Cupcakes, VO, and Call of Duty
Posted on December 13, 2008
Today I brought my commercial agency and the casting office that booked me on Monster.com cupcakes. Succulent, Drool-producing, heaven in your mouth cupcakes from a great place in Pasadena. Why you ask? Not only am I thankful and want to show gratitude to the people that help my career in the form of moist deliciousness, but I also want to stay in their minds. The gratitude is the cake part, and the hopes that they’ll continue to work hard for me and get me more work…the icing.
Had a couple of VO auditions this week. Some commercials, a FOX animated pilot, and the new Medal of Honor (a war game like Call of Duty). They all went pretty well. I wish I would have gotten the sides for the FOX thing so I could prepare, though. My agent is usually great about that. Ho hum. It’s frustrating at times because I audition so often for VO and don’t book much. Such is the nature of the beast. It’s a VERY hard aspect of the industry to break into. You’re up against a TON of other people. I have no clue how VO casting people can listen to so many voice recordings and not get burned out. At least with live actors, say for a commercial, there’s not only their voice, but facial expressions, body language, etc, to keep your attention up. But I’ve always wanted to be a cartoon, so every time I go in I try and give it my best. And I am VERY thankful to be going out on auditions, don’t get me wrong. I just read the above sentence: “It’s frustrating at times because I audition so often for VO and don’t book much.” Sounds like a spoled tool wrote that. Auditions are wonderful gifts and I am humbly thankful for each and every one. Just wanted to clarify.
I just beat Call of Duty…my wonderful agent Marni had the Activision people send me a copy. What a trip!!! To be playing a game I love anyway, and hear myself screaming at myself is, to say the least, a bit surreal. A downfall is…I suck at it. I mean yea, I beat the game, but I’ve got nothing on the online guys. If you aren’t familiar, the new game consoles (Playstation 3, Xbox) have the ability to connect you to the internet, and you can play with or against literally thousands of people online at anytime. These guys are diehards and during a 10 minute round I usually kill about 5 guys. They kill me about 15 times. Yea, a bit of disparity there. Worst of all, most of them have these headsets (in real life, not in the game) so they talk during the match and really rub it in. If I had a headset, I’d say, “Oh, yea? Well, maybe you just killed me, but though I die, my voice lives on!”
***For any Call of Duty: World at War fans out there, you can hear my voice the most in the level where you’re in the plane aiming the turrets at ships and Japanese Zeros.
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The Shoot
Posted on December 8, 2008
The shoot for Monster.com was incredible. I had some pictures taken, but realized that it isn’t the best idea to post them, or to describe the spot in detail until it airs. There has been some nasty ramifications for “leakers” in the past and I don’t wanna be one of those guys, so…
It was great. I had an early call time (when I’m supposed to be there) downtown. Had a killer breakfast.
Okay, so I should say here and now that set food is the best. You can have basically anything you want and there are oh so many choices. For breakfast (I’m just scratching the surface here) you can get a burrito, egg scramble, pancakes, bacon, potatoes, or all of the above. For lunch, you get a ton of different choices for salad, and then usually red meat, chicken, and/or fish. I say and/or cause you can get a daggum orange chicken mahi-mahi ribeye steak if you want. And gourmet veggies galore. Don’t get me started on dessert.
And then there’s craft service. This person sets up a table with all sorts of snacky cakes and goodies. It’s like Wonka set up shop under a tent. And if that wasn’t great enough, if you’re busy on set working and can’t stop by the table, every couple of hours they bring a “walk-around”. In the morning it’s usually a parfait of some sort, and then smoothies, spanikopita, little sandwiches, flatbread pizzas, and on and on. It’s like an appetizer smorgasbord.
Anyway, everyone on set was so great to work with. My hero was a guy named Andy who was my stunt coordinator. Oh yea. You can’t wait to see it now that I said stunt. You may have to wait until February. A little birdy told me that it may be a Super Bowl commercial.
Being a stuntman may not be in my future. Of course I thought about it. There was a stunt coordinator there, and I was doing stunts for Pete’s sake. But I don’t think I did them correctly…see the picture? That is the inside of my thigh. I also had bruises on my wrists and the other thigh, too, but this one’s the beauty. Still in pain. But what sweet pain it is to be a working actor in Hollywood.
It was overall a pretty simple shoot. I had them laughing on most of my takes which is always a good sign on a comedic commercial shoot…obviously. The director really liked what I was doing, and that always makes you feel great. Job well done and all. If you work every day you may get that often, but for us actors, when most of us finally get some work, doing it well tastes good on the bun.
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Lance Armstrong, a Porshe, and some pee
Posted on December 4, 2008
So, yesterday was the fitting. Where they make sure I look cool or whatever. Quickest fitting ever. It took eight minutes. Seriously. But I have to tell you a story about this production company because I’ve run into them before…pun intended…you’ll see.
About 3 years ago I was doing P.A. (production assistant) work on a Dasani, Lance Armstrong spot in Venice…CA. I was kind of the senior P.A., and so when it came time to pull the directors car around, my comrades allowed me the honor. A beautiful navy Porsche Carerra convertible awaited me in the parking garage. The keys felt warm in my clammy hands.
We had paid off the parking garage, which meant that we were the only people allowed in there, and so when I looked in my rear view and saw a car go by I was startled and confused. For those of you who can drive an automatic, you’ll understand me when I tell you that the clutch released about a millimeter of the ground. Anyway, the car goes by, I’m discombobulated, and I forget that I’ve already cut the wheel. And there is a HUGE yellow column right beside my front driver’s side quarterpanel.
The engine revs loudly and the car lurches backward out of the parking space at an askew angle which is a surprise to me. This goes on for less than a second. Then the scraping is heard. I can still hear it now. The whole driver’s side front quarterpanel was mangled in this yellow post-modern art.
When I realized what had happened, I dribbled a little pee. This is customary in situations such as these. My first thought was, “How can I lie my way out of this?” And I entertained those possibilities a minute or two until I realized that this was a character building opportunity and I needed to man up.
I went back to the office, keys in hand, and told my boss what had happened. She laughed. I told her again. She told me she was busy and to get the car. When I told her the third time, she stared at me as she rose from her chair and we were silent as we walked to the director’s Porshe. After seeing the damage, the walk back to the office was weird. I followed about 3 yards behind my boss as she mumbled incoherently to herself about how okay everything was going to be. I wasn’t reassured.
But it did turn out okay. The director was in his late-20’s and made a joke about it, the producer just said, “That’s what insurance is for,” and I felt that choosing the truth instead of a lie worked out for the best…in this situation.
The tie in: The same production company is producing Monster.com that did the Dasani job. I feel like my name is Earl and karma’s been good to me.
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