Actor Growth

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.

As mentioned yesterday, today was the day that I got to see how one would tackle an audition that has character voice overs. Funny enough, what happened at first was that we were told the top section of the sides would be omitted. Afterwards, we did indeed run through the scene with the remaining voiceover dialogue.

Basically, we just had to do the audition as if the thought bubble voice over part was the main scene while ignoring the action where the present form character is in motion. I tell ya, this was super confusing at first for me in trying to determine exactly what was going on logistically.

It was so confusing for me that when I did it the first time around I thought that the two characters were actively in a corridor while having a small argument with each other as they were waiting for a security system to go down. Hence, I was playing it like they were next to each other and that the character was actively looking at the camera in the ceiling while waiting fir it to turn off.

The funny thing? I did the audition very well where in the scene I gave a lot of good reactions while establishing my environment. The thing is though, apparently that whole part was all a bubble memory still and the character was actually all by himself. So, I did the scene again with the coach’s notes. He expressed how I nailed it and that it’s so great that I can easily take direction.

He then suggested that every time I get an audition that I should call him up first so that I can talk it over as it seems like it’s usually just the interpretation of the audition sides that I get confused with at times. But once I know what it is all about I have no problems. I guess again that comes from having studied mostly in a scene study oriented program where you always go through the scenes extensively with the director.

After class I did talk to the coach about my career direction to try and create some goals to advance to the next step. Because at this point it is pretty stagnant professionally speaking. Here was the interesting thing. He was commenting how I have the skills, I can take direction very well where I am easy to work with and that there is this energy about my work where I don’t even need to try too hard to make an impact in a scene. He then said that I just needed someone who can get my foot in the door, so to speak.

Afterwards, he said that he was going to help me with it. Yeah, I was kind of shocked. Basically, he was fully willing to help guide me in my career path, give me advice and doing things such as checking out my demo reel and making sure that my representation is working for me. So, the first thing is that he will be taking a look at my demo reel to see what needs changing and if I should include different scenes.

What a great gesture I thought. It’s like having a mentor and a manager in some ways. Talk about going above and beyond. Looking forward to see what happens next.

I got an interesting feedback today that was very enlightening. Today when I first preformed the audition sides the coach commented how everything was great and that what he wanted to see was for me to pick up the pace a bit as he felt it could go a little faster. It was kind of funny as there were only two of us that did the same scene to compare and while my feedback was to do it faster the other guy’s feedback was to do it slower.

So I did the scene again and he mentioned that he felt it was such a small change but it made things so much better. Here was the interesting part. He then said he wanted to try something with me. With that he took over the reader’s job and was now acting as the audition reader for me.

I didn’t really know what to expect but as always what I do when I am acting is that as long as I establish who the character is you can pretty much adapt to anything. What the coach did was that he kind of changed it up a bit such as times where he would do physical gestures implying that he was going to beat me up. As expected, I reacted to it and went with the flow of his new pace where the scene was done a lot faster.

He then commented how it was fantastic that I reacted to all of this. Then e pointed out that I should watch out for that as I really do react off of what the reader gives me. For example, if they are reading it slow the most likely I will respond to it in a slow pace too. He emphasized how that is fantastic as an actor especially when you are on set where you are actually shooting the show.

For an audition though I have to be very careful he mentioned as that means if the reader is very bad they could literally destroy my audition. Therefore, I have to make sure that I can do the scene as intended even if the reader is bad or at least instruct them to try to do it a certain way in order to adapt to the direction I am going for.

That’s kind of funny when you think about it as listening and reacting is a huge component in making a scene believable I’d say and it is also why chemistry is so important in casting actors to do a role. Whereas in an audition you have to be a little more aggressive if the person isn’t giving you the dialogue right.