Creation #3: Screenplay for Good Cop, Dog Cop

I am shamelessly in love with my dog, Kahana. Which should go some lengths to explain why it is I spent an hour last night writing a 2 page script for a sketch called "Good Cop, Dog Cop."

It's the worst sort of derivative hack fest, but now there's a good chance that Kahana and I will be making another short film together; so it can't be all bad. Oh wait, the final line is "Bark 'em, Danno." So I suppose it is all bad for anyone who is going to eventually have to sit through it. That said, it feels good to be creating.

And since no post is finished without multimedia, here's Will Farell's "Good Cop, Baby Cop."

Good Cop, Baby Cop from Will Ferrell

Creation #2: Sonnet 60 by Shakespeare

What did I create?

A dramatic interpretation of Shakespeare's Sonnet 60 shot on a DSLR. For those of you who don't know the canon by heart, I give you Sonnet 60:

Like as the waves make towards the pebbled shore,

So do our minutes hasten to their end;

Each changing place with that which goes before,

In sequent toil all forwards do contend.

Nativity, once in the main of light,

Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown’d,

Crooked elipses ’gainst his glory fight,

And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

Time doth transfix the flourish set on youth

And delves the parallels in beauty’s brow,

Feeds on the rarities of nature’s truth,

And nothing stands but for his scythe to mow:

And yet to times in hope my verse shall stand,

Praising thy worth, despite his cruel hand.

In short: time waits for no man, and while we may start young we'll all get old; even you Beautiful.

The process:

It was simple enough, I browsed through some of Shakespeare's more well-known sonnets and settled on one I liked. I then went about dramatizing it by making decisions about who I was talking to, where I was, and what I wanted. I setup a pillow as my scene partner, focused the camera, and did a few takes.

What went well?

Despite having no one else physically present, I managed to build a strong enough sense of who I was talking to that I was affected by the situation.

What lessons can I take from this?

My work was strongest and the least "actor-ey" when I allowed myself to let go of my preconceptions for how the scene should go and respond to what was actually happening. When I tried to recreate elements I liked from a previous take, I got stuck in my head and it showed in the final result.


To Post The Video or Not?
I'm torn about whether I should post all of my creations to this blog. I appreciate the accountability, and the organized record of my pursuits. However, if I post anything less than my best work I risk making a bad first impression. Thoughts?

Creation #1: An Ambitious Project

Today's creation is my "new" blog ActingDaily.com and its inaugural post.

Does anyone else care to join in on the challenge? Create something, anything, every day for a year.

Introducing Acting Daily

Packing on 15lbs of body fat over a winter is easy, just eat a little more than you should every day. Growing as an artist is no different, all it takes is consistent action.

"Another Actor in LA" is now "Acting Daily". For every one of the next 365 days I will take action to grow as an actor and expand my experience as a human being. I will also endeavor to create something, a product of some kind, as evidence of that growth.

Examples include:

• Learning and performing a monologue.
• Writing a scene.
• Creating a web video.
• Playing a song on my ukulele.
• Sketching.
• Painting.
• Cooking a gourmet meal.

And so it begins...

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.

Acting with your full self

How is it non-actors can often turn in more interesting film/tv performances than trained actors? Simply because they have no choice but to be a complete human being: themselves.

Actors get so tripped up in playing a character and a situation that they only bring a limited part of themselves to a role and ignore what is actually happening in favor of what they think should be happening.

If you are auditioning for the part of a beat detective it's very tempting to try and recreate what you think a TV cop should be. You act tough, become humorless, and and lose about 80% of your capacity for empathy. What this fails to acknowledge is: if you wanted to be a cop in real life, you probably could have been.

There are all sorts of personalities in every profession. Lead with the part of yourself the role calls for, but don't forget that the other parts of you still exist and should be present in your work

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Also I want to plug Margie Haber Studio. I just finished their month-long intermediate cold-reading intensive and I am feeling so much more confident in my work. The around the world project taught me how to stop acting, but it wasn't until I took this workshop that I had permission to be human again. I can't recommend it highly enough.

3 Years in Los Angeles: Should I Stay or Should I Go Now?

Before I moved to LA I asked every SF actor I knew who had attempted the "LA thing" for their advice. There seemed to be a general consensus that I was unlikely to see any traction until I'd been in LA at least three years. With that in mind, and knowing I'm just the sort of "cryin' ass little bitch" who would leave after just one year, I made a commitment to myself:

No matter how bad it gets. No matter how much I hate it. I have to stay in LA at least 3 years.

Today, August 1st 2010, marks my 3-year anniversary with the City of Angels. The question is: should I stay, or should I go?

To help myself answer that question, I have taken myself out on a date. I've imagined this date many times since arriving in LA. I imagined white table cloths, candles, fine silver, maybe a glass of wine or some sipping scotch. I would ruminate, then masticate, then ruminate some more. I would scratch my chin, and say "Hmmm..." in the delightful manner of esteemed intellectuals. I would order dessert and coffee. I would finish my last bite of tiramisu, sip my last sip, tip generously, and as I stood I would drop my napkin on the table. At the moment of impact, extraneous thought would leave my mind and all that would remain would be a stunning sense of clarity about acting, life, the universe, and everything.

That was the fantasy, here's the reality: My date is taking place in a Starbucks, not a fine Italian restaurant. I've sipped my last sip - through a green straw. Boy oh boy is real life different from the movies.

There has been no Siddhartha-style burst of enlightenment. Instead I've got an empty plastic cup, a tongue numb from chewing ice, and a mind just as muddled as the day before. Yet, nonetheless, I have reached a conclusion:

I'm staying in LA, and I'm staying in the acting game.

Thanks to all of my readers for keeping me company on this journey.