New Yorkers are famous for being cold. They bump you out of the way with their shoulders on the sidewalk even if there's room. They say things like, "Fuck you if you can't take it." They thrive on hardship and adversity because they can then claim how hardcore they are for surviving it. Not everyone is this way. They can also be incredibly generous and kindhearted, but make no mistake: those are some of the coldest, hardest streets on Earth and you need thick, thick skin to walk them.
So coming from this harsh, unforgiving environment to sunny California and the laidback atmosphere has been a lot to handle. I usually don't warm up to people until I've known or worked with them for months, remaining guarded until the New York facade thaws. (A lot of my friends are actors I've been in shows with and they will probably tell you I wasn't that much fun to hang out with until we were in production.)
So imagine my dismay when discovering that film sets are basically like the first day of rehearsal of a play. No one knows anyone and the first tentative overtures to friendship are loaded with baggage. People talk up how important they are and who they've worked with. They try out jokes and see how far they can go. They flirt and try too hard. I really have not experienced this level of open salesmanship before and it appears to be an L.A. thing. In New York, yes actors were a commodity, but here they are also the pitchman. Performing is only a third of what The Actor in L.A. is; the other two parts are advertising and advertising.
For a long time I worked in a New York theatre circle that respected good work and would promote from within based on merit. The salesmanship and self-promotion could've been better on my part, but I felt like I could make a name for myself based on the acclaim of the work itself--which is all artists really care about anyway. Making work.
Well, that got me only so far. In the position I'm in right now, getting hired means having a website, a reel, headshots, postcards, a top class with a top casting director that has stars dropping by, and an oversized personality. (Part of capturing "the truth" on film also means that the talent is skewed towards improv performers and non-actor wildmen like Puck from the Real World who are unpredictable.) I may have always been the CEO of a business called "Paco the Actor," but while in NYC I must have given power of attorney to the art department and they ran the place into the ground.
I'm proud of the work I've done and the career I've carved out for myself, but opportunity is something to always be searching for actively and that's never been clearer to me than here in Los Angeles. You have to bring your A-game every time out and get yourself out there in every way you can. Online, in the face, in the ear, on a postcard. Never rest.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
L.A. Domination Phase One: Student Films
I've been doing student films. They've got high-quality equipment, brief shooting schedules, and opportunities for networking. The personnel have also been told by professionals what professional conduct is and aspire to it. (For those keeping score, Phase Two is to take my newly improved bad-ass reel and score L.A. representation. Phase Three is go out on big time auditions that will bring home the bacon. Phase Four: commence domination.)
I have participated in five productions since I've been here and have learned a ton. Perhaps the most important thing I can offer so far of that knowledge is this:
YOU HAVE TO HAVE PATIENCE.
Simple, right? Yes and no. It takes a lot of stamina to stay focused and in the game take after take, and there is a lot of waiting around. It really helps me to envision the end product and to keep in mind that everyone is working hard to make you look good... no matter how little they actually pay attention to you.
This was a hard lesson for me to get drilled into my brain. Do people on film sets really pay little attention to the actors? It can certainly feel that way. It's not so much that they aren't paying attention to you as it's they're paying more attention to their own jobs (which have nothing to do with your feelings or ego. Another hard lesson.)
On a film shoot, the director is trying to make the conditions optimal for "capturing" moments, like lightning in a bottle. So they'll spend hours tweaking the lights or switching filters or changing the frame so that when the actors get there, the chemistry between the characters can crackle and the flashes of lightning will be contained in a flawlessly composed bottle. I've found film directors are not really into rehearsal because capturing a scene also means capturing "real" reactions and running it too many times can lead to a "canned" performance.* I thought this was a load of poop until I started seeing it happen in people's work. The camera is just too close. It sees everything. It can tell if you are ahead of the curve as opposed to really in the moment. When you don't know what the other actor is going to do, it really makes your body come alive and be a receptive instrument. When we are receptive we may do things physiologically that we don't even know we're doing, and that is the very juice that film directors want to get. The rawness of truth.
