Auditions: Time Warner Commercial

So for the second commercial on Thursday, August 28, 2008, I'm a guy talking to camera about Time Warner Digital Cable's International OnePrice Calling Plan.  The guy is actually living in a house near a train and at the end, we find out that the guy is a character in a small train set.  For the actor, the hard part is that there's a lot of text that has to be delivered to camera, and at certain points, the actor has to say, or yell his lines as if he were talking over a passing train.  And all this has to be done in a friendly, upbeat manner - which, if you're an actor, you know all this is not easy. 

So I arrived, and the sides were available before, but to be honest, I hadn't prepared my lines enough before I arrived.  But they said I had time, and casting was concerned enough about the audition that they were offering rooms for actors to practice in (they usually don't do that).  On top of that, Alyson Horn, the casting director, was working with each actor before actually taping the audition.  

No sooner had I walked into the practice room than Alyson walks in and gets ready to work with me.  Which was not what I wanted, because like I said, I hadn't really practiced enough, I thought I'd have time at the audition.  And to have to practice in front of the casting director is no fun.  Now mind you, Alyson is great, and really nice.  So that only makes it worse, because you wanna do a good job for her.  No actor wants to be tweaking and practicing in front of a casting director he's known for a while.  

Sadly, I wasn't going to get my druthers.  I tried it first, and it was a bit stiff.  Plus, I thought I could read off the easel (where they put the text), but Alyson said it had to be delivered to camera.  So that didn't help.  Also, she didn't want me to switch voices at memorized points, so she would play some sounds off a CD player to indicate when I had to pretend to talk over the train.  Some would find this easier, but for some reason, I found this to be another thing to think about because I had to throw out my preparation (I had tried to memorize when to change voices). 

We did it once, and the general directions were, be more energy and don't overdo it when differentiating between the normal voice and the yell over the train. 

So then I tried to throw it away, a common instruction in acting class when you might be overdoing it, or pushing it too hard.  Of course the next adjustment was, "Be more vested."  Meaning, I had thrown it away TOO much.  Oi-vay.  

On the third take it was better, but the camera guy was now throwing in comments too.  So more to think about.  He wanted a bigger differential between the normal voice and the train.   Plus I changed the order of some text so Alyson missed a cue to turn on the sound.  Didn't want to keep that on camera. 

Surprisingly, the fourth take seem to click and it seemed to all fall in place, although being the perfectionist I am (of course, I don't think I am), I would have liked to have done a more refined version.  Truth be told, I knew I was close, but sometimes it's impossible to tell how close I was (or wasn't).  Sometimes a take can be perfectly good from the perspective of a viewer, but you, the actor, don't feel good about it.  And sometimes, it's just as bad as (or, God forbid, worse than) you thought.  Life of an actor, you never find out.  You just do your thing, and whatever comes out, comes out.  

Auditions: Circuit City Commercial

Sometimes, commercial auditions can be as complicated as theatrical auditions.  So on Thursday, August 28, 2008, I got two of those in one day. 

The first was Circuit City.  They are debuting the Circuit City version of the Geek Squad.  In the commercial, there's an average guy in his house, and there are characters dressed up as objects - i.e., a guy dressed up as the remote.  And all these characters are running around the house going crazy, climbing walls, hiding under the table, etc.  My character, the "guy", is on the phone talking to Circuit City's "Geek Squad", but has to put them on hold to try to keep everything in his house under control.  So here's the complicated stuff that was required in the audition:

1) Lead guy looks around at objects in his house going crazy while on the phone.  He says (to the person on the phone), "You're almost here?  Good, because it's getting out of hand."

2) Guy sees some characters sitting on the television, and says "Hold on," to the person on the phone.  Then, to the characters on the TV, "Careful, get down from there."  

3) Then he sees other characters run across the room, so his eyeline has to follow these imaginary characters

4) Then he spots some characters, i think they were people dressed up as remotes, hiding under a table.  he says, "Stay where i can see you." 

5) Then the Geek Squad arrives, he opens the door and greets them.  I have to open an imaginary door somewhere near camera.  

6) The guy then looks around the room as the Geek Squad fixes everything, and says "I don't know how you do this everyday."  Line is delivered to an imaginary character somewhere near camera.  

Pretty complicated, huh?  

Well, still a couple choices to be made.  So before I read, I asked, is the guy "very stressed, moderately stressed or calm?"  And the director said, "Calm."

So I did it and the director said, one more time, even more calm, the guy likes everything under control.  The director even performed a bit of it, and I would interpret it as very even keeled, calm in face of the storm, even slow paced with the text.  I tried to copy it, hard to tell how close I was (well, I didn't book it, if that means anything).  

One other thing that was interesting.  It was a straight to callback at 200 S. La Brea.  And I was a bit early, but there weren't many for my spot reading for my character.  There were other Asian guys, but they were there for a different spot.  So did they see people and not like the first round?  Impossible to tell until the commercial comes out.  At which point I'll update this post.  

Film: Traitor

So on Tuesday, September 2, I played a bit of hooky and went to see Traitor.  Interesting, I thought it was good, but not great.  Not really as engaging as it could be, and it took me a little while to figure out why.  It's the way the lead, Don Cheadle's character Samir, was written.  In Traitor, Samir is an undercover agent going to extreme lengths to penetrate a terrorist cell.  The character goes through a lot of angst about what the choices he has to make (mainly, the people he has to kill to achieve his goal).  But we never really feel that he could be discovered and killed.  He actually penetrates the cell quite easily, and in this sense, the character is too successful.  As a result, we, the audience, watch him with interest, but don't live his experiences with him.  Otherwise, the movie is well executed, and Don Cheadle, Guy Pierce and Neal McDonough do a nice job.  

Film: Transiberian

Saw Transiberian today.  This less-than-publicized movie is really good.  It drags for a few moments in the first third, and then really takes off.  Solid script, direction and acting, especially by Emily Mortimer.  And as I always say, there are Brits everywhere in film.  Ben Kingsley is the obvious one, but Emily Mortimer, for those of you that don't know her, is a Brit as well.  If you ever need to study a performance of someone who is hiding secrets, trying to hold back her own terror and fear, take a look at this one.  She rocks.  

In any case, definitely worth checking out.  Woody Harrelson, Kate Mara and Eduardo Noriega put in solid performances.  Written and directed by Brad Anderson.   

Getting into Harvard

As some of you may know, I produced and directed, for LA-18, a DVD called Getting In: An Insider's Guide to Harvard Admissions. So on Monday, August 18, 2008, I appeared on Janelle So's show, Kababayan LA, to talk about Harvard's admissions process. By the way, Janelle is a great host and has her own show that airs on LA-18 at 4:30 PM each day.

So technically, not acting per se, but hey, it's on-camera! I don't expect people to check it out, but just in case (and I have to fill this blog with something!):

http://www.la18.tv/Video.aspx?vid=053a1b8c-d7cc-4a86-b164-cb3dab1be51c
http://www.la18.tv/Video.aspx?vid=d6f02506-13dc-4689-9ba6-2d963b6adf31

Getting into Acting

Every once in a while I get asked what to do if you want to get into acting.  Actually, correct that, I get asked that pretty often.  So here's what I usually suggest:

1. Get some headshots taken (by the way, shameless plug, did I mention that I shoot headshots?).

2. Find a commercial and theatrical agent.  I will write more about this in another post. 

3. Find a way to make money on the side.  It's very hard to make a living as an actor, might as well figure this one out earlier rather than later. 

4. Get into an acting class and figure out what works for you.  Another big topic that i'll write about in other posts.