Booked!!

August 30, 2005 by Dennis Baker 

I got the call today that I booked a supporting role in the feature film “Nostalgia”. It is a low-budget feature (most likely straight to video), but a paying job none the less. I recently signed up for a commercial class and canceled it this morning (before I knew I was booked) as it would have conflicted with the shooting schedule. I normally would not have canceled the class before knowing, but I had a gut feeling that I would get the part. The script will be delivered tonight and I will post more later.

Filed under: Acting, Film, Los Angeles
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That’s the Business

August 25, 2005 by Dennis Baker 

For commercials, if you are not called the next day you probably don’t have it. They work that fast. TV works just as fast, usually a day or two after the producers session. Feature Films are a bit slower, they usually have about six weeks to cast the project. All this to say the film I lamented about below, thinking the probably won’t call me in. Well I have a callback on Saturday. I had not heard anything for about four days and assumed they passed. This business if full of contradictions. As soon as you think one way about something, the opposite usually happens. I was a Q&A with Tony Sepvulvada, VP of Warners Brothers Casting (Good questions Kate Renee) and he prefaced everything he said with “this is my opinion, and you will probably hear a Casting Director say the opposite”. So while waiting for my brain to stop spinning, I say…Welcome to the business.

Filed under: Acting, Auditioning, Film, Los Angeles
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You Were Great

August 22, 2005 by Dennis Baker 

I had an audition Sunday for a low budget feature film. I read the scene once with the director and then they had me read it again as they taped it. It was a pleasant and easygoing audition experience. They said I was great and had no comments for me. The odds are I will not hear from them…yet I was great.

After the audition I went to meet some friends at the beach. Our friends parents, who live out of state, were curious about the audition process and amazed that it is all subjective. I usually don’t think too much about an audition after it is over. Training myself to let it go once the audition is over so that I don’t worry about the outcome. I simply go in and do the work. Well the questions caused me mind to dwell on the audition more than normal. My mind went back and forth and I started to wonder when it will be my turn.

I worked with an actress two years ago in a play. We were basically on the same acting career level. About a year and half she landed a part on the TV show “Joey”, which caused her to get a great manager and then landed roles on “Entourage”, “Six Feet Under”, and “The Comeback”. She landed a good role in the Wes Craven movie “Red Eye”. I read an article that he gave and how he fought the studio for her to be in the movie. There is no bitterness as she is a great actress and person. I am happy for her. The question sits with me when will it be my turn. Then this quote put it all in perspective.

“I’m a late bloomer. I didn’t succeed in my thirties or forties. As I turned fifty, I had a slight inkling as to what I wanted to do when I grew up. I took heart in studying the lives of leaders like Mahatma Ghandi, Harry Truman, and Mother Teresa, all of whom really got started around age fifty. The sense of mortality has a huge upside: It helps you stop worrying about trying to become something you aren’t and get on with being who you really are—warts and all—because that is as good as it’s going to get.” -Jim Henderson, “a.k.a. LOST” [p.7]

Filed under: Acting, Film, Los Angeles
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