I’m no longer fat, y’all! I wasn’t really, I found out. I was actually suffering temporarily from a condition known as manorexic/actorexic self-image.
Anyway, I went to the gym today (first time in months), and I’ve dropped twenty pounds since the last time I was there, all from giving up soda, cookies, ice cream and every other thing that gives me pleasure to eat. So now if I work out regularly (big if, given my innate penchant and affinity for a sedentary lifestyle) I might drop the ten I need to get back to my fighting weight. Notwithstanding, I still intend to do nothing as much and as often as possible. That’s “nothing” in a more Buddhist sense of the word.
So, Covenant Coffee raised almost 10K at this point and we need another 25 to finish initial development, including legal fees, an installment to the writers and production costs to shoot the first ten minutes of the pilot. At that point, we’ll legally (and artistically) be able to solicit investments toward our overall budget. This is quite a process!
As the title of the entry might indicate, I’m turning over a new leaf. Last year I got involved in a short film project with the promise of a credited role for a buzzed-about, young director. I showed up on set and waited all night to find out that, no, I was not playing a credited role, but was, in fact, going to be an extra for a split second in the background of a fuzzy night shot. It really pissed me off and made me quite skeptical and cynical moving forward, to the point that I burned bridges with a few legit producers I came in contact with. In short I became an a-hole.
As of yesterday, I’m letting it go and moving forward with the informed naiveté needed to succeed in this business. I’ve gotten a new domain name, www.filmactorjake.com, and am building a site that should be up within a few weeks. Also, I’m putting together both a reel and an actor’s slate.
Other than that, I’m doing pretty well, having recovered fully from the infamous Big-Toe-Escalator Incident of three weeks ago.
Best,
Jake
PS - Peter Biskind is a writer who’s done a couple of books on the movie industry. I just finished Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock’n’Roll Generation Saved Hollywood and am halfway through Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film, and I read more than the titles (which are as long as novellas themselves and almost as ridiculous as some of my titles).
Anyway, first book covers the emergence of the director as auteur (that’s pronounced “oh-tur” – four years of French and I had to look that up) in American cinema which took place in the late sixties. In the wake of the French New Wave, young movie-goers were looking for something more than the tired, formulaic, big-budget spectacles coming out of Hollywood at the time. A couple rogue producers began to take risks, giving young, inexperienced filmmakers money to shoot their, then, unconventional films. What happened next is the birth of the greatest decade in American film to date.
Warren Beatty, Jack Nicholson, Dennis Hopper, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Bob Rafelson, Bert Schneider and many more heavy hitters are mentioned here, most of them drug-addled a-holes at that time in the 70s. It gave me hope that even if I continue to be an a-hole, I can make it swimmingly in this business. Of course, I feel better when I’m a good guy. Blah, blah, blah.
Change comes sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
#6 - Midgetry and Other Blatherings
Well, we wrapped “Happy Man’s Pants” and Kunal is finishing a final edit. This weekend there are two premier events for anyone who wants to come check it out. While I was doing the ADR (voiceover to fill in where original sound quality was lacking), I was able to see a few of the key scenes. The film looks great and is frickin’ funny!
You know you’re grown up when you see a lawyer who doesn’t specialize in traffic or barroom violations. Bryan and I met with an attorney who specializes in setting up entertainment operating agreements and private placement memoranda. He specializes in lawsuit-proofing. It’s the last step before we can start raising money for the Covenant Coffee project.
In other news, Josh and I have shelved the insurance salesman story for Josh’s passion project, the story of an undercover cop in a Midwestern city. Josh has already researched it exhaustively and done a short film with related elements. Presently, we’re setting up interviews with a couple ex-cops he knows, reviewing all the material we have and otherwise preparing to write this sucker. That’s all I can say about it right now, except that I’m going to play the lead and wear a full beard and dress like a bum. And I’m going to start smoking again in training for it.
Just kidding about the smoking, although, sometimes I really feel like stealing someone’s freshly lit cigarette and inhaling it all in one breath. I probably have the lung capacity to do that, now that I haven’t smoked in over two years. Crikey, I sure have been looking for an excuse to pick up the damned smokes again. Something has been conspiring against me: the two or three roles I’ve considered in the last year which would have required me to smoke mysteriously fell through. Hmmm.
