Well, apparently the reading for "Somewhere Over the Border" was last night, unbeknownst to me. I retrieved a voicemail from my friend and fellow actor, Owen, inquiring where I was since the reading was about to start soon! At that time, I was in a gym at Ingraham High School getting ready for league volleyball play with my team. We were already short one player, and since I had not received any information regarding when/where the reading was, it just wasn't going to happen. I left a voicemail for Owen telling him this and to let Chris know. I had even asked Chris on Friday via email about details but hadn't received a response. Oh well, I'm sure they managed without me. From Owen's message, it sounded like it was at Chris' house rather than a public performance, so the stakes probably weren't too high. I would have been there had I known about it beforehand!
As for this week, I have two auditions that my agent scheduled for me. One is for a print ad where I would portray a businessman, and the other is for a training video. Both pay well, especially the print ad, so it'd be awesome to land one of these!
Monday, November 23, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
Video: "untethered" read-through
The cast of "untethered" met a couple of weeks ago to read through the script. Type in the following link if you are interested in viewing it. Filming for this pilot episode will begin in May.
http://untethered.tv/pilot-read-through/
http://untethered.tv/pilot-read-through/
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Heading South for the Winter
No word back regarding my "Late Autumn" audition, so I'm probably not in contention for a role, although there is still time for a surprise. Speaking of which, I did get an unexpected email on Sunday from Chris Koruga, who had worked with Colleen Patrick in "The Herbalist" reading that I participated in two years ago. Chris has another script entitled "Somewhere Over the Border" which he'd like me to help read in the next week or so.
As of now, I'm being cast as the narrator and one of the main characters- a young Mexican boy named Manny. I'm still unclear as to the details, but from what I understand, this is meant to be a screenplay for an animated feature. More info to come once I receive it.
I also completed on Monday the Intermediate Acting class that was taught by my friend Richard. I enjoyed it and learned some good stuff and had many opportunities to experiment. I look forward to the next opportunity where I have a substantial role where I can implement some of what I learned.
As of now, I'm being cast as the narrator and one of the main characters- a young Mexican boy named Manny. I'm still unclear as to the details, but from what I understand, this is meant to be a screenplay for an animated feature. More info to come once I receive it.
I also completed on Monday the Intermediate Acting class that was taught by my friend Richard. I enjoyed it and learned some good stuff and had many opportunities to experiment. I look forward to the next opportunity where I have a substantial role where I can implement some of what I learned.
Creating a Buzz
Since my last post, the short film/video I produced has been shown to all our local managers and Seattle associates as well as the Group VP and VP of Training, who in turn will be bringing a copy back to show the Executive VP (my boss' boss' boss!). Undoubtedly, it will get circulated to a few/many more people within our company. Comments I've received include how "cool" and well-edited it is, and people are particularly impressed that we shot the whole thing in 6 hours. It even inspired our VP of Training, Teresa, to think of doing film contests again, which they've apparently done before in California. Here's a pic of my co-workers who were cast in the project, minus Jennifer who was out ill during the time this was taken.
Friday, October 30, 2009
The Week in Review
Lots have been going on and I've been too busy to blog about it, but here's a recap of the week:
Sat. 10/24: Started editing every moment I was at home on Windows Movie Maker 6 which came on my laptop.
Sun. 10/25: More editing whenever possible; met up with "Dominance" director, Roger, and finally received payment. Intended ADR work to be rescheduled to next Sunday due to location being unavailable. Roger says he's moving ahead with marketing, and the poster image of me will be one of 6 that will soon be seen on/in local buses and theatre screens. He plans to first intro the movie as a webisode and hope it generates interest for funding.
Mon. 10/26: Acting Class #2- learned some more and continued to take risks; more editing- in fact, the video is close to completion, just lacking background music and credits.
Tue. 10/27: Completed video to my liking but having major trouble trying to publish it on my computer or burn on a CD. Researched online and found it's a VERY common problem with Windows Movie Maker. Frustrated enough to try figuring it out until 2 a.m. before going to bed.
Wed. 10/28: Brought laptop to work and continued trying to figure out the problem. Finally dissected the video into small 2-3 minute chunks, published them, and then linked them back together. It worked, praise God! Very minor glitches in the finished product and it's darker than I'd like, but I'm content with calling it finished! Submitted my headshot/resume for consideration for an upcoming film looking for bilingual Chinese actors.
