Roger That!

I got called in today to audition as a photo double for Roger Federer for an upcoming Nike commercial. I guess I'm roughly the same size as good ol' Rog, though rumor has it that he is slightly more proficient with a tennis racket... I got to simulate some ground strokes on film, and they took a few pictures. At any rate, it is a very cool spot, also starring a guy from the TV show "Flight of the Conchords" and -- I know I sound like a broken record by now -- it would be wonderful to get!

Had a meeting with another potential commercial agency yesterday, though it is stretching the definition of the word "meeting" to call it one. I was in front of the agent for literally 20 seconds; she took my picture, asked where I was from, told me she "liked my look" and said they were having callbacks in a couple weeks and she'd see me then. I was shuttled out the door before I even knew what hit me. Ahh, you can say a lot of L.A., but it is nothing if not always interesting!

I also was called yesterday by the casting director of the baseball project I worked on Tuesday and they need to shoot some more, so I'm likely working Sunday. More work, Yes!

Play Ball!

Fun stuff today working on Amazing Sports Stories. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Ontario - downright hot in those wool duds. I got to run the bases, throw the ball around, sit in the dugout, and best of all, was one of two guys who got to hit a little bit. It has been years since I've had to hit live pitching (not counting sweet 16-in softball hurling ;). And even though it was hardly major league pitching, it was still a bit intimidating having to hit on cue and without any warm-up. But, the worst part was that they set up the camera mere feet behind the plate, so I was constantly worried about fouling a ball back and breaking the $10,000 camera and/or one of the faces on the 10 people standing directly behind me.

The show will air on Fox Sports Network starting in April, though I don't know if it will just be on the FSN California stations, but I will let you know if I hear. Anyway, who knows what of me they will choose to use - if anything - but it was a lot of fun getting to wear Yankee pinstripes, even if just for a day.

Yankee For a Day

Tomorrow I get to work on Amazing Sports Stories out in Ontario, which is about an hour away. The role I'm playing is that of the Yankees' 1931 left fielder, Ben Chapman. (I had a pretty good season that year, too, batting .315 with 17 HR 122 RBI 120 R while leading the league with 61 SB ;) The weather is supposed to be warm and sunny, so it should be a lot of fun!

Saturday Audition

Had an audition for an independent (but paid, actually) short film today. The script is a lot of fun - It is a morality tale, kind of a cross between the visually interesting future-world of Brazil and the conformist future of The Matrix. In fact, the character I auditioned for was similar to the "Agent Smith" type in The Matrix. I wore a dark suit with slicked back hair. I auditioned with several other guys and I know they are trying to match a few of the characters to look alike. The audition was a lot of fun, and I'd really like to get the movie. They make casting decisions next week, so we'll see!

Busy Thursday

Before class last night, I had two auditions yesterday:

Sony - There were all types/ages/races of people there, so it is hard to know exactly what they were looking for. They took us in four at a time and asked each of us to tell something unique about ourselves (I talked about teaching college English for the past few years). Again, similar to Wednesday's audition, it seemed like they wanted to find out about personalities of the actors, which is interesting because these were non-speaking roles. Though, as I said before, I don't blame them, I'd like to know the people I'm working with are interesting and not a bunch of crazy folk, too ;)

Print Audition - This one was for a stock photo shoot, which just means that a photographer wants to get some images that they then might sell to one or more clients sometime down the road. They are fun gigs (often just a couple hours), since you usually get paid by the hour and you get to add some cool pics to your portfolio/website.
~~

The final meeting of my 6-week class was last night. Paul, our teacher, ran it like an audition - we each did a scene that we have been working on, on camera to an off-camera partner. After doing the scene, he gave some notes, and we got to do the scene again. It was a nice culmination of all we have been working on. I feel that I have already been able to incorporate some of the skills and techniques I have learned in class, and I look forward to continuing my work with Paul in an on-going capacity.
~~

I have an audition tomorrow for a short film which sounds like a neat project, so keep those fingers crossed!