Character Development

Probably one of the most interesting things I have done in a very long time happened last night. Coby and I met Ben at his apartment with the intention of working through a couple of scenes, but as we got started Ben asked us who we thought our characters were, where did they meet, how long have they been together? We spent the better part of an hour answering those questions and developing the "back story" that needs to be in place for our characters to react to each other. We never broke out the scripts (mainly because Coby and I both thought Ben would have some, and he thought we would bring ours, I seriously thought mine was in the car, but it wasn't, it was trapped at the office). Anyway, I learned a lot about the way Ben writes and his vision of the characters. I had a great time and I left there even more convinced this is going to be a great project.

Friday Night Lights

Well, Weds. came and I sat down to watch Episode 3 Season 3 of Friday Night Lights on Direct TV channel 101. As the party scene began, you can barely make me out, if you know to look, as the coach and wife make the drive up the driveway we walk in front of the vehicle. Once they enter the home, you can see me standing in the middle of the living room looking up and around at this enormous home, It's pretty obvious, and kinda cool. I am standing with a young lady with long blond hair and we are pretty much the only two in the room, its pretty obvious. Later on outside by the pool you can see me just to the right of the Coach , walking toward the camera. Anyway, My mom called the other day, I answered the phone, and the first thing that she said was " I saw you Four times!" of course she was pretty excited, as was I.

I found out the movie I was involved in last year "The Kings of Appletown" has had it's Sneak Premier out in L.A. and as I understand it was really well received by the kids. It is scheduled for a December 12th Release, As of yet I'm not sure if it's going to go Nationwide or just released in certain markets. I am looking foward to it, and have been trying to find a link to a preview, however haven't been able to find it.

I mentioned earlier about being cast in a new Ben Green film with a working title of "The Incident", I got an email a little while ago from Ben, who wants to have a rehearsal this week, so I am pretty stoked that we are moving forward on the project. It's a pretty cool story and should play well. I've been fortunate to work with one of the cast members, and had the pleasure of meeting my "significant other" during the read through, I really think this is going to be a fun movie to film.

My screenplay is at a total standstill, I am going to try and work on it a bit while Jules is out of town this week. I have a severe case of plot block. I have no idea where to take my main character, he's kinda hanging out there needing something to do, so I gotta figure that out. Once I do, I think it will take off pretty quickly from there.

Last Minute Casting

Last night my mom came into Austin for a business meeting, so Jules and I drove down to take her to dinner. We had a great night and great meal and had some much needed time to visit. We decided to stop by her Hotel room for a cup of coffee before the drive home. Around 9:30, while we were visiting, my cell phone rang, on the other end of the line was a casting director that I had never met. She was in need of a last minute addition to the following days call and cast me as a Funeral Patron in the new Claire Danes movie "Temple Grandin". It was a very small, intimate scene, with only about 20 extras and three principals on set. Let me just say that the whole cast and crew were Awesome, from the director to the drivers, everyone was friendly, and very helpful. Also on set with us today were Julia Ormand and Catherine O'Hara, two wonderful ladies. One thing that I will say about Clarie and Catherine both, they are as down to earth as any "stars" I have ever been around, during our lunch break, both grabbed a plate and sat right down in the middle of all 125 of the cast crew and extras to eat. That is not to say that Julia is not also very down to earth and friendly, I just didn't see her there during lunch, however I was very impressed with them all. The day started for me at 5:00 am to drive to Austin to make call on time, we finally wrapped the scene at just past 5:45 pm, It was a very long day but, well worth it.

Since I was on set all day, I had no time at all to work on my screenplay, which is coming along, but slowly. I am looking forward to getting a little further along on it, and everyday I write I "see" the scenes unfolding in my head, I just hope they are as interesting to everyone else as they are to me... till next time.

