#maybe i should get a headshot done and become an actor

[grinchwrapsupreme]

How can i possibly be this bored already im not even unemployed yet

[lilydalexf]

Old School X is a project interviewing X-Files fanfic authors who were posting fic during the original run of the show. New interviews are posted every Tuesday.

Interview with Syntax6

Syntax6 has 17 stories at Gossamer, but you should visit her website for the complete collection of her fics and to see the cover art that comes with many of the stories (and to find her pro writing!). She's written some of the most beloved casefiles in the fandom. I've recced literally all of them here before. Twice. Big thanks to Syntax6 for doing this interview.

Does it surprise you that people are still interested in reading your X-Files fanfics and others that were posted during the original run of the show (1993-2002)?

I’m delighted but not surprised because I’ve written and read fanfic for shows even older than XF. Also, I joined the XF fandom relatively late, at the end of 1999, so there were already hundreds of “classic” fics out there, stories that were theoretically superseded or dated by canon developments that came after them, but which nonetheless remained compelling in their own right. That is the beauty of fanfic: it is inspired by its original creators but not bound by them. It’s a world of “what if” and each story gets to run in a new direction, irrespective of the canon and all the other stories spinning off in their own universes. In this way, fanfic becomes almost timeless.

What do you think of when you think about your X-Files fandom experience? What did you take away from it? What did you take away from your experience with X-Files fic or with the fandom in general?

(I feel these are similar, at least for me, so I will combine them here.)

First and foremost, I found friends. There was a table full of XF fanfic writers at my wedding. Bugs was my maid of honor. I still talk to someone from XF fandom pretty much every day. Lysandra, Maybe Amanda, Michelle Kiefer, bugs…these are just some of the people who’ve been part of my life for half my existence now. Sometimes I get to have dinner with Audrey Roget or Anjou or MCA. Deb Wells and Sarah Ellen Parsons are part of my pro fic beta team. I have a similar list from the Hunter fandom, terrific people who have enriched my life in numerous ways and I am honored to count as friends.

Second, I learned a lot about writing during my years in XF fandom. I grew up there. Part of this growth experience was simply due to practice. I wrote about 1.2 million words of XF fanfic, which is the equivalent of 15 novels. I made mistakes and learned from them. But another essential part of learning is absorbing different kinds of well-told tales, and XF had these in spades. Some stories were funny. Others were lyrical. Some were short pieces with nary a word wasted while others were sprawling epics that took you on an adventure. The neat thing about XF is that it has space for many different kinds of stories, from hard-core sci-fi to historical romance. You can watch other authors executing these varied pieces and learn from them. You can form critique groups and ask for betas and get direct feedback on how to improve. It’s collaborative and fun, and this can’t be underestimated, generally supportive. The underlying shared love of the original product means that everyone comes into your work predisposed to enjoy it. I am grateful for all the encouragement and the critiques I received over my years in fandom.

Finally, I think a valuable lesson for writers that you can find in fandom, but not in your local author critique group, is how to handle yourself when your work goes public. Not everyone is going to like your work and they will make sure you know it. Some people will like it maybe too much, to the point where they cross boundaries. Learning to disengage yourself from public reaction to your work is a difficult but crucial aspect of being a writer. You control the story. You can’t control reaction to it. It’s frustrating at first, perhaps, but in the end, it’s freeing.

Social media didn't really exist during the show's original run. How were you most involved with the X-Files online (atxc, message board, email mailing list, etc.)?

I participated in ATXC, the Haven message boards, and the Scullyfic mailing list/news group. For a number of years, I also ran a fic discussion group with bugs called The Why Incision.

What got you involved with X-Files fanfic?

I started reading XF fanfic before I began watching the show. I had watched one season two episode (Soft Light) and then seen bits and pieces of a few others from season four. I’d seen Fight the Future. Basically, I’d seen enough to know which one was Mulder and which one was Scully, and which one believed in aliens. An acquaintance linked me to a rec site for XF fanfic (Gertie’s, maybe?) so that I could see how fic was formatted for the web. I clicked a fic, I think it was one by Lydia Bower dealing with Scully’s cancer arc, and basically did not stop reading. Soon I was printing off 300K of fic to take home with me each night. I could not believe the level of talent in the fandom, and that there were so many excellent writers just giving away their works for free. I wanted to play in this sandbox, too, so I started renting the VHS tapes to catch up on old episodes (see, I am An Old). After a few months, I began writing my own stuff.

What was it that got you hooked on the X-Files as a show?

I had to be dragged kicking and screaming to The X-Files. I’m not a sci-fi person by nature. I think my main objection is that, when done poorly, it feels lazy to me. Who did the thing? A ghost! Maybe an alien? I guess we’ll never know. You can always just shrug and play some spooky music and the “truth will always be out there…” somewhere beyond the story in front of you. You never have to commit to any kind of truth because you can invent some magical power or new kind of alien to change the story. I think, by the bitter end, the XF had devolved into this kind of storytelling. The mytharc made no kind of sense even in its own universe. But for years the XF achieved the best aspects of sci-fi storytelling—narrative flexibility and an apotheosis of our current fears dressed up as a super entertaining yarn.

What eventually sold me on the XF as a show is all of the smart storytelling and the sheer amount of ideas contained within its run. At its best, it’s a brilliant show. You have mediations on good versus evil, the role of government in a free society, is there a God, are we alone in the universe, and what are the elements that make us who we are? If Mulder and Morris Fletcher switch bodies, how do we know it’s really “them”? The tonal shifts from week to week were clever and engaging. For Vince Gilligan, truth was always found in fellow human beings. For Darin Morgan, humans were the biggest monster of all. The show was big enough to contain both these premises, and indeed, was stronger for it. The deep questions, the character quirks, the unsolved mysteries and all that went unsaid in the Mulder-Scully relationship left so much room for fanfic writers to do their own work. As such, the fandom attracted and continues to attract both dabbling writers and those who are serious craftspeople. People who like the mystery and those who like the sci-fi angle. Scientists and true believers. Like the show, it’s big enough for all.

What is your relationship like now to X-Files fandom?

I look at it like an old friend I catch up with once in a while. We’ve been close for so long that there’s no awkwardness—we just get each other! I love seeing people post screen shots and commentary, and I think it’s wonderful that so many writers are still inventing new adventures for Mulder and Scully. That is how the characters live on, and indeed how any of us lives on, through the stories that others tell about us.

Were you involved with any fandoms after the X-Files? If so, what was it like compared to X-Files?

I ran the Hunter fandom for about five years, mostly because when I poked my head back in, I found the person in change was a bully who’d shut down everything due to her own waning interest. A person would try to start a topic for discussion, and she’d say, “We’ve already covered that.” Well, yes, in a 30-year-old show, there’s not a lot of new ground…

Most other shows, Hunter included, have smaller fandoms and thus don’t attract the depth of fan talent. I don’t just mean fanfic writers. I mean those who do visual art, fan vids, critiques, etc. The XF fandom has all these in droves, which makes it a rare and special place. But all fandoms have the particular joy of geeking out over favorite scenes and reveling in the meeting of shared minds. It will always look odd to those not contained within it, which brings me to the part of modern fandom I find somewhat uncomfortable…the creators are often in fan-space.

In Hunter, the female lead joins fan groups and participates. This is more common now in the age of social media, where writers, producers, actors, etc., are on the same platforms as the rest of us. Fan and creator interaction used to be highly circumscribed: fans wrote letters and maybe received a signed headshot in return. There were cons where show runners gave panels and took questions from the audience. You could stand in line to meet your favorite star. Now, you can @ your favorite star on Twitter, message her on Facebook or follow him on Instagram. In some ways, this is so fun! In other ways, it blurs in the lines in ways that make me uncomfortable. I think it’s rude, for example, if a fan were to go on a star’s social media and post fanfic there or say, “I thought the episode you wrote was terrible.” But what if it’s fan space and the actor is sitting right there, watching you? Is it rude to post fanfic in front of her, especially if she says it makes her uncomfortable? Is it mean to tell a writer his episode sucked right to his face?

Do you ever still watch The X-Files or think about Mulder and Scully?

I own the first seven seasons on DVD and will pull them out from time to time to rewatch old faves. I’ve shown a few episodes over the spring and summer to my ten-year-old daughter, and it’s been fun to see the series through her eyes. We’ve mostly opted for the comedic episodes because there’s enough going on in the real world to give her nightmares. Her favorite so far is Je Souhaite.

Do you ever still read X-Files fic? Fic in another fandom?

I don’t have much bandwidth to read fanfic these days. My job as a mystery/thriller author means I have to keep up with the market so I do most of my reading there right now. I also beta read for some pro-fic friends and betaing a novel will keep you busy.

Do you have any favorite X-Files fanfic stories or authors?

I read so much back in the day that this answer could go on for pages. Alas, it also hasn’t changed much over the past fifteen years because I haven’t read much since then. But, as we’re talking Golden Oldies today, here are a bunch:

All the Mulders, by Alloway I find this short story both hilarious and haunting. Scully embraces her power in the upside down post-apocalyptic world.

Strangers and the Strange Dead, by Kipler Taut prose and an intriguing 3rd party POV make this story a winner, and that’s before the kicker of an ending, which presaged 1013’s.

Cellphone, by Marasmus Talk about your killer twists! Also one of the cleverest titles coming or going.

Arizona Highways, by Fialka I think this is one of the best-crafted stories to come out of the XF. It’s majestic in scope, full of complex literary structure and theme, and yet the plot moves like a runaway freight train. Both the Mulder and Scully characterizations are handled with tender care.

So, We Kissed, by Alelou What I love about this one is how it grounds Mulder and Scully in the ordinary. Mulder’s terrible secret doesn’t involve a UFO or some CSM-conspiracy. Scully goes to therapy that actually looks like therapy. I guess what I’m saying is that I utterly believe this version of M & S in addition to just enjoying reading about them.

Sore Luck at the Luxor, by Anubis Hot, funny, atmospheric. What’s not to love?

Black Hole Season, by Penumbra Nobody does wordsmithing like Penumbra. I use her in arguments with professional writers when they try to tell me that adverbs and adjectives MUST GO. Just gorgeous, sly, insightful prose.

The Dreaming Sea, by Revely This one reads like a fairytale in all the best ways. Revely creates such loving, beautiful worlds for M & S to live in, and I wish they could stay there always.

Malus Genius, by Plausible Deniability and MaybeAmanda Funny and fun, with great original characters, a sly casefile and some clear-eyed musings on the perils of getting older. This one resonates more and more the older I get. ;)

Riding the Whirlpool, by Pufferdeux I look this one up periodically to prove to people that it exists. Scully gets off on a washing machine while Mulder helps. Yet it’s in character? And kinda works? This one has to be read to be believed.

Bone of Contention (part 1, part 2), by Michelle Kiefer and Kel People used to tell me all the time that casefiles are super easy to write while the poetic vignette is hard. Well, I can’t say which is harder but there much fewer well-done casefiles in the fandom than there are poetic vignettes. This is one of the great ones.

Antidote, by Rachel Howard A fic that manages to be both hot and cold as it imagines Mulder and Scully trying to stay alive in the frosty wilderness while a deadly virus is on the loose. This is an ooooold fic that holds up impressively well given everything that followed it!

Falling Down in Four Acts, by Anubis Anubis was actually a bunch of different writers sharing a single author name. This particular one paints an angry, vivid world for Our Heroes and their compatriots. There is no happy ending here, but I read this once and it stayed with me forever.

The Opposite of Impulse, by Maria Nicole A sweet slice of life on a sunny day. When I imagine a gentler universe for Mulder and Scully, this is the kind of place I’d put them.

