Vote of Confidence

Callback today! Guess the commercial auditions went well. This is for the first one I went out for on Wednesday. The second one doesn't have callbacks until next week, so I won't know about that one for a few days. And yesterday's audition doesn't have callbacks until the end of next week. Of course, I was the last to be seen for yesterday's...which hasn't boded well for me in the past. I know someone has to be the last seen but I always feel like by the time they get to me in the tape they've already seen twenty other girls they like for callbacks...maybe I'm just skeptical. Either way, I'm glad I got the callback for today. When I sign with a new agency (which I haven't done that often, but when I do), I hope that I at least get a callback for one of the first few things they send me out on. That way I feel like they can see that they made the right decision signing me. A little extra vote of confidence for the relationship.

And it continues...

Yesterday I was all over the world with my auditions. First Santa Monica. Then Venice. Then El Segundo. Lots of time in my car. Thank goodness for the Dixie Chicks on my ipod. I was jammin'. The auditions went well, I think. You can never really tell with commercials so we'll see if I get callbacks. It was good to see the guys from Every Other Wednesday - the webseries I auditioned for last night. We had fun catching up and doing the scenes a few times...so we'll see if they end up casting me or not. I really like the character - she is a receptionist at a doctor's office, it's her second day and she is a bit of klutz. And naive. And she reminds me a lot of me. Not that I'm "naive" (okay, I am sometimes) - I like to think of it as always seeing the best in people.

I have another commercial audition today later this afternoon - this is the way I had hoped it would be. It's back in Santa Monica, so another drive...not sure who my ipod choice will be today...I might go the showtune-route...I could get into some Rent today. "How do you write a song when the chords sound wrong...." I'm already jammin'...

On the move

Holy moly you're not going to believe it.....3 auditions today! I've heard of such phenomenon but I have yet to experience it myself. When I moved here I had a friend, Keith, who had also moved out from NY about two years before me and he was like, "Meg, its so great out here. You go on, like, three auditions a day." And then I moved here during the strike. Wah wah... But today I'm headed to two commercial auditions and then a webseries audition. Clearly, I already love my new commercial agent. And the webseries is a show I auditioned for last year, got a callback for and...didn't get the part. But they remember me and seem excited to see me for this new role...and I'm excited to see them too. I'll keep you posted...but for now, I have to run! First audition is at 10:00 in Santa Monica. Here we go...!

To-do list

Yesterday was full of errands and getting things done - finishing up my post from the morning was one of my "to-do"s but I clearly didn't get to check that off....

...But today is a new day! So back to the shoot on Saturday - so much fun. You get to see glimpses of David and Andrea's love story - from when they first fall in love to when they fall out to when they fall back again. That meant lots of fun costume changes - awkward phase, prom, wedding, working woman, etc. It was an ambitious shooting schedule and I was there from 7am to almost midnight but I'm not complaining! I had such a great time - the crew was great, the director, Al, was fantastic, the cast was all good people, and overall I just felt lucky to be doing what I love. Plus, my Southwest commercial is being held and I got a check in the mail Saturday - it really was a day where I felt like a "real" actress. I know, I know, as my mom would insist, "You are a real actress," but this is a long road full of ups and downs...and Saturday was more "up" than it has been in awhile.

Today I am running by Independent Artists to drop off some 4x6s of potential headshot choices, I have rehearsal for class before class and then its class tonight. We're not ready to put up our scene yet but it has been great working with Reid again. This is a heavy scene that we are delving into and it is good to be working on it with a friend.

True Love Disco

What a great weekend! I had so much fun shooting the rest of True Love on Saturday! I'm running a bit behind this morning so I will fill you in more later today but here is a picture of Brett and I, as David and Andrea, at our high school prom....just two young kids with boogie fever....

Good enough, isn't

Eek! I have a 7am call time tomorrow in Pasadena....that is early, my friends. At least traffic won't be a problem. Its a good thing I'm excited to get back to work on the film. I'm even more excited after getting one of the nicest emails from Al, the director. He went out of his way to say how pleased he was with my work on Wed., which means a lot. Because, I can't lie, I wasn't sure I did a very good job on Wed. night. In fact, I was beating myself up a bit about how lousy I did. It was definitely a wake-up call for me. I have been feeling good about my acting ability lately - class is going great, my auditions are going well, I booked this job - and then I felt totally off my game when we were shooting. I guess it all worked out but this experience is reminding me of how hard I need to work in order to feel as if I am doing my best. Because I don't ever want to settle for being "good enough."

