Another Day, Another Crisis

It probably doesn't help that I have a cold, but I've been feeling out of sorts for the last few days. Anyone trapped on a desert isle with me would quickly discover that I have a penchant for regular existential crises. I go through fits of feeling like I'm on the top of the world, I know what I want, I'm going after it and everything is brilliant. Then there are weeks where it's all I can do to live vicariously through "24"s Jack Bauer for days at a stretch.

My friend Prince cold comforted me by saying, "it's okay: this crisis you're having, when you get older, it NEVER ends."

This time at least, I think I can source it: I haven't had a creative outlet in two weeks. My ongoing acting class has ended, and likely won't start back up until after the holidays, and my writing partner and I are currently on break.

I feel stuck. Woefully, listlessly, hilariously stuck.

I'm led to believe there are some people who don't have these crises, or at least have the courtesy not to jabber on about them in a grossly public forum. Another friend cold comforted me, saying "this is the artist's life."

When actors sleep, do they dream they're accountants?

Parting thought: Perhaps my life is closer to Jack Bauer's than I previously thought. About once a year he lives through a 24hr terrorist crisis. About once a month I live through a 1wk existential crisis. Jack Baur meet Donovan Dour.

Kung Fu Panda Screening & After Party

My friends Phil "Captain 3D" and Deepa invited me to see an animators' screening of "Kung Fu Panda" earlier this evening. Both Phil & Deepa are employees at Dreamworks Animation – the folks that brought you Shrek. Phil is the "global director of stereoscopic digital photography" or some other equally long title for "the guy that makes 3D animated films fly out of the screen at your face." Deepa works in the texture department and is currently making computer generated buildings look like they're made out of real concrete, steel, and glass. Most of Phil & Deepa's friends work within the animation industry, and were already invited to the screening, so they brought me along as their plus one.

The screening was held at Grauman's Chinese theater – the space was done up in deep reds with gold accents, a significant improvement over the slightly dingy digs I first experienced when I saw "Judge Dredd" in the theater 13 years ago. "Kung Fu Panda" is Dreamworks' latest foray into the world of animated animals, and the martial arts theme made it seem right at home in Grauman's. I have to say that "Panda" is probably my favorite of the Dreamworks Animation films. The action sequences kept me engaged the whole time, and the jokes were funny without resorting to a panacea of pop culture references.

After the film ended, the thousands of animators that filled the theater took to the streets – inciting one taxi driver to let out a genuine NYC-style honk at the pedestrians crossing illegally. We all poured into the Roosevelt Hotel and made a B-line to the bar to make the most of our Dreamworks-sponsored bottomless cups. On the way to the bar, Phil went over to talk to a gentleman who was introduced as Jeffrey while I ate a complimentary cupcake. As Phil and I waited in line for the buffet, I asked him who Jeffrey was – turns out he was Jeffrey Katzenberg, the head of Dreamworks animation.

While Phil was away on his colleague-chit-chat adventures I spent most of the evening hanging out with Deepa. I started talking about my plans to take a trip around the world with Gabriel to make a feature film and Deepa asked if I was going to visit India. "If you do, you should stay with my family. My mother is very friendly!" So it seems I might actually know someone in India outside of the wonderful guy who helped me troubleshoot my DSL connection a few months back.

News Flash: American Sign Language is the new Spanish! This is to say, if you are going to speak a second language in California, it seems that ASL is the one to know. Deepa is deaf and normally has to read lips and use contextual cues to figure out what it is everyone is talking about. However tonight one person in almost every group we met spoke ASL to a greater or lesser degree. A lighting director's wife taught ASL to underprivileged kids, one of Deepa's supervisors took ASL classes to better communicate with Deepa, another woman's father lost his hearing in Vietnam, and still another was learning ASL to speak with her neighbor's daughter. It's an absolutely gorgeous language - I was surprised by how much and how little I understood by "reading hands" and using context clues.