What is your favorite of your own fics, X-Files and/or otherwise?

Bait and Switch is probably the most sophisticated and tightly plotted. It was late in my fanfic “career” and so it shows the benefits to all that learning. My favorite varies a lot, but I’ll say Universal Invariants because that one was nothing but fun.

Do you think you'll ever write another X-Files story? Or dust off and post an oldie that for whatever reason never made it online?

I never say never! I don’t have any oldies sitting around, though. Everything I wrote, I posted.

Do you still write fic now? Or other creative work?

I write casefiles…er, I mean mysteries, under my own name now, Joanna Schaffhausen. My main series with Reed and Ellery consists of a male-female crime solving team, so I get a little bit of my XF kick that way. Their first book, The Vanishing Season, started its life as an XF fanfic back in the day. I had to rewrite it from the ground up to get it published, but if you know both stories, you can spot the similarities.

Where do you get ideas for stories?

The answer any writer will tell you is “everywhere.” Ideas are cheap and they’re all around us—on the news, on the subway, in conversations with friends, from Twitter memes, on a walk through the woods. My mysteries are often rooted in true crime, often more than one of them.

Each idea is like a strand of colored thread, and you have to braid them together into a coherent story. This is the tricky part, determining which threads belong in which story. If the ideas enhance one another or if they just create an ugly tangent.

Mostly, though, stories begin by asking “what if?” What if Scully’s boyfriend Ethan had never been cut from the pilot? What if Scully had moved to Utah after Fight the Future? What if the Lone Gunmen financed their toys by writing a successful comic book starring a thinly veiled Mulder and Scully?

Growing up, I had a sweet old lady for a neighbor. Her name was Doris and she gave me coffee ice cream while we watched Wheel of Fortune together. Every time there was a snow storm, the snow melted in her backyard in a such way that suggested she had numerous bodies buried out there. How’s that for a “what if?”

What's the story behind your pen name?

I’ve had a few of them and honestly can’t tell you where they came from, it’s been so long ago. The “6” part of syntax6 is because I joke that 6 is my lucky number. In eighth grade, my algebra teacher would go around the room in order, asking each student their answer to the previous night’s homework problems. I realized quickly that I didn’t have to do all the problems, just the fifteenth one because my desk was 15th on her list. This worked well until the day she decided to call on kids in random order. When she got to me and asked me the answer to the problem I had not done, I just invented something on the spot. “Uh…six?”

Her: “You mean 0.6, don’t you?”

Me, nodding vigorously: “YES, I DO.”

Her: “Very good. Moving on…”

Do your friends and family know about your fic and, if so, what have been their reactions?

My close friends and family have always known, and reactions have varied from mild befuddlement to enthusiastic support. My father voted in the Spookies one year, and you can believe he read the nominated stories before casting his vote. I think the most common reaction was: Why are you doing this for free? Why aren’t you trying to be a paid writer?

Well, having done both now, I can tell you that each kind of writing brings its own rewards. Fanfic is freeing because there is no pressure to make money from it. You can take risks and try new things and not have to worry if it fits into your business plan.

(Posted by Lilydale on September 15, 2020)

[movienotesbyzawmer]

August 30: Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol

(previous notes: Mission: Impossible III)

I bet the powers that be at the Mission: Impossible movie factory didn't lose any sleep over the stupid colon in the title that screws everything up. I mean, just look at that up there with the colon after my date, then the colon in the middle of the OG title, and then it's like, well, you can do whatever you want with punctuation but we're adding a subtitle after it now and you just have to deal with it. On posters and stuff it's just "Mission: Impossible" and then underneath those words they put "Ghost Protocol" so they don't have to deal with it. What a mess. I tell you it is a damn mess is what it is.

Anyway, we have arrived at the M:I movie that, more than any of the others, just really hit the spot for me when I saw it upon its original release. I saw it at the end of a frustrating and tiring work day and it was exactly what the doctor ordered. At some point in the middle I realized that I was enjoying it thoroughly without having to tolerate the kinds of flaws that were apparently part and parcel of this kind of movie. Maybe there were flaws that I just wasn't registering. We'll soon see.

Continuing the tradition of making very hip choices for the directing duties, here we have the live-action directorial debut of Brad Bird, who started off directing episodes of The Simpsons before moving on to no less than The Iron Giant and The Incredibles. Dude had two Oscars on his mantle by the time he showed up for this. Press play already!

Um Sweet Christ those opening shots look gook in 4K like HOO boy

Whoa, neat opening where Sawyer from Lost is chased off the top of a building in Budapest but his jacket deploys an air mattress right as he almost-hits, but then he's shot by Lea Seydoux in an alley, rat-a-tat-tat with the action here, like what is up

Simon Pegg is back, and he's being tricksy with the tech in a prison! He's opening cell doors and the prisoners are surprised and delighted with that twist! He plays them a jazz standard on the intercom and Ethan Hunt suavely emerges from one of the cells. Fun silly things ensue involving Ethan's rebellious and confident independent strategy and a small riot that seems kind of like a bar fight.

He has made a pal in the joint and he's breaking him out. Some kind of cool tech creates a really sweet vortex-y hole in the floor and they are swooped up by their helpers, it's fun.

We're introduced to Paula Patton who is a new team member, and then the credits roll, and they are spirited in a way that recalls the first movie, also showing real scenes from later in the movie.

Flashback to the thing that was happening with Sawyer shows how that botched operation, something about a file and a courier, got Sawyer killed because lots of bad guys were all over the place there. AR contact lens technology figures prominently, and that is a good idea (plus we totally might have those soon, right?).

0:18:16 - Once again we begin the movie without the leading lady from the previous one, but we're starting to get an explanation here. Or just a tease of one I guess.

And quickly we get a sneaky-style self-destructing message that sets up that Ethan has to disguise himself as a specific Russian and sneak into the actual Kremlin. This movie 100% gets what a Mission: Impossible movie is supposed to be.

This time, they aren't using fancy masks or voice shifter things, just costumes and a fake mustache. They comment about that in the dialogue but don't explain why.

0:24:52 - Dialogue mixed SO QUIET here I have no idea what SP just said. It seems like you're supposed to have heard it.

But that is quickly forgotten when they use the coolest spy gadget of them all - a screen that is placed in a corridor that makes the guy at the other end of the corridor think it’s the corridor, but it's a screen and SP & Ethan are hiding behind it and it is super super neato I love it

Then just when it's cool that that is going well, it's suddenly cool how NOT well it's going because someone is spying on their spycraft! The thing they were going to heist isn't there, and someone deliberately makes their comms thing be heard by the bad guys!

And THEN we see something we really didn't think we'd see and it is kind of mind blowing - Ethan escapes from the Kremlin with a very smooth quick-change of his disguise that we see him do in all one shot… but then the Kremlin totally explodes and it explodes all over Ethan as he's running away! It looks amazing!

Right after that there is some fun with subtitles - Ethan is in the hospital all damaged and concussed and stuff, and the news is talking about the obvious big story, and the subtitles are in Russian. At first I was like, "hey is my home theater tech busted?" but no, the subtitles become gradually more in English as Ethan starts to come out of it. Then we see with subtitles that Ethan is reading lips about the police people that want to be bad guys to Ethan.

After Ethan escapes, we shift to a wholesome-looking Russian family we haven't seen before. The scene is a nice little piece of drama about how the dad sees the Kremlin news and wants to get the family out of there, and very quickly that goes south and thugs have them all at gunpoint, it's nicely done

Ethan is being extracted by two new characters played by accomplished, Oscar-nominated actors Tom Wilkinson and Jeremy Renner… the conversation is dire and I don't want to type during it gahhh gah gah gah I am watching because holy shit this goes south too! TW informs Ethan that the DoD is going to frame him for blowing up the Kremlin and his only choice is to escape. He's telling him HOW to escape in a funny way, but they are attacked and it's visually very interesting and TW is headshot and they are in the water and it is such bad news for Ethan and his new colleague played by Mr. Renner, I probably typoed a lot during that because it was so hard to look away.

So Ethan is on the hook for the terrorist attack of the century and he's being chased by a little battalion of thugs who just shot that important spy boss, and he's in Russia. It is very not good for Ethan.

He's with JR and JR is playing a different character for him. He's a bookish analyst guy who feels very out of place in action-land.

We're learning about the main bad guy, Hendricks, who was the guy that screwed everything up in the Kremlin. He's a super-smart theoretical physicist or something who has big, well-thought-out ideas about destroying the world with nukes, and he took nuke codes from the Kremlin. So things are just really really hairy and it's effective storytelling is what I'm saying.

Also effective is that they met up with SP and PP on a neat secret train car thing that is well appointed with spy gear

And VERY VERY EFFECTIVE is what happens next, which is a series of establishing shots of Dubai which KILL ON MY TV. I am glad I have a 4K panel, kids. This begins what I recall as being an extended sequence of sweet-ass suspense. Ethan has to break into a server room by climbing the outside of the 130th floor of the Burj Khalifa using glove-gadget tech that will hopefully work. There is at least some actual Tom Cruise clinging to the side of that building. It's so cool looking. And to make matters worse, a dust storm approaches! Or should I say "to make matters even cooler looking". Yes I should. Please read that part.

Paula Patton's character seems underdeveloped so far, especially compared to her teammates Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner.

Jeez you guys, if you like suspenseful action scenes about barely surviving climbing a skyscraper this movie is for you.

1:05:34 - In the middle of a tense conversation we see that they were using the maskmaker but it wasn't working. They just don't want us to have mask fun in this movie. They hate mask fun. Why does Brad Bird hate mask fun.

Oh then this scene which is neat - bad guys are meeting with LS… but Ethan and JR are taking their place, and PP is taking LS's place for the real bad guys one floor down. The movie explains it better than me, but it is pretty exciting, the two meetings happening at the same time with opposite trickery.

Hah, SP does a sweet fake-hand trick to get the diamonds from the bad guys so he can get them to Ethan and JN, and JN is doing the thing where he uses the contact lens tech… gosh why are you even reading this, just watch the movie. I really like the tricksy espionage.

It all falls apart because LS spots the contact lens in JR's eye. The plot is moving along in a way that, I'm once again noticing, would normally require more half-assed-ness. It's just a solid spy plot. Which probably makes these notes more boring. Poor you.

LS dies by getting kicked out of the open window of the Burj Khalifa with a brewing sandstorm in the background! Neat looking!

And then a thing where Ethan is in a thick dust cloud and he's tracking the important paper thing with his tracker device, and it starts moving quickly at him and we realize just as it's too late that it's in a car that's gonna run him over! Then that mechanic gets used in a car chase in a dust storm, which we don't see very often outside a Mad Max movie, and that climaxes in a really cool looking collision, followed by the reveal that one of the nuclear code bad guys was Hendricks in a supermask. So we DO like mask fun after all! Except why do we care that it was Hendricks?

A scene where JR is confronted for maybe being a double-crosser has a beautifully choreographed gun-get-grabbity-grab thing that was probably super fun for the actors.

1:27:05 - JR tells a story that at first we think is that family we saw briefly almost scramming, but no, he's talking about Ethan, and what seems to be a story about Ethan's wife (Julia from the last movie) getting killed in Croatia, and Ethan killing six Serbians for revenge, and that's why he was in prison in the beginning? It's still a little mysterious and kind of complicated. It doesn't quite fit with what we think we know.

Dubai imagery is pretty. I have been to Dubai. I am standing by for your marriage proposals now.

I didn't really follow how we got to this point, but Ethan went for a walk and met with some underworld Dubai person and made a deal the ended up with a huge cache of spy gear and a private plane to India. I went to India like right after Dubai. I have my own car and a job kind of so you might need to calm your hormones at this point.

