Stay at home actor

I love this. Reminds me of the Tonya Harding vs. Paula Jones sketch on SNL a while back. Thanks to Robert Dugan for the link.

Curtis Wayne Demo Reel

Drawing inspiration from my fellow Texas Film Scene member Tommy Kendrick's excellent short-form demo reel, I decided to re-edit mine. I took a little different approach, since I don't have the pedigree that Tommy brings. Instead of a dozen short scenes, I used just a few scenes (still short, about 90 seconds for the whole reel), but long enough to show different looks and some acting "chops," I hope. Please let me know what you think. I would love some feedback!

NOTE: HD version is available on YouTube.

UPDATE: I have heard and obeyed! Newly-updated reel now includes clip titles, as you guys suggested. To keep it short and focused, I left out other clips from comedy roles and such. Thanks for all the great feedback, folks!

Missing podcast

I recorded a great Texas Film Scene interview last night with accomplished Houston actor Davi Jay, but we had to shelve it for now, because the Department of Homeland Security deemed it a threat to our national sovereignty.*  

But rest assured, this excellent interview will be posted at a future date, hopefully as Davi's star is rocketing even higher.  He's a wonderful actor, and had tremendous stories and insight for actors everywhere, particularly those living outside of the Hollywood system.  Look for him soon on a major project.

I'll have another TFS episode recorded and posted next week for your pleasure.  Stay tuned...

*Um, no.  Not really.

Is that thing loaded?

Chris Anderson, author of The Long Tail, and editor of Wired Magazine, wrote a terrific article on how shooting digitally affects the performance of actors.

Big-name directors that Anderson spoke with, such as Tony Bill (Flyboys, Untamed Heart) explained that shooting digitally eliminates the actors' fear that every take was costing hundreds or thousands of dollars of film, and thus put the actor more at ease.

Photo by Larry Furnace

It also allowed directors to eliminate rehearsals and roll on every take:

It's "the difference between pointing a loaded gun at someone and a toy gun. You point a loaded gun at them and they're going to act different. A film camera is a loaded gun. Digital is not."
--Tony Bill

Having shot on both multi-camera 35mm sets and indie digital sets of various sizes, I have to disagree just a bit. It is true that film is expensive. For an indie filmmaker with a nano-budget, shooting even 16mm is often prohibitive. Robert Rodriguez' book Rebel without a Crew explains this well.

However, there are usually other factors at work that are even more prohibitive than the cost of film, such as crew costs, limited location availability, daylight, and the number of takes an actor (or director) has in them. Actors are like racehorses who wait, wait, wait, in their stalls, while the crew dresses a set, makes up the actors, rigs the lighting, sets the props, and grabs focus. By the time the director yells "Action!", the actors are often emotionally spent. It's like war: hours of boredom punctuated by minutes of sheer terror.

In the still shot above, for example, I am freezing my nips off on a 40' F morning, with a 30' wind chill, while pretending that it is 90' outside. [Photo by professional set photog, industrial videographer, and all-around mechanical genius Larry Furnace.]  But when director Kat Candler called action, we all had to be ready to go, knowing that we had limited time and resources for getting this shoot wrapped.

Even in my former life as a musician, digital media did not change the economics of hourly studio rental and producer fees.  When we rolled, uh, RAM... it was much the same as rolling expensive 2" tape:  time is money.  Time is always money.  Maybe not yours, but somebody's.  And if you are a professional, you appreciate other people's time, and do not waste it.

Digital definitely allows long tail movie-making. But it does not preclude common sense and pre-planning in the process.

Free at last

Today I quit.

For better or worse, I am now a professional actor. Woo-hoo!

I took the opportunity to celebrate by buying an iPhone. In days, I’ll be free of Verizon, too, but that’s another rant.

Of course, in a week or so, I could be an unemployed professional actor. That's the risk, when you're working on a week-to-week contract, as I am with Prison Break. But you know what? It still beats working in a 6x6' cube.

Actually, as cube farms go, my former employer was a pretty good one. The people were great, the job was challenging, benefits were excellent, and the salary was decent. Also, my bosses were very understanding of my desire to make a life in the arts, and worked with me until it just became unfeasible, which is why I offered my resignation.

But the bottom line is, I don't care about insurance. Does anybody, really? I mean, it's a living, and a comfortable one, but seeing my Dad fighting for his life at age 59 opened my eyes. This is not my "rehearsal life"; this is my LIFE. I've always taken chances, but after seven years of making good, comfortable, corporate money, I had gotten a little complacent. This show was a kick in the pants, and the opportunity for me to make a leap of faith. So I jumped.

Strangely enough, making a multi-million dollar film or television series is a lot like running projects in a corporation. There's definitely a hierarchy, various agendas, and "office politics" at work. And the director's job is largely project management, along with a "system architect" role, perhaps. But even though what we're working on is mere entertainment, it feels more honest. We don't delude ourselves that we're doing something of deep philosophical importance, but we're all very committed to it.

And, as it turns out, a lot more people seem to care about this silly television show than they do insurance companies. Prison Break is the number one rated show in this country and several others, apparently, and has a huge international following (I had no idea). People aren't nearly as impressed with my corporate resume, alas. :-)

Here’s something funny: Two years ago, we wrapped the film ‘Living & Dying, and co-star Jordana Spiro turned to me and said, “So, what’s next for you?”

“Back to my managing a software project at an insurance company,” I replied.

“Oh, you’ve got a real job? Wow.” She thought I was an L.A. actor. “What’s next for you?” I asked. “Back to waiting tables and auditions, I guess,” she said, sounding a little dejected.

Well. A year later, the girl had her own TV series. So there ya go. It can happen.

So, this is a scary time for Mary and I (Danielle doesn't seem to care, either way). It’s a new chapter in my life. I look forward to turning the page...