Thank God for The Groundlings School, if it wasn't for them I'd still be a slacker. Today was the second day in a row that I woke up before 9am. This may seems like a fairly insignificant and pitiful accomplishment to the majority of the world, but for me it is tremendous progress. In the past I've attempted to impose artificial structures on myself to ensure that I woke up at a reasonable hour so that I could be productive like the rest of the human race. Each of these attempts at structure quickly devolved into me waking up at 2pm and working until 5 in the morning. Apparently I'm nocturnal.
Anyhow, back to The Groundlings. My folks gave me a tremendous birthday gift – they offered to pay for me to take an improv class at The Groundlings. Registration was $400 (Egad!). Classes are M, T, W 10am-1:30pm for 4 weeks. My teacher is a former company member and still an active performer at The Groundlings Theater. She's extremely enthusiastic, knowledgeable, and gives excellent notes. It's day 2 and I'm already learning a lot about how to be a better improviser.
And on the topic of Sleeping in, here's the music video for The Postal Service's "Sleeping In"
I had quite the day on Monday. I drove down to Manhattan Beach for a student film audition. Shortly after the audition, I checked my phone and realized that I had missed a call. Once I got back to my car, I checked my voicemail messages. A talent manager had called and was interested in possibly representing me.
I of course quickly returned the call and had a 15 minute conversation with Blair Silver. We chatted about my work, my goals, and what it is he was looking for in a client. He mostly represents what I call "slashers." That is, artists who are: actor/directors, actor/writers, actor/celebrity chefs, etc. While the aphorism "jack of all trades master of none" is assuredly true I like to think of myself as an actor/writer/animator/director. So it seems like Blair might be a good fit.
At the end of our call, Blair wanted to set up a meeting. Since his offices are in Manhattan Beach and I was already there, I met with him at a local Starbucks (my folks gave me a mondo gift card, so I've been eating a lot of meals there of late). We continued our discussion, touching on Madonna, surfing, and my type: geeky young man (read: I could be easily cast as a geeky young man).
Towards the end of the meeting, Blair said that he would be interested in working with me. He then sent me off on an interview with an agent who was looking to fill out her talent roster.
The agent interview went pretty well. Except that for whatever reason I was nervous. This was compounded when the agent asked "Do you have a monologue prepared?" In all honesty I didn't, but I said I did. I then performed a monologue from "Biloxi Blues" by Neil Simon that I've done so many times it is now completely dead and as far as I could tell from the agent's reaction: patently un-funny. At the end of the meeting, the agent asked me to send her a reel of my work. I'm currently editing my reel and will get it to her ASAP.
Note to Self: Always, repeat: ALWAYS have a few monologues prepared.
The drive up to SF was essentially uneventful. I stopped by my parents' house, played with my dog, and got a haircut that was a little less Beatles and a little more Soccer Hooligan. I took BART (SF's light-rail system) into SF and made it to Nancy Hayes casting with about 45 minutes to spare.
Toyota Commercial I quickly grabbed all of the available side (including those for other characters), and tried to get a sense of the theme and tone. Apparently the commercial was for online broadcast only, and was of the "go to www.toyota.com to finish the adventure!" variety. I threw on my best Cockney dialect and read the line about 30 times and 20 different ways while some kids, locked in a car, looked on, pointed and laughed at me. I then went into the waiting room and kept up the dialect through the whole process.
The audition consisted of me describing a road-trip I'd like to take, and then reading the line. All the great choices I'd made went out the window – nerves. However, on my way out, I recognized one of the casting assistants and complimented him on his performance as Puck in A Mid Summer Night's Dream.
I guess it's a good thing that I have a few more weeks in the commercial acting class.
Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk Project The audition for this project was a total cattle call. I was number 667 for the day. The audition consisted of filling out a form, having my photo taken, and well… that's it. I was surprised to see Gus Van Sant in attendance. I suppose he was hoping to pick out the perfect face from the crowd.
As I was leaving I slowly realized that I had just made eye contact with and nodded at an academy award nominated director. Fame is a weird phenomenon, imagine going through life constantly wondering whether you're supposed to know the guy who just nodded at you.
I don't imagine anything will come of either audition, but as Woddy Allen says, "Ninety percent of life is just showing up."
