This Sunday was a blast. I went to a table read for the movie “Paulie”. Table Read is a film production term that means we all sit around the table and read through the script, each actor reading his part in turn and someone selected from the crew to read the scene descriptions. It is a very fun process which sounds a lot like a radio play; very cool. Since my good buddy and colleague William Decoff is co-starting in this film we car pooled together and had a chance to catch up on current events and shoot the bull on the way into the meeting. This was also a chance for the cast and crew to meet each other and get to know each other a little bit. I was very happy to find that this was an excellent group of people all very committed and excited about making ‘Paulie’ a reality. Everyone had great helpful comments on the production and the script, and I think we got a very solid starting place as we move into filming next Saturday. All and all it was a great day, the only bummer was the Patriots loosing to the Colts. I ended the day/night hanging out with some friends to watch the new Harry Dresden show on the sci-fi channel. I have not read the books by Jim Butcher but my friends are big fans and it made watching the show all the more fun.
‘Tis all for now!
p.s. I am still mulling over my 2007 goals, I will announce them soon.
It is that time a year again (although I am a little late) to reflect on the year past and plan and set goals for the coming year. 2006 was a good year for reaching some important milestones but was also a very tough year as it has forced me to figure out a new strategy for moving onwards with my acting career. 2007 holds the promise for the year that I maybe able to make that transition from a hobby/semi-professional actor to full time working professional actor; time will reveal it for us, and this blog will record the events.
I had set 4 goals for 2006 here and managed to hit all four, but some did not work out as I imagined they would and I have decided that my goals for 2007 will have to be worded more clearly so that my intentions are better understood by my subconscious and the universe. Yes I am one of “those” people who refer to god as the universe and believe that all energy in the universe maybe a living intelligence. I say maybe because I am not entirely sure what I believe as sometimes I am very spiritual and others I am very atheist. Today I am on the more spiritual side of the ledger. But I digress! As I was saying some of the goals I achieved this year did not turn out exactly how I planned. The first goal which was to get my SAG card did pretty much happen just as I planned it. The second goal to be cast in a principal role (meaning speaking) in a movie with a budget over 100K also happened, but the movie was never made. I was picked and cast for the role, but the director and the people with money could not see eye to eye and the project collapsed. So I was cast, but I did not actually work in the film. The third goal was to be cast in a principal role in a movie that gets screened at Sundance or Cannes film festival. Well I did have one movie that will playing at Cannes, but what I did not know was that there are two festivals at Cannes. One that is the very prestigious festival I was thinking about that has a very stringent selection process and another where you just need to pay the fee and you can show your movie. I was thinking of the fist of these when I set the goal, but I did get a movie in at the other easy to get into Cannes festival. I need to be more specific see! The fourth goal was to get a written review of one of my movies and for myself to be mentioned and a fellow blogger named Ricardo did write a review of one of my movies and mentioned me in his review. I was very excited and honored about that and glad he came to see my movie, but I was kind of thinking of an online magazine or a printed newspaper or magazine when I was setting the goal. Don’t get me wrong though I am super pleased he came to see my movie and that he took the time to write a nice review. So as you can see when I set my goals and milestones for 2007 I need to be very clear this time.
At the beginning of this post I also talked about how I need a new strategy for moving onward with my acting. The reason is that I am a union actor now (one of my goals for 2006) and being a union actor I can no longer take non-union work, and it just so happens that Boston is currently a 90% non-union town. This is slowly changing due to some incentive bills passed by Massachusetts and Rhode Island but not fast enough for me. Finding non-union work is very easy as the directors and producers advertise on the internet at places like Craig’s list and other local acting listings. It is just up to you as an actor to go to the auditions and try and get that work. But with most of the union work you need to go through one of the four or five casting directors in our area and they need to invite you to audition. If you are not on good terms with these people or they don’t know you very well then you can expect to sit by the phone for a very long time. So I have been working hard to get myself noticed as just sending in a resume is simply not enough. You need to take classes with them and try and go to events that they will be attending. All this seems much harder than just finding auditions and going to them. I have been finding this very difficult and frustrating but I am making headway, and am now starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have been called in a few times, and I am pretty sure one of the biggest in town called CP Casting is starting to remember me. We shall see in the coming months. Since this post is getting so long I am going to break it into two parts, look for the second part that tells about my 2007 goals soon.
‘Tis all for now!
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