Rats of Hameln

So it's been ages since my last post and I feel so terrible since this is usually the way I start my posts. lol. But once I am a little behind, then I fall a little more behind and then it's just daunting because there are SO many things that I have to write about. If I could just stay on top of it, then I wouldn't have to play catch up! lol. So I've decided to try and write about each individual project or event instead of trying to cram it all into one long post.

So this post is about my most recent project - a short film titled The Rats of Hameln. (Pronounced Ham-lyn). I am told it was inspired by the Pied Piper tale and there are a lot of allusions to it. The director/writer, Elvis Chirinos, worked on Boiling Pot with me and is actually the person responsible for bringing me onto that project! He wrote the short with me in mind, but I still had to audition for it. It was a casual audition - outside of a Jamba Juice near my apartment. He filmed it on his phone, but it died and I ended up having him film it on mine and then sent the video to him. It's the first audition of mine that I've ever been able to watch afterwards. lol. After reading the script though, I wondered what that meant he thought of me, cause the character is kind of evil. lmao.

Well, I got the part (just in case you didn't see that coming even though I'm writing an entire post about the shoot haha).

The shoot took place over two days - a couple of weeks apart. Then a third day - only about an hour and a half - was needed to re-record some audio.

I don't want to give anything away - because there's a few twists in the film - but basically, I play a villainess (though of course, I think I'm in the right). Val (my character)'s boyfriend is conflicted about the life they live and that leads to a few surprises. There's a German scientist, love, guns, and blood! I even speak a little bit of German in it. Okay, okay, it's only one word, but still! It was my idea to have Val say something in German. :P

One of the things I really liked about it was the little details that Elvis really thought about. For example: My character always had something with lace on, and something red on. My wardrobe was entirely black, white and grey with small pops of red. Like a red bow in my hair or red garter.

Even though it was only a short, it was one of the best projects I've worked on! :)

The first day on set, we were in one of the crew members' homes. I had to drop my husband off on base that morning because he was leaving for month-long training. So I didn't arrive on set until 10:00am ish. I can't really remember for sure - but I know after dropping Ethan off, I went home to take a nap because I woke up around 3:00am to drop him off. lol. I was on set until about 7:00pm I believe. So that was a fairly short day. At least in comparison to the average day in this industry, which is about 10 hours.

Day one of the shoot.
I had red lips for most of the shoot as well.
I loved my costume and even got to keep some of it! yay! 

This scene was for a flashback so they made me look a little bit younger with a braid and a "fresh" face. 

Loved the fat braid and the glittery bow! :)

Second day of the shoot was at UC Riverside in the Paleontology lab. I arrived at 9:00am and didn't leave until after 1:00am. It was a 16 hour shoot! Almost double the time we anticipated it would be. But that's the entertainment industry for you! Shoots almost always go over (not always over by 7+ hours, but they almost never take the time you think they will).

Most of the crew for this project also worked on Boiling Pot, so it was fun to work with people you already kind of knew. Although, I didn't really know any of them. Since on BP, I was mostly background and tried to remain professional and not step out of line and try and talk to any of them too much. But I recognized all of them. lol. The actor portraying my boyfriend, Ken Shiode, was in Boiling Pot as well (in a larger capacity than I was). The makeup artist, Brittany Durlach, who has become a friend, did makeup and hair for BP as well (for Danielle Fishel). The shoot took place about an hour from my apartment, so it was funny to find out that she lives right down the road from me! She works at Jeffrey Michaels Salon - which is fabulous as well. After the shoot I had her cut and highlight my hair since it had grown out a little since getting my head shots (cheaper than getting new head shots, that's for sure!)

Fossils at UC Riverside!

Day two of the shoot, I wore a creepy mask!!

I even beat up one of the scientists! Jenavee Shay also worked on Boiling Pot as background with me!

My favorite makeup artist EVER, Brittany Durlach, (also from Boiling Pot), works on the mask. 