Later in the evening, Phil was talking with another person that seemed to be a friend. I introduced myself as Donovan and asked "I'm sorry. And you were?" to which the man replied "Conrad". "Good to meet you." Conrad it seems is the director of Dreamworks' next film "Monsters vs. Aliens". Oh, and he directed "Shrek II" one of the highest grossing films of all time.

Having met both the head of a major film studio and the director of Shrek II without knowing who they were in the moment, I started to wonder… Is it better to not know so that I can have a genuine experience, or is it better to know so that I don't ask questions like "So what's your role with the production?" "I'm the director. Without me you wouldn't be eating the free food tonight you dip shit!"*?

*This is an entirely hypothetical dialog that I might have with a director like David O. Russell.

Too Busy to Blog

This past week has been pretty hectic and I've given this blog less attention than I would like. However, leading a life so interesting that I don't have time to write about its myriad happenings is not an altogether bad situation to be in. For now, I'll just give you the bullet points, and with luck I'll be able to find time to write more detailed entries later.

• I attended the opening night of my friend Diablo Cody's film "Juno". See this movie – you'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll be quoting it for weeks.
  
• I signed with a talent manager named Blair Silver who found me through a cold-submission by Sage Marketing for Actors.
  
• I love my Groundlings class. I'm learning a ton, and my commercial acting is improving as a result.
  
• I've got one week left in my commercial acting class with Jeff Hardwick. I'm learning scads here as well.
  
• I attended a free workshop held by John Sudol on commercial acting which was extremely informative.
  
• I've fleshed out the story of my screenplay a bit more.
  
• I got the first of a series of checks in the mail from my day-job. Thank goodness!

Actors Are Crazy

Ask anyone who works in technical theater, it's cold hard fact that "actors are crazy." It's not just acting that they're discussing - let's be honest: dressing up in a costume, putting on makeup, and pretending that you're someone else is a little crazy. Then whilst pretending you're someone else you end up murdering someone else who's pretending to be another someone else in front of 1000 audience members who can't see this magical "4th wall" you keep talking about. Nope, that's not even the beginning of the certifiable behavior that most actors willingly engage in.

A lot of actors can pass as "normals" until you see them doing their warm-ups. I spent an entire weekend at a Fitzmaurice Voice Technique Workshop taught by Saul Katsubei. It was phenomenal and I've grown quite a bit as an artist (I've tripled the size of house I can easily play to) - but we did some wacky ass shit to get to the end result.

Some highlights:
Ass Tag - Wherein you attempt to bop others on their bottoms while keeping both your biscuits safe.
Destructuring - Wherein you place your body in such an awkward position that it begins to shudder involuntarily while you hyperventilate and moan loudly.
Breathing Buddy - Wherein 15 strangers lay on the ground in a giant puppy pile trying to feel each other breathe through at least two contact points.


There's a lot more that transpired, and a lot that was learned - but looking back on the weekend I question my ability to turn down the Kool-aid if it is ever offered to me.

David O. Russell is a Drama Llama

Whilst avoiding the wreck that my apartment has become I stumbled onto the following video:

In the above video, film director David O. Russell verbally assaults actress Lily Tomlin on the set of "I Heart Huckabees" in front of cast and crew. This is upsetting to me because I saw "I Heart Huckabees" and loved it for a number of reasons: It featured Dustin Hoffman, had a soundtrack by Jon Brion, and Mark Wahlberg was Marky-Mark-tastic. If you watch the video closely, you'll see Dustin Hoffman just walk off-set when the conflict gets really ugly. I hope I never have to deal with something like that.

Apparently, some good can come of this. Michael Cera of "Juno"/"Arrested Development" shot a spoof of the above video w/ "Superbad" collaborator Judd Apatow.



Note to self:
If you ever encounter a true Drama Llama, do what you do with the genuinely crazy homeless people, DNE, DNE, DNE.

Do Not Engage.