Actor Growth

Happy holidays everyone. I’m going to spend some time with family today like most people and hope everyone has a great day. Then I have to prepare myself for Boxing Day tomorrow and take advantage of any great sales.

Merry Christmas!

Not doing too much today other than preparing for Christmas tomorrow. I was looking at some post Christmas sales too and I couldn’t really see anything that I should get at a good price that would make my acting year more convenient or productive.

A white Christmas is definitely an understatement as overnight we received an additional 30cm of snow. This is apparently the most snow we have ever had in history too. Hope everyone else is having a great holiday.

In one of the e–mails I got from my agent she mentioned about new shows that will be shooting here in Vancouver in 2008 which means more opportunities for people. One of the show is called “Defying Gravity” and apparently the other one are sequels to “Twilight” which is suppose to becoming in March.

2008 has definitely been slow with the strike and all. 2009 is definitely going to be a lot busier. It should be a lot more interesting for me too as I will be trying a new agency with the intent of being more involved in auditioning and trying to land principal roles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I did less background work as well since usually the drawback to doing it from an actor point of view is that you lessen your chances of playing bigger roles on various TV series. Although, on the flip side sometimes you appear so much that the production decides to make a role for you.

The day started out with another surprise as I received a phone call at noon from my agent informing me that the call times have been pushed two and a half hours earlier. As a result, I had to make my way to the set earlier than expected. Of course, there was a bunch of snow as mentioned the other day.

Upon arrival you have to go through this path of trailers, where the actors stay as well as the makeup and wardrobe people, to get to the holding area where I had to go as you can see here:

Funny thing I noticed was that the trailers were not marked according to the actor’s name but rather their character’s name. Example, one of the trailer had the name of “Devil” on it which I thought was funny.

Ultimately the holding area was actually right next to the stage entrance which was great considering how cold it was outside.

There were also some signs and literature plastered on that entrance door I noticed. One of them was about an Actor’s Fund of Canada charity challenge that the cast and crew of the Reaper are being encouraged to participate in apparently.

In the show there is this place called “The Work Bench” where the main character works at and the building was just around the corner and there were also some trucks that were branded with company logos as well.

I didn’t really get to do much on set despite being called in earlier. In total I’d say we were on set for less than seven minutes and that was a wrap. This has been literally the fastest on set work and take I have ever seen. Other than that we just hung around the holding area for a little over four hours or so. It was so fast there wasn’t even any need for a meal break which I would normally get when working on shows like these.

The sunlight was completely gone in the end too as you can see with these shots as I exited the studio.

I highly doubt you will be able to spot me in this one considering how fast the take was unlike last time and assuming that particular footage makes it to air. If you want to try and spot me this is my headshot that I normally use and is what the background casting directors usually see before any bookings are considered:

Maybe one day I’ll get to do something more than just being a background person for that show and then I’ll be able to get even better stuff to share. So, hopefully I was able to show all the Reaper fan visitors something interesting.

Alright, so I got my call time for the shooting of The Reaper tomorrow and it is going to be at the same Burnaby location as last time it seems.

The call time is in the late afternoon too so usually that can mean it is going to be very quick or very long. The distance isn’t too bad as it will take probably about 30-40 minutes or so, but the thing is it is snowing like crazy here in Vancouver and traveling to Burnaby might prove to be a little challenging.

Look at how high the snow is already accumulating on this for example:

Apparently this is a DMV shot, so as of now I am assuming everything is indoor which is great. Although, getting to the set from the holding area is probably going to be chilly.

One of my friends was telling me how next year his goal is to travel and live in LA with another friend and start meeting agencies to try and get something going. First thing that came to my mind is that it must be very expensive to do so and not to mention you probably have to go through a lot of legalities to do so.

I personally don’t have any direct/close contacts in LA and so it is interesting to read about all the hearsay information that people mention. For example, I was reading this remark from one person on how it costs like $5000 minimum a month to live anywhere in LA and so if you are an actor planning to venture down there you better have a lot saved up.

That sounds a bit over the top to me though considering Vancouver is supposed to be one of the most expensive places to live in and you need nowhere near $5000/month just to survive. I always did wonder though if I should be at least doing something right now to make traveling or living in the US a lot easier should the time come where I would need to do so.

My own thoughts right now is that if someone was ever truly wanted/needed for a particular production in the US that the production would take care of everything to ensure that they will be sponsored to work there. Be interesting to see how it goes for them though.