good tidings
a really stunning piece of graffitti art on
LaBrea. I took this while at a stoplight.
What really pisses me off is someone actually tagged
it! Weak.
here's the other part of it
well.. I have started this entry about 10 times, and
I might as well give it another go.
The real crazy thing about the past two weeks is that
I have literally gone nonstop during the weekday. I
get in, there's a tornado, and then I leave. I mean,
sure, that's I guess how some people work, but one
would think that the end of the year would be a bit
more of a slower time, when you can chill a bit, but
it certainly has not been the case this year. And
when I get home, the last thing I want to do is sit
in front of a computer, which means I slack on all
the personal stuff I want to do, including Christmas
shopping, writing in this journal, and editing Whit's
band's videos. I am adding a page to the site today
with four of the videos from Whit's work party, where
their band, The RTG's performed nine songs. Whit did
an amazing job, I gotta say. You can find the videos
in the RTG's page, above.
Just when I was feeling a bit down, things start
turning up. Last week I was invited to read two
scripts, which was totally cool. I did two table
reads for two very different scripts (one was a kind
of family comedy, the other an action comedy), both
very good; really fun characters, great pacing...both
would make really entertaining movies. I was invited
to read a lead character both times and I am pleased
to report that the feedback was really good, which
was tremendously encouraging. Hmm, perhaps that's not
the right word, "encouraging"...gratifying, perhaps?
That's better, honestly, because the goal is to
really fill out the reading as best as you can
emotionally so the writer can get some glimpses of
how it might sound during filming, how some of the
characters might look during certain moments how the
flow would actually...flow. I really tried to read as
best as I could, which was made difficult for the
first script since I did not have enough time to read
through it first and mark it up.
What's good about this is that you are being given
the opportunity to add to the initial definition of
the story, of the character. The writers can now go
back to the script and use what we did as a baseline,
which will help them make the appropriate changes.
It's kind of a cool responsibility, because up until
the readings, the writers have heard the characters
in their heads, or just read a few scenes with the
other writers to get the kinks out. Both writers
brought in some really great actors, really driven
actors who all were taking it very seriously and
obviously trying to bring as much to the reading as
possible. It was very cool and it was quite a cool
way to close out the year, to be part of this
collaboration. Reminded me of some very good times in
New York, and I am stoked I have some folks around
who want me to participate in this kind of thing.
Work has been crazy, as usual. We released a product
and I have been getting really great responses from
people who have actually used the software, but for
every one positive piece of feedback, I get 5
intensely negative, fanatically nasty rants about why
the software sucks...from people who have never
actually even seen the software. I try not
to take it personally, but I honestly wish some of
the more passionate users out there would give the
stuff a chance so they can see that I'm not some
dumbass who is making lame crap, but someone who
actually cares very deeply about this stuff and whose
crew has made something very good, relevant, and
effective. Whatever. I deal with this stuff enough in
my "other" life, so I will just drop it, but I
am looking forward to seeing how the reviews
go. It's weird; for better or for worse, this new
product is pretty much my fault. I was the one who
pushed for a total redesign and for the addition of a
completely new additional feature. We could have
easily just updated it to work with the new operating
system but I felt it was really important to make a
full on change, to really draw a line and say "the
old stuff is the old stuff, this is the future".
We'll see, we'll see. I never expected the work to be
so personal but I guess that's good.
On the acting front, all of a sudden, I am busy as
ever. Two auditions yesterday; 1 callback (from
yesterday), 2 auditions and a voiceover audition
today, one audition tomorrow. Uh, what? I haven't
gone out more than once a week in 2 weeks! It's
great, but really unexpected and kind of crazy making
with the week I am having. But we were able to
schedule everything all out, so it's fine. My agents
are really amazing, it's just crazy how hard they
work for me.
I have more entries but I really have to sleep. I
just apologize for being so late on this. I wish I
just had more time. Perhaps I can write a bit more
during the holidays. I have been taking notes on my
phone when journal entries come to mind--I've got
some good ones--so hopefully the week off will
encourage me to invest a bit more time into this. I
have been really bad about using the camera (except
for the videos I took of the RTG's) but maybe I will
bring it up to the city. I dunno. We'll see.
Regardless, hope all is well.
Hollywoodland in the early 1920s