Thurs. 10/29: Debuted the movie to my co-workers. They really like it and was surprised I finished editing it so quickly. Would've been MUCH quicker without the editing issues, but I won't gripe about that any more. Talk is brewing about doing another one in the future since we all had so much fun with it. My agent calls me about an audition appointment for the aforementioned film and then is upset to find that I had submitted on my own. My bad :) I'm used to being pro-active in this acting journey, but I have a better understanding now of what the process should be. In the future, I should just ask my agency to submit on my behalf if they haven't already. Learned that the audition will involve improv in English and Chinese. Yikes! Called my mom and learned some Cantonese phrases from her that would be appropriate to the scene I received.
Fri. 10/30: Auditioned this evening and not quite sure how successful I was. The casting director was really nice, though. The part I was trying out for was an older brother and I only had two lines. First I did it in English, and I was prepared to do it in Chinese, but I got thrown off when I was asked to introduce myself to the camera in Cantonese and explain the role I was auditioning for. I told her I only knew how to say "My name is..." but didn't know how to say the rest. She then asked her assistant to give me a scene for another role (the former romantic interest of the lead actress). I did that in English and she seemed to like it, and that was that. I never got to try the Chinese lines I had been practicing, so I don't know if maybe she assumed that since I couldn't do my intro in Chinese that perhaps I couldn't do the two lines either. Hard to say... when I look at the script I do think that I fit the romantic interest better, but even that one has a scene that's all in Chinese. I guess we'll wait and see!
Sat. 10/24: Started editing every moment I was at home on Windows Movie Maker 6 which came on my laptop.
Sun. 10/25: More editing whenever possible; met up with "Dominance" director, Roger, and finally received payment. Intended ADR work to be rescheduled to next Sunday due to location being unavailable. Roger says he's moving ahead with marketing, and the poster image of me will be one of 6 that will soon be seen on/in local buses and theatre screens. He plans to first intro the movie as a webisode and hope it generates interest for funding.
Mon. 10/26: Acting Class #2- learned some more and continued to take risks; more editing- in fact, the video is close to completion, just lacking background music and credits.
Tue. 10/27: Completed video to my liking but having major trouble trying to publish it on my computer or burn on a CD. Researched online and found it's a VERY common problem with Windows Movie Maker. Frustrated enough to try figuring it out until 2 a.m. before going to bed.
Wed. 10/28: Brought laptop to work and continued trying to figure out the problem. Finally dissected the video into small 2-3 minute chunks, published them, and then linked them back together. It worked, praise God! Very minor glitches in the finished product and it's darker than I'd like, but I'm content with calling it finished! Submitted my headshot/resume for consideration for an upcoming film looking for bilingual Chinese actors.
Thurs. 10/29: Debuted the movie to my co-workers. They really like it and was surprised I finished editing it so quickly. Would've been MUCH quicker without the editing issues, but I won't gripe about that any more. Talk is brewing about doing another one in the future since we all had so much fun with it. My agent calls me about an audition appointment for the aforementioned film and then is upset to find that I had submitted on my own. My bad :) I'm used to being pro-active in this acting journey, but I have a better understanding now of what the process should be. In the future, I should just ask my agency to submit on my behalf if they haven't already. Learned that the audition will involve improv in English and Chinese. Yikes! Called my mom and learned some Cantonese phrases from her that would be appropriate to the scene I received.
Fri. 10/30: Auditioned this evening and not quite sure how successful I was. The casting director was really nice, though. The part I was trying out for was an older brother and I only had two lines. First I did it in English, and I was prepared to do it in Chinese, but I got thrown off when I was asked to introduce myself to the camera in Cantonese and explain the role I was auditioning for. I told her I only knew how to say "My name is..." but didn't know how to say the rest. She then asked her assistant to give me a scene for another role (the former romantic interest of the lead actress). I did that in English and she seemed to like it, and that was that. I never got to try the Chinese lines I had been practicing, so I don't know if maybe she assumed that since I couldn't do my intro in Chinese that perhaps I couldn't do the two lines either. Hard to say... when I look at the script I do think that I fit the romantic interest better, but even that one has a scene that's all in Chinese. I guess we'll wait and see!
