Still another film with the Saratoga Film Academy, in which I point a rubber gun at another actor.

On Saturday, April 29 I went to the capital district to film another project with the students of the Saratoga Film Academy. In this outing, I play an arsonist who gets confronted in the act by my brother, a co-owner of the house I am trying to burn down for insurance money. I pull a gun and threaten him with it, "hit" him with the gun, and he clocks me in the leg with a stick. So, for me, a stunt-filled day on set.

I got this rubber prop gun to point at my fellow actor. And between takes I could not control this urge to twirl the thing and try to do that trick Clint Eastwood did in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly." In that film, Clint twirls the gun and slides it smoothly back into its holster without breaking or slowing the twirl. I tried that. It's harder than it looks. I have come to realize, also, that when holding a prop gun and sitting down it is easy to look deep, thoughtful, and dramatically intense.

I also got to yell my lines, which created a moment's concern with the neighbors. We did an exchange where I am threatening my scene partner and telling him to get out. In between takes I sat out on the back porch and over the fence the neighbors asked if everything was alright. We explained we were just making a movie, and they laughed. We joked they might have called the cops on us.

Sadly, this will probably be my last outing with SFA. It's over an hour's drive north from my house to the capital region, so I can't really go up there to do free work anymore. Any free work I do will from now on be in the mid-Hudson River Valley, close to home. Also, I need to begin focusing more on meeting and lobbying agents down in the city. It's a business decision: to make my career work I must budget my time and decide where to expend it and where not.

But I had three wonderful project with SFA and the student film makers are a terrific group to work with; funny, friendly, and talents young people who can look forward to great careers in the years ahead. And Jon, the head of SFA, is a wonderful

guy and a great teacher to his students who is really going to make SFA grow into a wonderful regional training ground.

Thanks to everybody at SFA, and best wishes for the future.