*David Fincher is only one famous exception to this, having shot 99 takes of the opening scene of The Social Network. "To beat the acting out of them" to get to the truth. Hmmm.
This need for conditions to be right entails every department needing the director to answer their 500 technical questions. The director constantly has their attention on deciding something. Adding more something here, racking focus a touch sooner there or something similar. This means that you have your own questions about how the scene went and they...kind of can't deal with it right now. I have frequently felt the need to have my performance validated, or at least commented upon, but you really have to just let them tell you if they need something different and trust yourself. Twenty people hold their breath when the camera rolls, and maybe three of them are thinking about your work. The rest are looking at the shadows on the wall or the glare on a window or if your hair is coming undone. "It's a director's medium," they said and they weren't kidding.
And it's not a bad thing, it's just a different thing. Theater actors are used to getting fawned over. We get a full month of a director's undivided attention. Big moments in a play are agreed upon/constructed together after hours of hot debate and mutual negotiation. Once everything is blocked and everyone has come to a consensus and you're ready to go, the director turns their attention to the technical elements and the actors are on their own. In film, you're in tech the whole time. (This is not news or even a new analogy, but like I said, I had to drill it in there because it's so different and repeating it here just makes sense.)
Constantly starting and stopping in the middle of lines, readjusting to hit marks...sometimes you'll give an amazing reading and you'll have to do it again because the boom was in the shot or a plane went by. There really does always seem to be a plane going by. Every time there's a new camera setup you wait for what feels like forever and maybe you haven't even said your first line yet.
Most people find tech to be the worst part of doing a play because of the starting and stopping and the slamming on of the brakes in the middle of getting your moment on. I felt that way until recently. In fact, each time you do a take you get another opportunity to knock it out of the park. If you're having trouble with the mechanics of the scene or a certain moment you get to give it another shot. Another chance to get it closer to honesty or truthfulness. Because your scenes are thoroughly broken down into their component parts, you get to be highly specific with every beat. And we all want specificity, right?
I have participated in five productions since I've been here and have learned a ton. Perhaps the most important thing I can offer so far of that knowledge is this:
YOU HAVE TO HAVE PATIENCE.
Simple, right? Yes and no. It takes a lot of stamina to stay focused and in the game take after take, and there is a lot of waiting around. It really helps me to envision the end product and to keep in mind that everyone is working hard to make you look good... no matter how little they actually pay attention to you.
This was a hard lesson for me to get drilled into my brain. Do people on film sets really pay little attention to the actors? It can certainly feel that way. It's not so much that they aren't paying attention to you as it's they're paying more attention to their own jobs (which have nothing to do with your feelings or ego. Another hard lesson.)
On a film shoot, the director is trying to make the conditions optimal for "capturing" moments, like lightning in a bottle. So they'll spend hours tweaking the lights or switching filters or changing the frame so that when the actors get there, the chemistry between the characters can crackle and the flashes of lightning will be contained in a flawlessly composed bottle. I've found film directors are not really into rehearsal because capturing a scene also means capturing "real" reactions and running it too many times can lead to a "canned" performance.* I thought this was a load of poop until I started seeing it happen in people's work. The camera is just too close. It sees everything. It can tell if you are ahead of the curve as opposed to really in the moment. When you don't know what the other actor is going to do, it really makes your body come alive and be a receptive instrument. When we are receptive we may do things physiologically that we don't even know we're doing, and that is the very juice that film directors want to get. The rawness of truth.
*David Fincher is only one famous exception to this, having shot 99 takes of the opening scene of The Social Network. "To beat the acting out of them" to get to the truth. Hmmm.
This need for conditions to be right entails every department needing the director to answer their 500 technical questions. The director constantly has their attention on deciding something. Adding more something here, racking focus a touch sooner there or something similar. This means that you have your own questions about how the scene went and they...kind of can't deal with it right now. I have frequently felt the need to have my performance validated, or at least commented upon, but you really have to just let them tell you if they need something different and trust yourself. Twenty people hold their breath when the camera rolls, and maybe three of them are thinking about your work. The rest are looking at the shadows on the wall or the glare on a window or if your hair is coming undone. "It's a director's medium," they said and they weren't kidding.
