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Showing improvement

Tonight was my third acting lesson and I was pleasantly surprised at my progress. More specifically, I was pleasantly surprised at my instructor’s evaluation of my progress. We only had time to record and critique the monologue from Good Will Hunting, but he seemed genuinely satisfied with my progress and with the work that I put in since my last session. I wouldn’t say I “nailed” the monologue, but I think I did very well considering how little experience I have–this was my first recorded monologue–and I was pleased to hear my instructor say that I am definitely ahead of where he expected me to be at this point.

I’m excited to continue working and I hope to see more improvement. In fact, I fully expect to see improvement from week to week; if I don’t improve, that would indicate I’m not working hard enough. I don’t think that’ll be a problem, though.

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Slowly assimilating

Well, work wasn’t too bad today, although I hated bein’ there. I hated it so much I left a couple hours early. I was tired and still sort of in vacation mode, so I figured why not dip out a little early. Anyway, I’ll make up the time later this week when I’m back into the routine.

Learning the acting

I finished Acting in Film and started How to get the part without falling apart. I’ve also learned a monologue from Good Will Hunting–the one where Sean tells Will that he’s onto his game–and done some more work on the scene from Swingers. Hopefully tomorrow’s lesson will pick up right where we left off last lesson. I’m beginning to feel more comfortable with the process and I hope it starts to show on camera.

I decided to try and rig up my camera to shoot some video, so I can practice my scenes on “film”. I wasn’t sure how it’d work, but I think it is working really well. The camera can only record about 7 minutes of video with audio, but that’s enough time to run a scene a couple times and play it back so I can give myself notes.

Moving quickly

I’ve said a few times that I’d like to move to L.A. eventually and continue working part-time. Recently, there have been buzzings around work that they need engineers to move out to L.A. and work. I’m finding out that all this moving may be happening soon… sooner than I’d even hoped for. So, now I’m having to think about whether I can adjust my plan to accommodate for a potentially quick move.

I’m already thinking over the financial and logistical aspects of such a move, and I’ll talk to my acting instructor tomorrow night about how different our “plan” would need to be for me to move out there sooner. I’m thinking I probably won’t be moving out there too soon, but I think it would be foolish to completely ignore the possibility.

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So money

My second acting lesson went very well and we even got a scene (the one from Swingers) on tape. My instructor said I’m doing good work and that he expects I’ll keep improving for some time. I thought my performance was mediocre, but then, I doubt there are many people who jump in front of a camera for the first time, read their first scene and look spectacular. I’ll give it till next lesson to look spectacular.

That’s about all I have energy to write tonight. This business about driving 3 hours round-trip to a one-hour acting lesson is pretty tiring. Actually, I guess my lessons are closer to two hours, but I expect that’ll taper off as we progress. Anyway, I’m out.

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Lesson 2 tomorrow

Well, it’s been a week since my first lesson and, while I learned a lot during the first lesson, I’ve probably learned a lot more since that first lesson. I’m almost through Acting in Film and I’m surprised how varied and useful all of the book’s content seems to be. Cain covers everything from set etiquette to creating characters and he does it in an easy-to-read-and-understand-even-for-the-layman way. Of course, I have to assume this book is written for laymen because I am one and I’m reading it.

Anyway, I’ve learned my lines and done some reading and I’m excited to see what’s in store for me this week. This is a very exciting experience because I’m jumping head-long into something that is totally unknown to me. I have no choice but to learn and learn quickly. Just my kind of thing.

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Robin Williams on Inside the Actors Studio

I’ve always been fascinated by Robin if for no other reason than his brain seems to work at twice the speed of most humans’. All he needs is an inkling of an idea and he will go off on a twenty-minute rant about that and any other subject that happens along. He was no different on Inside the Actors Studio and I believe James Lipton when he said Robin’s interview was a five-hour event capped by a girl being sent to the hospital with a hernia due to “uncontrollable laughter.”

