Chasing The George

OUR SCRIPT IS DONE!

May 12, 2024 Chasing The George

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my writing goal for 2024: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

On May 9th, 2024, at 12:51pm, Kelly Tighe and I finished the first draft of our feature film script!!!!!!!!!! THE SCRIPT IS COMPLETED! 166 pages! As soon as we finished reading the last scenes we wrote, we asked each other, “Are we done? Did we finish the script?” And once we answered “yes”, we cheered, cried, danced, threw our hands in the air, and looked at each other with pride, joy, and a deep sense of accomplishment. A feature film script! This journey started in September 2019 when Richard pitched a story idea to the PDP 3.0 class. In the middle of 2022, the journey evolved when the group appointed Kelly and me to take over, make sense of everything, find the story to tell, and write a first draft. We devoted the rest of 2022 to making sense of the notes and research, various story ideas, characters, scenes already written by the PDP 3.0 company, etc. We revised the logline to reveal the story we ultimately decided to tell. We revised the central question to support the logline. We revised and cleaned up the entire outline. We removed a few characters and older scenes while keeping and strengthening a few other scenes. In January 2023, we took the bold step to start writing the script. A year and a half later, here we are! Keep reading below 🙂

Kelly texted the group to let them know about the great news. In the meantime, Kelly and I will meet this week to clean up any spelling and grammatical errors, check for any tracking/logic issues, etc. Then, we will meet with the PDP 3.0 group on May 22nd to catch up, celebrate, and plan the next steps, such as registering the script with the WGA, copyrighting the script, and having the group read the script together to generate questions and feedback before we do a table read. Thank you, Richard and PDP 3.0, for entrusting Kelly and me to write this script. We look forward to continuing this journey with you all to the next level of development and, ultimately, the bigger picture of production and distribution. Keep reading below 🙂

I’ll end with this. This past Thursday night, Richard invited acclaimed casting director John Frank Levey to speak to our scene study class. At one point, Richard and John talked about the importance of celebrating our wins (by the way, John loves that we share our wins at the top of the class.) John said, “We have to look for our wins, and we have to celebrate them cause that will give us confidence…” Richard added, “I kind of look at wins like gassing up. Where you put a little gas in your tank because ‘I had this wonderful experience’ or ‘I finished writing this script after five years’…it puts fuel in your tank to keep going.” John then shared a story about a recent talk he had with students from Carnegie Mellon University, and he connected it to our script. He said, “I was trying to encourage them to get the long view (about having a career). Don’t think of it like, ‘I gotta get this done by Wednesday.’ If it took five years to finish your script, you finished it. God bless you!” He and Richard then talked about projects that took a while to get off the ground. The lesson was that it’s about a sustained effort with intention. Keep showing up. The sustained effort now continues into the next chapter of this feature film script journey. Keep reading below 🙂

The End (for now!)

Where Them Wins At?!

April 28, 2024 Chasing The George

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. First goal: Book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios. Second goal: Finish the 1st draft of the “Third Act” feature film script with Kelly Tighe. Once that’s done, do a table read, get feedback, and complete additional drafts.

However, this week, I’d like to share my first quarter wins! And yes, I’m a little on the late side for first quarter goals since it encompasses January, February, and March. Then again, I started my 2024 blogging this past February, so MY first quarter would be February, March, and April LOL. Either way, I’m recapping and sharing my wins. This is also a good time to assess what worked and what I need to adjust for the next three months. Keep reading below 🙂

A sampling of my first quarter wins as they relate to my two goals: **Emailed my agent my goals for this year. **Identified and wrote down my favorite/impactful films that were nominated during the 2019 to 2024 awards season. **Identified who the casting directors were for my favorite/impactful films that were nominated during the 2019 to 2024 awards season. **Created a Google Spreadsheet of these casting directors and inputted their contact info. **Emailed my agent the list of casting directors and asked if they had a relationship with them. **Reached out to these casting directors. **Self-submitted to feature films via Actors Access. **Looked up the company rosters for A24, Annapurna, Focus Features, Neon, Searchlight Pictures, and Sony Pictures Classics. **Looked up Casting Access classes through the SAG-AFTRA Foundation to see if my target list of casting directors were teaching classes. **Looked up the managers for the supporting actors who played parts I could have played from my favorite films from the last five years. **Extensive relationship map research and outflow. **Researched U.S. indie directors and producers whose feature films got into the 2023 Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto, and Telluride film festivals. I also researched the 2024 feature film lineup for Sundance and SXSW (I need to research the 2024 lineup for the remaining four film festivals.) **Identified the castings I want to play in feature films. **Updated my agent on the administration I accomplished in the 1st quarter. **Weekly writing sessions with Kelly (160 pages and counting with our script!) Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Writing In Abundance This Past Week.