Some fake blood got in my hair, and since I had an hour long drive before I could get home to shower, I had it in a bun. Upon taking it out of the bun, it didn't move. :P

Well a week or so after the second day of filming, I had to go back to UCR to record some audio. Since I had a mask on, some of the audio didn't come out right, plus, there was a loud fan constantly running in the lab which made it harder to hear. We used the boom mic about halfway through that shoot but all the audio before we began using it, I had to redo. It was made easier by the fact that I didn't have to match my lip movements since I was wearing a mask. Lol. I did have to match the sound of my walk though! But that didn't take too long, and I even got to see a little bit of the film while it was still in production, which was a first!

Well, I can't wait to see the final cut!! And don't worry, I'll definitely be posting it once it's up!
Thanks for reading!

Blogging and Networking

So, since my last post I have done a lot of research and reading about how to Tweet and internet-network and blog (etc) effectively. One of the tips I read was to read similar blogs to yours. Honestly (and I'm so embarrassed to say) it never really crossed my mind to do that. Don't know why. But I did some googling and found a couple of blogs - one of which was REALLY helpful because she (Brandi Ford) listed a TON of acting blogs.  Her blog is fabulous - love the way it looks - and has a lot of great recommended reads, resources, etc. I randomly scrolled down the list of about 40 blogs and opened maybe 10-15 of them. I was mostly interested in female actors' blogs since their experiences in the business will be more similar to mine. I found a couple of good ones, a couple of great ones and closed out the ones that didn't have anything that caught my eye. (Which now makes me think I should revamp my blog to do the same thing. Kind of like resumes in the "real world" and headshots, reels, and resumes in the "acting world").

One of the pages I kept open, after reading a couple of posts, I realized was Stephen Amell's (star of Arrow). I'm still surprised that I found his blog amidst a bunch of actors who are like me - struggling, essentially nobodies. Well, anyway, I emailed Brandi and asked to have my blog listed as well, she agreed (yay!) and I don't know how she determines what order she lists them, but for whatever reason, my blog is near the top. (Secretly happy about that! Okay... not so secretly. lol). Hopefully my blog will get some more traffic from that.

Another tip I read was to promote others. I'd tried to do that already, but I'm now trying to do it more. I tag people in my tweets and mention their blogs or pages or work they've done, I retweet them, and mention them in this blog, etc.

Lira Kellerman has a great blog with great articles on how to use Actor's Access effectively. First let me say that if you are an actor - especially in the LA area - you need to know about Actor's Access. She has some great tips on how to maximize your chances - what to do and what NOT to do when it comes to headshots, reels, notes, etc. Now I won't steal any of her thunder and tell you the whole article. I just hope I've peaked your interest enough to go read it now. :) She also has a great list of gift ideas for actors. To anyone who's interested... *ahem* I love this super cute crutch necklace (to remind the actor to "break a leg).

Briefly, other articles I have found on the twitterverse to be helpful:

Seven Tips for Surviving the (Independent) Film Industry

Twittering for Actors

8 Steps to Actor Happiness

Batgirl Audition

So at the end of last week, I had an audition for the character of Barbara Gordon for a tv pilot. I was SO excited when I heard about the audition - I did as much research as possible (as recommended by the director) and checked out The Dark Knight Returns from the library - that is the comic that the world of the pilot is based on, even though the character Barbara Gordon is not in that comic. So after reading that, I also checked out Batgirl: Year One and Birds of Prey: Of Like Minds.

