Short Horror

Tonight we picked-up a few shots for a film I was in for the 48 Hour Film Project. A week an a half ago we stayed up for 22 hours of straight filming and produced this little gem. It was so much fun to work on, even though we were all exhausted by the end. This is the same crew I'll be working with for "Paranormals" so it was great to get to know everyone better. Then last Wednesday we went up to Salt Lake for the screening and it was a huge hit. Sadly we were late getting our film in, but it was still a great success. It was, in my humble opinion, the best film in our group by far. The audience just loved it and so many people came up to us and told us how much they loved it. A lot of people were trying to hook up with our director and cinematographer to work with them in the future. It was a great feeling. So, after the great success at the screening my director and the DP decided that they wanted to fix some stuff up. Tonight we re-shot a couple of scenes and added some stuff to tighten it up and clarify some parts. I'm really excited to see the final project. I'm also really excited to shoot "Paranormals" now. It's going to look amazing.

Zip Snip!

Jeff Blake asked me to do a short spot in a commercial for the Zip Snip that he had been commissioned to make. Apparently they really liked it and are going to put it on TV! So, if you're watching TV at about 4 am you might see me in an infomercial for the Zip Snip. Let me know if you do!

P.S. The ad they have on their site right now is not the one I was in. The new one is much more awesome.

P.P.S. Here's a link to a terrible version of it that someone put on YouTube. You get the idea.

Scheduling

This week we were supposed to be filming the pilot episode of "Paranormals", but the lead actor decided to up and go get his appendix taken out on the spur of the moment. Rather silly if you ask me. He should have planned on that ahead of time. Now the whole project has been pushed back until the end of August. In his credit David (I don't remember his last name) was a great trooper about it. He had surgery the day before we were supposed to start filming and called the director and said he felt up for it still! Jeff told him to just take it easy and recover. The extra time would be useful in pulling things together.

Well, this change in plans created a problem since I am leaving in two weeks to fly back home to Boston to attend the Stanislavsky Summer School at Lesley University. This five week program won't conflict with the new filming schedule, but I will be on the other side of the country. Well, it turns out that Jeff is willing to fly me out for the week of the shoot and then fly me back when we're done! How cool is that! I sure feel all fancy.

Also, check out the poll I put up under my picture on the right.

Commercial for BYU

This post is a bit late in coming, but two Fridays ago I filmed a commercial for BYU's Spring and Summer Continuing Student program. It was a fun little piece to encourage students to attend classes spring and summer. It was just me and my friend Adrienne Eror and a small film crew of two plus the producer. The commercial consisted of us at different locations doing fun things and talking about how awesome it is to come for spring and summer. We got to race around a go-cart track, and go bike riding, and lay in the grass, and Adi got to go down a water slide. It was a very fun project and a long and exhausting day. I can't wait to see the final product. I guess they'll probably use it mostly next year since spring term is ending. The biggest thing I learned about acting from this project is how hard it can be to keep producing a high energy response for the camera after a very long and hot day, and after you've already done about 20 takes of the same shot. It's quite demanding. But fun.

Paranormals

I have just been cast in a webseries called "Paranormals". It's being produced by a small, upstart production company here in Provo called Lost Lake Studios. The quality of their stuff is really good and they are making quite a name for themselves here in the Valley. I'm excited to get to work with them, especially with Jeff Blake who co-starred in "The Book of Jer3miah" with me. He's a really great guy and talented and full of ambition.

The series is about a group of college-aged kids who live in a very haunted town and start up their own little ghost hunting/investigating group. I will be playing Leslie. He's one of the lead parts and he's the brainy, analytical one in the group. He's very passionate about hunting ghosts, but he goes about it in a very logical and methodical manner. It looks like it's going to be a great project. The plan is to then pitch the pilot to get funding to film the whole season. I really hope that works out! I would be great to get paid and to have something like this on my resume and reel. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes!

Auditon: "Hamlet" and "Dracula"

Last Thursday I auditioned for the productions of Hamlet and Dracula at the Pioneer Theatre Company in Salt Lake. Both plays will be directed by Charles Morey, Artistic Director at PTC. This was my first audition for an Equity theatre and I was pretty excited and pretty nervous. I prepared a monologue from Measure for Measure for the audition and was also ready to read sides from Dracula. I went up to Salt Lake with three other really good friends. They all had to go on the waiting list, but I had an audition slot at 3pm thanks to my friend Gary Reimer who had gone up to Salt Lake the week before and signed us both up. We arrived early and they all got on the list. We even ran into some good friends up there that I hadn't seen for a long time. It was really fun to see them all. Eventually all of my friends got to go in ahead of me. That was funny that the only guy who had signed up ended up going last. They had things moving along very nicely.

Eventually my turn came. I guess to get to the point of this post, my audition was terrible. I am honestly embarrassed by the work I did with the Measure for Measure monologue. I was nervous. I admit that, but that's no excuse for what I did. First of all, I hadn't given my monologue a shape. I had done a lot of emotional work with it, and it's a piece I've done twice before as a scene in classwork and for a competition, so I felt comfortable with it, but I hadn't given it a solid shape as a monologue. As a result I started just making choices in the moment. Now, I'm all for making choices in the moment. Some of the very best work comes from acting in the moment. However, if those choices are made safely and out of fear then it will stink. And that's what happened to me. My body was stiff and full of tension. My thoughts were in my head the whole time. I didn't go nearly deep enough for what the scene required. My emotions were pushed. My voice was okay. In essence it was an okay piece of acting, but it was a terrible piece of a human soul. I didn't bare any of my soul in the piece and it's no wonder that I didn't make call backs.

On a lighter note, I felt great about my cold reading for Dracula. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to salvage the damage already done by my awful monologue. Well, I got out of there and wrote down what I did wrong and what I did well. Then we went out for pizza. It was delicious. So, I'm embarrassed for the performance that I gave, but I learned a lot. I've got to push myself and go all the way. There's no such thing as playing it safe if you want to succeed in this art form and in this business.

Acting

I'm pretty passionate about the art of acting. I suppose I'm not the first one, and I certainly hope I'm not the last. It's a wonderful art form. I've spent roughly the last 10 years studying and training and have learned a thing or two. I want to share my feelings on the subject here, as well as offer advice and tips. I'm not an expert, rather I'm just a fellow wanderer on the path. The things I mention are only my humble opinion. You may take them or leave them or suggest wisdom of your own.