Old Acting Blog

On July 3, I finally donned my running shoes and ran around that track that’s nearby where I live. There’s also these outdoor exercise machines I’ve been meaning to try out and the most important is the pull up bar. I used to have a pull up bar in my apartment, but it broke and I haven’t replaced it yet. This was an obstacle.

At one time I couldn’t a pull up from a ‘dead hang’ and I had read that the best thing to do is to try reverse pull ups every day until you are able to do a real pull up. I tried and tried using that pull up bar in my apartment and lo and behold I finally could do one! I was so proud of myself. There was a time when I couldn’t run for 2 minutes without feeling pain in my chest and then after adding minutes every day I was able to get to an hour!

These things happened several years ago now, and my ‘obstacles’ were pretty weak. No bar to use, and as for running, my obstacle was the lack of motivation.

That changed on the 3rd. I woke up with no excuses anymore. This day was the first “holiday” day in preparation for the 4th of July weekend, I had the day free and I was determined to make the most of it.

My most recent audition was on Saturday June 29, and although I thought I felt comfortable, and thought I would have been perfect in the commercial, I made simple mistakes and that was that. Then I remembered about my last post and how I had wanted to start taping again, and how important it was.. so I decided that July 3rd I would make myself tape something whether or not I felt like it that day.

I ran only a 3 laps, and could only do 10 pushups and no longer was I able to do my amazing pull ups. Even though I started small I remembered how I was able to conquer my goals and get to amazing places by adding a little each day. I took that motivation to my taping too.

After my run I began the process to turn our living room into a studio. I moved the furniture around, set up the camera and prepared my props and costume, and then I taped. In reality I didn’t tape all that much, but it was enough to fill in key pieces of the latest episode 4 of my kids show, and I felt accomplished. I had to do everything myself, but that didn’t bother me this day.

I quickly edited together the scenes and worked the rest of the day on fine tuning the timing and the effects. The process has been slow altogether, but oh so worth it. I now still have a couple shots and some audio to tape, and then I need to find a suitable background (ah the wonders of green-screen).. but I’m finally making progress!

It is amazing, in a non-happy way, how easy it is to let one day go into the next and be sitting, waiting on accomplishing one’s goals. I want to speed up the setup time that has been such an obstacle (about 2 hours) and the editing time, which has already sped up SIGNIFICANTLY now that I’m using FCPX instead of FCP 6 (from 2007) and a new computer.

The final product is already looking wonderful, and even though I still have some work to do on this one, I am already looking forward to taping episode 5. Sometimes I have to give myself a little push.. okay, a BIG push, to get things going again, and overcome the obstacles that I let stay in my way for far too long. Once the motivation kicks in things can be happening!

Today is another day off, and although it is almost over I’ve already made more progress on the episode. Diligently I peck away at the ‘to do’ list and get closer to the release.

Like I’ve written before, you are what you most practice- and I want to practice being productive and streamlining the process to make my own path for my own work. That way I’m not sitting down, waiting for something to happen. Obstacles are only obstacles if you let them stay that way.

Today I ran 7 laps, and did 15 pushups.. little by little I can reach my goals.

hmatt acting update, goals

Yesterday I began my spring break, and already I’m off to a great start.

I spent today going through various tasks and I came upon a note to myself: figure out frequency of posts. Well, I didn’t literally write that, but the idea was still there. I have been expanding my various blogs in an attempt to simplify, but the issue now is – when do I update everything? I am only one person, and I can’t demand too much of myself otherwise I’ll fall behind and then worry about catching up and other such nonsense.

I’ve decided that for THIS blog, my acting blog, I’m going to aim for a once a week update. This way I can keep reviewing what I’m doing with my life ( at least in regards to the steps I’m taking toward my acting career).

Now, I recently saw Julie and Julia and I don’t want to give myself some sort of breakdown because I have to post something, but it is all for my own good right? I was listening to the song “100 years” by Five for Fighting on Pandora and I started thinking about how quickly life can go by. I could list all sorts of quotes and such, but the biggest one is “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” by John Lennon.