I rehearsed the sides they gave me over and over and even filmed it a couple of times so I could watch myself and try and see what needed work. Then the day of, I drove to Colton - almost to San Bernadino - and had my audition. I was the last one to audition for the role, which could be good and bad. Good because I'll be the easiest one for them to remember, bad because they could've been tired or already seen another actress that wowed them and they'd already decided on her. Well after waiting in front, I was brought to the back where practically 20 people were sitting to watch the audition. I read the scene with who I'm assuming is a crew member, it was obvious he wasn't an actor. After we finished, another crew member (director or casting director possibly?) asked someone off to the side of the group if they wanted to "give it a go" and then a man came up to me and he was introduced to me as the lead actor playing Richard Grayson (Nightwing, the original Robin) and then we did the scene together. They had also given me a cold read for another character (Helena Bertinelli/Huntress) and I read that with Grayson as well. They thanked me and I left. I was told that they would probably make their decision by the end of the next week... so if I don't hear anything by Sunday I guess I didn't get it. But I'm not banking on getting it - I never do - cause then you're just set up to be more disappointed. I always anticipate rejection so that if I do book a role, I'm pleasantly surprised. :) 

I wore green, hoping that that might subconsciously make them more likely to pick me, or consciously if they noticed. Because the character Barbara Gordon is drawn in green A LOT!

A lot of my Facebook fans were excited for me - my inner nerd was geeking out too. :P So, just crossing my fingers but, again... just expecting rejection. But I would so love to play Babs. After reading the comics and the research online... I love the character and think I'd be a great fit for it!!

Boiling Pot, Spectrum Agent, Life

So I can't even remember the last time I posted it's been so long. =/
Just had to look it up - it was December. Boy am I behind.

Well, let's see... since I last posted, I had new headshots taken by Deidra Fahey, who took Megan Fox, Jennifer Lawrence, Mila Kunis, Britt Robertson, Mitchel Musso etc's headshots.

I had some auditions, I did some fun photo shoots with my friend Brianna, who is a photographer.... Of course celebrated Christmas and New Year... and then in January I started working on Boiling Pot, which is an independent film about racism on college campuses - based on true events that happened in 2008. Danielle Fishel (Topanga in Boy Meets World), Davetta Sherwood (The Young and the Restless), Louis Gossett Jr (An Officer and a Gentleman), M. Emmett Walsh (Christmas with the Kranks) were starring in it. I was working for free as background because they said that there was the possibility of a speaking role. Well after about 7 or 8 days on set, I got the line "purple drank" at the "racist" party. That same day I also got some featured time with two of the principal actors and one other female background actor. I feel like I got along really well with the producer and director (brothers - Ashmawey Productions) and think they liked me (they did invite me to the wrap party) and hope that they will want to work with me again in the future in a much larger capacity. :) I loved working on that set - everyone was so nice and everyone knew who I was which I have to admit THRILLED me because they didn't know every "background" actors names - even the other ones who also got lines. lol. I was especially surprised when the big terrifying DP (Director of Photography/camera guy) knew my name (he said something like "Laura move over there" lol) - he was very intimidating to work with. I kind of had an inner competition going with all of the other female background actors that got one-liners - as I'm sure they did too - BUT the DP didn't know one other girl's name which, I'm sad to admit, made me secretly gleeful. :P

Anyway, once that wrapped, I almost fell into signing a contract with a skeezy modeling agency. A friend recommended them, but she's been in the business less time than I have so I shouldn't have trusted her. My manager looked over the contract they sent, which was confusing and raised some red flags, and there was no website or info on the agent. After my manager looked into it some more he basically told me "hell no" and that I should tell them I would "never" be signing with them. Lol. I guess I kind of just got blinders on, and I always try to see the best in people and think positively and that is why I have a manager. To think realistically and keep me grounded. lol. One of my "friends" (more like an acquaintance) signed with that "agency" and is supposedly going to be working for Fredericks of Hollywood. But she also did a lot of promotions which is not what I'm into and worked at a porn convention. So I dunno. lol.

I worked on the set of Bullet one day as well - an indie starring Danny Trejo. I thought that Robert Rodriguez  was producing it (he produced Machete, Grindhouse, Spy Kids) but actually Robert Rodriguez was producing it. (Muy confusing, no?) Well, this Robert Rodriguez was very nice, I had a nice conversation with him - he's a former banker - and he told me to send him my "stuff" (reel, headshot, resume, etc). The 1st AD (Assistant Director) also told me to send him my "stuff" and he then invited me to first "crash" the party they were having after wrapping and then invited me to the "official" wrap party. My husband thinks he was just trying to hit on me, but I like to think that he thought I was hardworking and talented and saw potential in me. :P lol.

