Actor Growth

So tonight I have a very late call time starting at 8:30pm at Playland for the movie Cats and Dogs 2 again. This is a night shot and is suppose to go into the wee early mornings as a result. I was talking to some people on other sets and they mentioned that most likely I will either people a person who is simply lining up or that I will have to go on the rides over and over again.

It was raining earlier today too and we were advised to bring umbrellas. At the same time, the e-mail I received mentioned that they won’t be playing the rain in the scene and so there is a possibility that we won’t be allowed to use it. That makes me wonder if people are going to get soaked.

This is only the second late night background work I have done besides for the TV show Caprica. Probably going to be tired after this one.

So in the process of building my demo reel I unfortunately still have not received a DVD copy of some of the films I have done awhile ago which was made by film students. One in particular I thought might be a good contrasting scene to have and recently I spoke to the person on the phone who mentioned all he needed was to burn a copy.

That has been like two weeks ago and I even left a text message the week before as I thought I could drop by and pick it up since I was around the area. Still no luck though. That is often a complaint I have heard from actors who volunteer on student films where it seems like getting a copy of the film seems like such a daunting task.

It’s too bad too as the demo reel I submitted for that NBC casting call didn’t have all the work I was hoping for and as a result I used some footage back from my own film acting school days. Guess it was okay still though.

I attended the open casting call today for NBC Universal which was held at the North Shore Studios. Based on the advertisement I read the casting call would run from 10am to 12pm. I got there at about 10:20am and there were about 100 to 130 people for the whole day I’d say based on the numbers that were assigned that I saw.

The casting call was definitely different as what they did was that they placed two people in the room at the same time as well as two actors who each had a separate interview at the same time in the same room. Nothing was filmed as well and it was like a very informal conversation about your background.

The lady that was interviewing me seemed nice. As usual, while reading my resume the one thing that got her attention was that for my special skills I wrote down that I can wiggle my ears and so of course she wanted to see it. I did so and that got a humorous reaction as usual. In the end, I left the person with my resume, headshot and demo reel and she seemed enthusiastic in wanting to review it later.

I am not really sure what they were looking for specifically, but in general the casting notice mentioned they were looking for visible minorities to place on their potential roster. I noticed that some of the females left the casting call with sides to read though and it didn’t appear that any males got any during the time I was there.

My assumption is that they are indeed simply building a list of Canadian talent while at the same time currently having some parts for people with specific looks and are giving them a shot. Was an interesting experience.

So tomorrow I will be attending an open casting call. I usually avoid open castings as to me being screened out first at least saves you a bit of time where you know if they called you in then at least you know you are favored in some way.

This one is apparently is more of a talent scout type of audition though and so it is a new experience for me which is why I will be trying it. The ironic thing is too I am usually weary of talent scout type of events as well. We’ll see how this goes.

So I was acting in an independent film called “The Seven” today. It was an interesting role to play too as the story was neat I thought. What we shot is intended to be a web series from what I understand and I suppose this can be considered as a “pilot” or sort to see if the producers will want to or can take it further.

There are two episodes that are being filmed which seems like about 9 minutes each. What kind of confused me a bit about this film was what to write this as on my resume when it comes to an acting credit such as a principal or lead. Because with this the story essentially revolves around seven characters and it is kind of weird to have seven leads right?

I wonder how they break it down for old shows like “Friends” where in that one it revolves around five main characters. I was always told that a lead is essentially where you are the main person that the story revolves around whereas some people say a lead means that you have a certain amount of lines. I think for now I will just write it as a “Principal Role”.

Good gosh I’m tired with a 7:30am call time which lasted till about 10pm. Not only that, but I was recently cast for short film that is being shot over the weekend and so it is non stop film work for me.

The story is kind of interesting I must say and it sounds like they are trying to make it into a web series which should be fun if it sees success. The lines aren’t too bad as there is no crazy monologue, but the character is one of the leads so there are a few lines to remember. Okay, I’m tired…so I need to rest.