Signing with BMG Models on Tuesday!

I just got a call today from BMG Models, the agency that I interviewed with last Thursday. Apparently they want to sign me for print modeling and non-union commercial work! I'll have to turn down the non-union commercial part because I'm a SAG member, but this is really exciting. It'll be my first legit agent, and if things go well there's a chance I'll be able to parlay this into union-commercial representation.

Below you'll find a YouTube video of me doing a silly dance to celebrate created especially for YOU!


So, yay! 7 months after my arrival I have a manager and now a legit agent for print work.

Regrets about leaving the business.

Ok, don't let the title scare you. I'm not going anywhere, in fact I'm more passionate and optimistic about this whole operation than I've been in a long time. However I wanted to share the following thoughts with you about regret (most of them synthesized from comments of other's who've been at this longer than me):

If in ten years you leave acting to take up a "real" job and live out the rest of your life, will you regret leaving? Well, that really depends on how you are pursuing acting at the moment. If you are preparing 100% for every audition, and giving your auditors the best that you have to offer every step of the way, then no. No, you shouldn't have any regrets, you've given it an honest to goodness shot and maybe it's not the right path for you. However, if at every audition you only give 50% and prepare half as well as you could and then leave acting to take up a day job... well then you will have regrets. They'll gnaw at you: I'd have made it if I'd taken it more seriously, or nobody saw what I really had to offer.

Not giving it your all is a cunning cop-out. I've seen my students (and myself) use it all the time. If you don't study for the test and you fail, it's no big deal. "I could have aced it if I tried, y'know If I'd wanted to." But imagine how heartbreaking it would be if you study your hardest for your test and you still fail, or you only get a B. Getting an honest assessment of ones abilities and limits is scary, a lot of people never dare to do much of anything for this reason.



That said, I will dare to be brave. I will do my damnedest, and if I come up short, then I'll have to accept it. But at least I'll know I did my best, and that is something I won't be able to regret.

SAGIndie, Not As Easy As I Hoped

I'm working on shooting a short film tentatively titled "Slack-Anon." As much as possible I want it to be a really solid product despite my total lack of budget. Professional means professional actors if I can cast them.

So I started looking into the SAG contracts for shorts & student films. It's a fairly intense process with very specific requirements with regards to script length, budget, and giving SAG 4-weeks prior notice before you sneeze. In addition, all actors must be paid their $100 day rate before the film can be publicly shown or broadcast on the Internet.

I guess my question is now: Can I as a SAG actor just grab a video camera, some friends, and shoot a project that I'm throwing up on YouTube? Or does that put me in violation of my union rules? Do I seriously need to send SAG my script, budget, and proof of insurance for my 3-minute sketch about Sizzler's Mints?

Shout Out To: Diablo Cody & East Bay Arts

In the grand tradition of many hip hop artists and white dorks under the mistaken impression it's cool to co-opt language that isn't theirs I want to send a shout-out to Diablo Cody, who just won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar for her film Juno. I'm elated for her, what a spectacularly wonderful, funny, gracious, unique and beautiful person she is. Even E-Page thinks so, 100%.



That being said, I've also gotten my hands dirty with some video work. I re-cut the East Bay Arts promotional video to include some new footage, photos, and music (thanks to An Ta for selecting the music and getting the shots I needed). It was a rushed job, and I was up 'til 4:30am working on it today, but I'm pleased with how it turned out. If you know of any high school age students living in the SF East Bay, I can't recommend the school enough. Definitely look them up:

BMG Print Modeling Interview

Yesterday I had my first interview with a commercial print agency in Los Angeles. I have to admit that I would never want to work as a receptionist in a modeling agency. A lobby populated with inhumanly beautiful people could very quickly lead to a nasty case of body dysmorphia. What then, you may ask, was I doing interviewing in a print modeling agency? Well, just like commercials, commercial print ads utilize all sorts of people, including the dorky boy next door (see: me). In addition, print modeling is a good back door into securing representation for commercial acting. If you prove yourself to be dependable and book frequently, there's a good chance that the print agent will introduce you to the commercial agent.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how BMG ended up with my headshot and resume, but about a week ago I received an email from the head of their print modeling department. I previously had met with Ilana Turner, one of my classmates from Richard Seyd's class, about print modeling. She recommended a number of agencies (BMG being one of them), and gave me some advice about building up a book. A book is model-speak for "portfolio". You build it up pretty much the same way you do anything else, start by giving your services away for copies of photos and eventually raise your rates once you've established yourself as capable.