And it's not a bad thing, it's just a different thing. Theater actors are used to getting fawned over. We get a full month of a director's undivided attention. Big moments in a play are agreed upon/constructed together after hours of hot debate and mutual negotiation. Once everything is blocked and everyone has come to a consensus and you're ready to go, the director turns their attention to the technical elements and the actors are on their own. In film, you're in tech the whole time. (This is not news or even a new analogy, but like I said, I had to drill it in there because it's so different and repeating it here just makes sense.)
Constantly starting and stopping in the middle of lines, readjusting to hit marks...sometimes you'll give an amazing reading and you'll have to do it again because the boom was in the shot or a plane went by. There really does always seem to be a plane going by. Every time there's a new camera setup you wait for what feels like forever and maybe you haven't even said your first line yet.
Most people find tech to be the worst part of doing a play because of the starting and stopping and the slamming on of the brakes in the middle of getting your moment on. I felt that way until recently. In fact, each time you do a take you get another opportunity to knock it out of the park. If you're having trouble with the mechanics of the scene or a certain moment you get to give it another shot. Another chance to get it closer to honesty or truthfulness. Because your scenes are thoroughly broken down into their component parts, you get to be highly specific with every beat. And we all want specificity, right?
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Los Angeles
I'm in L.A. now. It's amazing.
The Weather
I was secretly terrified of the weather, that it would be like summer year-round. Dismally hot and sticky, with deadly strength-sapping humidity like I'd become accustomed to after 8 years in NYC. Actually, here it's closer to my favorite time of year, Fall, mostly cool and breezy but nice and hot in the sun. Well, the sun is everywhere. My favorite phrase to describe the sun in the time I've spent here is, "It's beating down on me!" I usually say this in the car with Kate because she blasts the heat no matter the season or time of day so that adds to the effect.
The Neighborhood
I am living with Kate and two roommates in a big-ish place in Silverlake. Silverlake has ritzy spots and depressed spots but we're in a great family neighborhood on a tree-lined street minutes away from Brooklyn-esque culture like coffee shops, thrift stores, vegan restaurants and a great vintage movie theater. Our house is in the vicinity of Los Feliz, Echo Park,and Sunset Junction, so there is a lot of great people watching and atmosphere.
Business
I've had the good fortune to be able to connect right away with friends of mine who've made the trip out before me and their wisdom has been invaluable. Getting to know a whole new business culture and entertainment industry protocol is going to take some time, but thanks to my friends going to endless coffees and hang-out dates with me, it won't take as long as it might otherwise. If any of my New York theater friends are reading this and thinking of moving into film, start now with your on-camera projects. Having a reel is absolutely critical. Go to NYU or Columbia or wherever you need to to get yourself on film. I've seen a bunch of really cool independent actor-generated footage and I encourage you to make that kind of stuff or find it in NYC. I was fortunate enough to have an NYU thesis film, a Law&Order, and some good indie stuff in the can already, so I'm assembling it now and putting my own together. More on that soon.
In New York, "one-on-ones" are the meetings you can take with Casting Directors and Agents. Here, they're called "workshops". I've been doing a lot of these in an effort to jump start my name-recognition for pilot-season given that I've only just got here.
I've also got a profile on Casting Networks (you have to sign up again if you've already got one on the East Coast--"different servers" they said) and have been submitting myself to some cool projects. I've been called in for a bunch of things and booked most of them, although whether or not I opted ultimately to DO them has been mixed. The film work I have is mostly from 2005-ish, so the more I can get myself in something recent, the better. Nobody cares about Off-Broadway because they don't know what it is. If they can't put it in a DVD player, it never happened. Awesome.
More to come!