Friday, October 23, 2009
My Day as a Director
My co-workers and I are prepping for a quarterly event and part of the planning this time around is a short video that we will unveil to our 100+ associates to get them excited about the event. After a brainstorming/planning meeting a couple of weeks ago, I got inspired to craft a five-page screenplay that my co-workers raved about. The content needs to remain secret for now, but since then, my co-workers and I have been getting ready for filming. I had a clear vision and even storyboarded on post-it notes (65 shots).
Today was the shoot date, and I was at our Belltown location at 11:30 a.m. with most of my cast. We dressed the set and started filming in 45 minutes. Except for a 30 minute lunch break, I worked steadily until 6:30 p.m., excusing actors whenever they wrapped their scenes. This evening, I reviewed the footage and was really pleased to see how well a lot of the shots turned out. In the 7 hours we were there, we managed 197 scene takes, which I think is quite productive. I can't wait to start editing!
Today was the shoot date, and I was at our Belltown location at 11:30 a.m. with most of my cast. We dressed the set and started filming in 45 minutes. Except for a 30 minute lunch break, I worked steadily until 6:30 p.m., excusing actors whenever they wrapped their scenes. This evening, I reviewed the footage and was really pleased to see how well a lot of the shots turned out. In the 7 hours we were there, we managed 197 scene takes, which I think is quite productive. I can't wait to start editing!
Monday, October 19, 2009
No Risk, No Rewards
Well, I gave a good audition but it doesn't look like I got cast in The Penitent Man as I haven't heard anything and they were projecting to film next week. Still possible, but I won't keep my hopes up.
Just got back recently from my first class of Intermediate Acting taught by my friend, Richard. I was one of a dozen students, and I learned that everyone in the class had been in previous ones taught by Richard except me. It was not uncomfortable, though, as I knew a couple of people there- J.P. from Cassandra's on-camera class, and my friend Serin who is Richard's wife and whom I've known since our OPM (sketch-comedy) days in the mid-1990's. Although tonight's class was fairly basic and it's clear that I'm among the more-experienced actors in the group, I had a good time. The class gives me an environment to experiment and take risks. As we took turns taking the stage and delivering lines, I would plan to perform one way, but if I felt like it was an "easy" or obvious choice for me, then I'd decide to do it differently to see how it played out. It'd be "safer" to play to my comfort level or known strengths, but wouldn't benefit me to keep using the same techniques. I want to keep growing.
I just watched my pastor, Mike, skydive in a video he posted onto Facebook. It was awesome to watch his experience and see his passion. At the end, he says, "No risk, no rewards". It applies to all aspects of life- the ultimate one being to take steps of faith in following after Christ and trusting God with our lives. Acting seems and is rather miniscule compared to that, but the beauty of it is it's reflection of our humanity. Full of beauty and flaws, but fully gifted by God Himself who breathed the breath of life into us and knows the sum of our days. As an actor, I want to keep risking and growing so that I can become as effective of a storyteller of this physical and spiritual drama as possible.
Just got back recently from my first class of Intermediate Acting taught by my friend, Richard. I was one of a dozen students, and I learned that everyone in the class had been in previous ones taught by Richard except me. It was not uncomfortable, though, as I knew a couple of people there- J.P. from Cassandra's on-camera class, and my friend Serin who is Richard's wife and whom I've known since our OPM (sketch-comedy) days in the mid-1990's. Although tonight's class was fairly basic and it's clear that I'm among the more-experienced actors in the group, I had a good time. The class gives me an environment to experiment and take risks. As we took turns taking the stage and delivering lines, I would plan to perform one way, but if I felt like it was an "easy" or obvious choice for me, then I'd decide to do it differently to see how it played out. It'd be "safer" to play to my comfort level or known strengths, but wouldn't benefit me to keep using the same techniques. I want to keep growing.
I just watched my pastor, Mike, skydive in a video he posted onto Facebook. It was awesome to watch his experience and see his passion. At the end, he says, "No risk, no rewards". It applies to all aspects of life- the ultimate one being to take steps of faith in following after Christ and trusting God with our lives. Acting seems and is rather miniscule compared to that, but the beauty of it is it's reflection of our humanity. Full of beauty and flaws, but fully gifted by God Himself who breathed the breath of life into us and knows the sum of our days. As an actor, I want to keep risking and growing so that I can become as effective of a storyteller of this physical and spiritual drama as possible.
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