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Through Creative Life and Other Fancies, I seek to inspire and inform people about living as a creative person. Here you will find my successes, failure, and best of all, attempts. Enjoy!

Friday, July 20, 2012

From Audition Machine to Booking Maniac

Yeah, baby.  It's music to an actor's ears when that phone rings or email pings with booking news.  I'm so excited to be working on two projects before July ends.  Both will be a different challenge for me as I've never worked in these formats.  Am I being vague?  Yes, sorry but until everything is OK for release, I can't spoil anything!


And all of this to be followed up by a short film in August!  So I guess the web series (both of 'em) that I'm developing are going heading to the back burner again for a few weeks.  I swear, they will be filmed and posted someday in the near future!


Happy creating!

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Your Agent Doesn't Hate You

I read this awesome post in Backstage and loved it.  Secret Agent Man is pretty straightforward.  Read why  Your Agent Doesn't Hate You . In fact, they probably like you quite a lot.  What they don't like, is what is known in this industry as flakiness. And yes, everyone experiences it in every walk of life but actors are a special brand.  You would think that in a field where the competition is so intense for so few jobs, we'd be the most reliable people on the planet. But we're not.  And we give a bad name to ourselves because of it.


I first ran into this problem, actually, outside of the film industry.  I was interviewing at a temp agency for that ever needed survival job (see My Other Job as to why I don't need to do that anymore) and when the question of acting came up, it was like something the size of the Berlin Wall sprang up.  My interviewer's face became cold and our rapport immediately fell flat.  She resolutely told me, "We don't work with your sort of people".  I remember a moment of silence and then some awkwardness as the interview came to it's obvious end.  And when I got home, I got mad.  You don't work with my sort of people?  You. Don't. Work. With. MY. Sort. Of. People.  Well, screw you.  Not all of my people are like that.  Some of the hardest working and reliable people I know are actors and film industry people.  Who else willing works 14 hour days for a teeny tiny bit of money (if anything at all) for months at a time and loves it?  No one, I say, no one.


But as I've gotten to know more people in this industry, I see where this stereotype comes from.  And it sucks.  We are flaky and it's just not fair to those on our teams.  Our agents, managers, publicists, favourite casting directors go to bat for us everyday.  They depend on our performance for a living.  Maybe we owe it to them to man up and treat this like a career.  You know, one where you actually have to be disciplined and show up.  And then, maybe you'll stop wondering if your agent hates you.


Happy creating!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Network vs. Cable

It doesn't take a lot to see that TV has evolved.  Drastically, I might add.  And with A-list films stars flocking to the tube (should that still even be a nickname for TV?), our weekly addictions are only going to get better.  At least, on cable channels.  Now, this isn't to say there aren't great shows on network TV anymore (Revenge, Community, Big Bang Theory to name a few) but it has become glaringly clear that the winning horse right now is original cable programming.


You only have had to hear the collective held breath for the recent season of AMC's Mad Men or witness the flurry of Walking Dead related hashtags that popped up every Sunday night on Twitter to see that TV Land has changed.  And I think that's a good thing.  We love our good TV.  And the networks seem to be open to at least trying to alter their long held beliefs.  Notice I said "open to", not "completely changing".  While I don't work for a network, I would have to assume that in order to change a few decades worth of values and perceived target markets, it's going to take a lot more than zombies and clamouring for Don Drapper suits to change their regularly scheduled tunes.  But as this article from the New York Times states, from scheduling to number of episodes ordered, it's slowing happening.  And that can only be a good thing in an industry that is struggling with lower budgets and the wealth of great online entertainment (translation: awesome web series--not just something your crazy neighbour does for fun anymore), right?


Now, can someone please let Community remain in its awkward and random gloriousness?  Or if not, can some cable channel pick it up?


Happy creating!