Knowing that I needed a book, I spent the better part of the morning printing out photos (mostly from my headshot session 2 yrs ago) and putting them in an artist's portfolio. Being fairly broke, I just took the samples out of my design portfolio and plopped in my modeling prints. All of this work was reduced to 6 seconds power-page-flipping during the interview. BMG seemed to run a very professional and active operation. The only questions that I was really asked were "What's your job? Is it flexible?" Apparently a lot of actors/models flake out on auditions which puts their agents in quite a spot. Especially with regards to print modeling, because for the most part when you have an interview the client really wants to see you and maybe a couple other options.

Once again, I'm really grateful for having such flexible day jobs. I should find out sometime early next week one way or the other.

iTom Shuffle opens in LA Tonight!

My first paid acting gig after college was a show called "The Fabulous Adventures of Captain Queer!" In it, I played the male equivalent of an ingenue - I pranced about in my underwear and was tied to metaphorical train tracks while the titular hero saved the world from homophobic baddies. All of my intial LA connections and friendships were formed through Prince Gomovilas, the playwright of Captain Queer.

In fact, I would not be living in LA today if it weren't for San Francisco queer theater. At the moment, I've got a little piece of SF theater sitting across the room from me. Tom Orr, one of my cast mates from Take Me Out is staying with me over the run of his one man show "iTom Shuffle."

Tom takes music and melodies from broadway hits and Disney movies and throw his own hilarious and raunchy brand of lyricism on top. The show is laugh out loud funny while still providing moments of startling depth. I saw iTom Shuffle in SF as a third date with my girlfriend and it was shortly thereafter that we became an item. So if you want to support a deserving theater artist, or just take your current relationship to that next level, see the wonderful Tom Orr in:

iTom_shuffle

written & performed by Tom Orr
directed by F. Allen Sawyer

After a sold-out workshop production of his new solo show, iTom_shuffle, last summer at San Francisco's The Garage, Tom Orr is getting his act together and taking it on the road.

First stop: HOLLYWOOD!



Since 1997, award-winning San Francisco lyricist-playwright-singer-dancer-actor-comedian and "musical comedy cabaret porn star" Tom Orr has been entertaining Bay Area audiences with his smart, satirical parodies, i.e. "Dirty Little Showtunes!", his critically-acclaimed, crowd-pleasing cult hit revue that's had successful runs in San Francisco, Seattle, Chicago, Houston & the 2006 Minneapolis Fringe Festival. A native son of the San Fernando Valley, he is making his Los Angeles debut after 15 years of professional theatre on both coasts.

February 21-March 1, 2008 • 8 Performances Only!
8pm Thursday • 10pm Friday & Saturday • 3pm Saturday Matinee
Tickets: $20 • Caution: Nudity & Adult Language

http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/27974

Michael Caine's Acting In Film

Michael Caine wrote a great book called "Acting in Film," come to find out it was originally a lecture that was videotaped. Well, it looks like some kind (potentially lawbreaking) soul has posted it all on YouTube. Watch it while you can (embedded videos below, click on the title of this post if you don't see them)!

How To Find a Running Buddy

More and more I'm learning the lesson that if you simply announce to the world that you want something – you'll get it. One of my Sage Goals is "It's March 25^th and my ass looks great in my pants." That is to say, I need to run regularly so that I don't have to buy a plethora of new pantaloons because of the slow creep of abdominal sprawl.

I know that I'm not great at honoring commitments to myself especially when it comes to exercise. However, I'm very good at honoring commitments that I make to others. What does that spell: Running Buddy. The Problem: I don't have any friends who run near me. So what did I do? I posted a flyer that asked "Need a running buddy? Me too."on my apartment's bulletin board. At the bottom I left my contact info in little tear-off strips. Within two days I got an email from one of my neighbors offering to run w/ me 3+ times a week.

The moral of the story is: all you have to do is ask – but you do have to ask.

How Do You Procrastinate?

