NO RULES

I found a site while browsing wikipedia.com’s acting pages: actingchat.com. It’s pretty good, but came across a response to one of my earlier posts. So I responded:


I’m not one to quibble over other people’s insular responses, but I figured that not doing so would be a disservice to the readers looking for insight on this forum.

Let me start by illustrating my point with an anecdotal story. The first is of a kid who went to a film school. In screenwriting class, the professor was talking about a “brilliant” screenplay. When this student asked about Terminator, the professor brushed him off stating that you can’t learn anything by something as lame as that. A short while later for his assignment, the student turned in a screenplay. The all-knowing professor gave him a grade of C for the assignment. The kid rebutted something to the likes of, “This is an old Oscar winning screenplay that I plagiarized. You don’t know what you’re talking about!” He withdrew from school, got a refund of his tuition and made his first short film. That kid is Paul Thomas Anderson who went onto make Boogie Nights, Magnolia, and more.

So I’m not saying to not get an agent, but 1) try getting an agent without headshots 2) try getting an agent without any experience on your resume other than ‘I played a tree with no lines in my high school play’ 3) even if you get one, it doesn’t guarantee anything. I’ve got friends with agents who never get sent out on auditions. Why? Because the agents are busy sending out their other clients who have names and a huge resume with lots of acting experience and the agent knows that they are professional and have honed their skills and won’t make the agent look bad in the eyes of a casting director. I could run on and on like the sentence above, but stop and think about it. Put yourself into an agent’s shoes. Would you send someone out on an audition who has NO experience? If the “#1 task is to get an agent” and not take acting classes, or work on indie films or plays, where’s the selling-point for an agent in you?

Getting a commercial agent is easier than a theatrical agent (FYI: “theatrical agent” is for film, not really for theatre/plays). Commercials are more for getting a paycheck, not for acting. It’s based on looks and not just the Brad Pitt-look; just watch a commercial. However, there’s not a whole lot of acting commercials. I’m shooting one for IBM tomorrow which I got through my agent. I’m happy about the paycheck, but I definitly don’t consider it anywhere near my dream of being an actor. The indie feature that we’re currently shooting on a shoe-string budget IS giving me that acting high.

Furthermore, if you get the film jobs you have to ask yourself if those are the type of jobs you want. I worked for a manager who’s got acting clients with names like Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Scorsese, Kubrick on their resumes. However, you would not recognize a single one of them. Why? They have dayplayer roles. I’m not discounting these roles as they are something to be proud of. For me, I much prefer my indie films and student films where I get to fully act in a character that has an arc than being in a Scorsese film with one line: “Here’s your coffee, sergeant.” I’ll definitely take those day-player roles in a heartbeat and even got my SAG eligibility through them, but I’m not solely counting on them. I believe in making your own opportunity as I stated above. So that’s why I wrote a ‘stack of stuff to do’ because it’s going to make more than what I wrote above to get in. Even then, nothing’s guaranteed.

The main tenet of acting is listening. Oldwannabe stated that he didn’t have any money and still the retired-professor Kencosp stated that you have to get headshots. I didn’t see much “listening” in that reply. Headshots will run you a good $600 at the low end. Most people I know with no money can’t really toss that amount down.

Let me close with another anecdote: a studio full of know-it-all “experts” was soooooooo sure of this idea for a movie that they invested $100 million. It opened at $2million. It flopped financially. The movie: Pluto Nash. Then a few Florida film students made a film for $35K which went onto to make about $240M called ‘Blair Witch Project’. The bottom line is that there is no one way of doing things. Anyone who is so certain of something is usually not open to other suggestions. Like a *good* director on set, take in all suggestions and then use what works for you. Be cautious about listening to one guy who says other people’s suggestion won’t work.

There are no rules.

Madness is not fueled by uncertainty, but rather certainty.
-Elie Weisel

Anup

ZERO TO ONE: AN INFINITE CHANGE

I was just speaking with my good friend who is thinking of going into private practice. He has no wife, kids, or mortgage so he can take risks. He was still worried, but I told him that he’s going from zero to one in terms of knowledge. He has zero knowledge regarding private practice and for him to go to “one” which is a low level of skill, but the most crucial step is vital. Mathematically, when you go from the number zero to the number one, it is an infinite change. When you go from one to two, it’s only a hundred percent change. Pause and think about that for a second – do the 5th grade math in your head. Then it continually decreases as illustrated by the law of diminishing returns. I’m only talking about going from zero to one.