The Weather
I was secretly terrified of the weather, that it would be like summer year-round. Dismally hot and sticky, with deadly strength-sapping humidity like I'd become accustomed to after 8 years in NYC. Actually, here it's closer to my favorite time of year, Fall, mostly cool and breezy but nice and hot in the sun. Well, the sun is everywhere. My favorite phrase to describe the sun in the time I've spent here is, "It's beating down on me!" I usually say this in the car with Kate because she blasts the heat no matter the season or time of day so that adds to the effect.
 |
| This is right outside our house from the porch. We also have a backyard complete with lawn chairs from the previous tenants. |
The Neighborhood
I am living with Kate and two roommates in a big-ish place in Silverlake. Silverlake has ritzy spots and depressed spots but we're in a great family neighborhood on a tree-lined street minutes away from Brooklyn-esque culture like coffee shops, thrift stores, vegan restaurants and a great vintage movie theater. Our house is in the vicinity of Los Feliz, Echo Park,and Sunset Junction, so there is a lot of great people watching and atmosphere.
 |
| Santa Monica Blvd and N. Hoover St. |
Business
I've had the good fortune to be able to connect right away with friends of mine who've made the trip out before me and their wisdom has been invaluable. Getting to know a whole new business culture and entertainment industry protocol is going to take some time, but thanks to my friends going to endless coffees and hang-out dates with me, it won't take as long as it might otherwise. If any of my New York theater friends are reading this and thinking of moving into film, start now with your on-camera projects. Having a reel is absolutely critical. Go to NYU or Columbia or wherever you need to to get yourself on film. I've seen a bunch of really cool independent actor-generated footage and I encourage you to make that kind of stuff or find it in NYC. I was fortunate enough to have an NYU thesis film, a Law&Order, and some good indie stuff in the can already, so I'm assembling it now and putting my own together. More on that soon.
 |
| Vegan Restaurant |
In New York, "one-on-ones" are the meetings you can take with Casting Directors and Agents. Here, they're called "workshops". I've been doing a lot of these in an effort to jump start my name-recognition for pilot-season given that I've only just got here.
I've also got a profile on Casting Networks (you have to sign up again if you've already got one on the East Coast--"different servers" they said) and have been submitting myself to some cool projects. I've been called in for a bunch of things and booked most of them, although whether or not I opted ultimately to DO them has been mixed. The film work I have is mostly from 2005-ish, so the more I can get myself in something recent, the better. Nobody cares about Off-Broadway because they don't know what it is. If they can't put it in a DVD player, it never happened. Awesome.
 |
| Kate on a picnic this summer |
 |
| With Dalton at Venice Beach |
 |
| Griffith Observatory, right by our house |
 |
| Dalton and Louise on their visit |
 |
| I played a DP in a plagued student film, here's my cast shot for the credits. Broad comedy, people. |
Saturday, December 11, 2010
More Assorted Research
Subterranea is trying to get off the ground and here's some funny things that have crossed the ol' path over the course of some research.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Confluence
I checked out a friend's blog last week and saw the "It Gets Better" video from Jon Berry, the director of the US Office of Personnel Management. As with the others, it's a very affecting testimonial, but my friend picked up on something he said which is still with me a week later: God doesn't make junk.
The simplicity and far-reaching implications of this statement are so profound, and again I must give props to "E" for noting how universally applicable it is. It is perhaps the best catch-all personal affirmation I have heard, no matter the circumstances. Unless those circumstances involve you not believing in God. Hm.
The week I saw that video was the same week I went to an open call for The Public Theater's Timon of Athens. I hadn't read it, so in preparation I went over the text on my Kindle (excellent for portable collected volumes of public domain texts like Shakespeare) and in doing so came across this line:
"Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st them not."
The context in the play doesn't really have much to do with the American culture war, but in the abstract it seemed immediately resonant with regard to adolescent bullying and the thinly-veiled homophobia in congressional politics.
The man was a genius!
The simplicity and far-reaching implications of this statement are so profound, and again I must give props to "E" for noting how universally applicable it is. It is perhaps the best catch-all personal affirmation I have heard, no matter the circumstances. Unless those circumstances involve you not believing in God. Hm.
