Hi all,
Let me squeeze in all the news. I had a wonderful Thanksgiving. A nice lady in the church choir invited me to dinner and I was so happy to have somewhere to go. I went home last year, but I couldn’t afford to fly home for both Christmas and Thanksgiving this year, so I’ll be home for Christmas. Thanksgiving doesn’t mean the same as it did when my grandparents were alive and we had a house full of family.
I took a fantastic acting class with veteran actor, Kevin McCorkle, at Camera Left/ASG Casting. He calls the class Acting In Motion and I got a special price for the class. Basically, the class is mainly about commercial technique, business knowledge, and defining an actor blue print. I have an actor blueprint put together, but I haven’t been able to stick to all of it. My plan is to send a few postcards a week, submit to one agent, and make sure to do one thing to practice my skills each day, among other things. No news on the agent front yet. Being SAG-eligible is not in the near future for me, unless I book some TV credit sometime soon. I did get to audition for a AAA commercial a few weeks back. I am always doing something.
I attended the Film Independent Filmmaker Forum and I learned so much. I got to meet a big casting director, a working producer, and the Fine Brothers! They have lunch and brunch meetings with successful industry members, big name key note speakers, sessions about different trends in the industry, and one-on-one Industry Connect meetings which early birds (like me!) got first crack at. My first one-on-one went great and the second did not. I also met an entertainment lawyer among the attendees. This is not an event that most actors attend and barely anyone was in a position to help me with The Go-Girls. It’s about the third weekend of October each year and costs about $215 for members ($230 for non-members). I’m also now a Filmmaker Pro member, so I can attend exclusive free screenings, have a free production consultation, use the offices for casting, and have table reads. (It’s $250 per year; A regular membership is $95.) I met with the fantastic guy who is the production consultant and he was greatly helpful. He said that I had been doing pretty much what I should and that I was well-informed and organized. He was honest about everything but very constructive and positive.
I had a Crowdfund Manager, but he seriously didn’t understand me or the project. I’ll be looking for another one, because I know what to do for the crowdfunding campaign, I just need someone to help me out.
There is a new member on the Go-Girls team to be announced at a later date.
In stage news, I auditioned for the Utah Shakespeare Festival and the Broadway tour of Wicked! They both went great. For the Wicked call, it was an open call and 200 people showed up. I was lucky number 13 so I didn’t have to wait that long to audition. They had us do 8 bars, which had me scrambling to cut down my song to fit. I heard from the people who auditioned long after me that they ended up doing the songs a cappella towards the end. I am also auditioning for the Idaho Shakespeare Festival this week. I always make sure to get to the EPA calls as early as is reasonable so I have a chance to be seen. If you get there too late and you’re non-union, you may not get seen or have to wait 6 hours.
There’s a great deal of work to be done in what’s left of 2016. I am so sad about all the important people who died this year (except Fidel Castro. Brian Avellaneda is definitely cheering.)
Anna Sahlstrom.com 