You Wanted Your Coffee Black, I Gave You Milk

If you have been following my blog, you know that I've added acting to the layers of my career. I'm still in the beginning stages, which means I have a lot to learn. Today was another one of those important milestones on this journey. I attended my very first Casting Director Workshop. This one was with Kari Kurto of Dava Waite Casting. Dava Waite casts My Name is Earl and Weeds plus some independent features.

The workshop was being held by the actors group of Women in Film, which is chaired by actress Leslie Berger, at the Chaplin Theater of Raleigh Studios. Kari was kind enough to ask for our headshots and this is one of those perks you hope for when attending a workshop: the chance to give your headshot to a casting director you might not normally have access to. The headshot I chose to bring with me this time is my personal favorite.

Kari casted the student projects at Emerson College where she went to get her degree. She interned at a studio after relocating to LA, and then started working for Dava Waite. Now she's in the midst of branching out on her own.

She shared with us a wealth of knowledge. For example, a guest star has more importance than a co-star. A co-star has a small number of lines in limited scenes. Guest stars have far more to do -- more lines, more scenes. This difference is especially important to those of us in the process of building our careers... because we need them for our credits resume.

Actors asked about how much she uses the online services like Actors Access and Now Casting, since these are costly to the actor to keep up. While she does use them, Kari said that for the most part, she doesn't need to go past IMDB to fill the roles.

That brought me to attention immediately. Although I have a beginner's small acting resume, stapled to the back of my headshot, I do not have a beginner's IMDB page. I have a healthy resume for script coordinator and writers assistant. I told her that if in casting for a role, she were to check me out on IMDB to see if I had more credits than I had listed, she would find them, but not for acting. With the specific criteria IMDB has for accepting credits, it may be a while before I can list my actor participation in "Burden of Esteem" as co-star. Her suggestion was to explain in the biographical section. If the fact that I'm acting now is in the first line, chances are she'd see it when she checks out the potential candidates.

Even more awesome is what happened next. Kari randomly chose 10 of us from our headshots to play in pairs five scenes. I was the third person selected. Now I don't win anything -- not the lottery, not the door prize, not the raffle, nada, nada -- so I didn't expect to be chosen. I was surprised when I was, but very happy.

Because this is exactly what I need -- the chance to hone my skills. It's different than acting in front of the crew, the director, your co-stars, and the camera because at that point I had the job. It's more nerve-wracking to be up on stage in front of a group of people and a casting director evaluating you. But you have to do it to get comfortable with it.

For me, it was just awesome to get this opportunity to go through the process so I could get more comfortable with it. After all, they would have to really want my look because to cast me for My Name is Earl or Weeds, they would have to grandfather me into SAG. For those who are already SAG or SAG Eligible, there is more of a chance for them and I'm sure those who didn't get selected to perform were very disappointed.

I was paired with this experienced guy actor and we went out in the hall to look over the material and try to get it down as best we could in such a small amount of time - 3-4 minutes.

I play like a Starbuck employee and my scene partner comes in and orders black coffee. I give him coffee with milk. He hands it back, saying that he asked for black coffee. I tell him it's better with milk. He says he wants it black. I give him a new one and tell him I put a little bit of milk in it. So he gives me a lecture on wanting it black. Of course, I'm nodding and pretending to listen because I know better, but when he says, Okay? I repeat okay... and give him his black coffee. As he leaves, I call after him that I put a little bit of milk in the bottom. It's a very fun scene and people laughed at it. We've all been there one way or the other so we connect.

Kari had given advice to us earlier about memorizing lines for auditions. I would think that memorizing the dialogue is a no-brainer but apparently many actors feel that they should just know the gist of a scene to keep their performance fresh. She said that actors should always bring the sides with them because when she doesn't see them, she begins to panic and think about the wasted time if her assistant has to locate sides for the actor. But Kari then said it was important to have the lines memorized because if you have to look at the sides, too often actors get thrown right out of the scene and lose their energy. If you can do it without losing your energy and momentum, then that's fine, otherwise it can work against your performance.

So I tried to do it without looking at the sides, which would also free me to add in hand gestures and things like that. After all, I had to make the coffee and hand it to him... pour out the stuff he rejected... or at least that's how I saw the reality of the role. Unfortunately, the lines I have are too similar and I managed to skip over the line that leads into his very funny lecture to me. Luckily, my scene partner was experienced enough to recover quickly and carry on like that was how the scene was supposed to go.

Kari told me that she realizes that I just got the scene a few minutes ago and can't be expected to have them memorized so it was okay for me to look at the sides, because I needed to say all the lines. So I did it again, and did better the second time.

