Class went well today. Did my 4th SR, Herbert Marshall, twice with two different questions. They went really well and T gave me an excellent. Maybe I'm getting 'consistent' which is what I want to get! I certainly understand every word, I'm able to interpret each thought and moment in my own words to show that I understand it and I'm able to perform them well. This, folks, is all good news and a MAJOR improvement to where I was two years ago, before PHW training. My understanding of how to read a scene, break it down into sections, meanings and moments and understanding character spines and scene arcs is much fuller than before too. Like many 'actors', it was so easy to read a scene and make a general assumption or decision as to what the writer meant and how it should be played. I have come to realise that nothing a (good) writer writes is there by accident. Every word 'means' something and, without some serious work on every scene, one is in grave danger of trivialising it, missing the various moments and being general and mediocre. I am not prepared to be mediocre and being mediocre does not get you work in this highly competitive market! Rehearsed with Y after class for a couple of hours and moved our scene on to the end which I'm really happy about. It's feeling good!
Off to the park with the monkey and played in the sand - you know, as you do!
Chatted to S who has a couple of days work on a CBS show which will (finally) land him his SAG card - hooray! Now he's going to move out of the 'non-union' pool of out-of-work actors into the 'union' pool of out-of-work actors! Huzzah!
Also chatted to G who has spoken to his contact at the online company interested in his 'secret' project and fixed up a meeting. The guy is incredibly excited that we're going to see them and (hopefully) work out a deal. I'm going to put together a agenda for the meeting so that they understand that we're serious and not like a majority of other writing/production teams (if G is happy to allow me to include myself in that description) - hope so!

Couple of links for today...
Fancy reading some screenplays online? See how the movies you know and love looked on the page before the film was shot. Might surprise you! It's a great site and it's free!

Think there's a lot of film festivals out there? You do? Well, you'd be absolutely right in thinking that. Do you know that there's one just for mobile / cellphones? You didn't? Well there is!

G's been searching around for a screening venue for UnconCon and this one looked pretty cool. Very reasonable too. Nice friendly atmosphere, no stress, very relaxed, very 'organic'! Just the job, methinks!

Couple of rehearsals today. Spent THREE hours on the scene with K going through our interpretation of every single moment and the various sections of the scene. I cannot tell you how different I feel towards the scene and how much more everything now means to me. It really is an incredible play. Scooped a bunch of Tony nominations last year, unsurprisingly. Feel great about the scene already! It's going to be pretty damn good, even if I do say so myself!
Went off to rehearse with M, Y & M at M's new house. What an amazing place! Views, space, location... incredible. M & Y left soon after so M & I worked on some personalisations for our SRs and then went through them beginning each with a question (mine with two). It's amazing the difference a question makes! And the contrast you can get from the same verse with two different questions. M & I also chatted about the industry, the issues with agents and managers and the total LACK of work in this town currently! M's hubby, E, is up for an EP position on an eight week European shoot which is currently heading up the swanny! Well, at least SOMEONE'S getting some offers around here! Maybe I'll re-energise my singing telegram career! Had some ideas for some marketing. G had some very exciting news for the ultra-secret project we've been working on for a while from one of the 'larger' websites (no names, of course). They want to talk about an offer perhaps to develop the idea in a certain way (which I'm not going to go into here, dear reader!) which could end up with a healthy slice of dosh! That would be nice. He's going to organise a meeting with them to talk about the details. If it takes off... it could be bigger than hoola hoops!

Tuesday. Worked on new video clips for my website, editing some footage and formatting for QT windows. Looks pretty good. Trawled the breakdowns for any sniff of a decent job - pretty disappointing I'm afraid.

Monday - class. Worked with Suz on our activity and door. The emails building up our back story really worked a treat - we had all of our work done on our relationship so we were free to work off each other under our imaginary circumstances without having to 'play' our story. Really felt good. T liked it a lot! Also did a first read on Pillowman with K. That went quite well too. T gave us some things to work on for the door/activity into the scene in class and also our rehearsals outsode class for the coming weeks. K and I went to discuss the scene after class to start working out some of the moments and also how to break it down into manageable chunks as the whole scene is about 30 mins long. Headed off to the park with the monkey when I got home.
Work is very s l o w - Hollywood seems VERY quiet (work wise) just now...