The week I saw that video was the same week I went to an open call for The Public Theater's Timon of Athens. I hadn't read it, so in preparation I went over the text on my Kindle (excellent for portable collected volumes of public domain texts like Shakespeare) and in doing so came across this line:
"Why dost thou call them knaves? thou know'st them not."
The context in the play doesn't really have much to do with the American culture war, but in the abstract it seemed immediately resonant with regard to adolescent bullying and the thinly-veiled homophobia in congressional politics.
The man was a genius!
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
November
October is drawing to a close and the million things that were so important that had to be done this month have, in the main, been taken care of. Here are some of the things I am thinking about.
Getting out to see Kate in her new apartment and seeing what we can get up to in the neighborhood.
Getting better at driving.
Finishing my reel.
Visiting at home and seeing friends.
Prepping Subterranea for a limited production next season.
I think the most dangerous place to be in November will be between me and a camera. Got a lot of learnin' to do, and hours logged is the only way to get comfortable. That and classes, I suppose.
Had a very fruitful past few weeks including
readings of Lloyd Suh's Great Wall Story and Larry Kunofsky's The Myths We Need,
workshop performances of Qui Nguyen's The Inexplicable Redemption of Agent G,
and seeing some great new work from The Vampire Cowboys Saloon artists and David Deblinger (his one-man show Beyond Measure was directed by my friend Aaron Weiner for a few nights at Nuyorican Poets Cafe).
Oh, and almost winning an Innovative Theater Award for Outstanding Featured Actor in last season's The Brokenhearteds by Temar Underwood.
Missed it by thiiiiiiiis much.
You know what else is interesting? Kate said something enlightening to me about my approach to Shakespeare. My position was that the writing is poetry, the most beautifully constructed sentences in English, and the audience should be able to hear you honoring that in your delivery of it. Not recitation or too flowery, but understanding the depth of the verse and employing it in such a way that they know you know it. She said, playwrights do not want to hear their lines read as poetry, they want to hear them read as lines. Like, between people with needs.
That's horribly simplifying it, but I think she's right. Every time I approach Shakespeare I feel this American Standard voice coming out of my mouth and not necessarily the character. Mostly because I want to do justice to the language I love so much, but that's not even how Shakespeare would've wanted it to be done. He'd be onstage using the language to compete with drunks, animals, political maneuvering and the talkative crowds. There may or may not have been any poetry at all when you might get a tomato thrown at you for being boring.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Internet Research
The fastest way for an actor like me to get immediate dramaturgical immersion in the crazy ass world of a play like Agent G is to hit up Wikipedia and Youtube. Here is some preliminary research I've culled from The Cloud.
WIKIPEDIA
The Vietnam War
This page is historical background and major events.
Boat People
This one has a wealth of "External links" to follow up on the Vietnamese immigration experience (some of them first hand accounts).
Viet Cong
The villains of Agent G.
South Vietnam
Basically background on the South before the Fall of Saigon, which effectively ended the war and led to the reunification of North and South.
YOUTUBE
Choson Ninja
This is a Korean "ninja technique" tutorial channel with some very strange but interesting moves. The earlier videos are interesting to me.
"California Gurls" Katy Perry(feat. Snoop Dogg)
They wouldn't let me embed this video, but you can watch it here. Then again, you probably know the song already.
viewer discretion advised
WIKIPEDIA
The Vietnam War
This page is historical background and major events.
Boat People
This one has a wealth of "External links" to follow up on the Vietnamese immigration experience (some of them first hand accounts).
Viet Cong
The villains of Agent G.
South Vietnam
Basically background on the South before the Fall of Saigon, which effectively ended the war and led to the reunification of North and South.
YOUTUBE
Choson Ninja
This is a Korean "ninja technique" tutorial channel with some very strange but interesting moves. The earlier videos are interesting to me.
"California Gurls" Katy Perry(feat. Snoop Dogg)
They wouldn't let me embed this video, but you can watch it here. Then again, you probably know the song already.
viewer discretion advised
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