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.
