David Chiu

Tonight I finally finished working on the scene “One Sunday Afternoon“. My partner and I delivered two good performances which Tom was pleased with. But his approval wasn’t an enthusiastic one, it was more of a, “that was a good performance which demonstrates you understand the scene, the story, the characters, the circumstances and the emotions”. In other words, if this was a test we would have been given a “B” grade instead of an “A” grade. That is because there was still a couple of things we could have been added to the scene - tears of joy and more love. I’m a little disappointed with myself, but it’s time to move on…

Class was a little different tonight. Tonight we worked on cold reading and audition technique. I have actually participated in several cold reading and audition technique workshops over the years, but this time was different. This time I could apply my training and the “method” to break down the script and create a performance.

The class was run like an actual audition. We were all given the same scene and asked to study it outside. Then we were called into the room individually to read for the “casting director” in front of the camera. After we had all completed are “audition”, we were all called back into the room to watch the tape of the auditions. Tom then gave his critique on each performance and told us what we could do to improve our performances.

Watching each person audition was very eye opening. Overall, Tom was very pleased with all of our performances. I myself, was horrified at mine. Tom said that I had a very solid audition, but personally, I thought I looked very wierd. It had to be the lighting and the way I was sitting in the light. I don’t know, but I was freaked out a little.

Well Saturday I’ll have a second chance to not “look wierd”. We’re doing cold reading and audition technique for one more class before we move on to our FINAL scene.

BTW, for my final scene I have been assigned the play “She Stoops to Conquer“. I was told by one of my classmates that there are accents used in the scene. That’s just great. The only accent I can do decently is Jamaican and I highly doubt that is the accent needed for this scene…

Now that my theatrical agency has made their choice on what photos to use, my next step is to submit a digital copy of the photos to LACasting.com. As I have mentioned before, LACasting.com is the online casting service that both of my agenices use for submissions. I was actually surprised when my commercial agent told me that 80% of agency submissions and casting is now done through LACasting.com. Hollywood is definitely going high-tech.

So today I pulled up LACasting.com to get their phone number and was greeted with a small Quicktime video showing an actress posing for the camera. Next to it appeared an ad for Moving Headshots. It definitely got my attention so I checked out the website. Basically, Moving Headshots is exactly what the name implies. A short video clip that is shot like a photo but is actually a short video clip. Clever idea, but it feels a little “gimmicky”. I feel it could be done better. My other question would be, how many casting directors and agents have Quicktime installed? The price to have this done also seems really expensive - $300 for one “moving headshot”. For that $300, you don’t even get a high quality photo for submissions. Instead you have the option for a headshot to be created from a frame of the video. The question would be - is it really worth the money? I think what would make it more appealing is if those new 8 megapixel digital cameras could capture photos at 16fps or 30fps. Then you could get a high-quality photo + a few seconds of video.

Overall, I think Moving Headshots is a great idea which I think will definitely mature and probably become the standard as technology gets better and better, but right now may not be worth the money.

Geek note: With the evolution of digital photography, high-definition video and electronic paper, we could see in 10 years, paper headshots which actually display a short video clip. Wild isn’t it?

Side note: I’m a little bothered that the Moving Headshots website displays “U.S. Patent Pending” at the bottom of the website. What exactly are they trying to patent? Have they developed some new process or are they just trying to patent the use of a video clip as an online headshot? If it’s the latter it bothers me. It’s just like Amazon.com getting a patent for “1-click” shopping. Or Trump trying to patent the words “You’re Fired”. There is nothing new here, just a re-naming of something that already exists.

Actually, I should patent the use of putting rocks in a garden I am now officially naming this “process” as “ground weighting”.

Technically, I don’t think my partner and I have finished our scene. When I mean finished, I mean performed the scene in front of the class and acting coach in a way that demonstrates that you understand the scene, the circumstances, the relationship, the characters and the emotions - and are able to act it out in a seamless, emotional, talented way. Our current problem is making the relationship of husband and wife look real and for me - embodying the character of a small town, simple, bully who is now reformed. The last time we performed the scene, it was in front of one of the founders of the studio. He liked our performance but said that he was on the fence on finishing the scene. He said our performace was more of a first-year finish (the acting was natural and believable and all the basic elements of relationship and circumstances were apparant), but we did not demonstrate the ability to portray the characters in the scene (which is what second-year is all about).

Anyway, after talking to my partner a couple days ago, we decided to move on to the nursery rhyme exercise and speak to Tom to hear his opinion on whether or not we still need to work on our scene…

Nursery rhymes

In this exercise, we have been given the task to pick out one nursery rhyme and act it out in three different circumstances. We are basically creating mini-scenes using the nursery rhyme as text. I chose to use this rhyme:

Curly Locks, Curly Locks,
Will you be mine?
You shall not wash dishes,
Nor feed the swine,
But sit on a cushion
And sew a fine seam,
And sup upon strawberries,
Sugar, and cream.

I setup three different scenarios representing the course of a relationship between a boy and a girl. The first one, I’m sitting on a park bench with my “girlfriend” and saying the rhyme as a marriage proposal. The second scene, my “wife” is storming out of the room with a suitcase and I start reciting the rhyme as a plead to stay. The third scene, I’m back at the park bench sitting with a buddy reciting the rhyme as a bittersweet memory.

Although a few people in class setup elaborate sets, I kept mine simple. All I used was a park bench in my first and last scene. Well, Tom like the overall idea that I had for the scenes, but he said my acting was inconsistent and “skit-like” in some instances. I didn’t have the emotional depth to support the scene. He also said that this is a good indication of the state of the scene I was last working on and that my partner and I need to bring back our scene to work on it more.

Well…

This is why they call it acting CLASS. This is where we all need to learn the process and learn how to do it right. Like my wife tells me, at least in class we get a second chance. In an audition, if you don’t do it right the first time, you’re done.