Instead of just thinking about stuff, I’m going to try to write it up in hopes that I will be inspired to do something about it. It’s just like those times when I am trying to finish my Morning Pages via The Artist’s Way- by page 2 I want to get going on stuff!

Now that I’ve went on and on for a bit, let me drop a quick recap on this past week’s auditions:

After the February month of no auditions I finally got two notices for March 20:

1) Ad for sunglasses: Character “Unlikable groom”. I borrowed my roommate’s suit and they took a few photos and that was it. These types of auditions you either have the look they are looking for or you don’t.

2) Ad for a home-improvement store. I arrived early with hopes that I would be able to get out early and pick up a few more hours of work. What happened however was something different. I walk in and right away noticed the huge line of “homeowners”. I signed in and waited.

I heard the lady at the desk calling several no-shows for the “party guests”, and as a result they were backed up. The session runner asked all of the “homeowners” if any would be seen as a “party guest”. Apparently the pay was the same, but I thought that I might have more fun if I was a homeowner and was able to do some improv.. then I chose to wait. As a result I waited another hour, and as soon as I stepped in I was switched with a party guest anyway. Lesson- when you have the opportunity to be seen in any capacity do it! I made a few other mistakes too, but instead on brooding over it all, I’ll remember the advice from Coach Mike: just focus on one thing you did right, and one thing to do better next time. What I did right was show up early, what I’ll do next time is take any opportunity to go first so I can get on with my life.

hmatt acting update

This past Saturday was Actorfest.

I left my place by 7:45am and was there to stand in a line, the ‘pre-paid’ line. They let a few of us in at 9 am and most people went straight to the audition line. The audition line-up was for mostly live stage shows or Disney cast members and stuff like that, so I skipped it and went straight to the tables on the floor below. It was nice to wander around that early. Although everyone was still setting up their tables. I skipped the tables I wasn’t interested in.. the training schools and the Scientology 4 table corner setup.

Most workshop session groups and such had an email/phone list for a free class raffle. I signed up for several of them, so I hope I don’t get inundated with spam texts or calls.

The table for Second City gave me a chance to chat with them and I told them my experiences with improv with Groundlings, ComedySportz and Monkey Butler. They knew the Monkey Butler name and I mentioned how I’m an instructor and one of the girls said I was awesome. I think she mentioned it right after I said that in February I’ll be visiting Melbourne Australia and teaching a workshop there. Then I realized how awesome that DOES sound. The main reason I’ll be there is to see my girlfriend of course, and the teaching there is just a bonus, but still..

Anyway, they told me that there is a drop in class I can take on Thursdays so I may do that since it is usually my day off.

Then I met the guy who made the accent cd I bought at Samuel French. I complimented his talent and then thought to myself that I could be practicing this again instead of listening to Pandora.

The first session with Robert Martin Jr was great! He was funny, and had so much energy. He was super honest with his opinions, so no wonder my agent likes him.

The next session was entitled “How to Get Cast in Comedy: Being Funny IS a Skill: Dorian Frankel & Todd Rohrbacher”. The session was mostly about how important it is to know the tone of the comedy you go in for. I think the biggest lesson I gleaned was to do research by seeing a taping of a show. It is so obvious, but I haven’t done it for a comedy show.. Which is what made it good advice. = )  Now to narrow down which shows to watch.

The final session was “Getting Ahead in Voice-Over: David Wright” who works for Disney. His main message was that Disney doesn’t accept unsolicited artists, have a good professional demo, and they work with union only for legal reasons.

Then for the Meet and Greet I met up with Robert Jr. and we chatted for a few minutes. He suggested I move that I’m an instructor with Monkey Butler to the top and then said everything else looks in shape. He likes my agent and me.

Cool.

Now it’s just a numbers game. All I can do is continue to sharpen my skills and one day I’ll be booking stuff left and right.

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So for the next few days I’m going to make a simple action list. I’ve spent too much time making to do lists and getting few things accomplished so I’m “doing” now.