A probing exchange with PP establishes that indeed Ethan's story is that he killed the men who killed his wife. Doesn't really seem legit, though. There's more to the story, clearly.

One of the tech things they play with on the plane is the most magic-seeming one. It is a suit that looks like tight chain-mail, and it floats over a cart, like a magic carpet that you wear.

We're introduced to Brij Nath, whose name I had to look up so I could tell you how it is spelled. He has an access code that they need, which seems like they just kind of simplified the situation, and he's one of those only-kinda-bad bad guys that's really just a pawn, for our heroes as well as for these storytellers.

The wearable magic carpet gadget is fun and funny! SP has to remote control JR wearing the floaty-suit and JR is trying not to freak out too badly, and maybe on purpose it recalls the scene from the first movie where Tom Cruise hovers parallel to the floor.

Hendricks is now in a secret room in the place where they all are, and he has a bad-guy briefcase computer and orders some subordinates to do something with a virus, and I don't actually understand what's really happening but am I to believe that Ethan et al are thwarting literal nuclear terrorism here in Mumbai? Right here at this pleasant party at the palace of an only kinda-bad bad guy?

1:48:30 - Ha, the climax of the wearable magic carpet thing involves JR barely surviving by doing an acrobatic stunt that seems oddly intuitive and satisfying. You'll just have to watch the movie to know what I mean.

The spy-tech car they have is rad.

They fail to prevent the launch of a nuclear missile! We see it come out of the sub and start missiling toward its destination which we have learned is California! Hendricks mutters things about how that should get the ball rolling making world powers hate each other and nuke each other and may there be peace on Earth, he also, yes, says that.

A chase on foot has Ethan and Hendricks suddenly brawling on an exotically elegant robotic parking ramp. Platforms move around mechanically and transfer unmanned cars to different areas, and it is against that video gamey backdrop that Ethan and Hendricks struggle to get that sinister suitcase which is all bouncing around that environment. Unexpectedly, Ethan's hope of grabbing it is thwarted by Hendricks suicide-jumping down several stories! We see it! He definitely does that! Ethan drives a car off a thing to follow him, plummeting down hood-first, and the airbag saves him! He gets the briefcase and barely saves the day in time!

Again a denouement making it very clear that everything is really shockingly okay and tidied up. Even the thing with Ethan revenge-killing Serbians and the thing with his wife is cleaned way up, but with an elegance and sweetness that elevates this movie above the others. She's not dead after all, just fake-dead for her protection. And they're only where they are in Seattle so he can glimpse her lovingly across a marina.

So! I feel strongly that this is the best Mission: Impossible movie! It is an extraordinarily deftly-constructed spy thriller! It's got all the funnest types of things that are in the other movies, and other fun spy thrillers, but with so much less garbage! They did a great job and they should be proud.

[minaminokyoko]

The Old Guard: A (Disappointed) Spoilertastic Review

I hate 2020.

For many reasons, of course, but there is this particular nastiness it seems to have, like it’s getting revenge on us for our past and current sins.

And the Old Guard feels like part of that revenge.

I haven’t read the graphic novel, so please understand the following review is based on the film alone. I was on board with getting to see my queen and girl crush Charlize Theron kick some ass and rock that bangin’ brunette pageboy haircut that only she can and yet what this movie gave me is a raging case of 2020. This concept isn’t anything new or original, but it should have been a walk in the park. It has solid actors and a simple premise.

So why was it total bullshit?

I’m so angry. I’ve said before how certain movies feel like someone had all the ingredients to make a hot, delicious pizza and yet when they combined them, they came up with Brussel sprouts somehow. This movie is a lazy mess. It has about a handful of decent moments, but overall, it’s negligent. It doesn’t care. It doesn’t care to show you its potential. It’s just a tired, by the numbers, dull action movie that’s wasting the talent that it managed to gather together. Maybe that’s why I’m so mad. It’s clear that this could have been fantastic, but the apathy in the writing turned into a grey, flavorless bore.

Sigh. Let’s swing the ax already and get this over with.

Overall Grade: C-/D+

Spoilers ahead.

Pros:

·         I signed on for Charlize Theron and at least I got what I wanted, which was her kicking ass but still giving us a few soft moments of vulnerability. This is why I will follow this woman to the grave. Charlize Theron is one of my favorite actresses because she’s so good at showing what women are capable of as characters. She has such a wide range of acting skills, giving us a cold, bitter woman but at the same time showing hints of inner kindness and strength and love. This movie barely has many redeeming qualities, but she’s by far one of the best parts. The movie knows it, as she is the only one we really get to ���know” over the course of the film.

·         Joe and Nicky are the only other characters providing any warmth or emotion in the film. It’s badly needed. I was so let down that they didn’t show Nile’s introduction to the team because, to me, I got the sense that Joe and Nicky are the heart. They seem in touch with their emotions and not as cynical and hardened by their “immortality” as Andy. They seem to still care about helping people, even at the cost of themselves, and they could have been such a strong anchor if the movie invested more time in them. Both actors are solid and believable in the roles and it’s a pity they weren’t given more to do than to be the victims who needed rescuing.

·         The action, for the most part, is solid. It’s pretty average, though. Nothing surprising. It’s the moves you’ve seen if you watched John Wick or Atomic Blonde, so keep that in mind.

·         The effects are solid, particularly for their healing factor. It’s smooth and polished looking.

·         What little bits and pieces we see between teammates is likable. They seem genuinely fond and protective of each other and it’s not in focus enough, but when it is, it’s nice.

·         The soundtrack is pretty good.

Cons:

·         Lack of explanation. Look, I get it. You don’t want to load your entire movie up with exposition, but it’s very simple and easy to pace it out. You don’t have to dump it all in one spot, or if you do, then you can simply be strategic about it. Most good movies also know how and where to integrate the exposition and story into sequences where the characters are performing an action so that you don’t notice the exposition as you have something visual to distract you and keep your attention while you’re watching the movie. The Old Guard doesn’t care about all your questions. It just thinks you should accept whatever it jams down your throat, no matter how goddamn unbelievable it is. They explain so little of what’s going on to Nile that after the halfway point, you might as well throw up your arms and forget everything you wanted to know about the group. They answer nothing at all, yet expect Nile to throw in her lot with them for however long she’ll be alive. What’s frustrating is that you have solid actors who could pull off the emotional angles of the hard decisions they chose to make as semi-immortal beings. It pisses me off that they don’t explain anything because the motivations are what make us all care about the characters. For instance, why become soldiers? No one said they had to fight for humanity, especially since they JUST heal wounds. They aren’t super fast or super strong. They could have very easily simply acquired wealth over the centuries and used that wealth to invest in things that help people. Why do they have to be fighters? Oh, right, because it’s cooler.

·         Lazy writing. The number of plotholes in this thing, due in part to lack of explanation, is stunning. I mean, it’s just so goddamn fucking lazy. It doesn’t care about its own material. It just needs to get from Point A to Point B by taking the most shortcuts possible. I can’t handle how little the movie cares about its own content. I can go point by point for laziness. We can start with how no one wanted to ask Nile ANYTHING after she came back from the dead. They just got mad and scared, but they didn’t say anything when she was still on the military base. What the actual fuck is that? And they just left her alone afterward, expecting her to follow orders? Uh, that’s not how that works. Her friends would be asking her a billion questions and the medics would have asked her even more questions than that. She wouldn’t just be walking around of her own free will, especially not in this day and age where science is obsessed with figuring out the why of humanity. They’d have kept her locked up and started examining her the second she healed the neck wound. And that’s just right off the cuff. Don’t get me started on her five second “I don’t want to march in your parade” bullshit that is just so clearly the second act breakdown moment to have the hero come back and save them in the third act schtick. How is Nile somehow calling out Andy for killing those men in the church when she was LITERALLY a Marine, who is TRAINED TO KILL BAD PEOPLE???? That made NO sense. But again, this movie doesn’t care. It doesn’t care about fucking anything. Booker’s betrayal was painfully telegraphed and it was also another plothole, as Andy has been alive for thousands of years and would have felt that the weight of her gun would be off without its ammo. She also would’ve checked her rounds before going in hot. Then there’s even smaller details, like it being broad daylight when they’re brought into that lab and then they have a shootout but there’s NO ONE on the streets when they leave, but then they leave and THEN all the people magically reappear. Go fuck yourself. This movie is an insult to average intelligence. It just expects you to open up and swallow every bit of its bullshit over and over again, squandering its own potential. It’s so infuriating.

·         Cliché placeholder dialogue. The dialogue is so unimaginative that I’m pretty sure a bot wrote it. You can tell beat for beat what’s going to happen fifteen minutes before it happens on-screen. The movie really does not think much of its audience. It doesn’t have a unique take on pretty much anything at all, which is a crying shame, really. There are plenty of juicy angles for character and action that they could have gone for and didn’t.

·         Not enough time is spent getting to know anyone except for Andy, and even she is given drive-by characterization. Nile is a huge loss. As a black woman, I am always dying to see black women in science fiction/fantasy stories because there is a severe lack of representation. I was hoping Nile would get a bigger stake in everything, but she’s just a chess piece. The movie doesn’t delve into her life, her wants, her needs, basically anything at all. They mention her family repeatedly, but they don’t go into detail to make you care and understand what a loss it is to leave them behind. It’s especially shitty when her bonding with Booker could have been a great emotional moment. Their origins line up well. She could have had conversations with him, arguing that she should be allowed to tell her family or at least say goodbye, and Booker could share his own tragic backstory with her to explain why it’s better for them to remain solitary. Then his betrayal would have hit even harder. Then Nile would have felt personally betrayed. It’s so ridiculous that there is all this set up of pain and interesting backstories that the movie just flatout ignores. Especially Quynh. Quynh ’s story will haunt me for the rest of my days, personally, but even that was left as an untied thread. It’s clear from that pompous ending that there’s either already a sequel planned or in progress, but personally, this movie let me down so hard I hope it doesn’t happen. Not unless a much better filmmaker and writing team comes along. Quynh’s untied thread is a blatant show of how they still think they deserve your time after showing you how little they care about their own material. They introduced the idea and then abandoned it without fully exploring what it meant. It’s clear that her horrible fate is painful to them all, so not giving it the adequate time to be explored is just even more insulting to the audience.

·         Lack of imagination. For instance, we have some Mark Zuckerberg-looking villain spouting the same tired dialogue from the idiot villain in the Venom movie. There also is no creativity in the action. We could have done some fun things utilizing their healing factors during fight sequences, but there’s not much to them. Just standard punches and kicks and headshots. Then there’s the boring dead wife betrayer guy who is inexplicably left alive after accusing said cartoony villain of murdering them. He has ALL the information to take to the CIA or FBI or just ANYONE IN GENERAL IN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES and they just bop him on the head and leave him there??? This movie doesn’t have a single original thought. It’s just regurgitating other clichés from much better movies.

I wanted this to be good. I wanted a break from 2020, but it’s clear that this year is unprecedented in how terrible it can get and how it doesn’t want us to enjoy anything. I wish I didn’t have to say these things about this movie, but I do. I honestly don’t think it’s worth a watch and that people should avoid it. It’ll inevitably do well because people don’t have anything better to do, but that’s still a shame. I’m so disappointed in all its wasted potential and I always will be.

Kyo out.

[anonymoustoddler]

I got stoned and found out some things and started writing a facebook post. And then... it turned into whatever the hell this is:

I went to NYU from 2005-2009.

Ilana Glazer.. apparently went to NYU from 2005-2009.

We graduated at the same time.

ALSO, I thought Rachel Bloom was older but NO, she was there too. And everyone seems to know her except for me.

