Actor Growth

I was reading an article today about how certain celebrity actors are being banned from using various social networking sites. This seems to include things like Facebook and Twitter. Seems kind of general though as technically blogging is considered a form of social media too I’d say.

Basically, the fear is certain celebrities are doing things such as updating fans about what is going on while they are filming or people misinterpreting information that they publish which creates a pandemonium. So, apparently in some talent contracts there is going to be a clause that will be introduced to stop the talent from using these mediums.

While I am no household name, I personally embraced social media a longtime ago. As an actor I find that it can be fun to interact with others this way and it’s great that people are actually learning something from my experiences too. Of course when you reach a certain status quo you will probably need to take it easy as everyone will probably try to take every word you say out of context to make a story out of it.

In some ways I think it is kind of silly to want to completely block out an actor from using social media sites. I mean if we are talking about the productions that we are involved with doesn’t that technically help to spread the word of it too? There should simply be reinforcement that the talent shouldn’t give away say details about the production that would giveaway the plot or any other sensitive business information I’d say.

Speaking for myself, there are some shows where people that I know would never watch normally but because they know someone that will be in it, hence myself, all of a sudden they become interested in following the series or watching the movie. Isn’t that a good thing? I guess most actors just need some education about social media and how fast information can travel. Hence, we just need to be extra diligent to make sure what we are saying is okay before hitting the send button.

Today was kind of funny for me. The scene that was given was extremely awkward when it came time to perform it. The idea of the audition side revolved around a law firm where there was an older female lawyer who hires a younger paralegal to help her out. While reading the sides, there were sections such as the paralegal asking the lawyer to reveal her “stuff” as if she did it he would help her finish her work faster. Basically, sexual tension. From what I read, the lady was married too.

My choice was based on all this information the scene was all about a power sparring match where the young guy thinks he can charm the lady very easily and vice versa she is a lady that uses sex to get what she wants in life. Example, she married her husband for money using sex appeal and has no real reserve in cheating with others as everyone is just a way to gain something.

Although, there was one part I was a bit unsure about as there was a part in the script where they talked about her trying to get pregnant where the husband was just dumbfounded on why they can’ conceive. Right after it talked about how she begins to pop so many pills at night too. So my first assumption is she was trying to avoid becoming pregnant which kind of matched with persona I had of the character I would be talking to.

Turns out, that wasn’t the case as at all. You see, usually when you walk into an audition you can ask the casting director questions about the scene to help you make the best decisions in your performance. Of course in class the acting coach is acting as the casting director. I asked him about the lady character and the scenario was completely different. Basically, she was trying to get pregnant. And the character that I would be reading for was basically kind of like a Viagra for her, I guess you can say, where she gets turned on from younger men who find her attractive.

It definitely pretty much destroyed what I had planned before as my vision was that this was going to be a really subtle yet powerful scene where two characters are trying to outdo the other. Instead, it’s more cheeky I guess you can say. That completely threw me off. So that was an interesting experience and it’s a good thing I experienced that in class as oppose to a real audition.

It’s was funny too as he asked me what my decisions were before and I explained it. He was just floored at how I was able to come up with so much stuff based on those five pages. One person in class said that when I make strong choices I sure make strong choices. Another comment was that I might be watching too much sci-fi stuff. lol. Although, I haven’t really watched too much sci-fi….have just been working on Sci-Fi shows a lot.

If I am reading this correctly, apparently next month the short film that I acted and co-created for that Asian film marathon last year will be shown on TV. Basically, every entry from that year will be shown too.

For those that who are fairly newer to reading my blog and may have missed all of this, back in 2008 I entered this film festival competition for fun with a group of people. Essentially, the festival’s goal is to promote up and coming Asian talent. Basically, I was interested in doing the acting mainly and another person was inspiring to be a director. Long story short, it was such a chaos as the person didn’t follow through and was so disorganized. Did not want to create story boards, no rehearsal with the actors, etc.

Eventually, he dropped out and took his crew with him near the very last minute. Yet, in a struck of fate, and I mean in almost like a movie type of fashion, all these people started to come out of nowhere that were able to offer support which resulted in us being able to finish the film. If you are interested in reading it, I started blogging about it in about September 2008.

I still remember that time having to be the lead actor while being involved with the writing, directing, casting and editing all at the same time. Thinking back again, it was just amazing that we were able to even finish the whole thing with a one day shoot too. While the film wasn’t exactly like a triple A title due to all the setbacks, it was a really great experience and I met a lot of great people.

One interesting note, I actually had a hard decision to make creatively. Basically, one of the difficulties in editing the film was that the camera guy accidentally taped over footages as we shot the film. Basically, he re-winded the footage to preview it and as we taped the next scene he taped over the previous footage. Therefore, in the final cut there were some very messed up moments such as me running away except there was supposed to be two other people chasing me. Basically, the only footage that was left was a pre-test clip of me running through the area alone.