In preparing for my audition later today, I've been trying to track down a good cockney dialect reference. In the back of my mind, I recalled a website that had a number of recordings of speakers with different accents reading the same paragraph. After about 30 minutes of looking I found it: The Speech Accent Archive. I also discovered a few other things in my quest for a good dialect reference:
A search on iTunes for accents will bring up "Access Accents" which is an in-depth reference on a number of accents from a well-respected dialect coach. I ended up purchasing the one on Cockney for $16.95.
I own "Accents: A Manual For Actors" by Robert Blumenfeld which apparently is a terrible accent reference. According to the online reviews I've read, all native speakers of the accents the author attempts are appalled to the point of laughter. So save yourself some money and don't invest in this book.
In my opinion, David Alan Stern's reference tapes are all crap whereas Gillian Lane-Plescia tends to be quite good.
What's the difference, you may ask, between a dialect and an accent? A dialect is the sound that comes out of an Irishman speaking English in California (a native English speaker). An accent is the sound of a Japanese tourist speaking English in Disney Land (a native Japanese speaker).
Earlier today I received an email followed by a call from Nancy Hayes Casting in SF. One of the casting directors in the office wanted me to come in to audition for a Toyota commercial. Apparently I am "perfect for one of the lead roles!" Since it's typically an agent that says this sort of thing, not a casting director, my interest was piqued. So I called the office and scheduled an audition for 3:45 tomorrow (technically today now that midnight has rolled around). Apparently I'm up for the role of "football hooligan." I watched Green Street Hooligans to brush up on my Cockney dialect and I'm planning on working with a dialect tape on my drive up. I was planning on coming up this weekend to see my girlfriend's play, so it's not entirely absurd for me to drive up a day early for a paying commercial spot.
I also found an audition notice for a Gus Van Sant film adaptation of the Harvey Milk story. Since my itinerary now has a little more flex in it, I'll be auditioning for that as well.
Green Street Hooligans was a fun picture, but my willing suspension of disbelief was tested by Elijah Woods' physical stature more than a couple times. It might be worth a look if you haven't seen it yet.
First let me say: the kids playing in this orchestra are amazing and could probably hold their own amongst most classical studio musicians. If I had only been there to hear them play, it would have been a fantastic evening. However, things got way more Hollywood than that.
Some highlights:
I spent a goodly portion of the evening chatting with Vicki Randle of the Tonight Show band. She's a good friend of Peter's and an extremely talented and passionate musician. Just a few weeks ago, I was watching her perform at a taping of The Tonight Show. Unfortunately, she and the rest of the band are currently unemployed due to the WGA strike. I still support the strike, but fallout like this is truly unfortunate. So, please support her by checking out her album "Sleep City," the title track is a funky number that takes me back to a time when lead singers could still summon sass.
I met some of my neighbors from Peter's building. Turns out, Thai Town is crawling with actors, writers, directors, and producers. For the first time since early childhood I'm meeting and getting to know my neighbors. It's great!
Celebrity sightings: Tim Curry, Billy Baldwin, Wendie Malick, and Bellamy Young (Dirty Sexy Money).
Someone donated $20,000 to the orchestra so that they could have a "Dirty Sexy Dinner" with Billy Baldwin and Bellamy Young.
I was devastated to see a signed Dali lithograph on JaPan paper get auctioned off for only $3,600. But Dali is dead and these kids will still get plenty of benefit from that money.
At the end of the evening, I had Michelle Phillips cello from The Mommas and the Poppas in the backseat of my car. She donated it to the Barrio Symphony and I was responsible for escorting the cello back to Peter's apartment.
(Above: Billy Baldwin, Peter Quesada, & Bellamy Young)
Did I mention free food and an open bar? I think I'll keep pursuing acting if for no reason other than an endless stream of benefit buffet lines.
So I finally sat down to a much needed staff meeting with myself and reviewed the goals I set earlier this month. Of 15 concrete and relatively simple tasks, I only completed two. I need to start taking the business and marketing aspect of this more seriously – my competition does.
What I Accomplished
Enroll in classes at The Groundlings.
Sort out work situation w/ LA Unified and Maxon
Started work on a screenplay with Gavin.
Interviewed with agency.
Enrolled in Commercial Acting Workshop.
