July 2006

Once again, it's time for everybody's favorite game: "Choose My Headshot"! These are just temporary since I wanted to start trying to get agents and jobs and so I wanted current shots with my hair buzzed at the moment. I will take more once my hair has returned to its normal state.

Check out the gallery here and vote for your favorite headshot. I think other people are always best at judging headshots as I certainly can't look at them objectively myself.

After my last tale of boredom and career frustration as an extra, I immediately got four days (so far anyway, possibly more) as an extra on the Robert Rodriguez portion of "Grind House". Sadly, I had to sign a non-disclosure agreement so I can't actually tell you anything about it other than this has reminded me in some ways why I do this. It has been, for the most part, a very fun experience, though still tinged with the ever present frustration of being only only peripherally near the things I want to be doing (acting and crew work). At least this experience has been slightly more satisfying to the hungry beast inside me that craves the fruition of my dreams.

I think the most frustrating thing as someone looking for work as a Production Assistant (with my professional sights set on rising up to Assistant Directing as the next step) is that it doesn't seem to matter what you've done as much as it just seems you have to "know someone" to get onto the big sets. I already have some Directing and Assistant Directing experience, but not enough to get those jobs professionally.

I really hope to make a career in Austin, as I love it here, and really do not want to live in L.A. I thought I'd use the recent layoff from my day job to channel all my efforts into pursuing acting, crew work, and music. Unfortunately, since these aren't things you can make a living at overnight, I just might have to sell my body as a medical research volunteer for a while too...

I love Austin. Hopefully Austin will show me some love back! It's time for my big break, Austin! Ya, hear me?

Last week I got the call to be an extra on "The Hitcher". They wanted me to be a paramedic. Being the considerate guy I am I told them that I was pretty sure they had my out of date headshot where I was 60 pounds heavier and since I recently shaved my head for a role I wanted to send them a current snapshot to make sure they still wanted me. I emailed the snapshot and got the call back that they did still want to use me, but I would instead be a prisoner. Fitting, since I called this my "Prison Break" hair style, but kind of a bummer since I think the paramedic ended up getting used a lot more and got some good camera time. I'm not sure why they changed me since the paramedic didn't look all that drastically different from me.

The location was down in San Marcos, about a 45 minute drive away, so I got up at 5:00 a.m. to be on set by 6:00 a.m. I was told that I'd be a "new prisoner" being brought in after having just been arrested so I should bring 3 changes of clothes for wardrobe to pick from. The location was the Hays County Law enforcement center. It was interesting filming there since they obviously couldn't shut the place down, and periodically everything had to stop while an inmate was brought in or taken out. I parked my car and hauled all my stuff across to the catering tent they had set up outside where we'd be hanging out. I signed in and got some good food for breakfast from the table. After a few minutes I was taken to wardrobe. I told them I was a "New Prisoner", but instead of keeping me in some of my clothes, they put me in the black and white striped prisoner clothes. Hair and make up looked me over and gave their approval, and I was off to the tent to wait. And wait. And wait.