She didn’t even go to Tisch, or study acting or writing or.. any of it. Rachel did. But all three of us sat in Yankee Stadium at the same time and listened to Hillary Clinton give our graduation speech. We had all the same opportunities and general access, the same potential for experience, exposure, connections, and a career.

And now they are there.

And my BFA’d ass is... right here.

It’s just really strange to think about that. Maybe if I had somehow done things quite differently, I’d be there instead.

Probably not, to be honest. I know I’ve never had whatever that thing is that makes certain people magnetic. I’ve never been the one to stand out in adulthood. I think, in fact, that many people find me rather dull compared to the shine of others in this field. But maybe... maybe if I’d really worked for it, for real. Maybe if I could have put everything into the work instead of most of it into all the wrong places with just a shaving of energy and effort and commitment left over.

But also. Something happened to me, back then. When I left Northview and Grand Rapids and Michigan to head for New York, I believed in my talent. I believed in myself in that way, if not much else. I knew I could do it, and do it well.

A lot of people seem to come into themselves in college. Find themselves, find their people, their passions and strengths, their future. But I think I had the opposite experience altogether. From my very first day in New York, I felt Weird. Different. Loser. Less than. Behind. Misunderstood. Shamed. Overlooked. Ignored. Doubtful. Anxious. Depressed. Afraid. Embarrassed. Hidden. Invisible.

It was a slow motion dissent into the earlier stages of where I am now. But nobody noticed. No one saw an eating disorder or depression or tremendous anxiety. No one saw severe mood instability, executive dysfunction, a strained and codependent and complicated two person family relationship. No one saw the things going on and attributed them to “She’s not ok.” It was always, “She’s immature. She’s selfish and lazy. She doesn’t WANT to grow up, so she’s keeping herself in states of dependency so she never has to try.” “She just doesn’t want any of it badly enough. If she did, she’d be doing the work to get it.”

I wonder, sometimes. If I hadn’t been sick and scared and alone, with only so much understanding at the time of what was happening to me and no understanding of what I was preparing to become; if I had real and proper help from any doctor or professor or from my mom - because I did not understand the severity of my need for help back then, and I thought my family doctor, a PA who actually really fucked up my life multiple times with her loose prescription pad and severe lack of knowledge of what she was doing, had me covered - what might I have accomplished instead of spending most of my free time in bed, balancing a part time job but barely able to take on anything else. 30 hours a week in retail plus commuting was literally everything I had in me WHEN I WAS AT MY BEST IN LIFE. When I was the closest I ever got to being a rack rate size, when I was still able to prioritize limited money spending, still eating both regularly and healthfully (as much so as I’ve ever been), still exercising simply by getting around, sleeping ok enough for the most part and generally on a more normalized schedule. I mean — I got up at 6 to be at work at 8 OFTEN. It was excruciating sometimes, but other times it was fun to get up and get ready for work. I had routines. I loved getting off the train at my SoHo stop and, depending on which line I took and how much time I had, getting my coffee at Starbucks or at Aroma, so overpriced but an entirely different experience and worth the convenience and sometimes a pastry to go along.

I’ve gotten quite entirely away from myself, but.. I was doing the best I’ve ever done or maybe will ever do. And I still could not work to pay my bills and also take voice and tap and jazz and scene study and exclusive workshops and networking events and open calls and appointment auditions and keeping up with theater and film and the business and and and.

I went to a handful of auditions in 2013 and 2014 - My Only Almost Good Years. Things were actually pretty horrible for the majority of them but it was also mostly the closest I ever got to Good in the beginning.

Regardless, I subscribed to Actors Access and I got the only real headshots I ever had taken and I submitted and submitted and submitted (not nearly as regularly or often as I should have, because I was still too scared then. I still gave a shit.) and I very occasionally got an audition. I submitted for a commercial call Under 18 girls skin care. I got called in. When the CD saw me, she told me they were only considering minors, but she wanted to keep my headshot and info anyway. I never heard from her again.

I got a call for a short film once (or was it a web series? Who knows) and even got a callback. But no part.

I did one show in those two years. Technically I guess one could argue two if you count the weird little Christmas play I did for no money right after I moved at the end of 2012, but. Aside from that... one casting. One.

In New Jersey. No pay - travel stipend included.

I was 24 years old playing a 12 year old in an aged down musical version of Three Sisters set in 1970s New Jersey. “We have to get back to Mosc- New York City!” But with generic numbers telling most of what little story there was.

And then I took an acting class, I fell and injured myself, my body wasn’t ever the same after that, and by the time my shoulder was as normal as it would ever be again, my brain was really starting to crack. I was depressed and anxious. I hated living in Brooklyn, I hated having no friends after so briefly being close with Jenn. I hated my roommate, the only man I had ever lived with before George. And no wonder. He was one of the worst people I’ve ever met, I think. The worst kind of fucked up Entitled Vaguely Wealthy White Male. He enjoyed making me upset, making me feel unsafe. He listened to me express my issues with things he did and instead of even pretending to care about living harmoniously, he laughed in my face and used every chance he could get to fuck with me for the kick of it. He was rude and weird and cold and cruel and cocky and prideful and hateful and gross and mean. He was selfish and thoughtless and manipulative. I knew he felt wrong from the moment I met him. I knew. But our third roommate was chill and relaxed and flexible, she seemed to get along with both of us enough so I thought she could and would act as a buffer if it ever came to that. I knew but I loved the apartment, and he found it and I didn’t have any friends to grab it out from under him with. I knew he was a bad guy and someone I might well have real trouble with and discomfort around, but Jenn had gone silent and enemy for reasons and in ways I will never, ever understand. One day she was my friend, and the next she was putting locks on her doors and saying I should really move out of HER apartment as soon as possible. She stopped speaking to me. She passive aggressively left disgusting messes all over the apartment. She locked the living room television in her bedroom and told some version of events in which I was the bad guy somehow to friends who we both went to school with, people I knew and liked. They in turn randomly met my coworkers and proceeded to say horrible things about me, and the only reason I even know is because one of them told me about it in the break room the next time I worked.

I knew Nick was a terrible risk in multiple ways. But I had to get out of the apartment because at the time I didn’t think it could be worse than living with Jenn, and Dan was a third who I thought would be in my corner, and the apartment was so much nicer than most of the places I had lived. I thought I could make it work. I thought that move was going to save me.

By the time my headshots were taken, I was beginning to lose feeling in my legs. I was struggling to keep treading water and starting to drown. I never got the free retouching because I never chose my final shots. I never chose because I barely submitted for auditions. I was doing on partial leave from work and doing as much physical therapy as I could afford to copays for, I was taking percocet for months and months because the pain wouldn’t go away. Something’s Wrong, I said. The Scans Look Normal, Try Taking Ibuprofen. I was home and hiding in bed more and more often. I extended my work leave and gave shifts away as much as I could. I went to therapy and a middle aged white woman with long beaded necklaces and a New Age Buddhism vibe in a shoebox office on the Upper East Side was getting tired of me and my lack of progress and consistent last minute cancellation of appointments. I went back to work and had panic attacks that kept me sobbing uncontrollably for over an hour, so many shifts spent partially alone sitting in a little room in the basement back of house, steam pumps taking up much of the space and nothing else there aside from a single office chair and a little grey table. I spent my entire hour lunch chain smoking on a stoop down the street. I smoked cigarette after cigarette, compulsively and even when I did NOT want any more. I talked more loudly and often about how bad things were, about my disorder and anxiety and depression and people liked me less and I was alone at work more. New people came on and old people left and new cliques formed and I had no friends. Work was torture and home was terrifying. I got through the summer by getting stoned on the roof so I wouldn’t have to be in the apartment in case he was home. But then one day my door knob broke and I was so terrified he would go into my room and take or break or mess with my things and the fear and panic were so real and so severe that I missed my best friend’s baby shower because I couldn’t find a locksmith on a Sunday and I couldn’t leave my room until I fixed my door knob. She was angry with me for a long time after that. We never saw each other before I moved back to Michigan. I don’t even know when we last saw each other anymore.

I could keep telling this story for hours, days. Tell every piece as I remember it straight on through 2014 and into 2015 and cancer and treatment and 2016 and George and more cancer and the worst possible conditions for a new relationship and relapse and the beginning of my current inability to function because everything was depression and exhaustion and loneliness. And on and on through five more moves and break up and emergency surgery and being thrown into the drivers seat and struggling with my mom’s health changes and selling my home and leaving everything I had for something new that was just more versions of bad. The scariest loneliest months of my life. And then the even scarier even lonelier ones after she died.

But just... just think of all that. And what if most of it had never happened?? If I’d gotten proper help a decade ago, who would I be now? Where?

Maybe I’d be there. With them.

Instead of here, alone, with nothing but memories of other times when I was also sad and life felt pointless.

I wonder what it would have been like to be there instead. I wish I knew.

[luminofilmsofficial]

SH0WREELS

What is a showreel? It’s a selection of small clips put together to form a short video to show off an actor’s skills and to attract Casting Directors and Indie Directors to cast an actor in further roles. It’s one of the two most necessary and important tools an actor can have. The other one is good headshots.

I admit that when I first started out making showreels I made a few errors. I shot and directed myself but I soon learnt that it’s easier and makes a better product to have an independent cinematographer and sound person. I can edit but I also now use independent editors. The end product becomes more and more polished.

The ideal length for a showreel is 2.20 mins but can be up to 3 mins max. The first scene shown should be the most dynamic as CD’s will switch off early otherwise. You have to remember they are seeing so many of these.

If you are an experienced actor, after the end of any film you have been in you make a request for footage and should be sent the film or clips of footage as eg maybe some of the footage gives the plot away and they won’t want you to have that.

However if you haven’t yet done much then a showreel from scratch can be very useful. It’s made of dynamic scenes and put together gives the illusion you’ve been in a lot of things and also shows your skills.

Some more experienced actors chose to do 1 scene rather than 3 to liven up a showreel or to show a type, emotion or character that they feel they have not yet been given the chance to play.

Our scripts are either specially written or taken and adapted from literature and are about 1 to 1 and a half pages long.

We have also decided to specialise in period showreels given the rise in period drama productions on streamers and in film. Each showreel workshop has a different theme, like Victorian, Medieval, Roaring Twenties. We provide a period correct location, costume, hair and makeup. It’s great fun and the scenes produced here are stand alone scenes that have been entered to film festival and even won the participants best actor awards. They can also be cut into an existing showreel.

Take a look at our latest showreel dates. Maybe book yours up. They do get booked out pretty quickly. More details on www.luminofilms.co.uk/workshops

Please look on Pinterest too and follow us there

Last but not least please give a like on this post below.

[photomnr]

How To Become An Actor

Ever wanted to become an actor, but not sure where to start?

Getting started in the acting industry can seem daunting, especially when you have no experience and no idea where to start! So here are my tips for how to start your acting journey and to gain experience to build up your CV and even work to getting an agent.

Here’s a little about me: I’m a child actor, and so from the age of 5 I spent part of my life on film sets. I ended up learning about the industry as I went along, with definitely a few slip-ups on the way! Even now, 20 years on from when I started acting, it’s not plain sailing, which leads me on to my first point…

IS ACTING WHAT YOU REALLY WANT TO DO?

Acting is hard. Let’s not beat around the bush here. It’s a wonderful industry, but landing roles in feature films and Netflix shows doesn’t happen overnight. There are so many ups and downs, even for seasoned actors. If you absolutely can’t imagine your life without acting in it as you love it that much, then you should be able to last through the rejections that you will get along the way.

