July 2007 Archives

Work at Deborah Carlson's Word of Mouth @ A/C Studios is starting to pay off.

As part of my plan to earn my living (or a good part of it anyway) by acting, I auditioned for Ray, one of the talent agents at Actor's Reps Of New York & Lost Angeles, Inc. Because I'm non-union, they'll cast me mostly in background/extras parts (in my book however, that still a paid ACTING job), and with a little luck, maybe some under 5's, which would be great!! Actor's Rep gets a 10% commission of any work they book for me.

Anyway, Actor's Reps require a cold reading, a monologue. It's really an audition to see how you handle text, how you cold read. For a non-union person like me, they really just want to meet me to make sure I'm not (too) crasy -- nevertheless, I took the reading seriously. After the reading, he said "who ever you're studying with -- keep studying with that person. That was a good reading."

That was a great compliment because I'm sure the very short 30sec monologue is something he's heard 1000s of times -- and he's been in the business for 32 years!

Actor's Reps deal with both union and non-union talent. Their their main objective is to help the "start up" actor.

Class #6 (Jerry Coyle)

Continuation of introduction to "doubles," working with a partner:

Who are these two people?

1. One is the client -- they present a solution to a "problem."
2. The other is the customer (who the viewer identifies with), the one with the problem, the one who's thrilled to receive the clients solution to the problem.

Review

• Read the copy to "understand it."
• Identify the environment and any critical objects (there will almost always be at least one)
• If I think I'll need any real props. (e.g., a table to sit at) for the audition, ask and ye might receive.

Class #5 (Batt Johnson)

Introductions to "doubles," working with a partner:

• Stand shoulder to shoulder so both me and my partner are in the camera view frame.
• Cheat in towards my partner so I can easily look at them and the cue card with minimal effort.
• As my partner is talking, look at the cue card/camera part of the time, especially for my reactions.

The City At Night
(Photos by Rob Gardiner and Pete M Wyer)

Class #4 (Batt Johnson)

New Habits -- do these everyday:

• In public, if I see ad copy on a sign or building, read it out loud -- it's New York City, no one will blink an eye.
• Study real people doing everyday things -- just pay close attention and note, my brain will store it away for future use.
• Listen to read everyday dialogue. Again, just pay close attention and note it.
• Read big scary technical-scientific terminology out loud; get used to easily/effortlessly saying these words.

Class #1 (Jerry Coyle)

How to handle 1-line copy, e.g., "I needs some tylenol:"

General notes:

• What's my POV (point of view, my feelings or attitude towards the project -- Hint: keep it positive!)
• If the product is some sort of pain or discomfort reliever, show the pain, be as big as possible, but keep it real (e.g., if the copy is for tylenol, then I have a headache or a sore shoulder -- I don't have cancer, I'm not having a massive heart attack, I'm not terminal) -- and keep breathing!

Class #2 (Batt Johnson)

General notes:

• Avoid white and very dark clothes at the audition as these are not very camera friendly (something to do with something technical called color balancing).
• The eyes tell the story -- connect with the camera. Breathe to the camera
• New daily habit: find some Comerica copy and sight and cold read each day, out loud, e.g., marketing brochures, independent freelancers, google it: free broadcasting copy to practice, great ad copy
• listen to and emulate the pros. e.g., The Commercial Client, Voice 1 2 3, Voices.com,

What to do when I get the copy:

Part of my master plan of making my living as an actor includes the highly lucrative arena of commercial film acting, so I've signed up for an Advanced On-Camera Commercial Audition class at Weist Barron. This summer it's being taught by two great highly experienced and successful commercial actors, Jerry Coyleand Batt Johnson. Simultaneously, I'm working my way through How to Audition for TV Commercials: From the Ad Agency Point of View, which I'll review in another post.

Thank goodness it's fun, because it's not as easy as it looks -- not at all. Far from it. And it's highly competitive, but to handle that "worry," I'll just instead focus on the fun and my own growth. Towards this end. This is what I've learned, so far . . .

I ran across this the other day in my mailbox . . .

