This past Wednesday night (2/9/11) I had my last shooting day with Lost Hills Films on their project, THE INFECTED, a zombie horror short. Some of the producers are also actors in the project. For an actor, becoming a producer is a way to take your career in your own hands and make something happen for yourself.
As an actor you must wait. Wait for your agent to call. Wait for the casting director to call. Wait to be cast. Wait to hear about production days and call times. Wait in holding until you are needed on the set.
". . . you've got to wait it out. You wait in a kind of trance. You need infinite patience. No use fretting or worrying. You just wait. Doing nothing, thinking nothing, burning no energy. Then you burst into action. After an hour, five hours, a day, a week. Waiting is a skill like anything else." Lee Child,
Killing Floor
There have been times in my life as an actor when I did become a producer. These were times when a particular project would posses me after I was introduced to it and I felt I had to give it more life. A producer believes in the project they are producing. Their belief is instrumental in pulling all the elements together to bring a project to life.
On Sunday (2/13/11) I met with some cast and production staff, writers, producers and director for a new media project in which I've been cast. It was a table read, wardrobe meeting and some production information was shared. Entertainment superstition prescribes that I not speak too much about this new project while it is getting underway else I jinx it. But later in this post I will say more.*
I just want to say that for this project actors are producers. They are making something happen for themselves. It has been my good fortune to work with several actor/producers since I've been in Los Angeles.
Jenny Tallent, actor/producer of COFFEE CLATCH introduced me to community access television which led to my becoming a producer of READERS THEATER TELEVISION.
Actors/producers Erin Cathcart and Tony Saltzman cast me in their short project FACES.
Beth Dewey and Christina Beck actors/producers cast me in KILL HOUSE.
www.killhousemovie.com
At my local community access cable television studio I met Tim Gallagher, an actor producer, and we teamed up to produce READERS THEATER TELEVISION. Tim and April Gallagher went on to produce Tim's screen play, GERALD and now produce the Castle Rock Film Festival in Colorado.
http://www.gallafilms.com/gerald
http://www.gallafilms.com/crff/crff.htm
*As I complete this post (3/3/11) the actors/producers of SLANTED MONICA, a pilot, produced on spec, have completed 7 shooting days and have scheduled me for a pick-up shot on 3/5/11.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Slanted-Monica/193558377335279
