Day 195: Wrote a very loose outline for the the first act of our feature film.
Day 196: Listened to the first draft of the score for episode 5 and sent in my notes. Rehearsed with Danette for class this week. Did I say rehearse? More like ran lines because a sister was not prepared. Weak, I know, but it was good to at least say it out loud a few times.
Day 190: Listened to the second draft of the score for episode 4. We should be good to go!
Day 191: Resumed internship with the casting office of a primetime TV show. Now that their summer hiatus is over and they're beginning to cast for episodic season in the fall, I'm coming back once a week to help out and learn as much as I can. Later, I met with Tara for a writing session.
Day 192: Class at SKS: Today we did on-camera work and it's very easy to see I still have a lot of practicing to do to get to the point where I can be truly still and laser focused while on camera.
Day 193: Emailed manager to reschedule meeting... later found out her relationship with the colleague who referred me has hit a rather sour note so she might not be returning my calls. After getting some of the details of their sour experience I won't be following up with her any further.
Day 194: Reserved the screenwriting book "Save the Cat" from the library so that I can get my hands on it once it becomes available. Read some of the articles in the archives at
Go Into the Story.
Day 188: Broke down my sides for this week's scene for class from Castle. Never seen this show before but I know it's a procedural so I'll have to check it out by Tuesday. Paid much closer attention to the punctuation this week as I broke down every single line and wrote the thoughts my character would have at that moment.
Day 189: Ran lines for class with a friend who's in a different class at the same studio. She's doing a couple of scenes from the hilarious sequel to Knocked Up so it's always fun to see what other people are working on. She's one of the few people who lives nearby, literally down the street, so we're going to try to rehearse together at least one time each week.
Day 186: Today I was supposed to go to
TAN for my monthly power group meeting and sadly I had to miss it. On the bright side, I missed it because I got a part-time gig doing reality TV transcriptions from home for a production company. It's only 2 days a week and it may only be for this week alone but if I do a good job they could use me again in the future. So I was literally glued to my computer desk at home all day. Stephen took the car so I wouldn't have to stop to drop him off and pick him up and since the boys are back he took them to Stevie's daycare today. Once done {at 8:30 pm} I went straight to work at my night job. We were laid off for a week but now we're back and thankfully we've left downtown and moved to a cooler & closer spot in Hollywood. So acting or writing-related tasks today? No. But I do score big in the day job department, which will help continue to fund my {many} acting expenses.
Day 187: Today was much like yesterday except I did take a moment to organize my inbox. This was monumental. I have so many people to follow up with about so many different things and I get crap in my email all day long, some relevant, some not. So I created a few extra filters and organized my labels even better than they were before. I can already feel the level of anxiety I have when checking my email go down because my brain now has some peace when I look at it.
Day 182: Finished writing my untitled
Natural Hair short film. Been placed on the backburner for so long that I finally made myself focus to finish it. Will still have to do some re-writing but at least the first draft is done.
Day 183: Brainstormed story ideas for the feature film I'll be writing with Tara. Brainstorming's fun. It can take you in so many different directions. I'll be able to use some of these ideas for future scripts if we don't use them for this one.
Day 181: Watched two documentaries in ESPN's 30 for 30 series.
One was the story of Len Bias, the young basketball player who died one night after trying cocaine while celebrating being drafted into the NBA. Such a tragic story that holds so many lessons for today's youth, really for all of us, the main one being that you don't always get a second chance when you make a bad decision. On a side note, I remember my grandma warning me about him when I was younger and she's soooo not into basketball- that's how much of an impact his story had when he died.
The other documentary, The Two Escobars, was absolutely fascinating! As someone who has always been drawn to the incredible rise and inevitable fall of mobsters, this film held my complete attention from beginning to end. It tells the tale of both Pablo Escobar, the richest gangster ever and Andres Escobar, the compassionate soccer player, both from Columbia and how their lives intertwined. I love the fact that it showed both sides of Pablo, the humanitarian who helped the impoverished people of Columbia, as well as the inhumane crime boss who's responsible for thousands of deaths. I'm not a soccer fan so I'd never heard of Andres but I won't ever forget his story now that I've seen this film. If you have cable you can check it out on On Demand for free right now, otherwise it may be on Netflix.
Day 180: Attended a 4th of July potluck at Tara's apartment and had an hilariously good time! Spent most of the night talking about TV shows we love {Currently
Game of Thrones and
The Killing. Previously and one of my ALL-TIME favorites
The Wire}, awesome documentaries {
Food Inc,
Sicko and
Waiting for Superman}, and swapped stories about missing out on authentic Mexican churros- don't ask. It was so nice to get together with other actors, mostly anyway, and talk about other things besides our acting careers. Stephen actually enjoyed himself, which doesn't always happen when I take him out to meet my actor friends so it made the night so much more fun.
Day 179: Met with
Tara T. for tea at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf and had a lively discussion about Brit Marling. If you've never heard of her {I hadn't until a few days earlier} she's basically the latest posterchild for DIY filmmaking. She wrote 2 movies with her roommates, both of which were accepted into Sundance and will very likely be distributed. She's now repped by CAA {one of the biggest agencies around} and is getting offers for roles in films that she wasn't able to even get in the room to audition for in the past.
Inspiring? Yes.
Do-able? Why not?
The moral of her story is that if you've been blessed with the talent to make something happen, why wait for someone else to do it for you?
So we ended our tea date determined to collaborate on a feature film. I've been asked multiple times to collaborate with others but this is the first time I've agreed to do it because it's the first time I've felt like it could actually work. Our sensibilities and the way we set about doing things are very similar so now it's just a matter of actually DOING it. Sitting down and writing the damn thing. Guess it's time to go ahead and purchase that "Save the Cat" screenwriting book I've been hearing so much about.
"Don't hate the actor, hate the scene." - Stephen's words to me as I grumbled loudly when he tried to watch Honey starring Jessica Alba. I've yet to watch the entire film and doubt I ever will.
