Actor Growth

The shoot was fun and interesting. For the project I was put into an ice skater outfit as if I was one of the Olympic Athletes in the city for the 2010 Winter games here in Vancouver using our local transportation system. I was paired up with another lady to make an Asian duo pair.

Was I every sparkly too. That clothing item had glitter like I was some person ready for a Disney on ice show. Everyone kept commenting about it and at the same time people couldn’t stop asking if I was a real ice skater. I actually had to wear real ice skates too. All in all it ended pretty quickly.

For the most part it was mainly holding positions as the photographer wanted to get the perfect shots and all. Was kind of painful holding these very awkward positions as that is what was needed to get the good shots. One guy was shocked that I was able to hold it for so long. I’m no Yoga master or anything but that’s what torturing yourself in awkward stretching positions for martial arts can do for you I guess. lol.

This phone call completely caught me off guard today. Essentially I got a call from the agency and assumed that it was to confirm whether or not I would be needed for a certain production as I was put on a six day hold.

Upon answering the phone the agency receptionist was telling me that I was submitted for an Olympic shoot before and that they wanted to book me for tomorrow if I was available. Of course, I said yes to it. I was just thinking to myself too how sudden this was and that to work in this profession you have to be readily available at virtually anytime.

I actually don’t even know the exact details for the project either. The only info I got out of the phone call was that it was for an ad campaign. Let’s see what happens.

Alright, I am in the midst of creating and uploading the acting portfolio site. I actually meant to launch this earlier but unfortunately I didn’t exactly get what I thought I needed to make it more compelling and effective in terms of a promotional tool.

However, since there is only a few days left in the year and the prospect of me doing things like the web series next year that I may as well try and launch it just to get things going. At this point I think I will keep the blog on this site semi separate from that homepage.

I personally see this blog more as a way for people to see the struggles and successes of working as an actor whereas that one is more like a business card or brochure.

Alright, so I got a response from the coach today and sent off a portfolio package. Tomorrow I will start to send more. It’s supposed to be fairly dead during this time of year too so who knows if I will have to wait until the new years where people will actually look at it.

I actually saw a casting director complaining that she would like it to be busier which is kind of interesting. That web series idea is still looking like a good option at this point. Speaking of which, I was watching that show Lie To Me yesterday and realized that a lady on a very popular web series had a guest star appearance on it.

That sure shows you that keeping yourself busy with your own work can be a good thing.

Yes, this is going to be a little odd I bet. Generally, in acting you usually portray your characters realistically by reflecting on your own life experiences. Example, if the scene is about a tragedy you usually reflect on a tragedy in your life to make it seem real.

Okay, so the thing is when it comes to my personal life I have never really been too active in trying to find the right women for me. As well, I guess I am one of those rare guys that doesn’t want to say go out with a hundred different women as I am definitely more about establishing one relationship and building great things together. I have never truly fell for anyone yet either to do this.

So here was the issue in relation to my acting career. Basically, the coach was saying how I definitely fall into a younger group category. So, when we think of young people what type of shows do we think of? My first response was “One of those Dawson’s Creek or 90210 shows”. Hence, relationships, soap operas, etc.

With that, he re-emphasized about the types of roles that I need to be prepared for. As you may all remember, he mentioned that romantic comedy stuff is my weakest category. Result, my coach was saying that I need to find someone as it is something I need to experience to truly understand and portray it. So now I not only have people like family members nagging me if I have found the right women but my acting coach too. lol.

I was just thinking…….errr……does that mean I am going to have to actually make an effort with this now such as making it a priority of sort to find the right girl? Who would have thought that having a more loyal and wanting to just find that one special person personality when it comes to relationships would be a factor in this profession?

So with that in mind, I made a commitment to be more pro-active in searching while being more open to say dating people despite my work life. I’m really not the type of person that is into things like the bar scenes either. So this will be interesting. And hey, if there is a matchmaker reading this contact me. Maybe that can be a speed catch-up way of seeing all the interesting things that people do to try and find “the one” too. Then I will truly see all of the romantic comedy sides of relationship building and searching.

Session started in the morning today which was a semi surprise as the coach had to attend an event. It was kind of an interesting day as I did the very serious scene. As it turned out, I kind of accidentally went too deep into the scene where I got a bit emotional after the take. Usually when you do that as an actor you always end up saying “Oops, that didn’t come out right.”

The coach was saying though that you shouldn’t ever hold back magical moments like that and he emphasized how he wished that I would have just allowed it to all go during the take. He was even saying too where at first if I was a girl he would have probably just said “breathe it off” or something. But since I’m a guy it’s not an everyday thing you see and at first he thought that I just say had something in my eye. lol. It was actually the reader at first who noticed it and had a concerned look on his face.

I don’t know. It just didn’t feel right though in context of the scene. But I guess for people watching it things like this are more engrossing to see. It was kind of funny now that I look back at it as one person used an accent for the character which I thought made it interesting and would help to make you stand out in an audition.

I then asked the coach what I could do to make it more interesting and for the most part during the first take he said that he liked it the way it was. Then low and behold this happens unexpectedly during the second take.

Afterwards, we taped another scene for my demo reel and it looks like I should be working with the coach tomorrow to start submitting my portfolio. Hopefully that will go through as planned.

Off topic….It’s snowing in Vancouver