Auditions, Commercials and Films, OH MY!

So the last couple of days has been awesome, actually this was my kind of week. I started out with filming a short film and wrapped it up with shooting a spec commercial for Heinz. It was a great week! I worked with mazing people on both jobs and had so much fun. The commercial was a blast and silly. The theme was Heinz Ketchup but in a bar so it was all about the Heinz instead of liquor. So I was able to bring my bartending experience to the forefront. The director and producers/actresses were awesome and so receptive to my ideas. That meant so much to me. I have produced a film and play and I have great ideas. I feel really blessed by it and when I am heard and appreciated it means so much to me. I know I can really add to a project because I have a true collaborative spirit. I equate it with jazz riffing. You just get in there and the creative juices start flowing. You just vibe off the moment and other people's ideas. The goal is to make the project the best it can be and through that we all win.

The producers who were also the main actresses were awesome, so creative and receptive, real team players. It was so wonderful to be around people who genuinely took in the ideas and incorporated them. Also I got credit for the ideas and the director and the producers thanked me . I guess we all just want to recognized for our work and our contribution to the work. I find myself time and again coming back to the idea, this craft is not a one person gig. For one, it's too much work and to be frank you just don't and can't do it on your own. It's just not the way this medium works. Even if you just bounce ideas off someone and they respond and give you feedback, it ain't just you doing the work! It was a great day, I mean really awesome met some great people. I am also becoming really aware of how creative I am and how I need to one, know that and two, be in an environment were people are secure enough to take it in and really want the project as a whole to be better not just a showcase for them to say I did that all by my lonesome.

Anyway I met a really awesome woman at the gig today. She and I were totally riffing on a screenplay idea so we exchanged #'s and we're going get together to make it happen. I think it's genius, she came up with the idea and then I ran with it and we batted it back and forth, all before 9am. But, we'll have to see. I tend to think people are as honest as I am. Sometimes people say they want to collaborate but really not so much, but the beauty is you learn and it's called a contract. You learn from the experience and maybe you to pay in time and money, but the experience itself is a stepping stone. I call it life's tuition baby. You play, you win. You play, you lose. You play. That's a quote from a beautiful book called The Passion by Jeanette Winterson an absolutely lovely book and that line just sums up a lot in life and in this business. I love that book so much that it literally is in two pieces and practically every other page is dogeared! The only other book I have had in literally two pieces is Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurty. Wow I get misty just mentioning the book. I fell in love with the characters and they've been with me ever since and I read the book like eons ago. He is a beautiful writer.

I also had a great audition yesterday and I have to reiterate I love auditioning. I am a crazy person apparently. No I just truly love what I do and yes of course I get butterflies but I am so grateful to be doing what I love. I mean just knowing in your heart what you love and then doing it is a freaking blessing and I so grateful to even have the chance to don a character, try her on and walk around in her shoes for a minute. So whether I get it or not. I met the director and the writer and who knows, if not that project maybe another. It's a small community and you keep running into the same people, so we'll see. I got an audition next Wednesday I'm really excited (and nervous) about but otherwise I got a lot of writing to do and getting ready for my trip to Africa. Life is delicious, did you know?

Dancing Machine!

Ha! I am amused by my own title, I guess as long as I'm amused...So I just came back from an audition for Escada for a commercial for their scent. Whew that felt like a mouthful. Anyway the breakdown was for featured party goers. So.. they call the waiting room full of us hopefuls, which at this moment was 13 and we all pile into this room. We're asked to ...now wait for it....Dance! On the spot in front of people you don't know, haven't met. Ah show biz. So it was like having a mini party in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone was dressed up, they played music, thank God! Sometimes on sets they don't play music and you have to dance anyway. It's hilarious in New York, actors and models are always carrying huge bags with a change of clothes because you can imagine we don't have cars to jump in and you can't wear down the street midday what you would wear at a club! Well you can but then you're setting yourself up for harassment big time!
So how did I do? I truly push all thoughts of my performance out of my head after I leave an audition. For one you could truly drive yourself crazy, two is, if the job is yours it's yours and that is that. But I did feel silly and I know I can dance and I'm not sure I represented that but.. I'm not the casting director and my part of the job is done until and unless they call me back. It would be awesome to get the gig though, they're shooting in a mansion in the Hamptons holla! It's weird because in this business you have to want it and want it bad but you also have to be able to detach yourself. It feels like a metaphor for life. Work towards something or everything you want but let go of the outcome. Ah some of my schoolings on Meister Eckhart are coming back to me. Yep but truly find the Joy in the detachment and the possibility. I mean what other job do you get to simulate a dance party in the middle of the day?! That's what I'm talking about!