The thing is I could have decided to simply just cut the entire scene out of the movie. However, that meant cutting out the actors that volunteered their time to work on the film too. I know as an actor personally I wouldn’t have been too happy about that and so I opted to try and make it work. Of course, in a professional setting the decision to axe certain scenes to make sense of the movie as a whole probably would be the priority.

As for reactions for people that see it on TV the first time, I think it is going to be just like the theatre reactions. Basically, people that have no idea what we went through to make this film will probably be very critical of it. People that do know will tend to appreciate more.

Example, it’s like watching a film in one of those 24 hour competitions vs one’s that had like a whole month. I remember even one guy told me he was shocked to learn that we shot the whole thing in one day and that changed his whole perspective of the film. Kind of funny how that can factor in to people’s views about movies when you think about it huh?

I remembered that we did get the loudest roar in the theatre out of all the films for one particular scene. Let’s just say, my character had some colorful words to say about the antagonist. lol. Interesting experience overall. You know, when I think about it I think this film will give me a first of many things in my acting career funny enough. Basically, it was the first time I saw myself in a movie theatre screen for a film. With this, it’s the first time I will have appeared on TV as a lead role.

I was sleeping in a bit today since I was very tired from yesterday. When I woke up, I noticed that my background agent had tried to call me so many times in the morning. Apparently, Stargate Universe was shooting and they needed me to replace a person. Here was the funny thing……they said that the person I would be replacing was a female black lady. I was just thinking “Okay, where is the resemblance there?”

I was asked how fast I could get there and mentioned about half an hour. It kind of worked out not too bad as the shoot started right in the afternoon and when I got there the group wasn’t called up to set yet. When I got to set I just had to be the same character that I always am on that show. Was kind of funny as I was joking with the makeup artists that they were going to have to try and make me look like the person I was replacing.

There was one really weird moment on the shoot today. Basically, one of the main actors farted. And yeah, it created a smell in the trail he walked. So many of the other cast members were freaking out in a humorous/playful way as some of them even ran out the room while covering their nose. Took awhile to get the pandemonium down as it was like being in a school classroom where when someone let’s one go every reacts so dramatically to it.

There was so much talk about this being the last episode and that continuation will come down to whether or not the show gets picked up for a second season. It was interesting too as we shot variations of the scene and depending on what happens they will show different footages. So if they don’t get picked up then the season will end one way and if it does it will end up a different way to keep the story going.

As a result of being on set I didn’t get to see how that Smallville footage turned out. I also got an e-mail about auditioning for a short film. This day sure shows how you can’t expect a daily routine type of schedule when you are starting out.

Today I got to work on the show V and it was an early call as my start time was about 6:30am and lasted till about 7pm. It was just simple background work. I actually haven’t had to work a 12 hour day in awhile too. There were quite a few people called to work and I must say there were so many tall women. Guess it is somehow related to the theme of the show.

While on set I actually heard someone who was scolding his agent to others which was kind of interesting. He just mentioned the location that the agency was located in and that it was a male. With just that, I knew exactly which agency he was referring to and sure enough that was the case. Kind of shows you how it can work the other way around for actors too where an agent’s bad reputation can get around fast within the acting community.

I was supposed to work on Stargate tomorrow too but apparently things got changed around. I was joking with a friend on set too as maybe this gives me time to see something potentially funny on Smallville. By the looks of it, for sure you can see me in tomorrow’s episode. I am just wondering about the continuity as I think they used me a bit too much that day where you see me here and then there type of deal. Considering I am one of the few minorities too that doesn’t exactly help the situation. Interested in seeing how they do the editing.

I was reading this interesting quote today that apparently came from an actor named Terrence Man. The quote is “Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.” What an interesting quote I thought. I have yet to really get a worthwhile opportunity to judge that remark when it comes to movies and television, but one thing most of the other actors I talk to agree with is that theatre really does help your craft immensely.

I started with a theatre background myself and till this date I still think I learned more about acting in general from doing theatre roles than any other film training and experience I have gone through thus far. It’s a good advantage at times too where I find that I usually have an easier time playing dialogue driven roles compared to people without a theatre background.

At this day in age though I think movies and television roles have almost the same type of pull in terms of making someone a well known name don’t you think? I know as a personal example for myself I used to watch that TV show Friends all the time and I would think a ton of those actors are still more well known for that TV show as opposed to roles they have played in movies. In my opinion it just comes down to how successful and popular the film or show is.

I think nowadays as actors we have to factor in the Internet as well. I mean some actors are even including web series on their resumes which is kind of interesting. I have yet to see an Internet based actor get really big globally in terms of getting opportunities to act in like leads in a big budget film or television role. Think the reason for this is that most Internet videos are one of those “For cheap laughs” type of creations.

Actually, in terms of pull and recognition ability I think the Internet is like the television way back. If you considered before that starring in a movie role is “making it” where everything else like TV roles are a stepping stone I think today the Internet can be that stepping stone. The main advantage is that almost everyone can self publish themselves with this medium.