Dear Reader,

I'm working on the script for my short film, tentatively titled "Slack-Anon" and I'm curious to know how you idle away your days? How do you slack off? How do you procrastinate? If you're game, please post a comment with a list of your favorite thumb-twiddlers.
Thanks,

Your Scribe

Worst Dialect Ever OR Germans in Space

So me and some friends went to Star Trek the Tour today and geeked out hardcore. The coolest part of our adventure was getting to take photos on the bridge of The USS Enterprise, both original Star Trek and Next Generation. Unlike most trekkies who boarded the ship and stared blankly at the camera, we got very much into creating scenes. The most successful of which was a bar brawl, with me as a dispassionate captain forced to deal with crew members punching and choking each other on the com stations.

In addition to the series of super dorky stills, we got to shoot a video where we were the bad guys and read the corny star trek villain lines. We of course decided to take inspiration from the "Sprockets" SNL sketch and turn our klingons into a series of baddies from the German 80's disco scene. The first take was brilliant, however that got lost - so what you see below is the second lesser take. And perhaps the most ham-handed but worst German accent known to man, provided by yours truly.

Fishing For Ideas

Curiously enough, the first, and single most important step in creating a short film is coming up with a solid story. So far I am grasping at straws. Perhaps I should take up transcendental meditation, a la David Lynch:



How does he make his hair do that? It's been perfectly quaffed for over 30 years now.

Post #100: I'm Making a Movie

The creative career co-op at Sage is all about setting ambitious goals that you can be passionate about. While my search for an agent is important - it's just not that shiny a goal.

My goal for the next 8 weeks:·

It is April 17, 2008 and I have just finished mailing the last copy of my broadcast quality short film to my actors. I am extremely proud of how the film turned out and I’m excited to submit it to festivals, I know that it will be accepted and win.

In all honesty it's a daunting goal. I've never participated in a broadcast quality project, let alone produced one. However, I need to get some work on film that I can feel proud to include in my reel.

Just discussing this project with friends and colleagues has already created a lot of energy. I'm hoping that energy will translate into a quality project.

Potential complication: budget = $0.

PS: Does anyone have a great short film script laying around that's begging to be produced? Ideally with a lead-ish role for me. Barring that: any interesting stories that would make good short subjects?

OurStage.com - Truly Democratic Online Video?

After my buddy prince won $5,000 for wearing his boxer-briefs on the internet, I decided that perhaps there was something to these online video contests. I started following a blog that lists all of the upcoming video contests, and one of them was for OurStage.com. They've got an ongoing contest with a $5,000 prize that is awarded every month. All you have to do is submit a video that you've created and leave the judging up to the world.

If you want, you can watch my animated film "Make Someone Happy" and take a look at the competition here.

OurStage.com has an interesting voting model. Unlike YouTube where any Tom, Dick, or Harry can have their friends vote for their video - OurStage pits random videos against each other in a creative cage match, the likes of which haven't been seen since the 1988 battle between the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and My Little Pony at Madison Square Garden.

Assuming OurStage.com gains a viewership this could really ensure that the cream rises to the top. On the other hand, it could just mean that truly mediocre, middle of the road material that everyone likes pretty well is what eventually wins out. I suppose we'll find out soon enough.

To see my inspiration for getting involved in this silliness, watch Prince be poor:

My Doppelganger Is Starring With Robert Downey Jr.

Here I am browsing facebook at 4am when I stumble upon THIS:

I thought I was looking at a picture of me. But no, it's another actor who just happens to look a lot like me who's playing smart quirky roles of the variety I would like to play. I think there are couple ways that this can work where I still have a film acting career. 1) This movie takes off, this kid's career skyrockets and eventually folks start asking for an "Anton Yelchin Type" in the breakdowns - or I'm cast as his older brother. 2) This film tanks, Anton's career ends now - and no one remembers him - leaving a slot for me to play the roles he would otherwise get.

For comparison purposes, here's a photo of me:

Read "Tanner's Cove" on my other blog: Romantic Dramedy

Hello All. I've just posted a short story over at my other blog: Romantic Dramedy. This is pretty much my first short story since I wrote "Bessie: the Magical Flying Sea, Land, and Air Cow" for my 7th grade English class. Feel free to leave comments with praise or thinly veiled threats.