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

Shoots, Agent Meeting, Charity Event

Alright, so it's been far too long since my last post (I really do seem to start every post this way). But, not much has happened. It's the holiday season so I've been busy.
But, I got a new job as a (part-time) Nanny for a wonderful family and their neighbors want to hire me as well for the days I'm not already Nanny-ing.

My manager got me another meeting with an agent, this time Allensworth Entertainment - it is next Wednesday. He told me that my meeting with Spectrum Talent went well but they aren't signing new talent now. (Not sure if that's a nice little lie or not but oh well). One of my manager's other clients had a meeting with Spectrum the same day as me and is now signed with Allensworth. So, hopefully, my meeting will also go well. I don't feel great about my demo reel - the quality of my taped monologues is not great, but it's all I had to work with. =( But I am very critical of myself and so my demo reel will never be perfect - and the same goes for my headshots and resume.

Speaking of headshots, the agent at Spectrum that I met with said mine are not LA quality, and I was going to get new ones eventually anyway (hopefully sooner rather than later). And I know which photographer I want, but it's like $425 for a shoot with her (Deidhra Fahey) - on sale now for $300. BUT she's amazing, and has done headshots for some Disney stars and a couple other big-name actors (when they were at the start of their careers) such as Megan Fox, Jennifer Lawrence, Mila Kunis, Britt Robertson (The Secret Circle), Mitchel Musso (Hannah Montana), the T-Mobile girl (Carly Foulkes), Mackenzie Foy (Renesmee in Breaking Dawn) etc.

I had a photographer on Model Mayhem contact me and ask if I would be interested in doing a headshot shoot. Not as good as Deidhra Fahey (who is?) but it would be free, help build my portfolio, and would at least tide me over til I can afford new ones.
I was also contacted by a designer of a Bridal accessories line (Petal and Thorn) asking for me to model some of their new products - and I'd be getting paid. YAY!
Thirdly, I was contacted by a photographer who wants to do a "Red" themed beauty/glamour shoot, whatever that means. Unpaid, but it would definitely be something different to add to my portfolio.

I need to start studying with a local acting studio soon. Grr. Man acting is expensive! :( Well, there are a few local studios, and I think I know which one I want, but I'm so afraid that I'll waste my money cause it won't be a "good enough" studio for the LA industry. I really do think too much and worry too much.
Regardless though, I need to get with a studio soon, and I really don't want to drive to LA once or twice a week for classes and then throw on driving to auditions (hopefully) and meetings. I wouldn't mind driving for auditions, I didn't mind driving 2 hours to auditions when I was in VA, but after driving 2 hours for acting lessons once a week (while in VA), I don't want to do that again. I know I shouldn't mind driving that far for lessons cause it's helping my career, and I do enjoy lessons/classes, but I really don't like driving, and if I have the option/opportunity to take classes closer to home...

Oh, and my manager sent me a link/invitation to this Red-Carpet toy drive for LA Children's Hospital at this club in LA next week. Kiss My Ass (Kiss cover band) is playing. It sounds fun, and I'd love to do a red carpet type of event and see what that's like (even though I'm a nobody, I can still pretend lol), but it doesn't start til 7:00 and I have to work the next morning and have that meeting with the agent the next day. Plus, since my husband has to work the next day, I'd have to go by myself and I never like going to social events/parties alone. It's not like a ton of celebrities would be there either - I think last year they had the stars of Storage Wars come but actors like Angelina Jolie and Robert Downey Jr will most likely not be there. That wouldn't be the reason I would go though, but it would make it a little more exciting.

Well, I have a "surprise" shoot today that I need to start getting ready for. "Surprise" as in, for my husband. Nothing racy or anything! Just some cute Christmas-type photos with a photographer I've worked with before (Brianna Noelle Photography). Plus, Tinisha Portillo is supposed to be there as well, and I have yet to meet her in person. Lol.

Thanks for reading!

Vampire photo shoot and Spectrum Talent agent meeting

Alright, so since my last post, not much has happened in the way of my acting career (hence why it has been so long since my last post lol). For the last month I did a lot of unpacking and setting up the apartment, as well as got a job at Macaroni Grill. I had barely even begun to look for any acting or modeling gigs, but I did have one photo shoot to help build a photographer - Brianna Noelle Photgraphy's - portfolio (and mine).
Here are a couple pics from the shoot  - which was only little over a week ago. It was a lot of fun and I got to meet some other local models - Valentai Cook and Shaundra Olson are both Marine wives and beginning to make a name for themselves in the online community (as in, they have followers on Facebook lol). Plus, they seem to be fairly busy and book a lot of modeling jobs. Whether they are paid or not, I do not know, but good for them regardless! :) They were both very nice girls.