I came upon this theory when I was teaching guitar. I get a lot of enjoyment from teaching people who have never picked up a guitar to play a few basic chords and subsequently pretty much any pop song on the radio. Whereas my fellow guitar teacher friend whose students were already very good players he progressed up to ‘excellent’ players. Not only did I feel that I open the door for them, but I built a door and opened it. That felt so much more gratifying to me. Not that one is greater than the other. There are merits for both, actually business wise, we’d compliment each other very well.

As actors and filmmakers it is vital that we take this zero to one approach. I see so many Bollywood stars who fake playing the guitar and it’s so hideous to see such lack of skill and dedication to your craft. I’m not talking about brand new actors, but rather veterans who’ve been in dozens and dozens of movies playing a guitar or some similar instrument. If he were to spend literally spend 20 minutes to acquire the knowledge then a few hours of practice, to cement that skill, it would be so much more convincing.

A really good example in terms of this is ‘Shine’ with Geoffrey Rush playing the piano. It totally changed the shot-list for the director because he didn’t need a hand-double. He could shot it wide and Rush would be dead-on synced up. He might’ve hit some bad notes, but those won’t show up in the perfectly prerecorded audio track. Another excellent display of dedication is by the Karate Kid himself, Ralph Macchio, in Crossroads (no, not the one with Brittney Spears). He had to learn to mimic Steve Vai’s actual playing – one of the most, if not the most technically gifted rock guitarist ever. These are extreme examples musical acting proficiency, probably at a level 10 of ‘acting’ musically. However, I’m talking about going to level one or a couple of rungs above it.

An example of this would be Keanu Reeves and company in the Matrix. He spent about six months learning martial arts. To the average viewer it was convincing, however, to a trained martial artist it represented a low skill level.
Filmmakers: As writers and directors an example of not knowing what you’re writing about is watching an early James Bond movie for a horrendous display martial arts. As a director you’re letting these thing pass and not redoing it. For cinematographers to shoot it at the right angle. For producers to get the proper equipment/personnel: stunt coordinator, pads, wires etc.

Learn as many different skills, music, drawing, dancing, martial arts, acrobatics, learning language, accents, etc and it will put you in a smaller pool of acting applicants and in higher demand. Furthermore and more importantly, once you get the job it will be a more solid piece of work. Making an infinite change seems impossible mathematically, but in the real world is only a few moments of your time – an excellent return on investment.

CULPRIT FOR BOX OFFICE SLUMP: High Ticket Prices

Andy Serwer’s informative article “Extreme Makeover” (Fortune Magazine May 29) about the flailing movie theater business missed one major point as the rest of the industry missed and continues to miss. I keep reading over and over how movie studios and the industry in general are baffled at the drop in box office. I use Plato’s concept of knowing yourself and then you will know the world to give some food for thought. I used to see 3-5 movies a week in the theaters around 2000. Now, I’ll only see 2-3 a month. Why? Ticket price. Period. The current minimum wage is $6.75 in California. The current ticket prices range from $7 for matinee to nearly $15 at the high-end theaters for evening shows. Minimum wage was $5.75 in ’98 – only an increase of $1 in 8 years. What’s the increase in ticket prices in 8 years?

It’s not a drop in quality of films either. However, now I will only see blockbusters on the big screen and will forgo comedy or indie films because most of them will have the same viewing quality if viewed on the small screen. This is very unfortunate as I love indie films and almost feel a duty to support them, but I just can’t afford to go see them on the big screen. The solution for all this is to reduce the ticket prices for matinee back to $5.50 while leaving the post-6pm shows still at an arm or a leg. Also the theaters that do the Tues shows for $4 never worked for me. It was too restrictive a time/date to have to plan to see a movie as most of my movie going has been on the spur of the moment based on reading an article (not review) of the movie (such as the one on John Lasseter). Furthermore, dollar-theaters never did it for me either because they were always dirty with trash, popcorn and the worst: sticky floors from the spilled drinks.

If you don’t believe me just ask five of your film-going friends why they don’t see as many movies anymore. I did and that’s why I’m writing this.

Anup Sugunan
Former Avid Filmgoer

THE LONG AND BINDING ROAD - A Tale of Pushing Your Movie After It "Expires"

I started reading the ‘Power of Focus’ – another excellent book, but ironically I can’t focus because of the following topic on my mind. I was hanging out with a friend the other day. He told me about a friend of his who is a filmmaker and wanted us to meet. He had told her that I’m a filmmaker with a movie called “Trade Offs” on Netflix and Blockbuster—I corrected him and stated that it was only on Netflix. He said he had walked into a Blockbuster and it was sitting on the shelf. I was blown away! I had really wanted to get it on the shelf at Blockbuster as it’s the most accessible form of distribution. Netflix only has a couple of million members in comparision to BB. Then I immediately thought about my intentions last year of pushing the film – long after it was made and even sold to the distributor.

