Day 283: Commercial Callback

Day 283: Bing callback. This was one of those auditions where you're performing right in front of all the people from the ad agency who are making the hiring decisions. It was 5 of us who auditioned in the group and about 8 or 9 ad agency folks so it was a bit claustrophobic and hot under those lights. Didn't feel as good as the audition did but I still had fun when they made us dance again. Oh well, on to the next.

Day 282: On the page

Day 282: Wrote a scene for 2 of my classmates called "Woman to Woman" that I love! So much so I almost kept it for myself but I feel good knowing they'll do a great job with it. I'll post it here after they shoot.

Day 279 - 281: Prep & shooting episode 6

Day 279 - Day 280: Tied up loose ends for last minute stuff needed for our upcoming DWP shoot. Greg & Lex saved me a huge amount of time and headspace by handling craft services so I was able to focus on simply acting for once.

Day 281: We shot most of episode 6 of DWP today and it was an awesome shoot! Everything literally went as good or better than expected and I couldn't be happier. Here are a few stills from our shoot...

 

 

 

 

I think it's safe to say there was a LOT of laughter on set which is why I love working with these people. And by the way, that invitation was GORGEOUS! Made me wish I was planning a wedding with a real bride who would be sending it to her guests.

Still have one more scene left that we'll take care of next week and then episode 6 will be wrapped.

Realization

So, it has been six months since my last blog post... Do you miss me?

It may be caused by the cheesiest excuse ever: I have been experiencing the nastiest personal turbulence and emotional struggling during these hiatus times. My internship. My health. My future career. My study. My family. My almost non-existent love life (not that I try to have one).

It's funny to see how hard I avoid social media in order to hide all my problems. The thing is, no matter how hideous you are, sometimes people will scrap the truth by themselves and the situation will become worse than you can imagine.

Does it mean I'll start posting my personal problems on this blog? Probably, but highly unlikely. Instead of revealing the problems to gain the reader's attention and empathy (but in reality it's like showing to the world that you can be as miserable as people living in third countries--which is very hyperbolic and disgusting in my opinion), diverting my attention to other things is more favorable. What kind of things? Projects, new projects.

Before you start arguing that making projects is really complex and stressful, let me tell you that the projects on my plan are not the kinds that you've imagined. I'm not trying to build new bridges or toll roads. I'm not trying to make a big events. I'm just trying to make public blogs themed English-vocabularies-to-spice-up-your-troublesome-life and how-to-make-a-good-CV-to-prove-that-you're-not-an-asshole inspired by my English Guru and the internship experience.

Interested to know more? Stay tuned. Now I'm doing some brainstorming to determine nice names for those projects.

Day 278: Commercial Audition & GNO!

Day 278: Commercial audition for "Bing" at ASG Casting. Got to put on a rainbow colored afro and do some dancing in this one. Later that night I had a great time at a much needed Girls Night Out (GNO) at Den of Hollywood. We've decided to do this once a month {at different venues} since it was such a nice night. 

Day 277: Contrasting Monologues

Day 277: Monologue search for an upcoming audition for a high school educational theater program. Perusing YouTube I found "Reasons to be Pretty" by Neil LaBute for my dramatic piece and "Promedy" by Wade Bradford for my comedic piece. Since it's on YouTube I run the risk of both of these being overdone but since I'm on a time crunch that's a chance I'll have to take.

Reasons to be pretty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuXDGYJgzCE

Promedy http://youtu.be/-YheWEsS8D0

Day 276: Producer paperwork

Day 276: Visited the invitation shop to finalize our shoot and our trade-out and make our location agreement official. We will be shooting part of episode 6 at Cordially Invited and part of episode 8 at Southern Girl Desserts and guess what- they're in the same shop! Major score for DWP!