Hence, it's awesome that I got the opportunity to participate in acting out a scene. A few more opportunities like this and I'll be nailing it for real in front of casting directors.

If It's Online, Give Me Mine

That was the rallying cry of some of the actors at the SAG rally today in front of the office building which houses both SAG and AFTRA. The purpose was to show solidarity in the face of AMPTP's stubbornness to negotiate a decent contract with the actors union. And since AFTRA had already signed the contract the AMPTP has been pushing down all the guilds' throats, it was also a rally to encourage the dual cardholders to vote against the contract when it comes up for vote.

The actors were not standing alone. Just like they came out and marched with the writers, many writers returned the favor and came out to march with them

It was an amazing crowd, considering that it was a workday and the writers had already signed their deals, so they would have to be back in the office and typing away on the computers. The sidewalk was crowded with people.

I must admit that as a non-SAG/AFTRA member, I don't know all the issues. I know that one of the main ones concerns residuals for product made-for and streamed online, in new media, when it is ad-supported. In other words, when you view an episode or film for free online, but have to sit through commercials, the studios are making money from showing those commercials in front and within their episode, film, or behind-the-scenes video. The actors feel that they should have a percentage of that revenue, in the same time-honored format as they do for ad-supported reruns on our free television -- residuals. What has contributed to making these negotiations even harder is that this is one of the issues AFTRA yielded on in their negotiation with the AMPTP. Just like they have done each time they have signed contracts poaching shows that SAG says should be under SAG jurisdiction, and would be if AFTRA didn't undercut SAG requirements in order to line union pockets. After all, it is good bottom line for the studios to go after the lowest contract they can get.

To the left is ALAN ROSENBERG, president of SAG exhorting the crowd to vote no on the AFTRA contract with the AMPTP. Love him as an actor, but here he looks very tired. You can tell the negotiations are taking a huge physical toll on the man.

To the right is KEITH CARRADINE who explained what SAG meant to him and his family. His family is a venerable dynasty of actors - patriarch John Carradine, brother Robert Carradine, half-brother David Carradine and Michael Bowen, nieces Ever Carradine and Kansas Carradine, and adopted brother Bruce Carradine. All are long time members of SAG.

Another issue involves actors being forced to hawk products within the scripts of their shows without their agreement. This might seem trivial when it concerns whether the character drinks Coke or Pepsi, but it can affect an aspect of actor's gainful employment. After all, Pepsi is not going to hire an actor to hawk Pepsi, if his popular character is seen drinking Coke on the series.

What's interesting is that I thought there was a law that said they had to use what they hawk, or at least not be against using it. But perhaps that has also been a casualty of our present government.

What is perhaps of greater concern is that without being able to say yea or nay, an actor can be forced to hawk within the confines of a story something he doesn't believe in. Like guns for someone who is for gun control. Or an abortion pill for someone who believes in Right to Life for Fetuses.

The AMPTP wants actors to have to individually negotiate that right at contract signing time, and anyone with a reasonable grasp on reality knows what happens then. If the actor doesn't sign the way the studio wants, they'll just go on to the next actor.

Of course this doesn't apply to big name actors who can dictate their own contracts. But then they aren't the ones that the SAG contracts are designed to protect, because frankly, they don't need them -- they have their own clout to get the provisions they want into their contracts.

To the left here we see actors GEORGE TAKEI and MARG HELGENBERGER listening intently to the words of WGA president PATRIC VERRONE. WGA negotiator DAVID YOUNG also spoke encouragement at the rally.

I congratulated George on his upcoming marriage and then asked something that has been on my mind. If the AFTRA contract was a bad deal, and George assured me that it was, why weren't the 44,000 dual-card holders speaking out against it?

He assures me they were, but they were being shouted down by the other members of AFTRA who weren't actors, but radio performers or broadcasters.

To the right are some of my favorite writers marching in support of SAG: GILLIAN HORVATH and ANTOINETTE STELLA.

DAVID CLENNON is also a favorite actor of mine and he was very intent on today's activities -- talking to people about how he could best help.

He was one of the actors who was out on the picket lines for the WGA Strike as often as he could.

Hopefully, this contract negotiations will get settled soon, for everybody's benefit. People are really hurting here. Many people who got laid off during the writers strike are still not back to work because of this defacto lock-out. And while the union which goes on strike has a Strike Fund to dip into to help out its hurting members, the other unions can not use their Strike Funds to help their members, because they are not on strike. Even though there's no question that their members are affected by a Strike or a Lockout, legalities won't allow them to open up their coffers to help their people. Hence people are losing their homes and jeopardizing everything they own and hold dear.

Pray that both sides come to a fair and equitable deal sooner rather than later.