From the set of Bullet, taken by the Casting Director. I got to sit next to (and talk to) John Savage (he is center, I am to his left)!

Well anyways after that near-fiasco with the skeevy agency my manager got me a meeting with Spectrum Talent, whom I met with before Christmas. He wanted me to meet with her on Tuesday, but my husband and I were supposed to have a roommate moving in that day - so it was scheduled for Wednesday. (Then she decided to move in on a different day, but that's a story for another day). Well that meeting took place yesterday. The day did not start off well. I woke up late, so left without eating breakfast. I got french toast sticks at Burger King and proceeded to spill syrup on the crotch of my dress. = o I wiped it up as best (and as safely) as possible driving down the 5 and cringed inwardly knowing that with traffic, I wouldn't have enough time to go to a Starbucks or something to try and clean the stain in the bathroom. My manager called to tell me the meeting had been backed up an hour (from noon to 1:00) so I called my friend Catherine who went to Sweet Briar with me and lives in LA and asked if she was able to get lunch with me. So I arrived in Beverly Hills and drove around for half an hour trying to find parking (either every street with free parking was full or you couldn't park on on Wednesdays because of street cleaning).

I finally found a spot and then found this adorable cafe - Lazy Daisy Cafe - (which reminded me of Sweet Briar, we had a Daisy Cafe too) and unfortunately they didn't have a bathroom in which I could try and clean the now crusted syrup stain on a very unfortunate location. lol. Well I chilled there and ordered a salad and waited for Catherine to arrive. We got to have a nice conversation and I was able to take my mind off of the upcoming meeting. I know that if I had to sit there alone, I would've just thought about the meeting and drove myself crazy with nerves. But I didn't thanks to Catherine. :) Well I was able to scrape most of the crusty syrup off with a knife - lord knows what the other dining patrons thought I was doing down there... And get to the office twenty minutes early. Cheryl - the agent - wasn't there yet so I sat and waited and tried not to make myself nervous. Waiting is the worst. =/ I tried to remember all that the other agent at Allensworth told me to do and all the little tidbits I picked up from watching actresses be interviewed by Jay Leno. Course the only thing I could really remember was a funny story Olivia Munn told about how she made herself better at auditions (also, another story for another time, but I can just say it was not relevant to me or my situation). lol.

Well she arrived and we went into the conference room. After the initial small talk and such: "How are you?" "Good, you?" "I had wrist surgery" "Oh no! Carpal tunnel?" "Yes." "My mom had that." "It was really severe and now because of the surgery I have no feeling in my fingers." "Better be careful in the kitchen." "LOL. *chop*" (she really did LOL. haha.)... well after all that, she told me she really liked me the last time we met and wanted to meet to make sure we reconnected (my manager later told me she also wanted to meet to see how committed I was) - and then said she wanted to give our partnership a try and would email me the contract. I didn't even need to do my other monologue (which I prepared) or give her the whole "about myself" spiel (which I also prepared as per the agent at Allensworth's instructions)! The rest of the meeting was just her telling me what I needed to do - add more headshots to some casting sites and my demo reel - and email some of those sites to add the agency to my profile - etc. So, in case that you are not able to discern from the last few sentences, I'll be blunt. I WAS SIGNED BY A TALENT AGENCY!!! :D YAYYY. lol. She will be submitting me for both Commercial and Theatrical (my goal is theatrical - which is TV and Film, not actually theater lol). So hopefully once I get the signed contract back to her, I will start getting some auditions! And then hopefully I will also book them. lol.

Well, I need to print said contract and sign it and get it in the mail!!

Thanks for reading this muy lengthy post.

I also now have a twitter account:
https://twitter.com/LauraAnnRussell

xoxo