What I Wanted to Accomplish
Create & maintain database of industry contacts.
Write a killer cover letter.
Submit HS/Resumes to TAN Guests
Sort out work situation w/ LA Unified and Maxon
Design & print thank you card.
Design & print promo post card.
Send thank you's to past colleagues
Send follow-ups for SAGE marketing targets.
Update HS & Resume for online Casting
Get a DV Deck/Camera
Investigate HS Photographers & Hair styles.
Make an acting budget for training.
Look back into working with Saul Katsubei for voice work.
One of the necessary evils of acting is taking the time to go about the laborious process of memorizing a script. Some actors are blessed (and cursed) with photographic memories and can get off book in no time at all. I am not one of those actors. I think of myself as a slow memorizer, but that's probably because I drag my nails the whole time I'm trying to learn my lines. If movies like "The Matrix" didn't exist, I probably wouldn't be so wrapped up in the possibility of learning a lot of information immediately with little to no effort. But, I am hopelessly tied to that being a possibility, and have created a few different systems to assist me in that regard.
Flash Cards Take your scene and write down each line on its own cue-card (you can condense lines that come before yours). Be sure to write sequential numbers in the corner of all the cards so that if you ever drop the stack you can reconstruct the scene. Then just wrap them in a rubber band and take it with you wherever you go.
iPod This is my new favorite. I record all of the lines in a scene using my computer microphone. I do grotesque impersonations of other actors and a very flat even delivery for my own lines. The flat delivery allows me to learn the lines in a semi-neutral fashion. I then copy this file onto my iPod and play it back. Just as it is my character's turn to speak, I press pause, say the line as far as I know it, and then press play to check my work. This is probably the best method I've found for running lines on my own. You can even do it while you're driving, but make sure you aren't wearing both headphones.
When I arrived in Los Angeles two-and-a-half months ago I was extremely driven, and was doing a lot to better my career every day. It seems that, of late, my pace has slowed. I still submit for projects every day, audition, and shoot whenever I am called to do so. But the boundless energy to research, question, learn all I can about this industry has diminished.
I function best when I have far too much to do. I get close to nothing done when I actually have time to do work. Unlike college and 9-5 employment, no one else is setting my agenda in LA. While potentially liberating, it also means that no one is going to chastise me for not: submitting on projects, doing drop-offs to agents, or keeping my instrument sharp.
My solution has been to create structures for myself. I go to acting class every Wednesday, work on cold reads with my buddy Carl every Tuesday, and meet with my writing partner Gavin on a weekly basis. I also strive to Blog or write at least once a day. But that still leaves a lot of unscheduled time.
Sounds like I need to once again institute weekly staff meetings at Donovan Keith Inc.
In case you haven't heard, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) is currently on strike. The WGA's contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) is currently up for negotiation. The writers want to ensure that they will receive residuals for their work even when it is shown in new media like The Internet and on Cell Phones. I whole-heartedly support them in this aim. The Hollywood landscape has changed significantly over the past ten years. It is becoming increasingly difficult for artists (writers, actors, etc) to make a living solely as artists. In part this is due to the splitting of the ad revenue pie, but it is my suspicion that this is more due to an upwards funneling of funds.
A writers strike means that eventually all (good) fictional film and tv production will shut down. Actors are great, energetic, and empathetic people. But the vast majority of improv shows are horrible and patently unentertaining. Good writing is what makes this whole acting thing a fun and rewarding enterprise.
The writers strike translates into a long time where I will have no opportunity to work in TV & Film. This is honestly no different from what I've been doing lately. The student films I'm acting in will be largely unaffected, and the same is true for commercials. I'm taking the strike as an opportunity to work more hours in my survival job and save up money for classes and self-promotion. Also, on a purely selfish note: the strike has the possibility of scaring off some of my competition.
Anyhow: Writers, my thoughts are with you. Stay strong. You're work is important and you deserve to be fairly compensated for it. Your fight is our fight.
In reference to playing Gandalf in Lord of the Rings Sir Ian McKellan said* "And how did I know what to say? The words were written down for me in a script."
*In a hugely entertaining scripted scene in the show "Extras".