April 21, 2024 Chasing The George

Act 3 is coming along, and Kelly and I had a great writing session this past Wednesday. After our writing session, Kelly decided to tackle the second to last scene in Act 3, and I realized that I needed to write a “transition” scene between two other scenes I wrote in Act 3. There was a harsh, quick timeline/story transition between those two scenes. I knew we needed a scene in between that would allow the characters and the audience to breathe for a second and to fill in the blanks a little bit more in terms of making sure the logical and emotional progression of the story continued so that when the next scene occurs, the audience doesn’t say, “Wait. Woah. What just happened? This next scene came out of nowhere. It felt jarring.” I am excited to share the scene with Kelly this week and hear her thoughts. Keep reading below 🙂

In other writing news, I had the pleasure of providing advice to a high school student this past Tuesday who wrote a short film script that they eventually want to develop into a feature film. A colleague and friend initially reached out to see if I would be available and willing to provide assistance and feedback on this student’s short film script. I said yes, and they connected me with the student’s teacher. I coordinated with the student’s teacher to set up a Zoom meeting so we could meet. I read the student’s script a few times before our meeting, generated notes and questions, and looked forward to meeting the two of them. The meeting went GREAT! The student had a positive attitude from start to finish. They received my notes and asked me questions. The teacher was so appreciative and thanked me for meeting with the two of them over Zoom. The next day, the teacher emailed me and said that the meeting was impactful and her student was eager to share their experience with their classmates. Keep reading below 🙂

Two days later, I receive a text message from another colleague and friend asking if I would like to read a feature film script they wrote for a specific TV network. I said yes, and look forward to reading it as well. Hmmm, I may have to look into writing consulting 🙂 🙂 🙂 It’s been a productive past week of writing that also included writing letters to people on my relationship map and paying attention to the writing structure in a feature film I watched. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Remaining On The Saddle With My Goals!

April 13, 2024 Chasing The George

Hello, my fellow artists! Welcome to another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my acting goal for 2024: Book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios.

Hollywood is currently in a state of contraction, creating limited opportunities for actors, writers, casting directors, executives, and other departments. The entertainment industry is still dealing with the effects of a world-wide pandemic, last year’s strikes, budget cuts, artificial intelligence, and the consolidation/sale of media companies. That being said, I am still remaining on the saddle and not giving up. I will continue forward with what I have control over: the administration that is listed in my Declaration of Independence (DOIN). Keep reading below 🙂

Since my last update on my acting goal progress, I have researched U.S. directors whose films screened at the 2024 Sundance and SXSW film festivals (A few weeks ago, I researched a few 2023 film festivals.) I still have to tackle the upcoming 2024 Cannes, Tribeca, Telluride, and Toronto film festivals. And the reason why I’m looking at these particular film festivals is because the independent films that screen there are the kinds I want to be in and the kinds that already have distribution in place with an independent or mid-sized studio like A24, Focus Features, Neon, Searchlight, and Sony Pictures Classics, or will acquire a distribution deal with them after they screen. These are compelling, engaging, interesting, and unique films that speak to me. Through my research, I get to see what’s out there and what is being made. Which films speak to me so that I can watch them later? Who are the directors behind these films? Who are the casting directors behind these films? How can I outflow to them in a supportive and professional way? Keep reading below 🙂

I’ve also looked at more Casting Access classes to see if any of the casting directors from my target list are participating in them. Again, I’ve created a specific list of casting directors who have cast independent and/or mid-sized studio films over the last five years that have impinged me. This list may grow once I watch the films I wrote down from the 2023 and 2024 film festivals. I’ve also made movement to expand my relationship map to continue building meaningful relationships built on professionalism, support, and a mutual love for art. Keep reading below 🙂

What are you doing to stay in the saddle? Are you creating your own content? Are you enrolled in an acting or writing class? Do you have an artistic collective or group that meets once a week to create art? I’d love to read your comments below. See you all next week!

