Getting Credit

As an addendum to my Paranormal Activity story, I wanted to share one last detail. On the set, the day I filmed on Paranormal Activity, another actor was there too. I won't mention his name or the role he played but you can probably figure it out on your own. He was to perform with us in the scene. At that point, I hadn't seen the film yet so I didn't think anything about it. But after seeing the film at the end of the day it was clear his character did not want to set foot in that house ever again. So why Oren had him there in the house to play off me seemed odd at best. The difficult part was that this actor was a complete scene hog. In every take, he took the scene over and edged me out. Remember this was all improvisation. I was waiting for the Director to say something but he never did. I wanted to strangle this actor! After doing the scene over and over again I did feel there were enough juicy bits to edit with and a good outcome would result from it.

In the days to follow, I made sure I added my name to the IMDB on Paranormal Activity. I wanted credit for this. I carefully added my name and the character I played (The Demonologist). A few days later I was added and it was official - I was in the movie.

The movie's release was imminent. I still hadn't found out the bad news that I was cut from the film nor did Oren know what DreamWorks was doing with the added scene yet. I checked back on the IMDB and something had changed. Somebody had altered my character's name! It wasn't by me, that's for sure. I was now listed as the guy playing the role that the scene hog had performed! I didn't know what to do. Should I correct it? I opted to leave it since I had nothing to do with this mystery edit on IMDB.

The day the film was to be relaesed I still didn't know the crushing truth about my scene. As you can imagine DreamWorks did a massive PR blitz on this. When I began looking through all the various posts Dreamworks had released, there were 3 names associated with the film; Katie Featherston, Micah Sloat, and Michael Bayouth! What the hell?! My name was everywhere. If you Google the name of the movie with my name and you'll see what I mean. It was crazy!  

The PR firm DreamWorks used to release the film must not have done any fact-checking and probably just went from the IMDB. Not only was I getting credit for the scene hog's performance, but I was getting top billing with the main actors who carried the entire film.  Ironic that the guy who wanted more screen time wound up getting aced out of the credit. But even crazier was that here I was cut from the film and was still getting top billing with the main actors. 

The night I went to see it I still did not know the ugly truth about the fate of my scene. I couldn't have been any higher. I took a good friend with me to the opening night premiere. For all intents and purposes, I felt I was starring in a DreamWorks movie and was about to be jettisoned into stardom. 

As the final credits rolled by my friend and I sat quietly while the theatre emptied out. No words could have reversed the all-time-low I was feeling. I was a pallbearer at my own funeral. I limped back to my truck and went home. 

I'm thankful I have this story to tell. My name might not be up in lights but it's all over the internet. At least I got the credit. :)