Last night I found myself chowing down at a Los Angeles institution: Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. Roscoe's is renowned for its, you guessed it, chicken and waffles. The dinner item to get consists of a plate of fried chicken doused in brown gravy and onions which is served with a plate of two waffles that are smothered in butter and syrup. The real pros slice off some chicken, dip it into Rooster's Louissiana Hot Sauce and then stab a bite of waffle onto the same fork with the chicken. While this sounds like a potentially disastrous gastronomic adventure, I assure you that the end result is delicious and almost worth the heart-attack it will induce 20 years from now.
I ended up in Roscoe's because I was meeting with my college-buddy Gavin. Last Friday, we agreed to write a screenplay together. The deal was closed with a handshake outside of an art gallery closing. Neither of us was particularly inebriated at the time, so it was the sort declaration that might actually turn into a finished piece as opposed to the "Let's go sky-diving off Mt. Rushmore!" "Yeah TOTALLY!" interaction one often sees at parties.
It was a productive meeting, and we were able to discuss story ideas, aesthetic, and soundtrack in between bites of gravy-covered waffle. At the end of the meeting, we had beginnings of at least five stories. We've tasked each other with writing a treatment a piece before our next meeting.
It seems that there is no one way to make it as an actor down here. Some are extremely talented, others extremely pretty, others extremely well-connected, and still others are extremely lucky. Since I don't rank in the extreme in any of these categories, I am in the position of needing to make my own luck. The hope is that I can write a good screenplay that I can sell with me attached to the project. Of course, I might just be trading impossibilities, but it's worth a shot.
I did something new in an audition today, and it paid off. For once, I actually took the time to take the note.
Earlier today, I drove down to Orange, CA. It's a 50 minute trip in the best of times, and a 2.5hr trek in the worst of times. The traffic was relatively light during my trip, so I got to Orange in about an hour and a half. I was just in time – to try and find the audition room that wasn't listed on the casting notice. Apparently, I had arrived before the director, I later found her in one of the spots I had already searched.
I took a decent first stab at the sides, I was partially off book and I gave a partially interesting read. Afterwards, the director gave me an adjustment (or note) "Imagine that during the second half of this script, your mother is really talking about you needing to take care of your autistic brother for the rest of his life." I felt like I had a good sense of what she wanted and was just about to plow ahead with a second read when I asked "May I have a few moments to look over the sides?" The director of course granted my request.
Roughly 20 seconds later, I knew at what point in the script my character realized what was going on and how he felt about it. My second read went much better, and afterwards the director said "I really saw that you made the adjustment. It was nice to see him realize what was happening. His whole energy changed."
Audition Tip: Take some time after you've been given a note in order to plan out that change. It's not enough to understand the note, you need to know it.
Don't worry about taking up too much of the casting director's time. it's a far greater waste of time for them to give you a note that is essentially ignored because you didn't take the time to follow it.
Financial Note:
Driving to/from Orange and a stop into Pasadena required half a tank of gas. Filling up my car cost me $39 today. Which is to say, it cost me $20 to audition for a non-paying student project. There's something wrong with that.
Last Thursday I played the lead in a reading of "Recess" by Craig Abell-Champion held at Writer's Boot Camp in Santa Monica. Writer's Boot Camp is an organization for where would-be screenwriters go to learn and polish their craft. On a semi-regular basis, they bring in actors to read the second acts of their (typically) three-act screenplays. The first and third acts aren't performed because writers get bored watching readings like the rest of us, and a screen play lives and dies by its second act.
I arrived at this reading by following up with one of my Actor's Network Power Group members, Anna Rahe. She mentioned that Writer's Boot Camp was always on the lookout for new actors, and that reading at one of these events might prove to be a useful networking opportunity. I sent her an email saying that I was interested in reading for the lead, and she replied shortly thereafter saying that I had been cast as such. Which is evidence that "90% of life is just showing up."
The reading was a lot of fun, and it provided a great chance to get to know some of my Actor's Network colleagues a bit better. I didn't fully utilize the event as an opportunity to fraternize with the screenwriters, but I anticipate having ample opportunity when I return for more reads. But better than all this: Writer's Boot Camp provided each and every actor with their very own gourmet dark chocolate candy bar. Yum!