I'm meeting with my agent today to discuss a game plan for getting me out more - it can be tough marketing me and that is part of the biz. I actually should probably go and get ready for that. Rehearsal again this afternoon, shooting alllllll day tomorrow and then, Sunday - a day of rest.

True Love

I don't want to give anything away...but I couldn't resist posting this picture from the set yesterday. And, don't worry, the picture may be a little misleading as to what actually happens in the movie... I was really impressed by the cast, the crew and the set that Al Lewis, our director, assembled. To be honest, you never really know what to expect when you get on set for a low budget film and this one was a pleasant surprise. To tell you a little more about the movie, it is a dark comedy that Al wrote and is directing, about these cupids - an old one and a young one - that are trying to get a married couple back together. The older cupid (John Del Regno) is "passing the bow" to the younger one (Zach Book) and helping him with is first assignment - me and my husband, played by Brett McKenzie. We are the "real deal" who have fallen out of step in our marriage but the gods want to bring us back together because we have "true love" - which is the title of the movie.

On the docket today: Rehearsal this afternoon and then relaxing on the couch - it was a long day yesterday...but I'm not complaining! We shot only one scene but it was the 'major' one - we are shooting the rest on Saturday and I'm excited to get back on set...it feels good to be working!

Where I want to be

The weekend is officially over and it is back to the grind. Class tonight and then shooting tomorrow! I'm really looking forward to the project - it should be a lot of fun. On another note, I'm thinking about starting up The Artist's Way again - I've gotten out of the habit of my morning pages and it can't hurt to get back into it. When I was considering moving to LA I was writing in my pages every morning, about LA and wanting to be there - but not having any idea how to make that happen. And then I got the opportunity to come out here for a weekend with One on One. And then I met my manager that weekend. And now here I am. Two years later - shooting a short, writing a webseries, I have great representation, great friends and I love my life here. I believe there is a power in putting out where you want to be. Someone is listening. My friend Kevin and I sometimes email motivating quotes back and forth to each other and yesterday he sent this one:

"If there is somewhere you want to go, you must believe that you have already arrived."

I still have more places to go to....

Happy President's Day!

I have the day off so, of course, I've already filled it up. I already went for my run - went longer today and am pretty proud of myself. I am heading to a rehearsal with Reid pretty soon, plan on writing a bunch of follow up postcards to send to all the casting directors I've been meeting with, meeting a friend for coffee later this afternoon and hopefully will get to do a little writing for our webseries. By the way, the yard sale was a huge success! We almost made back all of our editing costs and we met Jeff Kanbar who has his own vodka line, Jett Vodka. He seemed interested in perhaps working with us - product placement, etc. I think this will be a good connection. And speaking of connections, the editor we hired is loving our pilot and thinks with the right budget we could make this into something solid. We could use what we already shot as a demo that could be shopped around and hopefully we can find some interested investors. And he also directs and produces - he's working on a comedy series, Guess Again, that also happens to star Mark Teich - who I worked with on Southwest. I love Hollywood.

Here comes the bride...

I get to go try on wedding dresses today! Don't worry - my marriage is still going strong! But, in the short film I am shooting next week, my "marriage" isn't as lucky. It tells the story of me and my "husband" from when we start dating to when we get married to when our marriage falls apart and we need a little help to get it back on track. Hence the wedding dress. I have a wardrobe fitting at 5:00 at David's Bridal in Burbank - how fun is that?

Tomorrow morning, if you are in the LA area, you should come by our yard sale! We are having it to raise some funds to cover some costs of our pilot that we shot. It is going to be in West Hollywood, at the corner of Kings Road and Rosewood. And it is going to be awesome. From 7 AM to 11:30 AM. Hope to see you there....

Life imitating art

I can't believe I've written over 50 posts on here already...this year is flying by. I feel like everyday is jampacked recently. Today I have to run over to the LA Casting office to update my headshots for my new agent, I have rehearsal this afternoon, a friend coming over in the early evening and then I'm going to spend some time with my hubby tonight - first night home in a few days. Last night went well meeting Ben Harris. He was very relaxed and made us all feel comfortable - I was assigned a scene from Knocked Up and it was fun. The best part was when he gave us material that is going to be written into our webseries: Corinne was at the workshop last night too and she put up her scene, from Knocked Up also, right before I put up mine. And when he was giving notes to my scene partner, he called me Corinne. Part of the joke of our webseries is that we all look alike - art imitating life. Well, last night life imitated art...yeah...watch for that in an upcoming episode...And speaking of, here is another sneak peek at our pilot. This shot is from our "Beanie and Bikini" scene...It will all make sense eventually...