I worked with publicist Irene Paigah and let know her that my best move would be to have “Trade Offs” on Netflix and Blockbuster – which would also help the countless number of people who worked on the movie. Even though it was my first film as an actor and my acting would probably win me a Raspberry Award, I want to be able to refer to it. When you can tell a Hollywood executive or agent that you have a movie sitting on the shelf of a rental house, you’re way more likely to get calls returned.

Irene wrote and made follow-up calls to both of the rental companies as well as the distributor, since the movie was already sold to them. But it seemed like Irene and I were getting a somewhat blasé response from both the rental companies. I had been emailing Netflix & BB periodically requesting it as well from a customer service direction. Then we exhausted the possibilities for the time being so we left it. A few months later I was browsing Netflix and there it was. It was finally on there. And now it’s on Blockbuster online and some brick and mortar stores. I’m not sure what other forces were at work from other people on the film, but for me it didn’t matter that we started the production of the movie was four years ago and hit the festival circuit three years ago and it came out on DVD two years ago at all the Indian grocery stores. Try telling an exec that they can go pick up the movie at an Indian grocery store. I just wanted to keep pushing it and pushing it.

I learned this lesson of pushing your old movies even when you’re working on your current ones from my friend Babar – who was privileged enough to work with the late Pat Morita just before he passed away. As actors, we can rack up quite a bit of movies a year, but as writer/director/producers we usually get one, if that, a year. And if it’s a feature, it’s a few years for just one.

What I do when I submit short films to festivals is do a tiny edit and put the completion date current. I do this because most film festivals have a two year limit on the production date – that restriction is nothing more than a vanity issue as they want the most recent film regardless of quality. I also started taking dates off of the festival acceptance wreaths and putting in the film name in its place (see my film page – www.Anup.net). A movie is not milk, it doesn’t expire.

Happy Filmmaking,
Anup

BOOKS THAT SHIFT YOUR PARADIGM - Help Instead of Hinderance from the Real World

I thought I’d give this blog thing a try. Well, it’s not going to be much different than my post-filmic debriefing which I do from time to time on my Anup Sugunan Yahoo Group which I started in 2003. I’ll just call it a blog to jump on the bandwagon.

I’m down in San Diego now clearing out the last of my stuff before making the permanent move back up to LA – I was there for a long while. So anyway, I just wanted to share some insight I gain from a couple of books I recently read. I’d say that majority of our obstacles in filmmaking do not come from filmmaking, but rather outside forces such as paying rent, having a day-job, moving which takes time away from writing and shoots – I’ve been having to postpone a shoot because of this move and have lost some key personnel.

So the first book that I read that deals with issue is call CLUTTER’S LAST STAND; IT’S TIME TO DE-JUNK YOUR LIFE! by Don Aslett. When I first saw the cartoon cover, I thought yeah, yeah, another decluttering book. However, I started reading it and it was so gripping and eye opening about how clutter just gets in the way of creativity because you spend you time dusting or whatever to take care of junk you have instead of writing or editing a film - the two most time consuming aspects of filmmaking and where most people (read: me) lag. So based on that my goal was to move up to LA with owning only what I can fit in my car. Also, I was determined that if some item (read: clutter) is not helping me with my dreams, then it’s outta here (save for stuff like photo albums and important documents). I did this via eBay and craigslist.

I can’t begin to tell you how much eBay has helped me. don’t buy a book or anything regarding eBay to learn how to do it. just sell something on there and you’ll learn by doing not reading and you’ll get rid of clutter and move onto creating.
The second book is RICH DAD POOR DAD. Yeah, this one is really popular and everyone talks about to it so it’s easy to shy away from it like shying away from Brittney Spears or Ricky Martin even though you like the music, but just don’t want to be associated with all the people who listen to it. The one of the main concepts of this book that is to ‘pay yourself first’. I was doing this more with time than with money. I would turn off my phones and write while my mind is at its peak – right when I wake up.
This book also talks about setting up passive income. I’ve been on this quest for a long time. Basically, passive income is money that’s coming in when you’re NOT working for it. It seems like it’s only there for people with money, but if you look around carefully you’ll find it too. For example: background work. I swore after working on the Oliver Stone movie that I would never do background again. I hated being there and it was the total opposite of what I wanted to feel like on a film set. However, the other day, I worked background on some b-grade TV show down in SD. But my goal going into it was to read a book in one day. So I went in and didn’t say hi to anyone or chit chat - most people thought I was a jerk initially because I kept to myself. I just sat in the back and didn’t raise my hand to go be in the scene. Then about 10 hours into the shoot, I was about 80% done with the book. Then I talked to a few people as a break and by wrap-time. I finished a book. How is this passive income you ask? Well, I would’ve spent the same amount of time sitting around my home reading the same book which took the same amount of time. However, I got paid to read on the set. The book was DARE TO SUCCEED by Mark Burnett (exec. Prod ‘Survivor’, ‘Rock Star: Supernova). The one of the lessons I got out of this book is that intentions don’t count, only results matter. So it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been writing or editing your movie, if you don’t have a movie, you don’t have a movie. Period.

