Money vs Time

When it comes to film making you either need time or money.  It is possible to make a good film with very little in your budget, but I promise it will cost you a lot of time.  That's why when you start going down the road of producing your own stuff, make sure it is something you feel passionate about.  You have to love it because if you want it to be good get ready to give most of your life over to it.

If you have money, you can hire people to do all the nitty-gritty work; if you are broke like me then you need time to do it all by yourself.  It means driving all over creation to find a cheap pair of scrubs for a costume, sending hundreds of emails to find a few people willing to be extras, and getting up extra early in order to borrow a friend's printer to get copies of all the paperwork you need. 

Doing all this helps lower your costs, but I have yet to master truly no budget film making.  Incidentals always come up.  Things like batteries and printer ink and paper all seem to run out halfway through any production.  Plus, you always have to spend money to feed your cast and crew.  That is generally more than half of my budget on any short I film.  There are those people who I'm sure can sweet talk companies into sponsoring these things for them.  This is not a talent I've mastered.  (If you have: want to produce my next short?)

Now you're thinking, what about equipment?  Cameras, lights, sound equipment, and editing software all cost money.  For me, I decided it was logical to start investing in these things and started collected various pieces of equipment over the last few years and at every holiday and birthday that is what I ask for.  I don't have the fanciest stuff, but it works.  Generally, we try to use ambient lighting as much as possible and I write things based on what I already have access to (so no period pieces requiring crazy costumes or special effects.) 

It is also possible to get a free crew of people looking for credit who can bring their own equipment with them.  A great way to meet these type of people is by helping out on other people's sets.  It's always good to have talented people with film equipment owe you a favor.  But, if you ask me, the best thing is to learn how to do as much as you can on your own so you aren't relying on other people to get your project done.

Get a camera, start filming around your house, play around with the settings and the lighting, see what you can do on your own.  Get a copy of Final Cut and fiddle around with it until you learn how to edit your own stuff.  There are tons of instructional videos on YouTube that will show you how to do just about everything on Final Cut.

I know it sounds like a lot of work and that's because it is.  But, when you get to watch something you created, I promise it's worth it!

What are you working on now?

Yep, that is one of the most dreaded questions for actors.  Right up there with, Have you been in anything I would've seen?

Jobs for actors tend to be few and far between.  A good year for an average working actor would be about four jobs.  Unless one of those jobs is as a regular on a TV show, there is a lot of down time.

Of course, you are doing things like going to classes or on auditions.  But, answering the question with a list of auditions or a description of how you were really close getting this one role, but at the last minute they decided to cast the director's girlfriend, leads to blank stares and polite nods.

Let me tell you how I would answer this question:  We are in post-production on a five minute short that I wrote and shot last weekend.  I am in pre-production on a film that I've been working on for about 6 months.  We are going to shoot in two weeks.  Plus, I am in a play that has been running once a month for over a year.

That sounds pretty impressive, right?  It's all because I am being proactive by creating my own work.  It's easy in this town to sit back and wait for your agent to call but if you do that you may be sitting around a long time.

You don't have to look like a deer in headlights the next time someone asks you what you are working on.  Start creating on your own.  If you don't know where to begin, then find people to work with who do.  Form your own group of creative types and start working on something.

What I learned during the 72 Hour Film Festival.

This weekend I worked with a group to put together a movie for the Playhouse West 72 Hour Film Festival.  We were given a synopsis on Friday and had the weekend to write, direct, and edit the movie.  Here is what we made: Grow a Pair.

