Actor Growth

I went to do some quick work on Stargate Universe today and holy cow was it ever hot. Apparently it was like a record busting day today too. The people on set were talking about how someone fainted due to dehydration on set before and so we should all take the initiative to drink a lot of fluids.

The good thing is that we spent most of our time in the studio which had air conditioning and so overall it wasn’t too bad. Unlike the day on Caprica where I had to stand outside with a full suit getup. Today we had to actually eat during the takes though which is always interesting as you constantly see the crew people refilling plates for each take as they are racing against the clock it seems.

On set I was also talking to a friend and apparently he raised over $40,000 to make a film which was great news. I originally thought he wanted to do acting more but I guess he is going more into the production side instead. Be cool to see the final outcome.

I got a call from my agent today who asked if I had access to a camcorder as he was thinking of submitting me for a project that requested that candidates be pre-screen by doing a self taped audition. Basically, as the name implies you are basically taping yourself as if you were in the audition.

This isn’t the time to try and play out the scene in a classroom way where you have a scene partner with some getups as the footage has to be focused on you primarily like an audition. Unfortunately, he didn’t actually tell me which project it was for and when he would get the sides.

Another interesting thing was that my acting coach phoned me too beforehand as I requested for a sit-down awhile back just to go over some of my career goals and hurdles. When I mentioned this, it sounded like a perfect opportunity to get some coaching to create a better taped audition.

I never actually done this before and so it will be an interesting experience.

Just the other day I self submitted myself for a commercial as the description seemed to be something that was within my range. Unfortunately, by the time I submitted the session was already full and the casting director informed me of this.

The interesting thing though was that she asked if it was okay to keep my headshot and of course I was fine with that. It was kind of strange though as I would think this kind of thing is a normal practice. After thinking about it, I think I saw more positives out of that remark.

I never seen this casting director before personally and I’m betting she has never even heard of me either. However, I think her asking if it was okay to keep my headshot was another way of saying that she thought I had a good look that may be suitable for future projects that she was casting for. In that sense, I guess it’s really good.

I noticed that there was a another casting director workshop happening in about two weeks and I decided that I will attend this one. There have been a lot of advertisements lately as well for these types of workshops and what attracted me to this one was that it seemed like it was going to be conducted in a semi audition styled setting.

I read that first you would get trained by an acting coach to prepare a scene and then afterwards you will perform this scene on camera for a real local casting director. This fitted in perfectly with my current direction which was to learn less about the actual acting process on set and to focus more on the auditions as you need to land those roles first and foremost.

As well, I wanted to again avoid those “Paid to get seen” type of workshops as I don’t think those are beneficial at all. Unlike the last casting director workshop I went to, this one insisted that all actors must have previous professional training to enroll. Hopefully that is a good sign that this will be some good stuff too at a higher level.

Looks like there is another year for that Asian movie making competition here in Vancouver. As you may all remember from last year, I entered it in the last minute with some people and I ended up having to work virtually every department even though all I wanted to do was act in it. I was asked if I was going to enter the competition this year again.

Currently my stance is that I would only want to participate as an actor. While I can work in other departments, they aren’t my main passion and so I think other people would have more fun doing it. So, as of now it’s just a matter of if there is a team or project that think I would be a great fit for their film.

So, a traditional going in for an audition type of deal. It would be fun to participate in it again though if I end up working with a team in the competition.

Haven’t worked on this show since the pilot. Today was a doozy too as it was filmed outside in the scorching sun and I would say a good half of us got some kind of sun burn or sun tan by working on this set. The keyword for me working on this set was network circle I thought.

It was so interesting that this is kind of the first day I worked on a set where I knew someone personally in most of the departments through my acting journey thus far. For example, a production assistant that was working on set happened to be the sound person for a volunteer film where I was acting in where his friend and himself was making. One of the actors who is playing a frequently occurring role in this series is a person I know from doing background work. The list went on.

That definitely showed how small of a world it is and in many ways it’s reassuring too that the work and connections I have made from the past definitely do come back up in my future endeavors. There was one funny moment during the day where the lead actor Eric Stoltz flipped us while the camera was rolling. Basically, he was off camera and in the scene we were all suppose to be super mad. So as a joke while we were still yelling and all he decided to do that. A lot of people almost broke character too because of that which was hilarious.