What comes before success?

Feeling awkward, dumb, and uncomfortable . . . kind of like when one first learns to walk . . .

(a short note from last night's rehearsal of The Upside Down Mirror)

What's still fuzzy to me when I tackle plays: the dramatic logic or sense of a scene, what the characters want, specifically. This is the big picture stuff. This is understanding the play from a dramatic perspective, from a dramatic sense . . . this is "getting it" . . .

. . . then there are the lines, the text. This is moment-to-moment.

And through, around and within it all is being open. Being Open.

All of this -- all this is what I want more then anything in the world. It IS the world. It's everything. It's all I want -- I only want this.

Oh yes . . . and really, really DO everything . . .

Notes from Word of Mouth @ A/C Studios/Early rehearsals for Riant Theatre's production of The Upside Down Mirror by Emanuel Fleischmann

First we form habits. Then they form us.
  ~Rob Gilbert

Habit is either the best of servants or the worst of masters.
  ~Mark Twain

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.
  ~Henry van Dyke

When I'm learning a role, at some point, I write out my dialogue. This 1) helps me to remember it (a technique I learned from Ed Hook's The Actor's Field Guide: Notes on the Run) and 2), it helps me to focus on each word.

A third incredibly helpful purely physical technique I'm practicing is quite simple -- breathing: while self-rehearsing, I let my breathe fully drop, all the way, down to the bottom of feet, before speaking, and then I just go slow enough to "be" in each word.

Specifically, here's my new self-rehearsal technique:

1. I read and read and read the play to get the sense, the meaning, the thought or intent behind each line of dialogue. It's not that easy, at least for me, but it does becoming easier with experience.
2. Once I've got the meaning, then I integrate the breathe into the meaning: I let my breath fully drop (so I can feel what I'm saying),
3. and I pay close attention to my partner and what I'm trying to communicate

So what does it mean, really, to integrate the breathe into the meaning?

How to Rise the Stakes

A couple of weeks ago, I had a cold reading audition. It went well (though ultimately I didn't get cast).

I thought I would try to get more out of my audition experience by taking the opportunity to do an audition "post-mortem" at Word of Mouth @ A/C Studios. I wrote Deborah the follow email:

Hey Deborah,
       Tomorrow, could we take 10-15 to do a post-mortem of an audition I just did. The sides where from a play (attached), just pages 43-44, and I was Donny. Basically, Donny is a pedophile (another one! :), and the short scene is about Donny trying to convince his wife Ellen to stay home (the real reason being he's afraid of what he might do with his daughter if let alone with her).
       I read the scene once, and then the director said he wanted me to read it again but "raise the stakes." He explained the context of the scene to me, i.e., the real reason why Donny is trying to convince Ellen to stay home, but I already understood this. So, my instincts told me that the director wanted to see a "guilty" Donny, or basically, play/show the "subtext" somehow. I could have been wrong, but that's how I interpreted his direction.
      My next instinct was NOT to do that, i.e., I choose NOT to "indicate" or "show" the subtext, but then I found myself not sure what to do other than what I had just done, but just breathe deeper, slow down, etc. Anyway, my question is -- what should I have done with that direction? Were my instincts correct? I wanted to do a bit of post-mortem, 10-15min or so, and get your advice. Thanks Deborah.

- Cheers,
Christopher

Deborah wrote back:

We’ll talk about what the director meant. You were right to not be obvious or indicate the subtext but I’ll explain what he was talking about . . .

I got a compliment and an invite to join Verve Earth (Beta). It's just in beta release, at the time of this posting. I'm not sure what it is, but it looks mighty cool to moi, so I'm definitely going to link in my RSS feed. Check out "The Secret Of Theatrical Space" near Fort Green, downtown Brooklyn, Atlantic Center.

About VerveEarth (from their FAQ): We’ve built a unique interface on top of Google Maps ™ for connecting people around the world. The content of the map grows as we trace the worldwide spread of our message in real-time. Users can tell their story through MyVerve, plug in their blogs, and communicate with members of the community.