START PRACTICING ACTING AT HOME

A great place for you to start acting is by practicing at home in your free time. Especially when you are just starting out, there is no harm in playing around with some scripts and plays, learning the lines (you’ll need to get used to doing that) and experimenting with the character. This is the time that you can start to learn about yourself as an actor- what roles do you like to play? What genres? Do you prefer creating characters, or acting more naturally?

Practicing at home doesn’t just have to be actually doing acting. Do some research! Yes, I’m giving you permission to watch films and Netflix essentially, but one of the best ways to learn about acting is to watch others do it. You’ll find that actors are like sponges – they will soak up any tips and tricks that they like from others, and essentially make it their own.

ACTING CLASSES

I believe that as human beings, we can never stop learning, and this applies to acting too! I think acting classes are absolutely vital for you to keep working on your acting skills, and both aspiring actors and seasoned actors return to classes time and time again. This is the step where you can start to learn your craft, and start to come out of your shell more to discover what sort of actor you are in a supportive environment.

Do some research and try and find some that won’t cost you an arm and a leg to get to. Also, try and find one that you feel you get something out of every time you attend and make sure that you get on with your teacher and fellow students.

DRAMA SCHOOL – TO GO, OR NOT TO GO?

In the past, drama school was probably one of the only ways you could become an actor, but nowadays, there are a lot more opportunities for people to have a career in acting that doesn’t involve drama school. If you are looking for a career in theater, then I would probably advise looking at going to one as drama schools go really in-depth into theater technique. However, in the film and TV world, you can find that experience (life and on-set) can help people forge their careers.

Look into drama schools and think about whether going would be the best thing for you or not. If you don’t think you’re ready to go yet, or audition and don’t get in, then maybe give yourself 6 months or so to see how things go on your own. I decided to give it 6 months after leaving school to see if I would continue to get work without going to drama school, and I haven’t stopped working since!

LOCAL THEATER PRODUCTIONS

If you live somewhere quite remote, then it can seem harder to become an actor compared to if you live near a major city. However, there are still ways you can get experience, you just have to start by looking locally.

If you’re still in school, look at auditioning for your next school production as they are a great way for you to start to get experience, especially on stage. If you’ve left school, then look at amateur dramatic societies and local theater companies, as well as local film production companies. The latter might be harder to get involved with, but you never know when they might be casting for a production they are doing, and you might be the perfect fit for the role! If you have a local community page on Facebook, for example, have a look to see if any theater or film companies are advertising for people to get involved with their productions. This is also a great way to network too, which leads me on to my next point…

GET INVOLVED IN THE ACTING COMMUNITY

The acting community is one of the most amazingly diverse and supportive groups I’ve come across, and you’ll be welcomed in with open arms if you’re just starting out. As well as making new friends, you might actually come across some situations where fellow actors have written their own scripts and are looking to cast among their friends.

I’ve found the acting community is most active on Twitter, and it’s a great place especially for aspiring actors to get their voice out there. Keep an eye out for #ShowreelShareDay and #HeadshotCVShare as they are perfect opportunities to get some exposure, and some actors have even found representation and jobs from these social media events. Also, make sure you follow casting directors on Twitter as this is where they put out open castings or castings for specific roles that anyone can apply for.

There are also some great Facebook groups like Actors UK, Truly Actors and Actors’ Limbo that are worth joining.

ACTING WORKSHOPS

Workshops are a little bit different to acting classes as they are normally more intensive and are one-offs. They can be general meets like casting directors workshops (where you’ll get to do a scene in front of a casting director and they will give feedback and take questions after) or be specific e.g. working on script work, audition technique, puppetry, camera work, Shakespeare etc. As well as learning a lot in a short amount of time, you’ll again also get the opportunity to network with the actors that attend.

If you’re just starting out in the acting world, then take a look at the workshops The Actor’s Company and Mixing Networks put on as they are open to anyone. The Actor’s Guild put on fantastic workshops too, but you do have to have three credits or have trained at drama school to go to their workshops (bookmark them for when you’re eligible).

GET AN AGENT

Once you’ve started to find your feet in the acting world, maybe gotten some experience and made some connections, then you can start to look for an agent to represent you and find acting jobs for you. Getting an agent is totally your choice, and some people do manage to have a great acting career without an agent getting their own jobs, but in my experience, I’ve found an agent is not just great for getting you seen for more jobs, but also as a support network that is there to help you through your career. Think of them as your own mini cheer-leading squad!

Let me just get one thing straight: You don’t have to have experience to apply for an agent. If you don’t have any experience yet, there is no harm in applying for an agency because sometimes, especially if you are a teenager or a young adult, they will focus on your look, potential and skill set (languages, musical instruments etc). Agents are very understanding that some aspiring actors may not have had the opportunities to gain experience when they were younger, and this can sometimes be to your advantage if they think you would fit in well on their books.

To help your ‘look’ come across in the best possible way, maybe consider getting some professional headshots done before sending off any applications. Use Headshot Hunter to help find actor headshots that are right for you!

Written By Georgina Minter-Brown

Georgina Minter-Brown has been acting from the age of 5, and has worked on film, TV, stage and commercials. She also teaches dance and drama at Chrystel Arts Theatre School in North London, as well as being a blogger and Youtuber.

[led123123]

he’s pissing me of like..

https://youtu.be/xnwmIKjysn8

https://youtu.be/3z7NpAdi8LM

https://youtu.be/bgKscp6q9a4

https://youtu.be/AltYRaIBfQ4?t=708

it’s true. when he says that he’s the best

I need to invest in new pants..

ok.. it’s time.. I’m selling my old card.. right?

https://youtu.be/JWAxzgCYxpc

https://youtu.be/E8ZrPFMr_nY

https://youtu.be/H8YbHwDq8hA

I can’t speak korean

is it worth spending so much time learning language?? I’m so lazy..

“you don’t need to know more than one langauge because you can express everything knowing just one language” but.. you can’t express anything.. if listener doesn’t know your language..

then your language becomes useless

so.. the question is.. like.. what language do I want to speak.. 

https://images.app.goo.gl/7iM3pvExNT7bdUUw6

she looks.. like.. loreen.. and she’s from morrocco

https://www.youtube.com/user/LookingGlassUniverse/videos

as soon as she added a thumbnail.. look.. she got 10 times more views

https://youtu.be/pr5_6U2Mh2w?t=127

there are people who have million times more kills than him..

https://youtu.be/jMAShwisnQI

https://www.twitch.tv/saltychikcen/video/778982130?filter=archives&sort=time

you gotta be fucking kidding me

fuck.. teenagers got so smart about making money these days..

stupid thots

sellouts

wow 2020 year is a big year.

https://youtu.be/H8YbHwDq8hA?t=63

if I had time to do everything I wanted.. then I would learn korean..

this spider is still there.. can’t believe.. what an asshole..

omg.. I can’t see anything on monitor again because it’s sunny again.. 

https://youtu.be/H8YbHwDq8hA?t=149

I hear a lot of repeating phrases.. but.. I don’t know what they mean.. 

because I don’t.. learn

I don’t learn them

https://youtu.be/nEhhQtq9gp4?t=72

she’s from morocco

https://youtu.be/nEhhQtq9gp4?t=171

damn one of her teeth.. overlaps.. 

but all her other teeth look pretty. they’re shiny and long.. and.. they look really good

they have very round shapes

her teeth are long just like.. jaara and.. sharon.. who are also.. I said they’re hebrew..

so they live in the.. arabic.. region of the planet.. 

but it’s morrocco

and like.. spanish.. portuguese.. 

https://youtu.be/nEhhQtq9gp4?t=488

she could be wearing braces.. 

I have also overlaping front teeth like her.. but.. in my case.. it’s not as bad.. they don’t overlap as much.. I have a small gap between them.. one of them is just not.. super straight you know.. but they don’t overlap

https://youtu.be/nEhhQtq9gp4?t=656

wow. she’s also from cambridge

https://youtu.be/nEhhQtq9gp4?t=695

all her other teeth look perfect. except this one tooth

and like.. they overlap a lot.. so she should wear maybe a braces I don’t know. I’m only saying that because her tooth overlaps a lot

https://youtu.be/-ue-vxgDTPk

I can’t see shit on my monitor..

I cannot see anything my .. monitor

damn.. I can’t “install” these curtains.. because.. I need.. like.. more of these.. hooks.. to hold it.. and I don’t have them..

https://youtu.be/l4wmnda9zqg?t=88

xD mere wake up. xD

https://youtu.be/65GbpVZTgAk

https://youtu.be/65GbpVZTgAk?t=40

https://youtu.be/65GbpVZTgAk?t=44

https://youtu.be/l4wmnda9zqg?t=89

https://youtu.be/l4wmnda9zqg?t=148

https://youtu.be/edP0L6LQzZE

I.. missed.. a lot of wingman shots.. 

but I blame it on sun..

omfg.. what the hell is going on.. 2nd time I’m queueuing for ranked.. I get unranked..

today it’s cereal

I didn’t eat cereal before because of the crack in my tooth.. and now the broken part is removed.. so.. there’s no crack. and I can eat freely

https://youtu.be/aewNWXUV3rM?t=17

that’s me right now. xD

https://youtu.be/rgDtgyzVZYk?t=138

my wingman shots wasn’t hitting.. but the sun.. passed my window already.. so.. maybe it’s gonna be better now

https://youtu.be/rdh7dcE4zw0?t=21

these are volt users in a nutshell. damage done per clip on this kind of distance..

my wingman wasn’t hitting again.. shit.. 

I could have done better.. I would have to be more precise..

teammate died.. so they rushed.. my teammate.. who was also.. like.. rushing.. to help our teammate..

https://youtu.be/Em-_ju20tEo

there are youtubers who teach.. chinese.. but I didn’t find.. korean.. and.. japanese..

and.. people are like.. you learn.. language.. for a reason.. and.. I just would learn.. for myself.. 

https://youtu.be/-R4Tp8ls5lY?t=132

https://youtu.be/9CS7j5I6aOc

caustic is points maker. that was a good team 

caustic and wraith is good because he can secure portal

and.. his ulti is also.. very OP

it’s good for ranked

2 wingman shots is a lot of damage 

hitting just 2 wingman shots is big 

they’re already scared to push if they get hit 2 times with wingman

if I hit 3 times.. they’re scared af.. but I need to be really lucky to hit 3 times.. I mean.. it’s not impossible.. 

I was hitting lots of shots with wingman. in that one game

I learned a lot about how a house construction

it seems clearer now how everything looks like

https://youtu.be/rgDtgyzVZYk?t=179

damn.. americans really have obesity problem

https://youtu.be/rgDtgyzVZYk?t=262

omg.. fast food.. people who eat fast food all the time..

https://youtu.be/rgDtgyzVZYk?t=312

xD

people who eat fast food all the time.. and don’t care about heating healthy

obese people die faster.. today one famous actor who was obese.. died.. because of obesity

how can you carry so much weight.. how is it possible.. to get so fat.. I have no idea

give me some really good song that I would want to listen to 

https://youtu.be/ZSM2naTDM5g

https://youtu.be/yEtO0uSnemc

https://images.app.goo.gl/SP983M9eQydHu4yQ6

https://youtu.be/C5PRI8wVPWk

server is overloaded..

oh shit.. we got naded

... idiots.. typing in text chat.. when I play.. god.. because they’re mad that they died.. 

instead of just staying quiet.. noobs..

“I’m not because he landed on top of other squad.. with no weapons..”

so pro

people are so stupid

it’s pointless

https://youtu.be/UQmu5Erf4pA?t=315

every game is for teams now.. 