I’ve sometimes heard the term “force of nature” used to describe various actors and pop-culture personalities, but I’m not sure I’ve ever felt totally comfortable with that description for anyone until I saw this interview with Robin Williams. The man truly is a force of nature. Once he gets going, I’m not sure if anything can stop him.

What’s amazing to me is that he’s also capable of an Oscar winning performance in a dramatic role (with, of course, a little comedy sprinkled in) in Good Will Hunting and that he can play such convincingly disturbed and introverted characters as he did in One Hour Photo. This was definitely one of the most entertaining interviews I’ve seen to date on the Actors Studio.

Easter with friends

Friday, I wrote about eating dinner with some friends here in Dallas. Today, I went with them to their church and was invited to an Easter lunch afterward. I had a great time just talking with them and enjoying some company for a change. I have enjoyed living alone, but I also enjoy spending time with friends and engaging in meaningful conversation from time to time. I’m glad they invited me to spend Easter with them and I think it made my day much better than it would have been.

Back to the grind with lots to look forward to

Well, of course tomorrow’s Monday and that means I have to go to work, but this week is packed full of stuff that I anxiously anticipating. Tomorrow, I begin the fifth week of my new workout routine and it’ll be the last week before I’m off in Florida next week. Tuesday, I have my second acting lesson. And Friday, I leave for my vacation out east. The rest of the time, I’ve got several books to read, including The Last Battle–the last book in the Chronicles of Narnia series–and a few other books I’ve been working through. All in all, I think it’ll be a good week.

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It has begun

Man, today was long. I got up at 7, got to work at 8, knocked off work at 4, went home and ate a quick dinner, left for Ft. Worth about 5:20, started my lesson at 6:50, left my lesson about 9:45 and finally got home at 10:50. That left just enough time to watch The Real World and The Osbourne’s before I updated my blog and got ready for bed. I’m worn out and my back’s a little sore ’cause I drove about 150 miles today.

As for acting, the first lesson was, as I expected, an introductory lesson where we talked about where I’m trying to go, what I hope to accomplish and what I want to focus on–technique or the art of acting. We decided we’d spent pretty equal time on both, but put more time into the art up front. We talked about beginning to look for an agent in about three months in hopes that I’ll have an agent in six months. That’s all good and well, but first we gotta’ see if I can act.

This week, we’re reading a scene from Swingers (the one where Trent talks Mike into going to Vegas) and I’m basically supposed to mark up the script and try to be prepared for a read next week. I’m focusing on learning the lines well enough that I can deliver them without thinking about the lines themselves, so I can concentrate on reacting to the way the other character delivers his lines. As I understand it, I need to learn lines well enough that I can say the words without thinking. An analogy that comes to mind is singing while playing the guitar. It took me a long time to be able to do both and the way I did it was ultimately pretty simple: I learned the guitar well enough that I could play that part without thinking about it, so I could focus almost completely on singing over the melody I heard coming from the guitar. If I learn my lines well enough, I can focus almost completely on the situation and what’s happening in the scene.

I guess I’ll just have to see how that goes. I’m pretty nervous, but I think that’ll subside as I get more comfortable with this stuff. For now, I need to get comfortable with my pillow as I’ve gotten less than 12 hours’ sleep over the past couple nights.

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Good article in People magazine

Yesterday, I picked up the latest issue of People, mostly because there was another cover story about The Passion inside. The article was actually pretty interesting in that it touched on a few of the prevalent religions (and philosophies) in Hollywood. The stuff written on the movie was pretty interesting, but I thought it was good that People took space to explain each of a few different religions being practiced in Hollywood. I think it gave me a better idea of what people are thinking these days and some perspective on how the writers at People view religion and its role in society and peoples’ lives.

I noticed a common theme in their choices was “self improvement” of some kind. In fact, most of them seemed focused on helping their followers find happiness, treat others well, perform to their full potential and be less focused on themselves. I guess People‘s explanations of these religions could have been superficial, but it seems to me that most of the religions aren’t so much “religions” as self-help philosophies that people follow to be “better” or “more successful” or whatever. Ultimately, I thought it was a little odd that People seems to believe that Christianity (and these other religions) is primarily about helping people be “good” and successful. Seems to me they’ve missed the point.