Check out these books next time you’re at a bookstore with an open mind. Or do what I do now to save money on books (no I don’t go to the library because I always get hit with a late charge). Buy it on eBay, amazon, or half.com for about $6 with shipping. Read it, take notes, and sell it back for about the same price or a little more for a profit and you’re allocating that money towards headshots or film.

Which books have you read that shifted your personal paradigm?

Happy Filmmaking,
Anup

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY - One for the Actor

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

In my previous [blog] I wrote about actors' faults. Now it's time to turn the tables around. Casting directors (CD) and directors have lots of power over actors. I went in for an audition in LA earlier this week with a prominent casting director. S/he didn't have me do a read, but only looked at me. Based on my looks, I was a `definite' to read for him/her the following day. S/he stated that the agency would get in touch with me later on that same day with more info. Next day I called and left a message. Yes, I realize the `don't call us, we'll call you' situation which happens all the time and I completely understand that method. However, when it's stated the actor will `definitely' read and then never get back to the actor, it's very unprofessional. Actually, another actor I had met at the audition, flew in from Phoenix and the same thing happened to him.

A different situation – I spoke to a student director whose film I worked on asking for a copy. The director stated, `I was hoping you wouldn't call and would've forgotten about it because I'm not at all happy with it.' I can understand the time it takes for post-production can vary and can even be lengthy at times. Hell, it took me over a year to get copies of my film `Interminal' to my actors. But to not give to the actors is like not paying someone after they worked for you. Especially when that's the only compensation that was listed when the actor submitted `credit/copy/meals' a lot of the times meals are even provided. That doesn't include the gas, wear and tear, eating out all to work on the film.

After experiencing both of these this past week I decided it's time for action. Just as I marked flakey actors who REPEATEDLY flaked, I will compile a list of directors and CDs who do the same. This is not a `black list' and not necessarily for retribution, mind you, but just so there won't be disappointment if you have the unfortunate luck of working with them and something like this happens.

Furthermore, if you're producing a small (non-thesis type) student project don't do callbacks. Instead, videotape the auditions so you can compare the actors later instead of having them drive back for a second round. It's not like it's a huge hollywood project that pays and therefore has a dozen or so callbacks rounds.

Ahh, I feel better now. ; )

Anup

LESSONS I LEARNED THIS WEEK - On Albert Brooks' Muslim Comedy Set

I just worked as an extra on Albert Brooks' (Finding Nemo, The Muse) Untitled Project which eventually led to a featured role. Here are a few things I learned from working on it for eight days.

Get the novelty of being on screen out of your system because it will hurt your chance of getting a featured role later on in the same project. I'd say that it took me about 3-4 major projects to get it out of me. Now, I will hide my face at all times and hope for a featured role.

I ended up getting the role because the casting director was walking around asking who can drive a right-hand drive stick-shift truck. I immediately jumped at it and said yes even though I'd never done it before. Then, Albert selected me for the role which turned out to be 3 more days (or rather nights, 4pm – 5am) of shooting. I even got my own room in a honey-wagon trailer. I was excited about that – the first time I could actually say, `I'll be in my trailer' and not have it be a joke. :)

Next time, I will let the casting directors know upfront that if they need anyone for anything, to please let me know.

During these eight days, I became SAG-eligible by accumulating 3 vouchers (I ended up with 6 total). However, this does not make me a better actor. I used to think SAG actors were so much better, but it's just a title. It means nothing in terms of performance - don't hide behind a title. So, just keep at it and try and find projects that will give you vouchers, then YOU can decide if you want to join or not.

I will NOT join because I want to be able to continue working on non-union films. I will join when a big project comes my way with a decent role. However, if you are not interested in acting I would recommend trying to join asap and then work background (aka extras) as a job because it's really flexible – IF you live in LA because there aren't as many union work elsewhere. Plus, you meet so many people who can possibly refer you for another project if you perform well. The pay is double. Scale for an extra is $118/8hours currently, but you get `bumps' for bringing your own wardrobe, changing wardrobe, mileage, late lunches (meal penalties), etc.

-Anup