Photo courtesy of: https://www.doversaddlery.com/how-to-select-and-size-an-english-saddle-for-a-rider/a/519/

How Our Feature Film Script Will Bring Us Closer To The Dream!

April 7, 2024 Chasing The George

But first, a quick writing joke:

It’s a writer’s block! Get it? LOL! Thanks to Pexels for this photo. Now, on to business…here’s another photo that inspired today’s blog entry. This photo was sent to me by Richard Lawson and it’s from an Instagram account by @showrunher. See the picture below and keep reading after the picture 🙂

This past week, Kelly and I shared the latest round of scenes we wrote. We made great progress and wrote wonderful scenes. AND, we are now ready to tackle the last plot point of our feature film script. How exciting is that?!?! How fulfilling is that?!?! Wow! We are nearing the finish line and estimated that it should take us a month to complete the first draft! The above photo captures what I feel (and I’m sure Kelly as well) each time we sit down to write scenes. Each word we write brings us closer to completion. Each word we write brings us greater tangibility of the product we are creating and the reality that we can do this (145 pages, and counting, proves this to us.) Writing this script is something we can control. It’s about creating our own content. This script, these words, will create opportunities and avenues for us and our collective. This script will be sold, produced, and distributed all over the world. And we will be an integral part of this entire process. That is the bigger picture. That is the dream. One word at a time. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Utilizing The Power Of Abracadabra In My Career.

March 31, 2024April 4, 2024 Chasing The George

Hello, fellow artists! Let’s jump right into another exciting edition of my weekly blog. As you all know, I have two goals that I am focusing on this year. And each week, I am alternating between the two goals to provide updates that are hopefully inspiring and engaging. This week, we are back to my acting goal for 2024: Book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios.

I am a long-time student at the Richard Lawson Studios, and I am constantly inspired from one class to the next. This past Thursday’s class was no exception. Towards the end of class, Richard talked about the power of postulates, belief, seeing the vision, going after it, putting in the work, vibrating on the level of the things you want, etc. It was incredible. At one point, he shared an inspiring Instagram video where a woman named Liel Eden talked about the origin of the word, “Abracadabra”. I’ve provided a link to the video below. The origin of this word (“I will create as I speak.”) was a great reminder because I sometimes get so caught up in my daily administration that I sometimes forget what I’m doing all of this for. I have to remember that my administration is connected to a specific goal. And that specific goal is connected to a specific postulate that I see and believe in. Each day, I will speak my goals and postulates out loud to keep creating the magic. “I will create as I speak.” Create and speak. Speak and create. That combination will be magical. Keep reading below 🙂

Here is the link to her video: Click Here Keep reading below 🙂

Here is some of the administration I’ve executed in the last two weeks for my acting goal: I submitted myself for a feature film. I researched a few Latinx directors upon the recommendation of a colleague. I picked one of those Latinx directors from the list, watched a couple of their films, and reached out to them. I watched a SAG-AFTRA Foundation panel because a few of the casting directors that I reached out to this past February were on it. I did relationship map outflow. I researched U.S. and Latinx indie directors and producers whose films screened at the 2023 Sundance, SXSW, Cannes, Tribeca, Toronto, and Telluride film festivals. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

Crunching The Numbers On Our Feature Film Script.

March 24, 2024March 24, 2024 Chasing The George

Writing is a process. Each writer will share a different story about how long it took them to write a particular script, why it took that length of time, and the resources and research they utilized to make it happen. I thought it would be cool to crunch some numbers behind our feature film script so that people have a reality of what it’s taken to bring this script to life. And like I mentioned in my February 18th blog entry, this script started as a group project until Kelly Tighe and I were appointed/anointed to take over the reins in the middle of 2022. I want to thank our PDP 3.0 group for the numbers they contributed to this endeavor as well! So let’s go:

7 main folders in the Google Drive: Characters and Relationships, Feature Film Treatments, Miscellaneous Written Scenes, My Story Can Beat Up Your Story, Producing: Pitching, Agreements, etc., Research and Notes, Designs We Liked. Keep reading below 🙂

These 7 folders contained the following number of files within them: Characters and Relationships (15), Feature Film Treatments (9), Miscellaneous Written Scenes (21), My Story Can Beat Up Your Story (42), Producing: Pitching, Agreements, etc. (6), Research and Notes (191!), Designs We Liked (144!). Many of these files were Google Documents and PDFs that ranged from 1 page to 26 pages in length. Keep reading below 🙂

