Day 228: Coffee date with Surafel Tesfaye, a filmmaker who
cast me in a graduate thesis film last year that I was really excited about shooting only to have the funding fall out. I randomly saw him as an extra in a webseries which lead me to search for his contact information and shoot him a text message to say hello and touch base. From there we decided to catch up at my favorite Larchmont Village cafe. He's been in Ethiopia for a few months so he's ready to reconnect with others and get to work now that he's back and done with school.
Day 229: Quick brainstorming session via telephone with Tara to complete our outline. Finished reading Save The Cat- though I checked it out from the library it will be a book that I purchase for my own.
Day 230 - 231: Started reading Save The Cat 2: STC Goes To The Movies
Day 226: No internship today. Stayed home with Jayden since he had a stomach bug and submitted on Actors Access and
CAZT {Yep they have a submission site now. I'll write about it in a later post}.
Day 227: Rehearsed a few hours before class with my beautiful classmate
Yvonne Truong. We've decided to do scene together for our reel- something in the vein of Law & Order/Criminal Minds/CSI, you get the picture. At some point in the next 2 weeks I have to write it. It'll only be a page so it shouldn't take too long.
Day 225: Today I decided to email a handful of managers on my target list while I take a minute to decide whether or not to move forward with the manager who offered to sign me. Since I have a week to make a decision, this is what I sent out to the managers on my list...
Subject: Meeting this week?
Hi *****,
I've recently been offered representation from another management company and would love to meet with you before making any decisions.
7 quick tidbits about me:
- I wrote & starred in the webseries "Diary of a Wedding Planner." You can view the most recent episode here.
- In my last 7 commercial auditions I've had 3 callbacks and 1 avail. Almost there!
- I'm currently producing the official documentary on the Mitrice Richardson story.
- I'm continuing to study audition & on-camera technique in an ongoing class at Stan Kirsch Studios.
- I'm staying in shape by returning to my former love of hip-hop dance at Your Neighborhood Dance Studio.
- Have a versatile look- rocking my natural hair for commercial auditions & long curls for anything theatrical.
- Have a stable night job in production that keeps my days completely free for auditions. No golden handcuffs!
If you have room in your roster for an adorably sassy mid-20's black chick who values training, I'd love to meet with you at your earliest convenience.
Cheers,
Brandi Ford
Notice what I didn't have on there? Something that says, I recently booked... because I HAVEN'T BOOKED ANYTHING SO FAR THIS YEAR and we're about to be in SEPTEMBER!!!! AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH$*%&^$%$@$#@$!!!!!
If you can't tell, it's frustrating. I'm frustrated.
*Sigh* But I had to write
something so I called attention to what sounded good in my head.
Well, these were the 3 {mildly depressing} same day responses I received:
- Who is the other company followed 5 minutes later with I saw your reel. This is a pass for me.
- Thank you for your interest. I do have a couple of clients who would be a direct conflict and it would not be fair to you or them to meet. Best of luck.
- Hi Brandi: Take the rep offered! I can't take on another actor at your level right now!
After eating some ice cream {doesn't that make EVERYTHING just feel better, at least temporarily?}, I soaked in what the first manager had to say and resolved to shoot some more footage for my reel. I already knew I needed to add some dramatic scenes to it but this highlights that need even more.
Bottomline: Gotta get this taken care of and until I do, no more submissions to representation.
Day 224: Reviewed manager contract and made note of 2 sections I don't understand, 1 section I want to amend and 1 section I want to remove. Going to ask around for entertainment lawyer referrals and will hopefully find someone who can review & amend this contract for $150 or less.
Day 223: Read the script for the pilot of 2 Broke Girls and I was pleasantly surprised at how funny it was. The promos aren't funny at all so I wasn't planning to watch the show but now I just might give it a chance. Of course hearing the words in my head could be a completely different experience from watching them come to life with the girls they've cast so we'll see if it stays in the category of new shows to watch or not.
Day 222: Manager meeting with the ex-manager of my friend who referred me. Turns out they came to a monetary agreement that they can both live with and he gave me some tips earlier this week to help me to prepare. While he's still glad he left her since he wants to go out for more guest-star and recurring roles, he says she'll hustle to get me auditions for co-stars and Under 5's {meaning Under 5 lines}, of which I currently don't get any. The meeting went very well and lasted for about an hour and a half. She loved my headshots and the fact that my hair is versatile and in the end she told me she's interested and offered to sign me! She seems like a very sweet woman with a motherly, nurturing vibe and I'd be happy to work with her. However, I took the contract home to look over and will get back to her early next week.
Day 219: Internship. One scene was missing from the sides on
Showfax so all the girls who were auditioning had to get familiar with a page of dialogue on the spot- talk about cold reading.
Day 220: Class- Dramatic Private Practice scene that I adore and plan to use once I start attending agent and cd workshops in the future.
Day 221: TAN Power Group- As always, my favorite part of The Actors Network!
Day 204: Writing Session
Day 205: Internship- learned more about the assistant's story, how she got into casting and where she wants to go from here. Afterwards I had coffee with
Ben Whitehair,
Vida Ghaffari and
Joy Donnell to discuss the new media, self-producing world that we are all active in in some way or another.
Day 206: Class- Cooper & Stone scene. I don't know if this pilot was picked up or not but it reminded me a lot of the show Rizzoli & Isles. I did okay today, just okay. Need to do better next week.
Day 207: Read chapter 4 of Save The Cat
Day 209 - 210: Read chapters 5 & 6 of Save The Cat
Day 200: Visited an invitation store that we may use for the next {and probably final} episode of DWP. Though there were supposed to be 3 more, all signs are telling me to be done with it already so I'm probably gonna end it with this next episode- or episode 7 at the latest. I'll have to rewrite the ending so that it makes sense for the season to end at this point and it won't be as complete as it would have with those additional episodes but it's a money hole that I just can't keep pouring into. I'd rather use that same money and put it towards more acting classes and other projects. Anyhow, I checked out the invitation shop and it's beautiful. It's much smaller than I would like and they want me to have insurance to film there, which I haven't ever had in the past when filming so this is not my first choice. If I can't find anything else though then it will be my backup.
Day 201 - 202: Read the first 2 chapters of Save The Cat, a screenwriting book by Blake Snyder.
Day 203: Broke down scene for class with character thoughts and slight blocking.
