Actor Growth

In one of the e–mails I got from my agent she mentioned about new shows that will be shooting here in Vancouver in 2008 which means more opportunities for people. One of the show is called “Defying Gravity” and apparently the other one are sequels to “Twilight” which is suppose to becoming in March.

2008 has definitely been slow with the strike and all. 2009 is definitely going to be a lot busier. It should be a lot more interesting for me too as I will be trying a new agency with the intent of being more involved in auditioning and trying to land principal roles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I did less background work as well since usually the drawback to doing it from an actor point of view is that you lessen your chances of playing bigger roles on various TV series. Although, on the flip side sometimes you appear so much that the production decides to make a role for you.

The day started out with another surprise as I received a phone call at noon from my agent informing me that the call times have been pushed two and a half hours earlier. As a result, I had to make my way to the set earlier than expected. Of course, there was a bunch of snow as mentioned the other day.

Upon arrival you have to go through this path of trailers, where the actors stay as well as the makeup and wardrobe people, to get to the holding area where I had to go as you can see here:

Funny thing I noticed was that the trailers were not marked according to the actor’s name but rather their character’s name. Example, one of the trailer had the name of “Devil” on it which I thought was funny.

Ultimately the holding area was actually right next to the stage entrance which was great considering how cold it was outside.

There were also some signs and literature plastered on that entrance door I noticed. One of them was about an Actor’s Fund of Canada charity challenge that the cast and crew of the Reaper are being encouraged to participate in apparently.

In the show there is this place called “The Work Bench” where the main character works at and the building was just around the corner and there were also some trucks that were branded with company logos as well.

I didn’t really get to do much on set despite being called in earlier. In total I’d say we were on set for less than seven minutes and that was a wrap. This has been literally the fastest on set work and take I have ever seen. Other than that we just hung around the holding area for a little over four hours or so. It was so fast there wasn’t even any need for a meal break which I would normally get when working on shows like these.

The sunlight was completely gone in the end too as you can see with these shots as I exited the studio.

I highly doubt you will be able to spot me in this one considering how fast the take was unlike last time and assuming that particular footage makes it to air. If you want to try and spot me this is my headshot that I normally use and is what the background casting directors usually see before any bookings are considered:

Maybe one day I’ll get to do something more than just being a background person for that show and then I’ll be able to get even better stuff to share. So, hopefully I was able to show all the Reaper fan visitors something interesting.

Alright, so I got my call time for the shooting of The Reaper tomorrow and it is going to be at the same Burnaby location as last time it seems.

The call time is in the late afternoon too so usually that can mean it is going to be very quick or very long. The distance isn’t too bad as it will take probably about 30-40 minutes or so, but the thing is it is snowing like crazy here in Vancouver and traveling to Burnaby might prove to be a little challenging.

Look at how high the snow is already accumulating on this for example:

Apparently this is a DMV shot, so as of now I am assuming everything is indoor which is great. Although, getting to the set from the holding area is probably going to be chilly.

So the Vancouver Asian Film Festival is supposed to start soon and I received an invitation by a couple of people to attend. Doesn’t look like I will be able to attend at this point though due to other arrangements, but maybe that will change in the last minute.

The top three film winners from the Mighty Asian Moviemaking Marathon will also be shown again at this festival. I have some friends that are attending, so maybe I’ll get to see some videos of the event at minimum.

Got together for our weekly meetup today and today we did scenes. While observing another pair’s scene, there was an interesting scenario where the two actors kind of had different interpretations of the scene and in turn it felt like they individually had good performances but the scene itself didn’t seem to mix.

This brought up the topic how in film if the director felt that one guy’s performance was perfect, despite what you might think you should then be able to adapt to it as oppose to just sticking to your own view of what you feel is right. Interesting point as I had to do that before during school.

In that example, the scene I thought was pretty intense as the character was being accused and blackmailed. However, the other actor was so calm. As a result, I had to rethink the scene to match the other actor’s interpretation by re-evaluating how the character thinks and sure enough it matched the other actor’s tone level.

I usually like doing scenes as it really is a test to see how well you can work with others. Unlike a monologue where in most cases it is all about you, I think scenes give you more of a challenge as you are focusing more in making the whole movie in general work.

I just got an e-mail today from a studio that was interested in seeing me for an ad campaign that apparently revolves around recruiting people to some college. I did provide them my headshots before and they mentioned that they would only contact those that they were interested in, so I guess that is a good sign so far.

No sides were provided either as I am to simply show up at the designated time and simply do things on the spot. The main thing according to this e-mail is that they want you to look as young as possible since you are supposed to be a college student. The audition is at a studio that I have never been to before either, so this should be interesting.