Since the inception of this journey, here are the number of weeks and hours put towards this script-give or take some numbers here and there because of pillar jobs, life circumstances, job bookings, a world-wide pandemic, economic uncertainty, much-needed and well-deserved breaks and vacations, writer blocks, writer and actor strikes, etc.: 4 years, 6 months (and counting), 450 hours (and counting) during our designated writing sessions, untold hours outside of our designated writing sessions, and 132 pages (and counting) of our first draft. Keep reading below 🙂

And just for fun, levity, and humor: Untold numbers of coffee drinks, dance breaks, bathroom breaks, lunch breaks, tears of joy, tears of frustration, Google searches, YouTube searches, character name changes, rewrites, rewrites, and more rewrites. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

The Path To Booking Roles Is Not Always Linear.

March 17, 2024 Chasing The George

Hello, my fellow artists! I hope you all enjoyed the Oscars last Sunday. This was a solid awards season, and I look forward to the next one!

I’m still on my journey of booking supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios. My administration, my admin brain, works in a very A to B to C kind of way. It’s very linear. That being said, I’ve also had to accept that things are not always linear. As Kelly Tighe once said, outflow equals inflow is not always linear. The inflow can come back to you in a crazy, zig-zag, left-of-center direction that could appear today, tomorrow, or sometime in the near or distant future. And sometimes, the inflow you receive may be different from what you expected. I recall her words to remind myself that my outflow matters even if “nothing” happens right away. Even if results “don’t” happen right away. Something does happen because outflow equals energy. Outflow keeps me involved, invested, and in the game. Every outflow is a step forward. And eventually, thing(s) will happen and come back either linearly or nonlinearly (and it did which I share later on!) Keep reading below 🙂

Inflow not always being linear is something I have to remember because I have a ton of action items on my list, and two plus two will not always equal four. I can’t get discouraged because an action I took didn’t produce the results I wanted or expected or because “nothing” is happening. Who knows what will be the piece of administration that helps me achieve my goal at the end of the day? Maybe it’ll be the collective administration I have done up to a certain point that helps me achieve my goal. Maybe I’ll achieve my goal when I get halfway through my action items list. Maybe I’ll achieve my goal when I get to the second to last action item on my list. Maybe I’ll achieve my goal by rearranging the order of certain action items. Maybe I’ll achieve my goal one month after I checked off everything on my action items list. Maybe I’ll achieve my goal by doing something arbitrary that wasn’t even on my action items list. For example, I go to a party, make a connection, we hit it off, and they want to hire me. But they hire me because of all the outflow I’ve done up to that point. The key is for me to keep outflowing because I’m putting energy out there. This energy will not be for waste. Keep reading below 🙂

Since the last time I updated you all (February 25th) on my progress towards booking supporting roles in 2024, here is what I have accomplished so far:

**I finished emailing my target list of casting directors, casting associates, and casting assistants!!!! This was a huge win as I completed a total of 65 individual communications. Two casting directors wrote back to thank me for my kind words of acknowledgement! This was an example of linear inflow. And in the process of writing to these 65 awesome individuals, I saw a casting notice on one of their Instagram pages. She was casting a new feature film for the same person who directed one of the films I wrote down in my DOIN! If you recall, part of my administration to book supporting roles in 2024 was to write down the films that impacted me over the last five years. His film was on my list, and here I was now submitting myself for their next project. That’s an example of non-linear inflow because I wasn’t expecting that opportunity to occur! Keep reading below 🙂

**I looked up the company rosters for A24, Annapurna, Focus Features, Neon, Searchlight Pictures, and Sony Pictures Classics. **I looked up Casting Access classes through the SAG-AFTRA Foundation to find classes with my target list of casting directors, casting associates, and casting assistants. **I looked up the agents and managers of certain supporting actors from the films that impacted me over the last five years. **I created an account with my alma mater so that I can connect with like-minded alum, while also making myself available as a resource. Keep reading below 🙂

See you all next week!

How “Being Drunk” Helped Me Write A Pivotal Film Scene.

March 10, 2024 Chasing The George

I’m back! I took a few days off to engross myself in a series of much-needed celebrations. The celebrations kicked off with a weekend trip to Las Vegas on March 1st (my partner and I enjoyed attending the National Rugby League games at the Allegiant Stadium, Chippendales, lunch at Hell’s Kitchen, drag brunch at Señor Frogs, a bottomless mimosas brunch at Delano, people watching, etc.) The celebrations ended in LA with us attending Madonna’s Celebration Tour!!!! She’s currently on her first-ever greatest hits tour (celebrating four decades of an incredible, amazing, and enviable musical catalogue.)

