Tuesday, March 10, 2009

A Mug Shot is Not a Head Shot

I have been remiss in keeping this blog updated. So here's the skinny. Our 11th film festival was the Beverly Hills High-Def Film Fest in December, again at the Fine Arts Theater.

FEB. 24, 2009 - BIG RELEASE DAY! Defying Gravity is now on netflix, amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com. Hopefully other outlets as well. Here's an interview with me in the local paper: http://www.myvalleynews.com/story/36322/. It's called 'Menifee math teacher’s film hits store shelves'. Yay! At this point it's virtual shelves, but that's good enough for me. Okay, making some of my money back too would be nice.

Switch gears ... I've now started my second movie project, called 'Dreams I Never Had' (http://DreamsINeverHad.com). I wrote the script in December after reading an incredible news story about human trafficking right here in the United States. My long-time friend Brian McGoldrick read the script and loved it and has decided to executive produce it. All within one month!

So here we are in one of my favorite phases ... looking over headshots/resumes and deciding whom to invite to audition. The challenge here is that our lead roles must be able to speak Arabic and English, as well as look Egyptian. We also have a teen Mexican boy as a lead, and finding a hispanic actor in that age range is no easier. I've been using three casting websites, free to producers and apparently one of them is also free to aspiring actors because it is filled with a proliferation of actors in all ages, colors, creeds, shapes, and sizes. Unfortunately, most of them have uploaded cell phone photos as their head shots. Which leads me to my updated ....

Producer's Tip for Aspiring Actors
1. Get head shots. Show that you're serious about becoming an actor.
2. If you're under 18, don't pose like a slut.
3. Don't make gang symbols. Unless you only want to be cast in rap videos.
4. If you're taking a photo of yourself with your cell phone, don't do it in front of a mirror. It shows that not only can you not figure out how to hold the camera at arm's length, but you don't know how to crop out the camera or the mirror.
5. Lie to me in the comment box. I'm a sucker for comments. Tell me you think my project is worthy. I want to hire someone who is as excited about my movie as I am.
6. If you're inquiring about a role, don't start emails with "Hey--"