With Shaundra

With Shaundra again

With Valentai

Anyways, about 4 days ago (on Wednesday), I received a phone call from my manager about meeting with a talent agent the next day (Thursday). I was a little panicked and stressed about my husband coming home from his deployment on Friday and still had a lot to do, but I agreed to set up the meeting. He said he would finalize the time and get back to me, and the next morning he emailed and said that they had an emergency and had to cancel. So, honestly, I was a little relieved because that morning I also found out that my husband would be coming home about 12 hours earlier than expected, so I had a LOT to do that day in preparation (as in, finish unpacking, clean the apartment, begin cooking his requested meal and dessert, do laundry and get his car cleaned. I managed to get almost all of that done (didn't get to unpack all the books, but that was low on my list of priorities anyway). Friday morning, I took the dogs to the PetsHotel and scheduled them for a bath and brush at the grooming salon and then went to base to wait for my husband to arrive. After waiting for about 2 hours, his unit finally showed up! Yay! To make a long story short, we went home and a few hours later picked up the dogs. The next day I had an interview with a family to potentially be a nanny for (my third interview of the kind in the last week) and then today, after a discussion with my husband, quit my job at Macaroni Grill (which, I felt terrible about and it caused me a lot of stress just thinking about quitting after only 4 shifts), but it looks like I will be -hopefully- getting a higher-paying job as a nanny/babysitter which I would enjoy a lot more and which would give me the kind of schedule I would prefer. Also, Macaroni Grill kind of wasn't completely honest with me about what kind of shifts I would be able to work. When they interviewed me, I told them I had completely open availability (which was true) but that I wanted to work mostly lunches. They said that that was fine and that they had a variety of schedules available. I know that it is a chain restaurant and that I would most likely have to work an occasional evening or weekend shift, but assumed that the servers with seniority would prefer the evening and weekend shifts anyway cause you make more money then. Well, before my husband came home I spoke to a different manager about scheduling, and she basically said that not working weekends and/or evenings was "not going to fly" and that I would HAVE to work Saturday or Sunday. She also said something that was kind of a compliment - that I would definitely have to work evenings and/or weekends if I was capable of it, and she thought that I was "highly capable." So, yay I am a good server, I should be after like 3 years, but dangit! Why do I have to be so good? lol. Just kidding. Well it may not seem like a big deal to some people, but my husband and I do not want to be one of those couples that work jobs with completely opposite schedules and never get to see each other. We have discussed it at length before because my previous job as a Pet Trainer required me to work evenings and weekends only (I never worked a daytime shift) and I felt like we hardly ever spent time together (I would leave before he got home and he would only be awake for about half an hour after I got home because he would wake up so early in the morning). Well, we would rather I make a little less money but have a better schedule, than potentially make more money and never get to see each other. Of course, there is always an exception to the rule. If the job that had me working evenings and weekends was my dream job, or you know, acting and filming a tv show or movie or something (and getting paid for it), then of course, we would live with it. But we were not going to live with that kind of schedule for a waitressing position. So, I quit. Man, that was kind of long-winded. 

Anyways... this morning I got a time for a meeting with the talent agent at Spectrum Talent from my manager - tomorrow morning (which, incidentally was at the same time I was supposed to be at work for my final test at Macaroni Grill, and honestly that time conflict is what kind of spurred me/us to make the decision for me to leave the Grill today. I was planning on doing it anyway, but maybe not for another week or so). Well, unfortunately, the agent's office is a little over an hour away (in Beverly Hills), so I will be leaving two hours in advance in case of traffic. lol. I'm still working on what to wear... And I tried to burn my demo reel to a dvd (the last one I had) and it didn't work properly, so I won't be able to take my demo reel. And I have head shots (which need to be updated soon cause my hair color has changed a bit and it's gotten longer) but my resume doesn't have the most recent commercial I did on it (the Shentel one). And I don't have the nice paper I printed my old resume on (left it in Virginia) and my printer is out of ink anyway and I'm kinda broke at the moment. lol. So, unfortunately, I'm taking an outdated (only slightly) resume to my meeting and no demo reel. Grr. I wish I had money and/or a little more time so I could fix those issues. But everything doesn't always go according to plan. I have my two monologues, just need to run through them a couple of times and I'll be good to go. 

Well, I should probably get my beauty rest. I want to look my absolute best tomorrow. :) Man it'd be so exciting to get signed! 

Anyways, I hope to write again soon with good news about the meeting. :) 

Thanks for reading! 

~L