Clips of Crystal in her Starring Role in "The Family Crystal" Web Series

Although the web series, The Family Crystal, is still in post, I was able to pry some clips out of the hands of my writer/director/producer extradinaire, ELAINE ZICREE. The very talented editor, SCOTT BAKER, helped me by taking the footage and creating the clips I wanted with my headshot back and front. However, these haven't been color-corrected yet, and I won't be able to put those up until the web series comes out of post and I get the final version to work with.

I've already uploaded them to IMDBpro, somewhat as a test to see how they will play and look. Next is to get them up on Now Casting and Actors Access, etc. with the hopes that people will like them and hire me as an actor in their projects.

You can view them on IMDB or here and be sure to let me know what you think. This first clip is from the episode called "The Party" and stars me, TOM KATSIS, who plays my father, and LEAH ALLERS, who plays my sister.

The second clip is from the episode "Dad Has a Nice Nap" and stars me, BARRY ALEXANDER, who plays my brother-in-law, and Tom Katsis.

The third clip is from the episode "Feeding Dad" and stars me and Leah Allers.

The fourth clip is from the episode "The Guest" and stars me and Barry Alexander.

The fifth clip is from the episode "Sisters" and stars me and Leah Allers.

Hopefully, the web series will finish posting soon, because there are a lot of other great scenes in it.

And if people like it, we hope to do a third season.

Official Photo Shoot For The Family Crystal

The photo at the left is from rehearsal of a scene in The Family Crystal which is the web series I'm starring in (photo credit to James Metropole) and which gave me my SAG eligibility. I'm using that one here because our official photos are not ready yet.

However, today we had the official photo shoot for The Family Crystal at the studio/home of one of the producers. We did individual shots and group shots, hamming up the latter to show what a dysfunctional family we are.

Great fun and I can't wait to see how they turn out.

Day One of Principal Photography on The Family Crystal Web Series

We finished shooting our first day on our web series, The Family Crystal, which I'm starring in. Talented people and a brilliant script came together to create magic. We have only 5 days to shoot 26 episodes for the Internet... some as short as a half minute or as long as 5 minutes.

It didn't start out great. My call time was 7 am. The I-170 was smooth sailing as you would expect that early in the morning, but when I hit the I-5, it was bumper to bumper crawling. That was because they had closed one lane, then a second, then a third -- the three right lanes. But worse than that, they closed the ramp I was planning to exit on. And the next ramp. So there I was, going to a place out in what I considered the boonies, where I had never been to, and they closed the two adjacent ramps. I don't have any fancy GPS. So I was worried about whether I had overshot the street I was looking for when I got off and circled back After all, who knows whether the freeway angles. Turns out I didn't overshoot the cross street I wanted but I had to go to the very end of the street before I knew that. And of course, I panicked before then, calling the producer and asking, have I gone too far.

Once inside, the first place you deal with is the makeup room and the costume room. I have 30 costume changes in the 2 seasons of 13 episodes each. Obviously we will have to use some of these things more than once. The picture to the right shows you some of my costumes -- the unwrinkable tops are in the suitcase beneath the ones hanging up.

Then when we tried to shoot the first scene, we kept blowing fuses, so we'd lose a camera or sound -- we were shooting three cameras at a time, the master and two closeups. So we lost at least an hour while the crew brought in extension cords and latticed the plugs around the house until we could run everything we needed without blowing fuses.

To the left is Leah Allers, who plays my sister Rhonda, getting made up by our wonderful make-up and hair lady, Mindy. And Leah, once she's ready to step in front of the cameras.
With all the delays that were unexpected, we were only about to shoot about 10-12 pages rather than the fifteen director Elaine Zicree wanted to accomplish.

What follows is a few pictures from the shoot to give you a flavor of our set. Elaine had rehearsed us so well that our performances went exceedingly well... and quick. We only had about 3 or 4 takes a scene. And only a couple of pickups. I'm sure that made the crew as happy as we were.

I don't want to spoil the fun or suspense for you when the series hits the web, so I won't say much about the actual plot. However, Leah and another actor, Eric Rubin had a stunt, choreographed by a real working stuntman (from the show Criminal Minds) so they wouldn't get hurt, that yours truly here would have been too chicken to try.

When it gets up on the Net, and you have a chance to view it, then I'll give some behind the scenes tidbits.

As you can see, a set is a busy place. But it isn't all hard work. We do get a chance to play as well.

Barry Alexander who plays my brother-in-law, Eric, Rhonda's husband, goofs off first with Mindy, the makeup and hair guru and then with me.

Tomorrow we will be shooting day 2, but this time my call time is at 8 am... a much more civilized hour... better to have to get up at 6 am than 5 am...

Call Backs for The Family Crystal Web Series

Yesterday, we had call backs for the various roles in The Family Crystal which had not been cast already. If you recall, this is the web series Elaine Zicree wrote for me to star in, as Crystal. She also wrote the role of my father with fine actor Tom Katsis in mind. Happily he accepted.

The Family Crystal is about the trials and tribulations of a beleaguered, long-suffering, much put-upon daughter of an alcoholic elderly father and her vapid, intellectually challenged, pretty sister who doesn't want to share in parental caretaking.

Ryan Beard ran the camera which was videotaping our performances so that Elaine could review them later and maker her choices. He also was one of the actors vying for the tutor role and he did a terrific job, helped along by his wonderful British accent (South Hampton).

The auditions will apparently be online on a closed casting directors access website, where only the casting director and the actor auditioning can access. Dare I look at me?

So, we were casting for the roles of my sister Rhonda, her husband Eric, and the tutor. I wasn't able to make the initial auditions, which I would have liked to sit in on for experience. But I was available to come to CAZT on Formosa Ave in LA to read with the actors in the call backs. The above photo shows the team we were reading for, producer Susan Shearer, writer/director Elaine Zicree, and producer Richard Redlin.

This was great fun for me as I had never done a call back before, and certainly not from the secure position of having already been cast. I read with two young women vying for the role of Rhonda and I read with three young men for the role of her husband, Eric. It was an awesome learning experience.

Then I watched the Rhondas read with four young men for the roles of Eric and the tutor. This was an awesome experience as well, and it taught me a lot.

Then Elaine asked me to read from the sidelines for a scene I was peripherally in, but in reality was between Rhonda and Eric, so that too was interesting, although I've done that before, when I got to play Kirk.

I'm so excited about this project. The scenes are very funny and I can have so much fun with them. And they are so true to life. I just hope I can do them justice.

For further information, check out my article on "The Process of Casting a Web Series" on Suite101.com.