Actor Growth

I was reading an interesting article today from a movie producer who was talking about the financial crisis and how ultimately this means less films will receive financing. In essence, that translates to less films being published in the marketplace.

However, he points out that this can be a very good thing for people looking to break into the industry as it is a great opportunity to make something with an increase odd that more people will pay attention to it. One example he talked about was a movie like the Blair Witch project.

I’m still personally very interested in creating something simple with another actor on something like Youtube for fun to see how it goes. I haven’t really found another actor though that would be committed to doing it too while at the same time coming up with that idea that we would both be motivated in doing.

Maybe I should just start looking around the Internet as oppose to just people who are here locally in Vancouver.

So I auditioned for a part on Thursday and interestingly enough I got an e-mail stating how they would like to see me for a callback next week on the same day that evening. In the e-mail, they also indicate that they have auditioned a lot of other great people as well.

Funny thing is that I see that they are continuously advertising for an actor to play that very same role too which kind of makes me question how genuine the callback really is. An interesting thing for myself too, all of the parts I have gotten thus far always came from the first audition.

My usual thought is that a callback means they think you can act but they are not quite sure which person to go with in terms of one’s look. In this case though, it just seems a bit too weird to go for a callback when they are still advertising to audition people for the very first time.

Maybe I’m nuts, but about three days ago during martial arts class the toe nail on my right foot got split in the middle and as a result it started bleeding. Funny thing is though, I didn’t even realize it till I got home. I did go to see the doctor and he mentioned that I should just leave it as it will take time to heal.

Then today I kind of re-aggravated it and it started to bleed a little again. Now I guess the wise thing to do would be to just stop doing anything and let it heal, but even the doctor said that it would take awhile. Especially when it comes to recreation like martial arts, it’s just that with an actor type of schedule I don’t know when I would be called again and sometimes I could be gone for days and weeks.

Hence, for things like this martial arts training my downtime can be while I’m on set as oppose to wasting time when I do have the opportunity to go. One thing is for sure, even as an actor I’m personally inclined to be one of those people who will ant to keep going if I can.

I always hate it in like fight scenes where when someone hits you accidentally they then break character to see if you are alright as oppose to continuing. It’s almost like they hit you for nothing as a result afterwards.

One thing I have been debating about is to get a data phone as from time to time it seems like it would be very useful to browse through listings such as from the casting workbook through my phone. I have always avoided a data phone before as the cost of it doesn’t really seem to be worth it. I know in the US the data plans are generally good, but here in Canada they are almost highway robbery.

Interesting thing too is that I noticed that most of the time I go on sets people often have iPhones and they don’t even seem like they really use all of the features as it is more about having one. I know people with blackberry’s always say that they can’t live without I afterwards and I’m pretty sure it will be the same if I opted to go wit a data phone.

At this point I have always said that once I land my first big role I would get one as I’m sure I will have to keep updated remotely whether it is learning about call times or get notices of new opportunities. For now, I’ll try to survive without one.

So I was looking into this sport called parkour which seemed kind of interesting as by the looks of it you are trying to get to point A to point B through real life obstacles as fast as possible. Essentially, I saw people climbing poles, jumping across various platform, etc.

I’m always interested in learning new things that help to develop the mind and body which is why it kind of interested me. It looks like it could be very useful for people who want to get into stunt work in film as well.

Apparently in the new James Bond movie there is a scene in the beginning where someone is running across buildings and all utilizing this sport. Just thinking if it would work with my schedule though as I currently try to attend another martial arts class everyday to try and get the most out of it.

I personally watch the show Heroes and one thing that I have noticed that is a bit odd is the actor James Kyson Lee who plays the character “Ando” that is supposed to be Japanese. Now apparently from what I read he is actually Korean and had no real skill in the Japanese language. So obviously, he has to fake the accent when he is saying his lines.

What I noticed recently though is that from time to time when his character talks in English he would have the accent and sometimes he wouldn’t. Maybe I’m just a bit more picky, but those little hitches seem so huge to me in making the character very unbelievable afterwards.

I think Hugh Laurie, in the show House, is an example of really good consistent acting when it comes to accents as you can’t even tell that he normally speaks with a British accent. I think the most difficult and overlooked thing when it comes to accents is that sometimes we tend to try and copy the sound as oppose to understanding why they talk the way they do.

For example with Japanese, I have a little bit of knowledge and I know that there are no letter “L’s” or “V’s” in the language which is why you hear Japanese people speak the way they do when it comes to English words. I’m actually surprised that the director didn’t pick up on those hitches too.