Back To The Future

I attended a meeting of the LA Scotch Club last night (and into this morning for that matter). It was held at the home of one of the club's members. John lives on Bushnell Avenue in South Pasadena and has what's become a shrine in his front yard. This shrine is the tree George McFly fell out of in the movie Back To The Future. Fans of the movie from all over the world come to see, touch, and/or climb the tree. How do I know this you ask, because of the documentary John made. John came to own the property after Back To The Future was filmed. After learning of his tree's fame, and the fame of Bushnell Avenue for that matter, he set out to make a film. It's interesting to see how many people make a pilgrimage to his tree. Like one person who was interviewed said, "The tree is real whereas so much of the movie is shot on sets that where destroyed". Well those probably weren't the exact words, but the thought is correct, and I can attest to that. I spent a day in Courthouse Square of Universal Studios back lot prior to the 2008 fire. The facade that was the town's courthouse has been used, and reused, many times over the years and doesn't exist as it did when Back To The Future was filmed.

So if you are a fan of Back To The Future and can make your way to Bushnell Avenue go ahead and give the tree a hug.

My bad

I've been a little remiss about blogging on a regular basis, but in my defense I've had a few things to keep me preoccupied. Since my last post I did voice-over work for an independent feature film and attended its premiere. I also had an audition for a student film, an indie film, the TV show The Mentalist, a Virgin Mobile commercial, and a role on an untitled comedy pilot. Oh, and I attended an acting class.

Back in my post of June 30 I mentioned how things were slow. Well, the pendulum has swung back the other way. Lets see how long it takes to trek back to the slow side. Life is such a gamble I don't know why some people feel the need to go to a casino.

Every time you audition you roll the dice. The trick is, however, not to worry about the outcome. You will end up driving yourself to the Funny Farm if you do. You can't guess what the auditors want because they usually don't know what they want until someone comes in and shows it to them. Hopefully you'll be that person, but then you may not. There are more reasons, or excuses, not to hire you than there are to hire you. Most of them have absolutely nothing to do with you. So all you can do is show up to the audition (you'd be surprised how many don't), execute your game plan, say thank you, walk out, and then forget about it. Forget about it? OK, OK, I know, it's easier said than done.

My audition for The Mentalist was one of the quickest I've ever had. I was brought straight to producers. I did my thing, the auditors chuckled, and I left. I executed my game plan and I left them laughing. I felt good about the audition and that's all anyone can hope for. I also did not get the part and I'll never know why. All I know is I got to perform for the producers of a top rated TV show and walk around the Warner Bros. lot. I'm happy.

…the Electric Car

I attended a screening of a feature length documentary in Silver Lake today. What is the Electric Car is good looking film that answers pretty much every question you might have about Electric Vehicles (EVs). This film is brought to you by the same team that made Who Stole the Electric Car, the Romantic Comedy I’m in.

In this photo I’m with Scott DuPont, the producer of both films. We are standing in front of a compact pickup truck that was converted into an Electric Vehicle. In Who Stole the Electric Car I play an environmentally conscious Jack-of-all-trades that extends the range of the ZEV-1 with solar panels. In real life I am an advocate of moving away from petroleum consuming vehicles for all of the same reason mentioned in the documentary.

This picture is a little fuzzy. I guess I must have been shaking I was so excited.

As you can see, where once was a gasoline engine, now a battery pack and electronic doo-dads reside. The electric motor is underneath connected directly to the differential.

I really recommend watching What is the Electric Car. In fact every person thinking about buying a new car should watch this film first. Electric Cars make even more sense now than they did when they were first available 100 years ago.

PS. I know what the doo-dads are. I just didn’t want to get too technical right now.

It is 2011.5 AD

Acting is a journey not a destination. The half-way point in the year just seems like a good place to stop and assess the accomplishments of the prior six months.

Let’s see. I’ll consult trusty Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Sorry, no crystal ball, I broke that long, long ago. I use the spreadsheet to track mileage for tax (YUCK) purposes and since I enter what the trip is for, it’s become a bit of a log.

I auditioned for five casting people/offices I hadn’t seen before. One audition was for a role in the Wonder Woman Pilot. It was on the Warner Bros. lot and it’s always great to be walking around the Warner Bros. lot. I didn’t get cast and coincidentally the show didn’t get picked up either. I don’t know about you, but I see a correlation there.

I auditioned for my first, and second, studio films. The first was at the casting office that does all of Judd Apatow’s films and the other audition was for the for the new Barbra Streisand/ Seth Rogen movie. One audition was for a kid’s show, and another for an independent film.  I got the audition for the indie film two weeks after seeing the casting director in a workshop. The other cool thing about that indie film audition was, I met Max Gail, and we were reading for the same part. I met another well established actor; Doug Jones.

You may say I didn’t book anything, but that’s how this game called acting works. I didn’t have five failures, though. When you think about how many hundreds or thousands of people were submitted for these roles and I was one of a few that got called in; I had five successes.