It is already Wednesday!

Tonight I'm meeting Ben Harris - he casts The Office and Judd Apatow's films...I'm pretty excited. His casting workshop was supposed to happen last month but it got postponed to tonight, so I've been looking forward to it. I am also stopping by my new agent's office to pick up my contact sheets - they were picking out some new headshots for me to put up on the casting websites to submit me with. I'll upload those pics and hopefully I'll start being sent out soon! Class went well last night - put up a pretty funny scene and now I got assigned a new one...with my buddy Reid!! The last time we worked together was in our advanced class together - like a year and a half ago - and we have been good friends ever since. So we're both excited to work together again. Oh yeah! I forgot - I posted a picture of him two days ago - he is part of the "House Crew." So you know who he is already ;)

Shiny and new

Ok. It's official: I signed with Independent Artists Agency - a great commercial agency! My meeting yesterday was to go over the paperwork and I am excited to get started. Selena, my manager, set up the meeting with Laura Fogelman and Beverly Kline and it all worked out! My other agency wasn't getting me out as much as I would have liked, so I thought it was time to explore other opportunities...and working with them is a big one! Very, very excited.

And I just got off the phone with the director of the short film I'm working on next week, firming up the schedule. Looks like we are shooting Wed., Sat., and Sun. I was thinking about this project on my run this morning - I'm really looking forward to it. It is a funny and twisted script...which I think will make it a contender for festivals...fingers crossed!

Party People

Last night was the infamous Chubbuck Holiday Party...in February. It was great seeing all the people I've worked with from classes past and present. I've been at the studio for nearly two years now and am lucky to have made some great friends there. Below is a picture of the "House" crew - Amy had a major guest star a few seasons back and Reid has an upcoming co-star on a top-secret episode. We may be only twinkles right now...but we are the stars of the future, my friends.

Besides the party last night, I had a quieter weekend than last. The big news is that we hired an editor to work on our pilot episode and we should have a rough cut by the end of the week, which is a much quicker timeline than originally forecast. After the rough cut, there will be more tweaking and honing but hopefully we'll get it together sooner than anticipated! Other than that, I have a meeting today at 4:00 that I will tell you more about tomorrow...until then....

Here's a peek!

Here's a sneak peek of me as "Sam" - my character in our webseries! She is getting ready to go on an audition as a "bookish housewife." She's a little...ambitious. That's the word I'll use...

Updates

First off: I didn't get the role on Brothers and Sisters. And I didn't get on Wheel of Fortune yesterday.

They cast the role really quickly on Brothers and Sisters and I knew by that night that they had already found "their girl" - who was not me. But again - I just hope that I gave a strong enough audition that they will be compelled to bring me back on something more "right" for me. So no big bummer there :)

Yesterday I was a standby contestant on Wheel of Fortune and I had a lot of fun. I am going to feel so prepared when I actually get to play - the next time I go in, I'll be guaranteed a slot to play. They have two standbys there all day - you know, in case someone doesn't show or gets sick or has to leave for an emergency. But it gives you a great opportunity to see how the day goes, see where everything is located on the set, feel how heavy the wheel is to spin - its heavy - and pratice your gameplay as you watch everyone else. I don't know when I will be called back - one of the guys playing yesterday had been a standby a year ago and then another girl had just been one last month - so the timeline doesn't seem to have much rhyme or reason. I do know that they are almost done filming for this season and they only film one week out of the month - when you shoot 6 shows a day, you can do that! - so chances are I won't be on anytime soon. I'll be sure to let you know when though! Seriously, don't Pat and Vanna have the best jobs in television? They shoot one week a month and they get to travel to Hawaii and such - I'm jealous.