So, anyway, midgets. Whenever midgets (or dwarves, or little people, or whatevs) appear in a film, you know the picture’s going to be freaky and surreal. It’s almost as if the only role a midget can play is an ominous reminder to “normal-size” people of some sin committed by humanity. I defy any of you, Peter Dinklage or anyone else to find me an example where this is not the case.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why I brought up midgets, except that my point illustrates stereotypes that exist in show business. Hmm, maybe we can call it the Circus Freak Syndrome. A bearded lady pretty much has her career laid out in front of her when she sets out to perform for an audience. Andre the Giant is never going to play a computer geek who creates the perfect virtual woman.
A lot of times in this business, actors play types rather than roles. It’s kind of a modern circus, a cavalcade of freaks, jocks, idiots and airheads, divas and mothers and sluts, geeks, strongmen and in-bred, pin-headed, pretty people with eyes to close together. Sometimes you can cross-over from one type to another, but most people are pretty much pigeon-holed. I think I’m a little jaded this week because I’ve had a dozen good auditions without a nibble. Maybe I need a cigarette. Or just a paying gig.
Anyway, my career choice annoys me this week. And I’m still fat. And I got a corner of my big toe caught in an escalator last week. It still hurts.
Best,
Jake
PS – I had a great little vacation over Memorial Day, visiting great friends in Providence and Boston. Bob and Bill are my two best pals from college. They each have more traditional careers and wonderful families with kids and houses and all the trimmings of a life I eschewed long ago. Not sure what I’m saying, but I am really glad today that I can play the part of uncle for four awesome kids in New England from time to time!
You know you’re grown up when you see a lawyer who doesn’t specialize in traffic or barroom violations. Bryan and I met with an attorney who specializes in setting up entertainment operating agreements and private placement memoranda. He specializes in lawsuit-proofing. It’s the last step before we can start raising money for the Covenant Coffee project.
In other news, Josh and I have shelved the insurance salesman story for Josh’s passion project, the story of an undercover cop in a Midwestern city. Josh has already researched it exhaustively and done a short film with related elements. Presently, we’re setting up interviews with a couple ex-cops he knows, reviewing all the material we have and otherwise preparing to write this sucker. That’s all I can say about it right now, except that I’m going to play the lead and wear a full beard and dress like a bum. And I’m going to start smoking again in training for it.
Just kidding about the smoking, although, sometimes I really feel like stealing someone’s freshly lit cigarette and inhaling it all in one breath. I probably have the lung capacity to do that, now that I haven’t smoked in over two years. Crikey, I sure have been looking for an excuse to pick up the damned smokes again. Something has been conspiring against me: the two or three roles I’ve considered in the last year which would have required me to smoke mysteriously fell through. Hmmm.
So, anyway, midgets. Whenever midgets (or dwarves, or little people, or whatevs) appear in a film, you know the picture’s going to be freaky and surreal. It’s almost as if the only role a midget can play is an ominous reminder to “normal-size” people of some sin committed by humanity. I defy any of you, Peter Dinklage or anyone else to find me an example where this is not the case.
To be perfectly honest, I have no idea why I brought up midgets, except that my point illustrates stereotypes that exist in show business. Hmm, maybe we can call it the Circus Freak Syndrome. A bearded lady pretty much has her career laid out in front of her when she sets out to perform for an audience. Andre the Giant is never going to play a computer geek who creates the perfect virtual woman.
A lot of times in this business, actors play types rather than roles. It’s kind of a modern circus, a cavalcade of freaks, jocks, idiots and airheads, divas and mothers and sluts, geeks, strongmen and in-bred, pin-headed, pretty people with eyes to close together. Sometimes you can cross-over from one type to another, but most people are pretty much pigeon-holed. I think I’m a little jaded this week because I’ve had a dozen good auditions without a nibble. Maybe I need a cigarette. Or just a paying gig.
Anyway, my career choice annoys me this week. And I’m still fat. And I got a corner of my big toe caught in an escalator last week. It still hurts.
Best,
Jake
PS – I had a great little vacation over Memorial Day, visiting great friends in Providence and Boston. Bob and Bill are my two best pals from college. They each have more traditional careers and wonderful families with kids and houses and all the trimmings of a life I eschewed long ago. Not sure what I’m saying, but I am really glad today that I can play the part of uncle for four awesome kids in New England from time to time!
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