Day 274 - 275: Coffee Date & Christian Education

Day 274: Coffee with Aisha Lomax at a very quaint cafe called Larchmont Bungalow. Always good to catch up with a friend. Hopefully we'll have a chance to work together in front of the camera soon. In the meantime, we're both racking our brains to find 2 contrasting monologues from published plays that are appropriate enough to be performed in front of high school students {that takes The Mercy Seat off the list} without being overdone. Not so easy when you don't read new plays on a regular basis. I'm sure my New York colleagues would find this task a breeze but since most actors out here are reading screenplays instead, it's a little daunting. 

Day 275: Audition for www.christianeducation.com. This was held at the ad agency's office rather than with a casting director. The session runner was really sweet and it's always nice to have an opportunity to audition for something faith-based. Afterwards I went to my internship where I'm continuing to build relationships with the people who work in that casting office.

Day 272 - 273: Screenwriting Blogs

Day 272 & 273: Caught up on my staple screenwriting blogs. If you're at all into writing or think you might want to be or even if you just want to learn more about story to become a better actor, check out the following...

Go Into the Story

Screenwriting Tips... You Hack

The Bitter Script Reader

The Screenwriters League

Write, Write, Write

Princess Scribe's Blog

Your Screenplay Sucks

Script Gods Must Die

And if you have a favorite writing blog please let me know in the comments below so that I can take a look.

Day 271: Lunch with Lisa

Day 271: Lunch with Lisa Nicole Bell. She's truly a force to be reckoned with {check out her upcoming speaking engagements to see what I mean} and I love it because she's the giving type who always asks what she can do to be of assistance to you. Moreover, it's always interesting meeting with her since her role in the industry is more behind the camera than in front so her perspective on things can be refreshing.

Day 270: The Mercy Seat Monologues

Day 270: Decided to find a dramatic monologue to add to my arsenal so I hit up YouTube and started wading through a mixture of greatness and pure crap. Eventually I remembered seeing a scene back in my college debate team days that really gripped me. It was from The Mercy Seat by Neil LaBute and it's about a rocky relationship between a mistress and the man she loves who is finally given an opportunity to leave his wife guilt-free*. Since I really didn't feel like making the trek to Samuel French to see if they had it in stock, I searched for it on YouTube and found 2 that I liked. Warning- the language is explicit in the first one...

The Mercy Seat 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p95Lid1jejo 

The Mercy Seat 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyvqvLRnZhg

Now I have to actually buy the play (it's worth it) so I can comb through it and see if there is any other way I want to piece either of these monologues together for future use.

*No of course there is no such thing as leaving your wife & kids guilt-free but you'll see what I mean when you read this play.

Day 269: Networking

Day 269: Had a lovely lunch with Rayshell Curtiss who then invited me to the New Media Vault Mixer later that night at the W Hotel in Hollywood. I was really excited to go but once we got there we both quickly realized it wasn't our cup of tea. Luckily since I work practically next door I was able to go right back to work without regretting wasting my time. And at least we snapped this picture of us and cute pics are always a win!

Day 268: You're Fired {Donald Trump voice}

Day 268: Internship at the casting office in the morning followed by me firing the director of episode 6 of DWP at night. You know, I hate letting people go. I really do. I tend to hold on to relationships {both romantic and platonic} for far too long after they've shown themselves to be in disrepair and this was no different. I knew months ago that our working relationship wasn't working and yet every step of the way I fought myself on firing her because I really wanted to make it work. I even took it on as a personal challenge at one point. Ultimately though, it was like fitting a square peg into a round hole. It just wouldn't fit, period and  I didn't want my show and my crew to suffer because of it so she had to go. As soon as it was done I felt like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders and all the anxiety I had about our upcoming shoot was gone. So I knew I made the right decision instantly and my intuition thanked me for finally listening... even though it was months after the fact.

