Experimental Witchery

No sooner do I wrap filming of one competition (music videos for Jay Clifford's Know When to Walk Away) than another one comes up - but this time I was on the other side of the camera.

Author Paolo Coelho has teamed up with HP to bring his novel The Witch of Portobello to celluloid life. Filmmakers have been invited to shoot shorts from the points of view of different characters in the book. The best films will hopefully be combined into a feature.

I played a character called Heron Ryan in a short made by South Carolina filmmakers for the comp. The shoot was highly professional despite a modest budget, with some sumptuous images created with a Panasonic Pro HD camera.

The script by Beth Slagsvol and Shannon Bogan changed a lot since I first saw it, and I had to think on my feet when I arrived at the first Charleston location on Saturday morning. My agent had told me I'd be playing a different character, so I'd studied a different scene. But I figured things out as best I could.

On Sunday I appeared in a protest scene in the morning. Apparently some people don't take kindly to witched, even in this day and age. A downtown Charleston street doubled for Portobello Road, complete with black cab.

In the afternoon a "white room" was set up in a warehouse on Brigade Street. The room was created with white boards on the floor and white flowing curtains for walls. I was surrounded by professional dancers, ballet and tango experts. I danced with them and tried not to look too stupid.

A friend saw me doing this called her husband on her cellphone. She couldn't believe the sight. "Nick Smith's dancing," she said in hushed tones.

By the end of the day the film had wrapped and I'd figured out how my character fit into the story. Hopefully, Beth and Shannon's version of events will make the final cut. It's not too late to enter the competition yourself, mind. Further details below.