Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The Purpose of Apples

So I held auditions for my short film "The Purpose of Apples." It's the story of Ethel and Caden who meet at a bus stop in LA at 8 in the morning.

There were so many amazing actors. Each one of them brought something different to each character. It was nice to see the various interpretations!

So after sitting down with a bunch of head shots and looking through resumes and watching 30 auditions, I have finally reached my oscar winning cast.



Ethel: E Fe



Caden: Andrew McGuinness



Young Ethel: Djakarta




Herb: Mike Wade




Alyse: Jamie Willey


Flower Guy: Daniel Frank

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Being an artist

The one thing about being an artist is learning to deal with the frustrating times. For instance, my good friend Andrew is having a moment of what he calls "actor's block." It's sort of like writer's block but only for actors. He's a phenomenal actor but, just like rest of us, had an off day. He had an audtion this afternoon for a play called Carved in Stone. We went to go see the reading last weekend and really enjoyed it. He'd really be perfect as one of the lead roles. He knows, I know it. But he went in for the audition today to be an understudy and just didn't do well. It happens. It doesn't make him a bad actor; it just makes him an artist.

This is something I have to remind myself constantly of when it comes to my writing. It seems for every good thing that will happen that pushes my career forward it always seems there are three things after that drag it backwards.

The one thing I'd like to remind all artists is that there will always be lows for every artist. Even the established ones. It's about remaining positive, keeping faith, and never giving up. I struggle with that myself almost daily. But my love of writing always, always surpasses my desire to just throw in the towel!