I need to eat more food...

eating cereal all day doesn’t put me in the best mood..

but I wanted to get one day of not cooking anything and eat some easy food.. I didn’t eat cereal in a long time

https://youtu.be/xKMT44GBaUI

I wonder what this song is about.. sounds.. kinda.. dramatic

kinda.. like.. it’s about.. like.. choice.. choosing

I read subs.. and.. it’s about the same stuff that title is saying.. like.. kinda.. so.. and.. about.. like.. stuff

I totally didn’t know what they were saying..

lyrics are about.. like.. thinking about somebody

https://youtu.be/xKMT44GBaUI?t=218

I remember.. the times.. when.. my country was like korea.. like.. now it’s so much different.. there’s like.. music used to be like.. pleasant.. korean music is pleasant.. and other music changed.. now people don’t make music like that. in korea and.. japan (mostly korea) they still make cool music that I like

now people really make trash music

and in korea they make still make like.. you know.. like.. pleasant music

the sound is really pleasant

they make really good music.. in my country music used to be good.. now it’s terrible

it used to be like in korea now

but it changed and now it’s all about.. like.. umtz umtz umtz.. you know.. 

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/114738418072/thelittlestagemanager-tastefullyoffensive

wow she’s vegan.. like I though

“handburger” xD

handburger.. 

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/114471184377/caninotforonce-gif-giz-pompeii-t%C3%BCrk%C3%A7e-dublaj

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/142819059097/pizzaight-shutsman-what-sport-is-this-my

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/123191493027/whoisbenjacoby-go-vegan

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/113670844227/i-okay-um

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/121234619407

she had a video about being vegan.. god I didn’t even see 

my aim is so bad

but I’m gonna get better

at close range

wow it actually works though.. automatic fan speed control works well now.. on the case fans

and I don’t do anything it’s automatic

https://nadadrop.tumblr.com/post/116979290142/dogs-pool-teamwork

I need to take a break to get.. like.. blood on top of my body

it’s less laggy.. but I’m still losing points..

is it lagging because I use ram??

maybe I should free ram..

oh shieeet ez game most damage this time

honestly.. against triple take.. I have no chance.. with wingman.. 

but.. I fried one dude this time too.. hit him 4 times with wingman he was 1 hp

and I had one really good headshot this time that let us push their squad. easily.. one wingman headshot and they’re done

one wingman headshot = gg for enemy squad

and caustic gas is so strong

164 points

I kinda.. need more.. blood in my upper body now.. because my teeth would start to hurt

this spider is waiting again.. for me to turn off light..

soon there’s gonna be like.. million spiders here.. and they’ll eat me alive.. 

he’s just waiting for me to die.. so flies.. and all sorts of bugs eat me.. so he can eat these bugs.. and flies..

bro I can see you.. does he not realize??

he’s just here for flies.. 

actually.. that’s true.. halloween.. theme is like.. spiderwebs.. because all bugs try to hide from winter.. so it’s the best time for spiders.. because these bugs are trying to hide.. and it’s easy for spiders to catch them because spiders live in places where these bugs would hide..

https://youtu.be/_OW_5pLZ4SE?t=405

I wonder if my sister also using zoom.. in her school.. 

https://www.youtube.com/user/LookingGlassUniverse/videos

I’m subscribing without any questions

https://www.youtube.com/user/LookingGlassUniverse/videos

she looks so much like zaina’s mother

actually

I f*cking.. love wingman

like.. they had highground.. so.. damn.. I missed a lot.. and it was easier for them to hit.. me.. like.. it’s harder to hit.. when shooting highground.. 

like.. bullet drop is higher.. when shooting highground.. because if you shoot lowground.. then bullet it already falling down.. so recoil won’t be as high.. so like.. when I shoot highground.. then there’s more recoil so I have to shoot differently

lol.. the bullet drop.. is like.. the highest.. when I look straight.. at 0 degrees.. when I shoot up 45 degrees.. recoil is.. lower actually.. what the heck.. lol..

like.. someone explain

https://youtu.be/jDTmeoQsA_k

there’s less bullet drop when I shoot up..

why.. obviously.. I understand why.. I mean.. I understand.. that when I shoot in the air.. above me directly.. the bullet will land in the same place.. so bullet drop.. is gonna be.. like.. 0.. just like when I shoot on my feet.. 

https://youtu.be/jDTmeoQsA_k?t=66

the highest bullet drop is when looking straight

I mean.. does the “distance” number.. means.. the.. distance.. only horizontal distance??

shit.. how does it work

the highest bullet drop is when I look straingt why..

https://youtu.be/VqOqZBRZsj8?t=61

like.. what the.. I mean.. like.. gravity force.. is pulling down.. so.. like.. well.. 

well.. it makes sense I guess.. but do they include.. the.. factors like.. speed loss in apex legends too??

https://images.app.goo.gl/7s6V6exhXWTWT5kcA

is there gonna be any less bullet drop if I shoot higher..

https://images.app.goo.gl/ENNqNKxsfhyUKyj57

of course this is obvious..

https://images.app.goo.gl/UVgppkiypzFEHEek7

why is the higher bullet drop at 0 angle

because.. the.. force.. of the bullet.. works against bullet speed.. gravity works against the bullet speed.. so bullet slows down.. instead of dropping 

because initial bullet speed.. if you shoot straight.. then bullet doesn’t get slowed by gravity.. but drops down instead.. the force pulls the bullet down.. and.. if you shoot down.. then gravity force.. increases bullet speed.. so like.. if you shoot up.. the bullet is gonna lose speed.. so bullet travel time is gonna take more time.. because bullet speed is slower.. and.. if you shoot down.. bullet speed is gonna accelerate.. so it’s gonna hit target sooner with higher speed.. if you shoot in front of you.. at 0 degrees.. then bullet speed won’t get affected by gravity.. 

did they implement it in apex legends too?? that bullet is slower when you shoot high and faster if you shoot low??

or it never slows.. and bullet speed is the same all the time

or the bullet never slows down

wow.. that’s actually.. makes it a lot easier to use wingman then.. if there’s not bullet slow effect ever

I saw a 2nd spider.. and.. he had to die.. 

noodle soup before sleep.. egg pasts is different than noodles.. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noodle#Egg

what’s the difference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_noodles

they don’t cook as fast

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramen

ramen.. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_noodle

they’re precooked

they’re precooked

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_noodle#Production

“ steamed for 1–5 minutes at 100 °C (212 °F) to improve its texture by gelatinizing the starch of the noodles “

what is gelatinizing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starch_gelatinization

wow.. this is.. so.. complex

it cooks fast because it’s precooked

https://youtu.be/jDTmeoQsA_k?t=88

really?? no.. no... what are you talking about.. wait.. damage reduction.. is.. what?? 30%.. but.. like.. that’s.. that’s just.. damage reduction to extra damage or all damage?? all damage??

it’s like.. 256 damage.. so.. damn.. no way

187+5%.. is it still less??

so helmet damage reduction is on all damage.. so.. like.. if.. headshot multipler.. is like.. how much.. on volt.. it’s like.. low.. so.. on volt is.. 24 headshot.. or something.. and 17 normal.. so it’s.. 1.4x multipler or something..

so it’s still less than 30%?? I mean.. how much is.. 30% out of 140%?? 

it’s 42%!!!!!!! 

it’s higher than 40%.. so less damage to head?? than to body?? what??

no that can’t be how it works..

https://apexlegends.gamepedia.com/Volt_SMG

no.. now it’s 16 body.. they reduced it..

https://youtu.be/jDTmeoQsA_k?t=167

wow is the bullet speed really that fast?? or they reduced it..

https://youtu.be/jDTmeoQsA_k?t=243

this seems too fast

https://apexlegends.gamepedia.com/Kraber_.50-cal_Sniper

not true.. kraber kill always.. on headshot

https://youtu.be/TudoCqjaKe8?t=84

wow that’s cool

https://youtu.be/TudoCqjaKe8?t=209

supressor.. that makes sense.. 

https://youtu.be/TudoCqjaKe8?t=730

lol.. I saw this airplane..

it just shoots a lot of bullets super fast..

https://apexlegends.gamepedia.com/Gear

yes.. it’s just reducing the EXTRA damage from headshots.. not total damage

ramen was good

damn.. my.. cuticles.. are getting.. annoying.. because of no bloodflow.. on my fingertips.. so they start to get hard.. and annoying.. 

need more bloodflow on my fingertips.. which is basically.. lying with my legs lifted up..

https://youtu.be/dbysHVfjL4g?t=138

https://youtu.be/dbysHVfjL4g?t=221

triple take is.. better than wingman.. can’t trade with triple take.. it’s the best sniper rifle now.. kinda..

my cuticles are starting to hurt..

https://youtu.be/hIiu0NWuCoU

so like.. what are his accomplishments.. I know that he has something to do with tesla.. 

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/13/elon-musks-10-greatest-inventions-changing-the-world.html

so he’s actually.. like.. an inventor

what’s the.. tesla invention.. like.. what’s new about this.. good batteries?? are these like.. special batteries?? or what

800 miles per hour..

https://www.cnbc.com/2015/11/13/elon-musks-10-greatest-inventions-changing-the-world.html

he’s gone insane.. all inventors.. go insane 

he’s thinking a lot.. about inventing new stuff.. he’s feeling a lot of pressure.. because he doesn’t wanna admit that it requires a lot of effort to invent something and he doesn’t wanna admit that he fails..

he’s doing what people expect him to do.. 

there are.. only.. one youtuber that I would watch right now.. that plays apex legends.. and that’s.. skyebunny

https://youtu.be/GwRdBqJsITc?t=18

... studying.. you’re not gonna get any smarter.. studying.

why does my mother want me to go to school again.. 

I didn’t learn.. a single thing.. at school

she just wants me to leave.. because she doesn’t give a f*ck about me..

and she wants to have sex with millions of people.. when I’m not here.. 

she does it anyway.. and I don’t have anywhere else to go..

and she doesn’t feel sorry for anything

https://youtu.be/x58gSZuwozM?t=136

how does she have time.. to be #1 student.. and edit her videos.. and record.. god.. how..

ramen was good

https://youtu.be/TELL4SJt2_Y?t=207

I would eat more noodles

I was just lying in bed.. and I saw this spider.. right next to me on a wall.. I took a container.. and.. I.. captured him in a container.. and got him outside.. hope there’s no more spiders.. there’s been 2.. 

this spider.. lol.. 

[jillmckenzie1]

The Boarding House Is Burning

Let’s take a moment to consider just how much it must suck to be an actor of Middle-Eastern ethnicity in Hollywood. You’ve spent a fortune on headshots, spent even more on acting classes, and you’re ready to tackle the big time. There’s just one problem, and I know you know what it is.

Everybody wants you to play a terrorist.

Maybe you’re apolitical, and you simply want to tackle some challenging material or star in a Marvel movie. Maybe you believe in representation, and you want to show that a person that originally has roots in the Middle East can play…well…anyone.* But you get that offer, and you can imagine what happens on screen. A zooming overhead shot over a war torn city, while the adhan, the call to prayer, plays ominously. A jittery camera shows a throng of humanity crammed into narrow streets and then…there’s you! Holding an AK-47 while crammed into the back of a battered van, looking like a member of the Osama bin Laden Glee Club.

You can’t even with that.

Here’s where it gets tricky. On the one hand, Middle Eastern folks can join black people, Asian people, Hispanic people, LGBT people, women, and everyone else that isn’t straight, white, and male as being grotesquely caricatured in films. It’s the 21st century, for heaven’s sake, and it wouldn’t kill filmmakers to have an iota of nuance and respect.

On the other hand, do filmmakers always have a responsibility to be respectful, especially if the point of their movie, which is a period piece, is a cynical lack of respect? The new film Beirut lives uneasily in a gray area between those points of view.

