A Good Place To Be

So, a lot of unexpected people wished me a Happy Birthday this year, I'm really happy! Like at my Uncle's business in Riverside, I walked in on Friday and several people said "Happy Birthday" first thing when they saw me! I wouldn't have thought that any of them would have known it was my birthday. Plus I received several very cute E-Cards. And a big thank you to everyone who left me Happy Birthday comments on my blog! :-))

Thursday on set wasn't anything special, we spent all day with Second Unit filming a few clean slate shots (audience reactions without the actors in front of the camera), and a couple of stunt shots. I guess the principle actors were filming all day with the First Unit on a small set they built in the lower utility area just outside the rink itself. I was so completely wiped out on set (partly due to my surfing the internet much too late into the night instead of sleeping, on several occasions). I'm just about ready to be done with this project. We background "Fans" are booked for Monday and Tuesday but Tues is a maybe, if we don't finish everything on Monday. And I think the movie will be finished filming Monday or Tuesday as well.

So I've made some important realizations about several things. First of all, I would love to work with Jon Heder, build a professional friendship with him. And I realized that meeting him on set as a background actor is probably not the best way to achieve that goal, for many reasons. So I did some research, discovered that he and two of his brothers have started a production company, Greasy Entertainment. (I love the picture on their site, it's so frickin' cool!) So, I am planning to send my headshot and resume along with a cover letter to the company. Go me!

Second, I've realized that I haven't been allowing myself to believe that I can actually be a professional in the business, that I am equal as a person to any other actor out there. This is an important attitude to have, as I've written before, so that I can show whoever I audition for that I can be part of their team. So, I give myself permission to feel equal as a person to any other actor.

And with that, and some advice I received from Bob Fraser, I feel like I'm ready to really start going on my career. I wrote to Bob asking his opinion of my submitting to Greasy Entertainment, I was worried about making a good impression with lack of experience on my resume and he wrote back: "You should never 'hold back' when you feel like moving forward. What's the worst that can happen? Your submission is ignored and you're out a buck and a half? You should be submitting to as many production companies, casting directors and projects as you can reasonably afford."

So I'm ready to buckle down and do the work, mailing out my headshots as much as I can afford to, in addition to submitting on Now Casting. I need to get more copies of my current headshots, I'm also planning to have new ones taken soon. I have a better idea now of what type of clothing to wear to suggest my character type (now that I have a better idea of what my character type is), plus in the headshots I currently have, the lighting is extremely natural with lots of shadows, so I'd like to correct that as well. But even so, I've gotten two call backs on my headshots so far (for film student scenework: sex, lies, and videotape earlier this year, and the When Harry Met Sally audition that I wasn't able to attend) out of maybe 20 submissions? I think that's a really good average, especially considering the lighting on my pics isn't as professional as I think it should be.

So I feel like I'm in an optomistic, determined place right now, a good place to be.