Contest: The first person to identify the following book for me gets my extreme gratitude and the opportunity to read it once I purchase and finish it. I seem to recall an interview on Fresh Air wherein Terry Gross interviewed a gentleman (who I think was English) who vowed to not say "no" for an entire year. This led to many great adventures, lots of house parties and travel all over Europe. His conclusion upon finishing the year was that one tends to meet more people and do more interesting things when "no" is stricken from your lexicon. His experiences and conclusions were catalogued in a book. What is the title of this book and/or the name of the author? Many thanks.
You might want to read this one at home if you're a public school employee…
Today I attended an audition for a student film project (through a fairly prestigious art and design college) that was hands down my weirdest audition experience since arriving in Los Angeles. I went to the audition not knowing much about the project beyond it being about an 18 year old boy who's never left his house. Immediately, I thought, "Oh, another bubble boy. It could be fun." When I arrived at the audition space, the "audition instructions" were laying on a chair. I started to read through them, and immediately became concerned. But, being a good sport and having driven all the way to Pasadena, I endeavored to do what the instructions (written in broken English) specified.
In the audition room, there was a mattress with a sheet covering it. No doubt, for audition instruction number 1: "Pretend to have sex with a sex doll. This is your character only happy time. It is still sad." Sex, even between two people who love each other very much can be awkward at points. Simulated sex with an imaginary sex doll in front of two strangers, is EXTREMELY AWKWARD.
After my first attempt at this, I was given an adjustment: "The people are coming," which I took to mean that my character was being caught with a Real Doll by his parents or roommates. This gave me something to work with. However, just as the nervous interaction between my character and the "interrupter" was about to begin, the CD corrected me by saying "They coming. Like orgasm."
"Oh…" I said. So once again, I air-humped the mattress, gave them my best, happy but sad and lonely, O-Face. Then I moved onto audition instruction #2: "Walk up to camera like mirror. Look at self. Look at can. This is your last food. You have no money, after this you will starve." The can in this case was an empty Rock-Star energy drink. Oh yeah, did I mention: this character has never left his home because his thighs are fused to his belly by flaps of skin. So, as I approached the mirror I was waddling forward on my haunches.
Audition instruction #3: "We will need to take a picture of you for records, just upper body." So, I stood still ready to take my picture… "We need to see skin so that we can make the prosthetic." So, against my better judgment, I took off my shirt and was photographed from the front and back. When I auditioned for "Take Me Out" I didn't have to remove a single article of clothing, and I was fully nude in that play.
When I described all of this to a good friend of mine, she said "You aren't actually going to do this project are you?" I quickly replied "No, of course not." Meanwhile, I had been making a list of pros and cons in my mind. I really can't believe myself sometimes. One of the hardest things for an actor to do is say no to a project – we experience so much rejection that it's very tempting to accept any project that comes our way, no matter how bad or skeev-inducing.
Most of my previous projects at USC were helmed by members of their screenwriting program. My current USC project, "Red Bud" is being directed by Christine Berg, a graduate program directing student. The project is a spec pilot (i.e. the first episode of a series is being made for free with no promise of production) about a boy whose family thought he was retarded for 4 years until they realized he just needed glasses. Once he was fitted with new specs they discovered that he's actually a genius. It's totally sweet and exactly the kind of show I would have loved when I was growing up. A have a fairly minor part, but it's a real pleasure to work on.
Tonight I attended a rehearsal for "Red Bud" that was being supervised by Christine Berg's directing teacher. This man was a pro. He's directed numerous episodes of ER, Grey's, and a slew of other projects. It was really interesting watching him work. He had a very clear idea of what he wanted with each of the student projects. He was very specific in talking about camera placement, cuts, and especially how to interact with actors and how to eke out their best performances.
He encouraged me and the two other kids (I'm playing a 17yr old, and my brothers are 13 and 8) to "do what brothers would do while they're waiting for dinner." So I had a great time, playing with my brothers – stealing food, fork fights, and generally razzing each other. The directing teacher's other note "Don't worry about acting the lines, just say them and focus on interacting with each other" was really key in getting me out of my head. It took me back to something that, A.C.T. company member extraordinaire, Gregory Wallace once said to me "Focus on the actions, if the actions are clear the words will take care of themselves."
It seems like the key to all of this is just to fully commit to the situation and let the rest take care of itself.