ScreenPlay

For those that don't know, I started writing a screenplay about a week ago. I have never done anything like this before, but have always been interested in movies, TV, and Theatre, so I challenged myself to do something creative with those moments of downtime, which in my situation are few and far between, however I am trying. Ben Green is a Central Texas film maker who has a new project shooting in November, has written a really cool script, and then cast me in one of the roles. I read his screenplay and was really charged afterward, so I decided to give it a try. It's coming along, slowly, but coming along... I am trying my best to write an interesting and creative script that will leave people feeling like they just got hit by a truck. I am becoming increasingly aware of my characters and their reactions to the situations I am putting them in. I am hoping that once it's done, we can shoot a short film and see what it looks like in real time.
On a totally different note, Friday night Lights called Monday wanting me to come in on Tuesday, and unfortunately I couldn't break away, I had too much to do, however the party scene we shot a month or so ago should air next Wednesday October 15th on Direct TV channel 101. Look for me walking up the staircase of a VERY LARGE House in Dillon Texas just as the Coach and His Wife arrive at the party. There are various scenes inside and outside around the pool during this Booster Party were you should be able to see us. It was a really great shoot and a lot of fun.

Day one. 10/08/08

A little over a year ago I began to fulfill a need that I had ignored just about all my life. Mainly because I had no means to persue it. When I was a child, often I fantasized about being famous, a musician or an actor, I wanted to act, but it was something almost out of reach. About 10 years ago or so, I decided to take matters into my own hands, I taught myself to play guitar, wrote a few songs, and recorded a CD. Thanks to some very talented musicians it sounded pretty good. I ran around the state playing every college bar, frat party, chili cook-off, and festival I could get my band and I into. I essentially went broke paying musicians, hotels, food, and gas to travel to shows. My guitarist/bassist/backup singer/road shrink Mike, was a real trooper, often taking the same cut from the money that I got, which was nothing after expenses. I met and married my wife and decided that the financial instability of the band would create a challenge when it came to trying to provide for anything resembling a roof over our heads, if she could be happy living in a 1985 K5 Blazer, I was GOLD!, however she made it perfectly clear, she would not. So I tucked my tail between my legs and got a job.

Flash forward 8 years to around July of 2007. One of our best friends Megan is an Actress, she got a part in a play called "I hate Hamlet" which Ironically, I can relate to, I HATED READING HAMLET in school! I thought "great another night at Community Theatre" I was very surprised, no, I was Impressed. The amount of talent on the stage that night was impressive, that's the best word for it. I NEVER expected that out of a Community Theatre. After the show we all went to dinner and I admitted to them that I always wanted to act. Megan made the statement that the Theatre is always in need of guys and I should just audition. Of course I said no, I don't have any training, I have no idea what I'm doing and those people are too good, I will just screw things up. After a few days of me saying "That looked like it was fun”, "I would love to do that." "Would they really give me a chance?" Megan and My wife Julie finally got enough and made me read for the new production of Arsenic & Old Lace. I went in and chickened out the first night of Auditions, on the second night the director did a call back for Megan and she told me I was going, of course when I got there, I had to read because the director needed guys in a big way. Long story short I got my first part in a Community Theatrical production, A small part, but a part, which to me was a really big deal, my first audition, I got a role. I had such a great time on that show, met some of the best people in our area, and extremely talented people at that, All of them were very supportive and encouraged me to continue to act.