Acting lessons start tomorrow

I officially feel totally unprepared and a little nervous. Mostly, I keep asking myself “what can I do to be prepared tomorrow, so I don’t make a total fool of myself?” And, of course, I know the answer is “nothing, I will make a total fool of myself regardless of how much I prepare.” I’m looking forward to performing awfully, so I can look back on my first performance and say, “Man, I sure have improved!” I figure I’ll probably start off pretty awful, but hopefully I’ll be a good enough student to become a decent actor. Time will tell.

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Lessons start Tuesday

It’s official: I’ll be taking private lessons starting on Tuesday and continuing every Tuesday, indefinitely (except April 20, when I’ll be in Gainesville). I’m pretty excited about the opportunity for a lot of reasons: I get to push myself to try something totally new, I get to try something I’ve been interested in for a long time, I get to exercise my creative side a bit more than I do as an engineer. That being said, I’m also very nervous about the whole deal. Realistically, I have no business even attempting acting. I have no background or experience in acting and my knowledge of the subject is almost entirely based on what I’ve seen other actors do. I guess, from some points of view, I’ve done hundreds of hours of research into other actors’ work, but I’m essentially totally ignorant about the business. If nothing, this will be an opportunity for me to continue learning something, which is good because I really enjoy learning.

Tax time

I’ve been meaning to file my income taxes for several weeks now, but I keep forgetting. That’s probably because my return will be next to nothing and I doubt if Uncle Sam would come after me if I didn’t file (in fact, I’m not even sure I’m legally obligated to file). But, I can’t bear the idea of throwing money away (no matter how little it may be), so I’m gonna’ go ahead and take care of that now.

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A different direction with acting

Well, I spoke with my friend and former acting instructor tonight and I’m beginning to have a clearer picture of where I’m going and how I’ll get there. For now, it looks like I’ll be taking private lessons (or being “coached”, to use the preferred nomenclature) once a week. Ultimately, I doubt if I’ll pursue the 2-year degree I’d been considering because it is more of a hodge-podge degree covering all aspects of acting and the business. I think such a degree would be great for someone who knew only that he wanted to act, but didn’t know how, where or why. In my case, I’m pretty set on TV and film, so much of the curriculum would be outside the scope of my ambitions.

Here’s the best part: I couldn’t have taken classes at the conservatory until October anyway, so I’m really not making a decision not to pursue the 2-year program, but I’m making a decision to pursue private coaching to see if that works for me. As October nears, I’ll re-evaluate my situation and make a final decision on the degree. Essentially, I’m filling my time with productive training that may ultimately make the 2-year degree unnecessary.

Regardless, I’m excited about getting going and I’ve already ordered some books to get me started:

Acting in Film: An Actor’s Take on Moviemaking
How to Get the Part . . . without Falling Apart!; Featuring the Haber Phrase Technique for Actors
Truth in Comedy: The Manual of Improvisation

Another great thing about not taking the 2-year program is that it’ll save me a ton of money. The program costs about $20K while private coaching costs only about $50-70 a week. And, what’s more, I think I’ll probably get just as much (if not more) useful information out of private coaching that I would at the conservatory.

Good night.

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A little encouragement

I’ve been in touch with my acting instructor from a couple summers ago and he’s been kind enough to give me a little guidance as I begin to seriously consider moving closer to the business. He’s given me a lot of useful information, but one of the best things he could have said to me, he said in response to my reference to myself as a “dreamer”: By the way “dreamers” are the ones that don’t actually have a plan or do something about their career. It sounds like you have a pretty smart plan so far. It’s good to know that, although I feel completely ignorant and naive (because I am), I’m making strides in the right direction.

Work is s-l-o-w

For a while there, work was fast-paced and interesting. But lately, because of some decisions “from the top”, things have been unusually slow and I’ve been trying hard to keep busy. This lull should be over by next week, but it’s going to be a difficult Thursday and Friday this week. I guess I can suck it up till Monday.