We’re dropped into Lebanon’s capital city in 1972, a time of horrendous fashion and intimidatingly large sideburns. One of the owners of said sideburns is Mason Skiles (Jon Hamm), a rakish American diplomat. He loves the city, but recognizes its complexity. Mason and his wife Nadia (Leila Bekhti) have taken Karim, an orphaned 13-year-old Lebanese boy, under their wing. They’re hosting a party and everything is going swimmingly until Mason is breathlessly confronted by his CIA officer buddy Cal Riley (Mark Pellegrino). The CIA has found out that Karim’s big brother Rami (Ben Affan) is actually a big terrorist, having been involved with the 1972 Munich massacre.

Cal’s CIA colleagues want to take Karim into custody and sweat him for Rami’s whereabouts. While Mason attempts to negotiate with them, Rami and his people arrive and start shooting up the place. They toss Karim into a van and, during the chaos, Nadia is shot and killed. Needless to say, the party is not a success.

Flash forward to 1982, and Mason is now in Boston arbitrating labor disputes. We know he’s depressed because he drinks and he’s shaved off his sideburns. He’s contacted by the U.S. Government and asked to return to Beirut urgently. The bad news is that Cal has been abducted and the kidnappers demand that Mason negotiate Cal’s release. The worse news is that Beirut is in the midst of a civil war and has been blown six ways to Sunday.

Mason is forced to work with shady State Department officials Gaines (Dean Norris), Ruzak (Shea Whigham), and Shalen (Larry Pine). CIA officer Sandy Crowder (Rosamund Pike) is assigned to be his minder. Together, they must navigate a labyrinth of shifting loyalties, ethical gray areas, and the omnipresent threat of violence to rescue Cal.

Guys, Beirut is not what I would call a bundle of laughs. It’s an enthusiastically po-faced movie, with lots of scenes of sweaty people barking orders into phones. It’s also a throwback to the paranoid political thrillers of the ‘70’s and ‘80’s, the kind of films we don’t see in theaters much anymore.

Brad Anderson directed, and he’s a filmmaker with a strong sense of place and how characters relate to those places.** His Beirut is a once-elegant metropolis that’s become a war zone. Rival factions plot to take control, and everyone seems to have forgotten the people trapped in the middle. As I watched the film, I kept thinking of it as a modern-day version of Casablanca, where a cynical American must learn to care again against the backdrop of an exotic locale. If you remove the romantic aspects from Casablanca, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how Beirut feels.

The script was written by Tony Gilroy, whom you know as the writer of the Jason Bourne franchise, Rogue One, and the very good Michael Clayton. He excels at stories about people who are morally compromised, who don’t have time for heroism as they’re simply trying to get a job done. While his screenplay gets into surface level details about the Lebanese civil war, it never takes sides and cheers the Americans or boos the Israelis or PLO. There’s plenty of blame to go around, but the story is more about creating a particular vibe of immorality intertwined with duty.

His characters can be thinly sketched, but at least we have a solid cast playing them. Solid professionals like Dean Norris and Shea Whigham do their thing and do it well. After her jaw-dropping performance in Gone Girl, I expected Rosamund Pike to become a massive star.*** Since we live in the darkest timeline, that didn’t happen. Still, Pike’s CIA officer Crowder is a smart professional, and Pike plays her as a woman who doesn’t miss much.

At the end of the day, this film is a vehicle for Jon Hamm, and I’m very okay with that. Look at his performances in Mad Men, The Town, and Baby Driver. Hamm should also be a massive star, but again, darkest timeline. As Mason, Hamm doesn’t overdo it as a world-weary alcoholic. Other actors would go for a bedraggled look, like a thoroughly kicked puppy. Hamm is more subtle, and he plays the majority of his scenes with a dimmed light in his eyes, as if he’s been diminished by trauma.

We know that Beirut was not actually filmed in Beirut. It was shot in Morocco, with drone shots of demolished neighborhoods in Syria added to portray devastation. Does all that add to a narrative that the Middle East is little more than a smoking crater populated by terrorists? Honestly, I don’t know. Anderson and his cast and crew certainly have the right to make an artistic statement, and the cynicism of the characters toward the region is kind of the point.

But Middle Eastern stories don’t always have to have a backdrop of terrorism, just like black stories don’t always have to have a backdrop of slavery. The last thing Arabs and Arab-Americans need is more stereotypes that fuel bigotry. While I’m not sure it’s Anderson’s responsibility to shoulder that burden, more nuance and more perspectives are needed. I’m reasonably sure we can handle it.

  *Maybe not Pat Sajak.

**Anderson has made a bunch of solid films, including the scary as hell Session 9, a horror movie about an abandoned mental hospital filmed at a real abandoned mental hospital. Do yourself a favor and seek it out,

***I also expected Hillary to win, so it shows what I know.

from Blog https://ondenver.com/the-boarding-house-is-burning/

[spreadart]

Mission to No Longer Exist: An Interview with Emilio Rodriguez, Founding Artistic Director of the Black and Brown Theatre

We are thrilled to lend our stage to the Black and Brown Theatre on Monday, August 28th for their Battle of the Decades Improv show. The show will feature six regular players from the Black and Brown Theatre along with cofounder Emilio Rodriguez and some special guests from the theatre's ever-growing database. The Black and Brown Theatre is a 501c3 non-profit theatre company that seeks to create opportunities for theatre artists of color in the professional Michigan theatre scene. By providing resources, education, and a community for actors of color, the group hopes to help shape the future of theatre into one that is built on inclusion. We spoke to Emilio about the group's mission, as well as their upcoming performances. Read the interview below and RSVP to Monday evening's show here. Learn more about the Black and Brown Theatre at http://www.blackandbrowntheatre.org.

Can you tell us a bit about the inspiration and origins of the Black and Brown Theatre?

I cofounded it with a friend of mine, Sam White. We were both discussing—actually for two years before we founded the theatre—we had been discussing the lack of professional opportunities for theatre artists of color in Michigan. Coming from California that was a big culture shock for me, to see how divided the theatre scene was, how segregated it was. We really wanted to change that in a way that would provide a platform and ultimately, well, the ultimate goal of the company is to become unnecessary. What we mean by that is that other theatres will start taking over the responsibility and the benefits of casting artists of color on a regular basis, so much so that we won't be needed anymore.

That is interesting to hear, only because Detroit's population is so diverse. But you didn't find this was reflected in the theatre community? No,  and actually we have even have some data on that. We broke down casting and we broke down the awards ceremonies and then we broke down those in correlation to the population of people of color living in specific cities around Michigan and it was very shocking to have data that said things—like the 2010 census—that eighty-four percent of residents of the city of Detroit identified as black but black actors made up less than ten percent of actors cast by professional theatres in the area.

So you saw a void that needed to be filled, but how did you go about changing the practices and influencing those who could make a difference in the theatre scene? We started with just a showcase of ten minute plays. We had sixteen actors of color in that showcase and we invited artistic directors from the area.  We actually invited twenty four directors from the Southeast Michigan area. Only two showed up to the showcase, but from that showcase and then the database we've started, we've had—I've lost count to be honest of how many actors have gotten invited to an audition or invited to a callback or cast in a show because of the database and the showcases that we do. Can you explain how the database works and what resources it offers actors and directors? Our database is an online resource, a Google Drive that has eighty-one headshots and resumes for actors of color in the Southeast Michigan area. It's used currently by over sixty directors, casting directors and artistic directors in the area. The number one excuse we hear for not casting actors of color is people don't know who to contact or that no one showed up to the auditions. So we give them the contact information, headshots and resumes all in one place, so they can see what the person's experience is, what they look like, if they may be right for a role. That helps theatres in the area connect with these actors of color, which helps us get to our ultimate mission statement of not being needed anymore. Is this a set group, or are you welcoming new actors? It's always growing. I mean just last month it was at seventy-five so within the past month six more people joined. And it is completely free for actors to join and completely free for directors to use so it's not like something that brings in money for us that we're doing to generate revenue, it's really to create opportunity and work towards that mission statement. We actually just put out a call for resumes for backstage talent as well. We haven't got any submissions yet, but we do have a call out for it. As soon as we get submissions we'll have a database set up for directors, designers, stage managers and playwrights in addition to the actors.

Was the lack of opportunity that led you to create this database and the Black and Brown Theatre something you found was a shared frustration among performers in Detroit? I didn't hear anyone discussing it if people were concerned about it until I met my cofounder Sam. When we started discussing it, at the time we felt alone in this battle to have equity, diversity, and inclusion. But after we did the showcase and put out a call with, you know, the title of the theatre being so explicit, it brought in a lot of people who we met that were experiencing the same frustration. They didn't have a voice and didn't have a door into the professional theatre scene to even articulate the concern or disparity they felt. Now that the theatre is up and running it has given a lot of people the chance to break in to the theatre scene. Now that they notice the problem, it has made their commitment to Black and Brown Theatre even stronger and their advocacy for diverse, equitable, and inclusive casting the same. Theatre tends to already be less accessible than say film or music, and one would imagine the financial costs only fuel the separation you've described. To offer a free resource and support system seems like an invaluable asset to members of the community, and especially its younger members. Is there something you'd like to see done differently by the larger theatre scene to make it more inviting and inclusive? I think the promotion and publication about theatre is something that can be explored more. I know that  a lot of theatres are in discussion about how they can use social media more to connect with younger generations, but I also notice it is very selective on who gets to be covered by the news and who gets to be in the larger publications and magazines. I think they tend to choose theatre companies and plays that cater to older audiences, so I think that is part of the problem too. It is both sides. Theatre companies need to explore other options of marketing and publicity, but also these bigger sources that have access to a wider audience can consider doing more promotion and publicity for theatre companies and for productions that would be of interest younger and more diverse audiences. You have also begun offering educational services for aspiring actors as well? We started in the Spring with some free workshops. It's great that you mentioned finances, because cost is a big factor in who has access to theatre training and professional development. So we started with our free workshops and we hope to expand from there. Our biggest thing is that we don't have a space of our own to do it. When we're trying to do free workshops, but then have to pay for a space that becomes a challenge. And also just continually applying for grants and hearing no with people maybe not understanding the importance of having training that is by and for the benefit of people of color. So right now you are rehearsing and performing your current show in a couple venues around the city. Can you explain what the group will be doing in this performance? We are doing entirely game based improv, so it is all short games to appeal to our audience. It is very quick, easy to understand, accessible work. You think of this new generation embracing twitter and vine and instagram and everything is tell a story in seven seconds. The great thing about game based improv is all these scenes and stories are one to two minutes and it really keeps the night going and flowing well, the energy high. it is also competitive. We have different teams so the audience can root for their favorite. That competition element is something that is very interesting, too. Theatre is losing audiences, but we never hear about sporting events losing audiences. It is always packed for a sporting event, or any live competitive event, so incorporating that element and the short accessible scenes is something we are excited to get a younger audience to see. We were deciding at the end of our meeting how we would break up the teams. Somebody mentioned that they were a '90s baby, then somebody mentioned that they were an '80s baby and it went from there. It worked out that everyone was either an '70s, '80s, or '90s baby and it split up perfectly into even teams. We tend to have a big diversity in age in our audience, which we love and are excited and proud about, so it should be fun for audience members to cheer on the decade they're from or closest to. This is a test run to see how audiences respond to it and to see how interested actors are in it. We've already had a lot of actors who missed the first rehearsals but are really interested in doing the show and so hopefully we'll get to do more in the Fall and Spring. What skills from improvisation can the actors take with them to their work with scripted material?