A marvelous little party in Pasadena was the order of the day, in honour of our friend's impending sprog. Ahhh. The house was breathtaking, indeed it had a plaque on the wall indicating its status as a National Historic Monument. Blimey! And I used the loo, three times - felt very honoured. The assembled company was wonderful, very warm and friendly. The many kids played and ran around while the grown-ups chatted away about all sorts of things but mostly the 'industry', the vast majority of the attendees hailing from one of the world's biggest animation companies (local, of course)... not Mickey Mouse's lot, the other one. Met lots of nice people, including quite a few Brits who seems to thrive in the warm environment of Southern California! Met a writer who has a fully funded (live action, i.e. not animated) feature due for filming up in Canada. He's been plugging away to get funding, I think he said, for four years which is, about par for the course. I subtly put my name forward, of course, but really not making anything of it, this being a non-networking social function and my strong sense of integrity (and the strong sense of not wanting to be branded as an 'inappropriate actor chap') not allowing me to talk shop. He and his wife gave me their email so I'll drop 'em a note. Nice people.
West Hollywood on Emmy night was, of course, a little busy. Not just the roads either. The skies were like 'Nam, I counted four helicopters either hovering above a posh party or doing tight circles in the sky.
The only thing I have to say about the Emmys is congratulations fellow Brit thesps... Dame Helen, Kelly Macdonald (nice surprise, not for the Yanks, of course!) and Jeremy Irons. Presenting kudos to Hugh Laurie and (cough) Simon Cowell. Nice job, luvvies.

OK, some luscious links collected over the last couple of days:

Seen these guys? Very funny and pretty ingenious IMHO. The virtual friend/pet/alien has moved on another step...

These radios are things of beauty. I played with one today in Tar-jey and was mightilly impressed. A little pricey you think - well, you have to pay for quality in this world...


Hooray! Power-napping is good for you and you should do it - it's official. No longer will I feel guilty for wanting to take forty winks in the afternoon!

Here's a news story highlighting a serious problem Beijing has with its funeral management...

Saturday = Zoo day! Bloody hot again and LAZoo is like an army route march in some places. Good to see that they work on the Elephant and Ape habitats has really come on though. Shame it wasn't in time for one of the residents, Gita. Ahhh.
Still, lots of marvelous animals to see, including all the inmates of the Reptile House. They have some scary bloody things in there, I tell you!

Friday was...well, it all started with me standing in the shower busy abluting, head full of conditioner, scrub applied liberally all around when, no I'm not making this up, the water was cut off. Brilliant! Absolutely nothing coming out of the showerhead. Ditto all the taps. I do remember hearing a pneumatic drill (US=jackhammer) in the street earlier on. Great, they're working on the mains and not told us that they're going to cut off the water. Bollocks. The only water in the house was what was in the kettle and the fridge water filter so I made sure there was a plentiful supply of fluids for the missus and the monkey to drink and then attempted to wash everything off my head and body with the contents of the aforementioned containers. I tell you, it really makes you appreciate the fact that, normally, as much water as you could ever want flows out of the tap on demand, (whenever you need it) when you're trying to rinse off your entire head and body with an inch and a half of water in the sink. Great start to the day but I suppose one has to suck it up. Off to my audition for Cc cable playing an explorer/ice pack naturalist meeting up with a Penguin. Quite funny in that the ad is from the penguin's POV and, naturally, I have no idea what he's saying so I'm just nodding in a "Blimey, this penguin's making a lot of noise" sort of way. Also, I think that I was probably the only one carrying a ski jacket in L.A. today, well, me and all the other chaps going for the job! That done, back home with 2.5 gallons of water for the kinfolk (yes, by this time, the DWP - UK=Water Board, had a bloody huge hole just up the road from us)and then off down to Marina DR to see a good friend of mine, J, who used to be my commercial agent but is now assisting in a principal casting office. She has a rather interesting project which I won't go into at the moment, suffice it to say that there isn't a role for me in it! She is so amazing that I know she'll bring me in for the first project where there is a role I'm right for. I love her! Met her boss and her colleague and headed home.
Managed to prang the car by reversing into a bloody fire hydrant, it being so short that I couldn't see it out of the back window! Bugger!! Drilled a 2 inch hole into an otherwise pristine bumper (US=fender) it having just been replaced from someone rear ending M a couple of months ago. Bugger bugger.
Still no call from my manager or anything from the two callbacks. Bugger bugger bugger. Must stay positive, must stay positive.
On the bright side after today, in the incredibly insightful words of Yazz, "the only way is up". Well, let's hope so eh!
Thank heavens for my health, 'er indoors and the monkey - one has to count one's blessings when things go a little awry, doesn't one?
The picture of a puppy above? I thought puppies are one of those things you have to be grateful for, aren't they!! Forget the lack of water, pranged car and no bloody work - the dog's cute, isn't he?