There was an all female show going on at the theatre, and I had heard a rumor that the NBC Television show Friday Night Lights was looking for Extras. I contacted the casting office and put my name in the hat so to speak. About two days afterwards, I got a call and asked if I could be on set that Tuesday, of course I went, and learned a lot. We did the same thing over and over and over, but we were in and out in about 3 hours and got paid for a full day, so that was pretty cool. I was fortunate enough to meet some really cool people on set and apparently I made an impression on someone because two days after the Friday Night Lights Shoot the phone at the house rang, on the other end of the line was a Casting Agent in L.A. and a friend of someone who met me on the set of Friday Night Lights.
She told me she was casting a movie in New Braunfels, and wondered if I would be interested in being what she called a Featured Extra, an off duty Fireman and Marina Officer. Of course I accepted and began the daily 2 hour commute to New Braunfels. We had to be on set at 6:00 am which meant I left home about 3:30 am. The first two days I learned why actors make so much money. I got on set at 5:45am and pulled off set at 10:15pm drove two hours home to get up in three and a half hours to do it all again. IT SUCKED, after the second day; I stayed with my parents in San Antonio until the weekends. At first there were a ton of extras, over 200 per day, then a select few of us got the call to come in and do a 1 or 2 day shoot, when we got on set there were six of us plus the stars of the movie.
It was at this time we learned our role in the movie, we were the guys swooping in to arrest the bad guys for the finale of the movie. God that was awesome. We were all decked out with fake glocks and tactical gear, and racing around on police boats, it was a great time. I became pretty close with two of my fellow "officers" JP and Rob. JP has done quite a few movies; he was in The Alamo, Last of the Mohicans, Grind house and a few more I can't remember. Rob was the Doctor on the Pilot episode of Friday Night Lights. We get to see each other on the set of FNL all the time; they are a great group of guys and a lot of fun to hang around.

Shortly after the movie wrapped, Me, Julie, Megan, and our two best friends Will & Chris took a week long trip to New York City. Megan was the only person who had been to the City so she was the one in charge, which was pretty weird taking direction from someone who is 15 years younger than you, but she knew her way around the city, and the Subway system, she proved herself invaluable within the first 12 hours of being in the city. We took in some great shows, Wicked, Rent, Avenue Q, and got to see Bebe Newirth and Huey Lewis in Chicago, It was a great vacation, one of my top three. Ever since the day that I first met Megan, she said that she was moving to New York to pursue a Broadway Career. I was a little worried about that until I saw her eyes light up the first night we walked down Times Square, it was obvious, she was home.

When we got home, I decided I wanted to try a larger part in the Theatre. After being in New York, I was hooked on acting, completely and totally. The production of On Golden Pond was being cast at TCT, so I went to read for the part of Bill Ray, the son in law to the main characters of the show. I was so excited when Tim (the director) called me to tell me I got the part, and even more excited to learn at the read through that the lead role of Ethel Mayer would be played by one of the founding members of TCT and a very gifted actress who had roles in Robocop, Road to Perdition, and is very well known within the Chicago Theatre Group.

After On Golden Pond came Harvey... I was beginning to feel like somewhat of a stalker at the Theatre, but was assured that was not the case. I read for the part of Dr. Sanderson, Megan Auditioned as well and I knew she would get Nurse Kelly, she wasn't convinced of that, but I was. I was very happy when Tim called to tell me I got the part of Dr. Lyman Sanderson playing opposite Megan as Nurse Kelly. It was an experience I will always treasure, I learned a lot from her in that role, and a lot about myself. She may not know it, although I try to tell her, she became one of my best friends during that show, and someone I will always be a fan of. Megan moved to New York City in September after a three month stint at the American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco. She has always believed that New York is where she belongs, after seeing her in that element, I would have to agree, I miss her terribly, we all do, but we are all so proud of her and I know she's going to take Broadway on a ride it will never forget.

The group of people involved in the Temple Civic Theatre are some of the best people I have ever met. They are thoughtful, gifted, creative, talented, and committed to being the best they can be. Each and every one of them from the actors on stage, to the props runners back stage are determined to produce the best show night after night. If you are in the Central Texas area, it is well worth your time to take in a show there, I assure you, you will find a talent unlike anything you would expect in a community theatre, and it will bring you back for more.

About three weeks ago, I got a call from Ben Green a Director who has written an original screenplay entitled "The Incident". Tim from TCT put him in touch with me; I went and read for the part, twice. It's a really cool script with an interesting story line; the role is one of the main characters. Last week Ben called to inform me that he would like me to play the part of Will a drug using slacker thief. I can't wait.