Tonight I have an audition for a grad film at USC. I've been to USC to audition many, many, many times - auditions, cast in 2 student films there, a screening of one of the films. I know how to get there, know my way around - or at least I know my way around the "entertainment" part of the campus, USC is HUGE - know the parking situation, know how much time to give myself. So that's good. The bad part...the audition is at 7pm which means rush hour traffic on the 110. Ugh! I hate the 101/110 interchange (is that what it's called?) downtown...possibly more than the 405/101 interchange which I think was once voted the worst interchange in the U.S. I don't drive the 110 all that much and the interchange scares me - you have to get over a certain amount of lanes or you end up in an exit lane for downtown - although I did finally learn that you can stay in one of the exit lanes and it takes you off the freeway for a moment then you get right back on. It's also tricky going the reverse too - there's some lane for the 101 that comes up quick and you have to get into it. I think you may actually have to get in another one of those lanes that takes you off the freeway for a moment or it's close to impossible to get into the 101 lane. Plus there's ALWAYS tons of traffic. I've started taking the 134/5/110 combo - a little longer distance wise and sometimes just as much traffic, but don't have to deal with that interchange - you get on the 110 before you hit downtown so you can get over into the left lane and not have to deal with the merge. Still, going to USC for 7pm on Friday night traffic, ugh. This is the 3rd or 4th time I've had an audition there on a Friday night - must be the night they can book the audition space or don't have class.
So all this for a 2 line part with a little more screen time. But, I read the script and think it's really clever and it's a grad film so I think it will be a higher quality. The last time I auditioned for a grad film there the director was telling me how they got a grant or something and/or got all this high-end film equipment they could use. Sweet. I can already tell by the writing in this one it's up a level from an undergrad film. Actually, it seems very ambitious what they're trying to do. But the writing is good and the script tells a story from start to finish and there's some character development which is more than I can say for a lot of the stuff I've auditioned for. So I'm going to brave the traffic and go.
I think I'll also bring some extra headshots - I've head of people leaving headshots there for other filmmakers but I've never seen a drop box or anything. I've heard of people just leaving them at bulletin board areas, but I don't know if I want to randomly leave my stuff there. I think I'll take some postcards and maybe leave a stack near the bulletin board if I don't see a drop box - postcards are way cheaper than headshots and don't care as much if they just get thrown out. Actually, I just had an idea. I'll let you know if I actually do it.
On the other hand, do I really want to leave my stuff there? I'm trying so hard to get away from auditioning for student stuff, no budget stuff, work for free stuff. I've tried this before and it's a double edged sword - I used to submit on everything I was right for but go tired of wasting my time going on auditions for crappy projects with people who don't know what they're doing but just want to make a film. So I stopped submitting on crap projects and I was getting called in for a little better stuf, but I was going on less auditions and I feel like my auditioning skills suffered and I got frustrated because I had nothing going on. So I started submitting on more stuff again. That meant going to more auditions but most of them were projects I wouldn't want to do so I got frustrated because I felt like I'd wasted my time. See? I've also heard that if you want to audition for the better projects you need to stop submitting on everything. What a viscious circle!
Yesterday I went to go see about doing an internship. I thought it went well. Not 100% sure if it's something I want to do or not. It wasn't 100% exactly what I thought it was, but it seemed like there were some awesome benefits including getting to see some stuff first hand. We shall see.
Wednesday I went to power group which meant I had to get all my goals and stuff together. That was a little rough this month but I'm glad I sat down and put it all on paper. Also some of the stuff dealt with "type" and "branding yourself" which I struggle with terribly but had a minor epiphany before I went, got some good ideas what to do with that, and now think I'm starting to figure it out a little more. It all comes down to I'm horrible at judging myself and really need to pay attention to what type of roles I'm being called in for and what other people are saying about me. I do feel a little better about the whole thing.
Yesterday was very exciting - my new hard drive came! I had only ordered it Wednesday so I was excited it came in one day. 500GB! Now I don't have to worry about using up too much space on the computer, moving stuff over to the external hard drive, etc. This means can get my demo reel together without worrying about not having enough room for the clips. I'm also hoping this will extend the life of my computer a few years, even though I despearately want a laptop! After some conufusion how to install it, I found a video online how to install a 2nd hard drive, watched it, installed it, formatted it and it's ready to go. Now is the hard part - making that drive my startup drive and move everything over there without losing anything. Scary!
Okay, I need to go do laundtry, go so some sort of exercise whether it be a walk or the gym (gym is better, but a walk is less time) and leave myself at least an hour to get to this audition.
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