This morning/afternoon I worked on a storyboard for taping the next The Retro Kids Show episode. Now to tidy my room. How quickly things get messy when you don’t set aside moments to clean. ; )

acting acting update

I have until Thursday off from work, and I intend to get a lot of my stalled projects up and running again.

So this past week a review:

The Monday Oreo audition went well. The person I was paired up with shared a bit of his life story with me and our scene was fun.

That night was the last night of my acting class. I’ve been given a lot to think about and the most important lesson is to keep downloading scripts and practice breaking them down and writing up actions. An actor’s job is to create a series of choices and identify what part of oneself can align with such choices. I’m always going to be on a path to master the craft.. and I have a chance to practice everyday!

Tuesday : The Monday Oreo audition required us to NOT be clean shaven, and we were to be notified of callbacks sometime on Tuesday. However, I had another audition for something else at 2:30 so I waited to shave until the last moment for the audition in Santa Monica. I thought I’d arrive super early to that one (~1:30pm) and then- they went on lunch break for a half hour. Luckily I brought my kindle to read The Hobbit.

Dan from my improv team showed up for the same part and we chatted a bit. Then they let a few of us in. The session runner didn’t know exactly how to set us up so he took a while with us. I left much later than I thought. Good thing it was in a city where  I didn’t have to pay the meters! Too bad only the beach cities have such a deal for electric cars.

I arrived to work shortly after the audition (almost 3pm by this time) and then got a last minute call for the Oreo callback! The family I work for was flexible enough so I could go and I hit the “rush hour” traffic and it took me 2 hours to get to the location. Once there I practiced with a fellow from Texas, but then last minute they switched him to another spot. Then I was partnered with someone who was doing the spot for the first time.

There I was, in the audition and then my partner was given some direction.. so I did the same thing I did before. Which, in retrospect, wasn’t the right choice. If given the opportunity to do it again we are to make completely different choices so we can offer a variety. Whoops! Oh well. The spot was quite funny and I’ll look it up when they finally put it online.

Wednesday: On 12-12-12 I went geocaching to 12 different caches. It took all day, but it was such a nice break and a great way to relax from the constant go-go-go of the week up until that point. The reprieve was short lived though. I went swing dancing that night to see Johnny Boyd who I hadn’t seen since 99 or 2001 or something. It was such a time warp.

Thursday: I was in bed most of the day recovering from a sniffly nose and avoiding the freezing weather (well, to LA: 50 degrees). I continued to read the Hobbit or sleeping. Then I taught improv at 8pm. It was a great class. We had 11 people I think and I’m sure when we come back after winter break there will be quite the crowd. I love improv. There are so many fun aspects to it!

Friday: More sleeping and reading until an improv show that night in Hollywood. Good times, but I’ll be glad when the holidays pass and we can all meet consistently again. There are always aspects of improv to work on. = )

Continued ~> The week off Part II: Actorfest

acting acting update, all

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update everyone on my acting progress this week. = )

Sunday I had another Pop Culture night where we (Myself, John, Darryl and Melissa) watched Downtown Abbey (just so you know it is pronounced “down-ton abbey”). Such nights are a chance for us to watch pilots of popular shows so we know what people are talking about. Next time I’m renting Boardwalk Empire

Monday I had an audition for a Las Vegas.com commercial. Hooray for the freedom to improvise and have fun. = ) Monday night I took a workshop called MAKING YOUR READ DYNAMIC! with John Sudol. He mentioned some really interesting acting concepts that I hadn’t considered before! Cool stuff. I signed up for 4 more weeks of his class. I haven’t taken an acting class since The Acting Corps last summer.

Wednesday morning I had an audition for Disney. On the sign in sheet they asked what my favorite Disney movie was, and I drew a blank. I put the latest flick I’ve seen, Wreck It Ralph, but I recently saw a clip from the behind the scenes on Mary Poppins and I remember liking that one a lot. I STILL don’t know which movie is my favorite though- there are SO MANY!

Today is my day off so I’m reading, analyzing my goals and then I’m going running! I haven’t gone running in too long and there’s no better time to start then now.

Have a great day everyone!

acting acting update, all