I Finished My First Film!!

Today I finished my first film and it was a really good experience. The cast and crew were really cool people and we had a fun time. I'm posting a few picture here of where we shot, but I'll post more later because I'm waiting to get more pictures from some other people. We shot the film in a place that I didn't even know existed anywhere near Los Angeles. We shot on a beach on the far side of Malibu. The film is called Too Little, Too Late and the premise of the film is that the world has just experienced a global catatrophe: hurricanes, firestorms, tornadoes, earthquakes. The whole works. Everything is back to normal, yet everything is destroyed and we've been living on a beach for a while. I play a scientist that is struggling to figure out a way to get us out of this mess. I'm so entranced in my thoughts that I don't even realize my girlfriend is pregnant. It takes place on Thanksgiving and drama ensues! haha

As I said before, the location where we shot was beautiful. There were caves and hills. Waves crashing on the rocks. And on all three days we saw a seal, a bunch if dolphins and even some Gray whales swimming by. (The whales weren't breeching like in the picture on the left). I had no idea those kind of animals lived off the coast of Malibu. The seal was swimming right near the shore where we were filming. At one point, the dolphins and the whales were even pretty close to the shore. I'm talking about literally 100 feet away. If the Pacific was not ICE cold, I would have gotten in the water and tried to swim with the dolphins. I kind of wanted to see a great white shark get the seal, because I know there are great whites off the California coast. Is that morbid?? I better stop before yall start thinking I'm a "crazy". I guess I watch too much discovery channel. Anyway, I think the film is going to be good and I can't wait for it to be all edited together so I can watch. All the actors get a DVD copy of the finished film. That means if/when I ever make it back home for a visit, I'll actually have something to show everyone! Exciting!

Now, on my last post, Lin posed an interesting question. She asked now that I am SAG eligible already, how far ahead of the "normal" schedule am I here in Hollywood. It's difficult to say because there are so many ways to "mae it" here, but I will share this story. Right after the new year, I went into one of the background casting agencies and politley asked them if they could help me get my 3rd voucher. I explained that I had been doing background for 5 months and had 2 vouchers, and I didn't know why it was taking so long to get my 3rd. They looked at my like I was crazy and asked, "You've been doing this for 5 months and you already have two?" I was confused because I had heard so many people saying they got their vouchers within 2 months, are 3 weeks, or that they got all their vouchers all on one show. So it made me think I was really slacking. The people at the agency told me that while that can happen, it is very rare. Most likely those people were lying. Go figure!!! They told me that ON AVERAGE, people get about one SAG voucher every 18 months. That means it takes an average of 4.5 years to become SAG eligible. They told me they knew this one girl who took 7 years to get all her vouchers!!! Well, I knew I didn't have that kind of time. I had to make something happen here before June rolled around. So, my 3rd one came on March 1st which means it took me exactly 7 months to the day to become SAG eligible. Not bad, huh??

Positive quote of the day:

"The Way of all Peace... is to scale the mountain of self. Your journey through life is largely one of self-discovery. Life is designed to test the very mettle of your soul. The largest obstacle is the Self, with all of its doubts, worries, and inhibitions. To truly be yourself, requires breaking through the limitations we have imposed upon ourselves. The best way of doing this is to focus energy outward, toward others. By getting out of yourself, you will indeed find yourself."

--Sylvia Browne, Tenet #1 from Basic Tenets of Novus Spiritus

This is so true but WHHYYYYYY does it have to be so hard? I have certainly already realized that my biggest obstacle is myself. Why do I doubt myself so much? It really is a full time job to keep negativity out of your head and positive in. It literally only takes one neagtive thought (from you or someone else) to destroy the confidence that you've built up for the last couple of months. It sucks, but there is no better feeling than when you work at something and then succeed!