P.S. - I replaced her with Claire Wasmund who's picking up the dropped ball already. :-)

Day 267: Coffee with my "buddy"

Day 267: Had an excellent coffee date with my TAN power group "buddy" Tom O'Leary. When you join a power group you're assigned a buddy that acts as your accountability partner. You check-in with each other once a month and it must be in person rather than doing the email/phone thing that can be so easy and impersonal. Since he's in Long Beach we met in a little cafe right off the 405 only 15 minutes away from me that was convenient for him as well. It was a great meeting- truly! I learned a lot more about his background {he's a middle-aged actor who has retired from his civilian career and is returning to his love of acting} and about the goals that he has for the near future. It's a great balance because there are some areas that I'm more experienced in {new media and producing for example} and others where I can really learn from him {the world of voiceover and singing}.

Day 266: My big birthday boy!

My Jayden in the middle

Day 266: Today we celebrated my son Jayden's 7th birthday. Can you believe I've been a mom for 7 years? I can't! So while dealing with 15 happy, energetic, rambunctious 6-8 year old boys, the only thing acting-related I did today was ACT like it was totally, freaking, awesome, cool, super, amazing as Jayden opened all his presents from his classmates that each seemed to have 20 or more pieces in each one when really I was thinking WTF? This is gonna be EVERYWHERE around the apartment. Oh well. He had fun and loved his gifts so that's all that matters.

 

Day 264 - 265: Good Will Hunting

Day 264 - 265: Read the "Good Will Hunting" screenplay that Tara let me borrow. I thought I'd seen this film before but apparently I've only watched bits and pieces because everything seemed new to me. I understand why they won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay- it's a very easy read.

Day 263: Coffee & Cupcakes

Day 263: Met with Claire & Lex for coffee. We discussed DWP since Claire is directing eps 7 & 8 and Lex will be the DP and we'll also be shooting a scene for my reel in the next couple of weeks as well. Time flies when I'm with them and though we had a lot of laughs, we also got a lot done. Afterwards, since we were on Wilshire {aka agent-mecca}, I decided to pick up a dozen mini-cupcakes from Hansens {not the best flavor-wise but super cheap when you're in a pinch} and brought them over to my agents to thank them for all their hard work. They've been sending me out quite a bit and although the callbacks are nice, I really wanna book and show them that they made a good decision signing me. I was only there for maybe 15 minutes tops but I had a nice chat with both of them and then went on about my merry way.

Day 262: Interview

Day 262: Met with Latice Sutton, the mother of Mitrice Richardson at the cemetery where Mitrice is laid to rest for an interview. I always try to put on the "professional" face but listening to her tell her story can be very  difficult sometimes, which is exactly why this story needs to be told over and over until this case is solved.

Day 261: Writing

Day 261: Outline for a new short film- something with a dark undertone that explores the issue of sex and rape and where exactly that line is crossed.

Day 260: Invitations, Tea and Auditions

Day 260: Location meeting with Cordially Invited. We are officially shooting scenes from episode 6 and 8 here! Yay! Major victory for me. Tea date with Tara at my favorite cafe: Bricks & Scones, and last minute PSA audition at Plaster Casting.

Actor Psyche

I really haven't felt like blogging about my day to day journey lately. Rather, I've been kind of taken over by my feelings and emotions about everything. Life, marriage, friendships, money, jobs, kids, goals... Sometimes I feel like there are multiple people living inside of me and they all want to do something different than the other. One wants to run away from all these responsibilities that seem to be piling on top of me. Another wants to keep pushing forward with each audition, hoping someone gives me a break. Another wants to be the dutiful wife and mother who whisks her family away to a better quality of life. Yet another wants to say f*ck it! And do whatever I want to do whenever I want to do it and not care what ANYONE thinks, family included. And finally there's the one who always seems to prevail who says, hey, if this is really what you want to do then put that "S" on your chest {Alicia Keys "Superwoman" reference for those who don't know} and suck it up gotdamnit!

Feelings. Oh god they can take you on a rollercoaster ride if you let them.

*Sigh* I really need to act in something soon to help get all of this pent-up, conflicting, emotionally-charged energy out of me.