Friends

This past weekend I did end up working on that super-secret film project mentioned here in the last post. It was a great time, largely because of the people.

Working on this project gave me a chance to hang out with Jeff Burns - an awesome, funny and smart guy who literally gave me my start in film. (That first role was a short, fun bit in which I got to politely decline a neighbor's amorous advances by throwing a football at his head.) It was really great to reconnect with him and spend some time trading bad jokes and catching up.

The film also gave me an opportunity to meet Daniel Trinh, who is the film's writer and director. He's an absolute sweetheart and it was a pleasure working with him. I hope to see him do many more projects.

Working on the project also allowed a few minutes to meet Mark Pezzula, a clever commentor who occasionally chimes in on The Everything Film Show, and again meet talented cinematographer Shawn Schaffer, who I'm sure you'll be seeing a lot more from in the future.

As the rumors suggest, a lot of entertainment is who you know, and the world gets a lot smaller very quickly in independent film. I met Jeff responding to a casting call. Jeff has worked with Shawn and Mark on other projects. Daniel did a commercial for the same company I worked for recently, which is how we connected, and is also somehow connected to the others - probably through Upstate Independents. Whatever the connection, everybody there knew at least one other person in the room.

There were a lot of other other nice folks at the shoot - too many to name here - however, the majority of my time was spent bugging Jeff or doing scenes. At the end of a very long and exhausting day, I scurried home happy for the opportunity to contribute to a project with both long-term true and new friends.

Feel the Burn(?)

Is it bad that I'm revisiting a draft started 1/18/09 today? That post as written with same original title is below:

The New Year might have given my goals a boost, but I've been wanting to get healthy again for a long time. Although my husband and I joined Planet Fitness about a year and a half ago, the experience has been such that we've both been drifting away and started looking for other options.

We finally settled on NY Sports Club given their variety of equipment and classes. It's literally about four or five times as expensive and required a contract - factors that we weighed heavily - but the clean facilities and ample parking won us over.

Now I just need to make sure that I use this investment to reach my health goals.

It's probably not much of a spoiler alert that I didn't do as well as I had hoped in sticking to this plan. Whether it was the guilt of infrequent exercise or pressure to play a teenager coming up, today I found myself back in the gym. Now sore but slightly redeemed, I just hope I can keep this up.

Paging Teenage Awkwardness

I'm really excited that, one week from today, I will be contributing to a super-secret project that will be submitted to multiple film festivals in the coming year. The catch? My relatively minor contribution to the work will be in the role of an eager college student.

While I've played older characters before, this will be my first time playing a character notably younger than my current age. At first that realization had me feeling a bit awkward (which could work well for the role) but I took comfort after some thinking; in the tradition of Saved by the Bell and Dawson's Creek, I may not be old enough!

I should head out to the mall now for "field research," or at least some good pizza. It is an NFL Sunday.

The-Ate-Her

I might be feeling especially snarky this Saturday as I've been thinking about a bunch of random things that irk me. For example, pronouncing theater more like the-ate-her to display culture or insisting it be spelled "theatre." I suppose I like my theater more low-brow.

At any rate, I've been spending a lot of time lately volunteering with publicity for a local theater, the Elmwood Playhouse in Nyack. It is already 1/3 sold out for a run of the seldomly performed yet beautiful musical, "A Man of No Importance."

While making headway with the tigh-knit "family" of people who operate there has been difficult, it has also been an incredible experience both personally and professionally - meeting new people, navigating PR challenges specific to entertainment that I haven't encountered before, stretching, if you will. It's also been a great way to keep active as I find that my life at present consists almost entirely of work or sleep. The opportunity to help out in a hands-on way for an inspiring group has been a welcome outlet and I wish them much success!

Good Things Come...

What's the longest you've ever waited to see something you're working on come to light? I'm not talking massive, life-altering things that you expect to take time like quitting smoking or memorizing pi, but simple things that you thought would take practically no time at all.

I love IMDb, truly, and think that they offer a great service that is valuable for both fans and entertainment professionals alike. However, sometimes meeting the rigorous quality controls they put in place to ensure the accuracy of information in their system can be akin to achieving embassy clearance.

It took more than six months before the small bit I did on Law & Order: Conviction made their cut, and I've been trying to get another movie added for a friend since March. I also just noticed that my friend Jeff Burns appears to have multiple listings, meaning that somehow despite the checks, he's made it in there - as two people! Wonder how long fixing that will take...

Here's to hoping that good things - great things even - DO come to those who wait!

Off the Grid?

First and foremost, my apologies for going off the grid - again. At least as life has kept me a bit too preoccupied to post like I would like to, I haved collected some new stories.

Recently I had the opportunity to do a commercial for Carrier, courtesy of MPW Marketing. Both are really great groups of people, and you can see the result below.

http://bit.ly/29oa4d

You wouldn't know it by looking at it, but the typical commercial is a full day's work - at least. And that's if everything goes well. The Carrier "Hipster" shoot was great fun thanks to a bunch of really chill and professional personalities who kept things moving smoothly.

Between the long hours and the serious wit of those overseeing the project, I was in tears (laughing) by the end of the day as we were finishing up the related radio spot, which you can hear below.

http://bit.ly/3GcruW

Thanks again to Carrier and MPW! I had an amazing time working with them and hope to do so again soon.