Keeping It Reel: An Actor's Blog

I had the privilege a couple of days to go to a general audition in Wilmington, NC. The meeting was with one of the most respected (and busiest!) casting directors on the East Coast. Basically, a general audition is a casual meeting between an actor and a casting director. Sometimes performing a monologue is involved. Sometimes, as in the case of the general I participated in on Tuesday in Wilmington, it is a less formal conversation.  Tuesday was an opportunity for this casting director to meet me and size me up.  It was also an opportunity to hear their opinions and ideas about this industry.  The conversation was honest and brutally frank. There should be more talk like it in this business. It is seldom when you hear the truth.  There is very little or no critique after most auditions.  Other actors, while trying to be supportive, which is a wonderful thing, very rarely speak honestly for fear of tipping over the apple cart. In this business...

While I was on the road in North Carolina yesterday, I learned the short film I worked on for The 2015 48HFP, I PREFER ABBY , has been invited to The Best Of Screening this coming Sunday, August 2.  This is pretty cool on so many levels but mostly because the team I worked with, The Kitchen , part of The Martin Agency, has never created a film for The 48HFP.  It's a daunting adventure just to try and gather your thoughts once you've been given your genre , prop , character name , character profession , and line of dialogue . What follows has to be experienced to be truly understood.  Each team (there were 42 this year!) has just 48 hours to conceptualize, write, shoot, edit, score and submit their film.  I mean.... WHAT?!   Insanity! To try and do all that... for the first time!! I mean.  "Here, Son. I know you've never flown a plane before, but the pilot was bitten by a poisonous snake and is dead and none of the other 450 passen...

I PREFER ABBY.  Premiering this Saturday at 1P.M. at The Byrd Theatre Directed by ‎Andrea Garza De Leon.  Created for The 2o15 Richmond 48HFP  by The Kitchen ~ The Martin Agency I will post more photos from our film, I Prefer Abby, as soon as the premiere is over.  I will also post a link so those of you who were not able to attend the screenings can see it.  The 2015 Richmond 48HFP Click Above for more information https://drive.google.com/file/d/0ByG167B4OQrLN2ZjTUdCWVlHOFU/view?pli=1 Click Photo Above   To Watch The Teaser Trailer For I Prefer Abby

PEEVE #221 If you're an actor working on a project that requires you to sign a non-disclosure agreement ... STOP talking about the project that is requiring you to sign a non-disclosure agreement.  Seriously . The whole I could tell you but I'm not allowed because I signed a NDA but I'm going to keep dropping hints so you keep asking questions  thing is annoying and makes you look desperate for attention.  It's like when someone buys you a present for your birthday and spends the three months before your birthday teasing you with ' I bought you something. You're really going to like it. I can't tell you though because it's a surprise. '  By the time you're birthday rolls around, you could give a shit about what's in the box. You just want the person to shove some cake in their face and leave.  Don't get me wrong.  It's good to be excited about a project. It's good to be supportive of said project and it...

Yeah. It's that time of year again.  July 17, 18 and 19.  Filmmakers are taking over Richmond and turning it into movie-making madness for 48 hours! Teams of filmmakers have a single weekend - this one - to write, shoot and edit their short films! All completed entries will be unveiled on the big screen, at our premiere screenings. http://www.48hourfilm.com/richmond-va I'm thrilled to be working with a new team this year, The Kitchen. It's about to get very real in RVA! "Rolling! Rolling!"

Let me just say from the start of this post  this is not a review of the 2014 film Birdman: Or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu and starring Michael Keaton.  It's not a review. Watch it or don't. Totally up to you. My silly little blog couldn't possibly persuade you one way or the other.  I guess what has my brain racing and my emotions a little tweaked is the theme of Birdman, which, in my opinion, is the struggle to find and keep oneself in a business that is so good at helping you lose yourself.  Birdman is definitely a commentary on show business, more specifically the trend of raising actors to a level of almost God-like status because they played characters who had been raised to the level of almost God-like status. Birdman is also a commentary on those who work in this industry and how everyone is affected by fame and ego and the fear of rejection. There...

I've just wrapped on  Mercy Street .  From PBS.com:  "MERCY STREET follows the lives of two volunteer nurses on opposing sides of the Civil War — New England abolitionist Mary Phinney and Confederate supporter Emma Green. The Green family’s luxury hotel in Alexandria, Virginia, has been transformed into Mansion House, a Union Army hospital tending to the war’s wounded. Inspired by memoirs and letters from real doctors and nurse volunteers at Mansion House Hospital, this new drama reveals the stories of those struggling to save lives while managing their own hardships. The series, which commenced production this month, is shot in the Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, areas." I wrapped on Mercy Street on June 25, 2015.  What started out as a one day gig turned out to be almost three weeks of shooting for me. I wasp promoted from vegetable seller to army medical officer .  I'm fairly certain such promotions were common practice during The Ci...