Actor Growth

Alright, so a little update on what is going on with me attending the audition workshops. At this point I am not regularly attending it as before. I talked it over with my coach and he agreed that the best course of action is for me to work on the other priority.

The good thing is that he is supporting me and offering me help if whenever I need it. Example, I asked him if since I wasn’t attending it regularly at this point, which means I am not paying for it too, I asked if this is going to be one of those “I can’t help you unless you pay me my $50/hr” type of scenario.

He immediately jumped at that and said “No way. If you need help then just ask”. Just to clarify, a ton of acting schools/workshops here are like that where they won’t even talk to you unless you pay them their high fees. So that was really cool. As of now, consider it an ongoing private mentoring/tutoring help. I am really fortunate to have his support and I guess this shows that he genuinely does want to help me in my career.

So today might be the last day of this audition workshop for me. This day was a cold read audition session. Although there were seven pages we only had to perform the first five pages. It was a pretty heavy piece too.

At first I was a little weary about it as I personally have a harder time performing pieces if I am not off book. However, we were constantly told that many times in auditions it could be that the people in the room see you as a good fit for another role where they then give you another script on the spot to perform. So it’s good practice.

I did my thing and the coach told me that I was able to hit a lot of the points and it was clear that I “got it” in regards to what the scene was about. He re-emphasized that in these situations people don’t necessarily look for who can memorize the most lines the quickest but rather who understands the scene the best.

At the end of the day the conversation came up about returning to the class next month. As you all I know I mentioned that financially and business wise it just made more sense to put my efforts towards things like a web series if I didn’t accomplish my goal this year. Guess the funny thing which I even mentioned to the coach is that I booked that ad job suddenly where it gives me acting related funds to re-invest into the workshop. I joked how it was like the universe saying to me “Here’s your money. Keep going.”

Cause just like any other business I’d say it should be able to sustain itself with the profits you bring in and not having to rely on other sources to keep it afloat. Otherwise that means you need to re-adjust your business plan I’d say.

He then mentioned that the other coaches in the school were actively helping me too to achieve my goal. Maybe I’m just a sucker in some ways, but when people go out of their way to help you I can’t help to have that sense of loyalty to stick at it too. So I am really thinking at this point still. Have to gather my thoughts and see what makes the most sense.

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

Looks like this month there is a small class due to a lot of people being on vacation. The audition side this week revolved around a police officer who recently lost his wife and child. At the same time, he was mad at a colleague for doing a sloppy job. It was an interesting situation where the coach told me that the way I preformed the scene is probably how the majority of other actors would have done it where I was simply very angry and direct.

Therefore, he said that it would have been more interesting if I was more timid, so to speak, where it’s like one of those situations where the guy is scarier if he is quiet. The twist to that is in context of the show as a whole it could make more sense where the guy is emotionally mad. Whereas since this is an audition you want to try and stand out from everyone else. So it can be a tricky situation.

After class the coach and I had a long talk about my career direction too. A big part of it was because I was not sure if I would be returning to next month’s workshop. I must say, he is truly going above and beyond in trying to get me more deeply into the biz as he invited me to go to an event this week and is going to try hook me up with some other things to help me achieve that goal.

One thing that might conflict with this is that in the day of the event I am booked for some work. So, hopefully it will work out where it will be a very early call and so I can then attend the event at night.

Was kind of a funny build up to the workshop today. At first the acting coach texted me yesterday saying he had difficulties finding myself and another person a scene to do. Basically, he wanted to challenge us but said that we both usually take direction very well.

Actually, the first thought in my mind was if he got that e-mail that I sent last week where as you all may remember I didn’t get a response. Essentially, he was going to help me with my reel and all to help me prepare for my next career move and planning. And this was the text message he replied back with:

Hilarious. lol. He eventually did find a scene and today I did it as usual. Again, he mentioned that I took direction extremely well. I also learned that virtually half of the other actors won’t be attending next month due to vacations or needing to save money. At this rate, there is a possibility that there will only be like five of us in the class.

I was also asked if I was coming back next month and January 2010 as a lot of them mentioned they will be back in the new years. I mentioned that I would be returning. Although, a big reason why I am returning next month is because the acting coach told me that he is going to be assisting me in my career growth when it comes to the business side of things.

There is actually no workshop for next week and he told me to come in that day as he wants me to do completely new scenes for my demo reel with sides/work that are more recent. As explained last week, he mentioned to me that when people like casting directors see you performing work that has recently been out there it gets them thinking if you do a really good job as they then subconsciously compare it to the people they did bring into the room.

At this point I want to finish the demo reel by this month and then use the month of December to see if things are working out. If I don’t accomplish my specific milestone goal by the end of December or if say I don’t seem to be getting the support to help me accomplish my goals then there is a high chance I won’t be continuing with this workshop in the new years. In my mind, if this doesn’t help me then I have to try something new.

How does that saying go? Something like the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. I don’t mind acting insane when it comes to a character role, but I am not on camera right now.

Today I had to do a scene from a pilot episode that never saw the light of day apparently called No Heroics. The interesting was a lot of people in the class were wondering why this show didn’t get picked up as the script seem pretty funny.

The first time around I did it and it seemed like my choices for the character was apparent and effective. The main feedback I got was to pick up the pace as it could go faster. Here was the interesting part. Foe some odd reason I kept over thinking the scene afterwards where the comedic timing was not as good as the first time around. It is almost like I was way over analyzing everything.

Not really sure why that was the case exactly. I always try to think about why bumps like that occurred and the best thing I can think of is that I normally try to visualize what the scene looks like from a third person perspective. And so sometimes when I don’t get that visualization as a result of a quick feedback and therefore the output seems more mechanical. Wasn’t a very successful second run at it though as the first attempt was a lot better.

I also got to briefly chat with the coach about my demo reel as that is technically the first item up for scrutiny to establish my new plan. He told me that he was going to call me tonight to dive into further, so I’ll just have to wait and see if that happens. But he did give me his general thoughts.

It was pretty clear that one scene in particular stood out for him out of every as he said he was just cracking up when he saw it. The scene was basically me going off at a messy roommate who never cleans up after himself and I was supposed to be the neat freak. Surprisingly, other than he felt that the other scenes didn’t do too much in helping to promote me.

He brought up the point now how we need to try to get something more recent. Example, simply tape a scene in the studio using real audition sides for shows that have been cast or auditioned lately. Essentially, if you do a very good job and a person like the casting director sees this, since that particular piece is still fresh on their mind they would think “How come I didn’t bring him in before?”

A funny thing is too is that a lot of people that seen my reel before say that they like it. However, that was with a more entertainment type of perspective I guess whereas the coach tried to focus its effectiveness in promoting me as the talent. Interesting to see how this plays out and what the end result will look like.