Here are some of the lessons I learned:

1. You can make a film for less than $100.
2. Don't Piss Off Your Editor: Make sure you always, always, always slate and that you can see the whole slate in the shot.
3. Even if you think you will never in a million years use the sound from a shot, just go ahead and record sound anyways.
4. Syncing sound sucks.  If you have $150 to spare get PluralEyes.  Trust me.
5. If you can use the ambient light, do it.  You can't imagine how much time you save not setting up lights.
6. High heel platform shoes and wood floors make for major sound issues.
7. Zyrtec is a necessity if you have cats on set.  Allergies can sneak up on cast members.
8. Office roller chairs make terrible dollies.
9. If your movie needs to have a maximum running time of 5 minutes 10 seconds, better to err on the side of a shorter than 5 page script.
10. Generally, a crew of five is all you need unless you are filming a car chase or building implosion.  More people than that can get in the way.
11. Don't be too precious with your script.  Film is a collaboration and be open to everyone, you never know where great ideas will come from.
12. The next time you think you don't have the time to make a film, remember you just did one in a weekend.

I am so very proud of the little film we put together.  A shout out to everyone who came out to play with us this weekend.  Great job, everyone!

What Makes Art so Important? (or why I became an actor.)

Right after 9/11 happened the whole world seemed to stop.  The only thing on television and radio was the news.  I hated leaving my living room because I was afraid to miss a minute of the coverage and even refused to turn my TV off when I was going to sleep.  For days we became a nation of news junkies.  No one seemed to know when was okay to start airing something other than the images of the Towers and the Pentagon that are now ingrained in everyone’s collective memory.   

In the days following 9/11, entertainment seemed so trite and unnecessary.  But, eventually all the stations went back to airing their regular programs.   

And as much as I can't forget the footage of that terrible day, I also remember Jon Stewart on the Daily Show a week later asking “Are you okay?” and Dave Letterman getting choked up explaining why he decided to put The Late Show back on air. 

Today, it seemed silly to write a blog about how to be a better actor because after yesterday’s news how trivial does that sound?  But, then I remembered that it was the entertainers, the actors, the comedians, the writers, and the musicians who helped mend a very wounded country 10 years ago.
 

I believe the entertainers helped to bring us back from the brink.  They became the ones we looked to on how to go back to our lives after the tragedy.  They showed us that what we were feeling was the same as everyone else in this country.  They helped us grieve and even begin to heal. 

The world needs artists as much as it needs scientists and doctors.  Art, whether it’s a painting in the Louvre, a musical on Broadway, or a crime drama on CBS, provides people with a way to relate, reflect, and give meaning to the world around us.

So, today's blog is for all you artists, writers, actors, musicians, comedians, and entertainers out there to remind you that what you do is important!  Don’t ever let anyone tell you it’s not.   

**Dedicated to all the brave men and women fighting for our country and protecting our freedoms.  I promise we will do our best to keep entertaining you.**

 
 

Why should you listen to me?

First off, you probably shouldn't.  In this town, anybody who says they know anything is probably lying and trying to sell you something.  In Hollywood there are no hard and fast rules and when there are "rules" you can always find someone who has broken them and made it.  I am just an actor who has done this long enough to have made most of the mistakes an actor can make and for all the mistakes I haven't made, just give me time.

I once read (and I don't remember where, so this is me trying to quote it as best I can) that "anyone can act, that's why you see so many people getting off the bus in Hollywood trying to be an actor and so few people getting off the bus in Houston trying to be an astro-physicist."  I think that is one of the amazing things about this business, anyone can "make it."  But, for every fresh-off-the-bus-actor who is offered a series regular role on the next "Friends" there are literally thousands who go home after two years of waiting tables, never knowing how to even get close to being in that small circle of working actors.

Just to be clear, I am not one of those people who gets to make a living being a "working actor."  I have a survival job, but I have gotten paid to act on rare occasions and it's like heroin, I work the survival job in order to pay for my few hits.  That's why you have to love it more than anything else you could possibly do.

There are ways to slowly chip away at the inner circle of Hollywood elite and after a lot of work you might find yourself among them.  You have to understand that it is a life long process.  If you are willing to sacrifice and put in the time, you can make it - whatever "making it" means.

I am starting this blog to share with you the bumps I have hit along my journey, in hopes that you can learn from the mistakes I've made.  In return, I only ask that when you are accepting your Oscar that you give me a shout out.