can be forgiven.
Rehearsal
One thing that I had learned from the Eastenders week was that team building and rehearsal are paramount to a good delivery on the day. Rehanna was lead, I was her main support and, digging into my past experiences as a police officer, I was able to walk Rehanna through the real set up of a post mortem.
We discussed our individual roles, our position in the script and of course the power struggle that you saw in the final edit. Lesson one learnT, bond, build a team that works well together and rehearse until you all know where you 'sit' in the scene.
THE SET
Getting to the set in West London in the early part of the day was the easy bit. Another long day of sitting around waiting to be called. What you may not be aware of is that on almost all of the sets, the team that I was placed on always went last. I guess this was largely due to other factors but it did mean that we hadn't endless hours going through our lines, talking about the scene and of course, switching it all off to rest our brains.
On Set was amazing, the centre is just as you see it on TV and could easily pass as an actual lab. Once Rehanna had her bearings and her place of authority it was time to role the cameras and go for it.
You have seen the footage and oh my word, a star was indeed born that day. Rehanna was amazing and give Amelia Fox a run for her money. So much so, we won cast of the week and Rehanna walked off with Actor of the week; and rightly so.
I got a mention in the feedback session and watching back, I was also mentioned during the filming and acknowledged for taking the lesson and working as a team player
Next time, its the mean streets of Birmingham and broken ribs in Peaky Blinders.
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