I think the biggest thing that is both a theatre skill and a life skill is listening, the ability to truly listen. When it's improvised you can't plan ahead because you don't know what your partner is going to say. And you have to be completely listening to your partner to hear what they say because if you respond inauthentically or in a way that doesn't connect, the audience isn't gonna react well and you'll also lose out on the comedy. You have to listen. When actors are better listeners I think they are more believable on stage, and they're also more dynamic and interesting to watch in any play whether it is scripted or improvised. I also think it is a lifeskill, being able to listen to other people because when you can listen to people you can better empathize with them and understand where they're coming from.

Other than this show, what is the Black and Brown Theatre have in the works?

Our biggest project that we're working on this year is a series called "Classics in Color" where we'll be presenting classic plays and adaptions of classic stories on stage with a cast of all actors of color. The current one we are working on right now and have a grant that we've applied for is  and adaptation of the Scarlet Letter. Hopefully we'll be able to bring that to some schools to, so that as high school students are reading the play they can see people who look like them in the story and help it come to life more. Also, we are doing it so directors can see that people of color can play any part and you don't have to wait for the script to say that the character has to be black or has to be Latino or has to be Arab to cast them. If you see a human in a script and the race isn't identified they can be any race.

[toddestrinphoto-blog]

Process of Headshots by Todd Estrin, Todd Estrin Photography

My name is Todd Estrin. I am a photographer from Brooklyn, New York specializing in headshots for actors. Here is my process.

First off, I hate the word "headshots." It immediately signals to the actor, "I am looking for a result. Time to be confident/dramatic/commercial/sexy."& This is the opposite of what I am trying to do. In my sessions we explore, and through this exploration of self we find you. Not the "you" that you wished you were, but rather who you truly are.

Actors are constantly told who they need to be, who they look like, or what their essence is. This is all done in the name of getting work, but the big problem is that nobody can tell you who you are. You are perfect exactly the way you are. Let go of who you think you need to be and the world will fall in love with you.

This all sounds very seductive and romantic. Practically speaking, however, it all starts with a willingness to be seen. I define this willingness as a desire to have your inner life, in the present moment, seen. This means that if you feel sad, you explore that sadness. If you feel angry, you don't judge that anger; you walk directly into it. If you feel confident, you own that confidence. This is the start to exploring you.

Actors have trouble being seen for a multitude of reasons. However, when you stop judging how you feel and just walk into it, two incredible things happen:

You become extremely present, curious, and grounded in the moment. Nothing matters except what is happening right then in that moment between you, me, and the camera.

Your energy and state of being will transform. Sadness can turn into confidence; anger can become open heartedness. If you honor and respect where you are, if you can stop fighting with or judging yourself, you will find yourself in a new state of being. You can't be present and simultaneously hold onto moments at the same time. That just isn't how it works.

What does it mean to explore self? This might seem like a mystical, hippy-dippy question. There is an actual tangible way to do this, however, and it starts with the heart. The heart is the brain of your inner life. It will provide you with everything you need to be fully alive and authentic; you just need to listen. But how do you listen? Start with slowing down and allowing yourself to be curious. If I asked you to explore the word ‘mother,' you might imagine your mother, you might even try to picture her in your head, and you may find yourself asking, "How do I feel about my mother?" This is not, however, what listening means. Listening is feeling into your heart and trusting whatever comes up.

Maybe it's the smell of that specific rose perfume she always wore, or that memory of her making Thanksgiving dinner in your childhood home. Or maybe it is just a feeling of warmth in your body. This is your heart speaking. If you don't judge what comes up, your heart will provide the fuel that will bring you alive. So this work becomes a dance between a willingness to be seen and an exploration of self.

During our time together, I will shoot roughly 1,500 to 2,000 pictures of you. Yes, that is a lot. I do this because you never know when we are going to find that one image where it all connects, all the stars align, and you are truly captured by the camera. The great news about shooting so much is that if we love only .5% of your photos that means that you will leave with six to eight beauties. Not a bad shoot. The point here is there will be a lot of bad pictures; let go of that need to nail them all. If you notice your mind is drifting, or you're feeling disconnected from your true self, that's okay. This is how exploring works. I don't want to see 2,000 shots of you trying to be perfect. What I want is just YOU: authentic, in whatever form that takes.

A huge part of being authentic means letting go of who you think you are or how you want to look. I don't care how Robert Dinero expresses power, or Viola Davis' version of sorrow. Stop trying to do it how they do it. Take a chance, let go of how you think it should look and be the only thing that you can be: you. Authentic, spontaneous, and full of surprises. To quote the wonderfully inspiring Brene Brown: "Let go of who you think you're supposed to be and embrace who you are."

I tell people that I am 10% photographer, 40% acting teacher, and 50% therapist. During our session together I will offer all kinds of techniques, exercises, and suggestions. These are all just different ways for you to explore self by using your body, your senses, and your heart. If you explore with those three things, I promise that you are going to be extremely happy with the results.

I have discovered in my life that it is very easy to hide. I have also discovered that we all want to be seen. This work is very personal and important to me. I absolutely love what I do.

If you'd like to schedule a session with me, please email me at todd@toddestrinphotography.com or visit my website: https://www.toddestrinphotography.com/.

[imtanyc-blog]

An Ethnic Actor, 101

I am a 6’3”, male, Egyptian-American actor/singer with dark-olive skin, a receding hairline, an Average/Athletic build, and headshots that show my array of beard styles. These are the traits my potential bosses first see when I walk into an audition room. Thankfully, while I may look very Egyptian to Egyptians and am often asked to audition for Arabic roles because of my fluency in Arabic, I am ambiguous enough to fall in the roles of a Spaniard and Latino, Baltic, Greek, Frenchman, and Italian, depending on my hair/beard style. I’m also ethnic enough to fit a variety of minority roles, commonly: Indian, Pakistani, Malaysian, and Philippine (yes, it has happened).

For a minority actor, this is the jackpot! My ethnic ambiguity opens the door to many opportunities outside of my birth-race and provides me a better opportunity to pursue the field of acting versus portraying (which is a lot more difficult for minorities who look “too much” like one minority). It does, however, require me to do more research for my roles, giving me the best solution for how to approach the audition room, and how to give the right first impression.

Giving the right first impression.

This is an important factor for young working actors and singers, who typically spend 80% of their profession auditioning; because, often as is the case in this industry, the first 5 seconds of your greeting and the first 5 seconds of your audition-piece are to what the ‘panel of judges’ really pay attention.

That may seem different to those on the other side of the table, but it’s what we as actors learn and tend to experience. I question, though, what the right impression even means? In elementary school we were taught it means being the ‘best person you can be’, or event more vaguely, ‘being yourself’. While this, ultimately, is the best approach and impact for actor in an audition room, to more specifically “resonate or vibrantly project the unique side of yourself that matches your character,” it is also the greatest fear for actors. Think of when someone asks you to do something serious that’s a bit embarrassing. We always tend to insert a joke or sarcasm to in our performance, when we are essentially embarrassed and add humor to invalidate our performance, so that we can say to ourselves, after we finished, that it wasn’t our best attempt. An actor, very similarly, has the constant battle of investing herself/ himself fully in acting; but thus, to gather the right techniques and confidence in one’s skill is the purpose of teaching and training.

Now, let’s say that I am an amazing actor and I have overcome the confidence and skill to consistently ‘project myself vibrantly’ in an audition. How, then, do I know what part of myself to project? Even in acting a scene, we never work to imitate a character, but to put ourselves in the situation and body of that character, with their language and movements intact, while still maintaining a strong bond with the core: me. The idea of a sensory bank itself, a 101 lesson in acting, is to layer the experiences of a character with real-life experiences. For example, in class I was asked to do a couple of the prison scenes from JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHINCOLOR DREAMCOAT, and, during class, was asked to go under the stage for 20 minutes and crawl around. This was in order for my body to gather a strong sensory bank of an atmosphere that may simulate a prison, so that the emotions I enacted later didn’t come from a televised dramatization of a prison, but from a real, core, sensory experience.

That being said, the ethical standard is that there is no core experience to being a race. There are, however stereotypes to a race, which (believe it or not) is a goldmine for me, because a stereotype means a direction from which to build experiences; and, as I mentioned earlier, being an ethnically ambiguous actor meant I have to audition for many races; and with each race is the genuine stereotypes of its culture. These stereotypes are taught as the “archetypes” of a character (aka the typical, instinctual TV projections). Hard to admit, but for the roles I was given, embracing these archetypes are what helped me to better embrace the character, and they were often the roles I was given  

I could ramble on about the ethical boundaries of archetyping a race, but for young actors, we are taught and often feel that we have no real influence in the industry; and we are too busy competing with the millions of actors who are following these expectations of archetyping and signing for roles! That being said, the debate for us doesn’t come from whether or not to archetype in the audition room, but from whether or not to audition... I have, as most ethnic actors will admit, put myself in many uncomfortable auditions for the sole purpose of getting a foot into the industry; and just as Aziz Ansari displayed, in the first episode of ‘Master of None’, of going into an audition for a ‘taxi driver’ and being asked to do an accent on top of his line, I too was brought in for a role as a taxi driver and asked in the audition to add an accent on top of it. But unlike Aziz’s character, I didn’t question the direction and went head on with my Arabic accent, which is what I’m sure they were implying. It didn’t faze me on whether adding an accent was ethically right or wrong. In honesty, it got me excited for the audition because they asked for something more from me; and one truth in this field is that direction means interest.

.There was one audition process in particular that was a bit difficult for me. It was for the role of Tariq, a Muslim Terrorist in New York, on the tv-series ‘Blue Blood’. The audition was an ‘over
5’ (which basically means lots of money) where I was asked to speak in Arabic and broken English. Now, I was raised Muslim, and while I currently have it as a back-burner in practice and faith, I have tremendous respect for the culture and religion; and I cringed in the moments I was auditioning as if in the middle of time square, screaming Allah’s name in vain right before blowing myself up... This was hard for me, because I felt as if was actively ‘archetype-ing’ the ‘extremist muslim’ persona that I have battled against since I was a little kid in Alabama, the same stereotypes that got me and my brother in many fights and intense arguments. I was, therefore, surprisingly relieved after being told in my final call that “the higher producers have just told us that we are changing this role to Caucasian. Really sorry, but great job!” Awkward to have been told that on my final call-back, but at the same time, I felt, in a way, guided outside of the generic role of a terrorist that currently pairs so well with my looks.

Moments like this make me question whether acting is even the field that I want to pursue. Did I take years of training and preparation to be cast as the typical Islamic Extremist? While this is only a minor category in the vast world of Theater, TV, and Film, it is my easy way in. “Maybe once in”, I would say to myself, “I’ll stop doing these roles and start pursuing my humanitarian side of taking roles that only challenge thought, promote peace and a battle against stereotyping my people.” Easier said than done; and sad to admit, but I am still excited when being offered to audition for other ‘over 5’ terrorist roles in a major network show, because I am an young actor, and I have to do whatever possible to get my foot into the industry, right?

 I don’t know the answer to how theater should be written, or ‘what sells’ in the industry. All I do know is that to audition and get roles like Tariq is all I can do as an actor right now, or, at least, all I feel I can do. This is why I actively pair my career with the hobbies of writing and composing stories that promote my true beliefs - to preserve, in a way, the childish notion of maintaining my purity when diving into a pool of corruption.

While this may not have taught you anything, I hope it does give you a glimpse of at least one layer of burden for the ethnic actor, and I hope it impresses the importance of what we as millennials in theater choose to work on and why. Most importantly, I hope that IMTA (which is Arabic for ‘when’) we as young artists in theater become the leaders of our industry, we will overcome the temptations of money and power that currently motivate our works, and, instead, working on writing the better write, right?

-Kareem Elsamadicy, Brooklyn 2017.