The latest

Sorry for the delay in posting today - my audition was at 10:00 in Burbank, so I had to focus this morning! It was just a pre-read with the casting director - nothing on camera yet - and I think it well. Selena set up coaching for me last night with J., another casting director, and she was great. We worked on the material for an hour and she gave me some great insight. I went into the audition feeling really prepared. So this morning the casting director asked me if I had any questions and I said no because I felt like we had worked on it and I didn't want to throw off anything yet. If she wanted to give me adjustments afterward, that would be great, but I felt confident about the choices J. and I worked on. So I did the scene and at the end there was a moment that I was looking forward to doing, after the dialogue was done, but she cut me off and said, "Great. That is exactly the tone we are looking for." I was surprised, because I wasn't done just yet but I am not complaining. I'm glad I met what she was picturing in her mind. Unfortunately, for this role, the final casting decision will rely heavily on a "look" but I felt I did a good audition and hopefully made a fan. If I'm not right for this part, I hope they will call me in for something else in the future.

Remember that short film that I had a meeting on Saturday with the director? Well, he called me yesterday and wants me to play the part! I'm excited and looking forward to shooting in a few weeks. I think it should be fun and a good contender for festivals....I want to be in a film festival!

In other exciting news, I am scheduled to be a standby contestant on Wheel of Fortune tomorrow. I have to be at the studio at 7:45am, so there won't be a post tomorrow...unless, of course, the callbacks for Brothers and Sisters is tomorrow and I actually get a callback and then I have to cancel on WOF, in which case I would be able to write. But that is a bit of a long shot. Since I'm a standby contestant, chances are I will not get on the show tomorrow but the next time I'm brought in, I'm guaranteed to play. So I have to pay my dues to get paid. Word.

I'll keep you posted....

Cloud 9.8 m/s2

9.8 meters per second squared: the momentum of gravity - the speed of an object falling freely near the Earth's surface

The momentum continues...I woke up this morning to an email from my manager - I have an audition tomorrow for Brothers and Sisters. A guest star role. So I will be working hard to prepare for that. I have to go to work, then I have a meeting, then I'm supposed to go to class but we'll see how much I can get done on this audition - I might have to skip class to prepare...we'll see. I went for a run this morning - can't slack off anymore - gotta stay focused. You can't fight gravity...

Cloud 9

What a whirlwind! Friday's audition went....ok. I wasn't thrilled with the choices I made and left the audition feeling less-than-stellar, but I learned from it. Saturday's meeting with the director of the short film that he is considering me for went well. I really liked the script and think it would be a fun project to work on - and I liked the director, which is key. He said he'll be letting me know which way he is going with the role, either today or tomorrow. So I'll keep you posted on that...

Saturday night was our first shoot day for our still-untitled-webseries. Maybe we should hold a contest to come up with the best name? Let me tell you though - even though we are still nameless...we have a good thing going. Working with Kelsey Rob, Corinne and Mel on this for the past...six months(?)...writing, writing and rewriting has been such a fun experience and then to actually shoot finally was so rewarding. Working with Sean Donnelly was great - just as I was told it would be - and Kelsey Rob took on the co-director hat and continued to impress me. Corinne never failed to make me laugh as "Katie" and Mel took over as a P.A. and then turned into an intimidating goddess in her "beanie and bikini" scene. We shot from 7:30 to 11:30 and then were on location at 7:30 am Sunday morning for our "casting office" scene. *Big thank you to my boss, Adir, for lending us the location for shooting.* Stephen Seidel joined the cast as our pervy, quirky casting director - that guy is talented and hilarious. And Dan Zimmerman was the best "casting assistant" a girl could ask for. We had to struggle to not laugh and ruin the shots all morning long. We broke for lunch and then our "casting lobby background actors" arrived for their call time at 12:30 pm. Mallory, Chelsey and Noel were perfectly cast to be our competition and Margaret completed the picture for final shots later in the day. Chelsey also served as our set photographer - which was her original role, so she was a trooper for stepping in as an extra. I can't wait to see the pictures she got yesterday afternoon - as soon as I have them, I will post a few. Oh! And Mel was in charge of craft services and we had such a spread of goodies. I ate well yesterday, my friends. I ate well. Overall, it was such an inspiring weekend and watching a quick daily last night before we left - the footage looks fantastic. The editing process is going to take awhile - so don't be too anxious to see anything anytime soon - but hopefully we can get it done in a timely fashion. Kelsey Rob is also going to be wearing the hat of editor...man, oh, man. That woman is unstoppable!

I am on cloud 9 after this weekend and hoping to keep the momentum going throughout the week.....hope you all have a great Monday!