On one of our conference calls, we discussed getting on the radar of casting directors and producers.
Here is a great example of someone who wrote, produced and acted in her own film. Nobody says it better than Bonnie Gillespie, a respected casting director. She wrote a fantastic post in her column, The Actors Voice, at
Read MoreI am re-posting this awesome blog post by Jenna Fischer, who is an actor for The Office. What she says in this post is very similar to what I hear from actors I work with in Los Angeles. It could be summed by the very true saying: “There is no free lunch.”
To understand the real story of people who have made it in the business is valuable. In my opinion, it’s valuable because you can adjust, plan, and bring more determination and action to your plan. It’s the “go-getters rule!”
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Do you ever wish you could go to a huge party, with cool people, eat gourmet food for free all day long, and get paid handsomely for it? Kind of sounds like the celebrity lifestyle huh?
I swear… some days I have to pinch myself it’s so good. And if you get into this business, these kind of days will be common for you too.
Read MoreShooting this spot was the most cold and miserable shooting days I've ever had. Out in the plains, freezing cold, wind so strong it would catch your car door and bend it back.
It took 3 days to shoot. The production company put everyone up in a motel. We actually snuck our cat into our motel room because he just had surgery and needed to recuperate. So he lived under the bed.
Read MoreThe most common entry level job in the film industry is Production Assistant (PA). When I’m working I always hang out with the PAs. They are some of the coolest and most interesting people, and are really excited about their future in the industry. I love that!
Some have gone to film school, some have done their own filmmaking, many are into music. Some are models, actors, dancers, writers. Working their craft from the inside. Smart.
Read MoreA friend of mine on facebook wrote a small post on the day Farrah Fawcett died to remember her. My friend was the AD (Assistant Director) on a shoot where Farrah was being filmed nude with only paint covering her body. To make her comfortable, he and several other crew members got naked with her and worked all day naked. Just shoes and a headset! They joked and laughed all day long and Farrah gave him a big hug at the end of the day and thanked him for making the day so much fun.
It’s a big family in the film industry. Remember that, and be there for each other <3
Read MoreYou don’t typically find many big feature Cinematographers that started out in nature photography. The nature people typically stay in that niche for their entire career. But Will R. is an exception. How you manage your career in film makes all the difference.
I asked Will R. how he became a big feature Director of Photography and this is what he told me.
Read MoreThere are many interesting film jobs in Hollywood. I think that the best way to give you a feel for these jobs is to take you to the film set and describe what happens as if you were there.
Today’s shoot, for a high end athletic shoe, started out at a high school close to Compton. Compton is gang central in LA. The projects literally surrounded us. We had security guards and were working within the fenced school grounds, so it was fine.
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