Okay, so let’s get back into it. As you all know, I am working on two goals for this year. One goal is to book supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios. The second goal is to finish the first draft of a feature film script that Kelly Tighe and I are writing through our Professional Development Program 3.0 collective. This week, I want to update you all on the progress made with our feature film script. Keep reading below 🙂

Kelly and I are currently working on the end of act two (we’ve written 129 pages so far!) She is rocking it out with the scenes she is currently working on. I was too…until I hit a wall with a particular scene for plot point Yes 14 (In “My Story Can Beat Up Your Story”, the Yes/No are known as “reversals” because these particular plot points “alternate between answering the central question first yes and then no. Anything that brings the hero closer to his or her goal is a ‘yes’. Anything that takes the hero further away is a ‘no'”. There are a total of 28 Yes/No reversals in act two. There is also something known as “the third-act solution”, which is introduced during Yes 7. “The third-act solution is a device, a situation, or a skill that is shown to the audience early, but is what the main character will need to be victorious in the end. Not every film has one, but it’s cool when films do.” The third-act solution is used during the Final Yes in act three. Keep reading below 🙂

I say all of this because I had the pleasure of writing the scene that introduces the third-act solution in Yes 7. I also had the pleasure of tackling Yes 14 and using this plot point to start setting up how exactly the third-act solution will pay off during that Final Yes in act three. LOL I could not figure this scene out. And when I thought I had it figured out, I quickly realized it wasn’t going to work for a variety of reasons. So literally, I was going through my own personal Yes/No reversals LOL. Yes, I figured it out. No, I didn’t figure it out LOL. Keep reading below 🙂

When I met with Kelly on February 21st for our writing session, I told her I was stuck with this scene for the last three weeks. She gave me some ideas that totally made sense to help me set up the third-act solution! Thank God for a sounding board. Sometimes, the work is so close to your face that you can’t see the answers or the picture in front of you. It takes that sounding board, that partner, to grab your hand and move the work further away from you. “Oh, now I see it!” Armed with these ideas, I sat down in front of my laptop, opened up Final Draft, and got to work. Well, I got stuck again LOL. I had these great ideas, but how do I now connect them in a cohesive way? And without giving away the story, certain characters partake in a drink during this scene that sets up the third-act solution. Okay, cool. But how do I utilize this drink to help the characters arrive at and experience these ideas in an uncontrived way? How does the drink drive the scene so that these ideas can be executed? And then, I had an “a-ha” moment. A light bulb went off in my head. OF COURSE! Keep reading below 🙂

I could utilize the drunk physical state exercise that I have seen several times at the Richard Lawson Studios to connect these ideas in the scene. This exercise is part of a number of cold acting exercises that Richard uses to let actors know that they are enough. That they can create art on the spot with little to no preparation because they have everything in their possession and beingness to do so. All of the cold exercises (some of which Richard created and originated) have an improvisational quality to them and they challenge the actor to be present, moment to moment, and interested. In the drunk physical state exercise, a group of actors go on stage and pretend that they are at a bar or party. The stage manager will give the actors water bottles and they have to determine what kind of alcohol they are drinking. The teacher instructs the actors to take a shot from their water bottles. They do so and the scene begins. At some point, the teacher says, “Freeze! Take another shot.” The actors take another shot and the scene resumes. The teacher will say freeze a few more times and instruct the actors to take another shot. This cold exercise is always fascinating and fun to watch because the progression of the alcohol drives everything. The actors get into more belief, they loosen up, they let their imaginations run wild, a story develops, humorous and dramatic moments occur, and the stakes get higher and higher. Keep reading below 🙂

The scene I am writing is a drunk physical state exercise, and these characters are a part of it! With this concept in mind, the writing flowed quickly and easily. It all made sense, and I understood how to use the progression of drinking to determine the chronological order of these ideas, how these characters arrived at them, and the degree to which these characters experienced them. I was happy and excited when I wrote this scene. I could see the progression of this scene from one drink to the next. I couldn’t wait to share this scene with Kelly at our next writing session. When I shared this scene with her, she loved it. We exchanged a few thoughts and I am excited to apply them in my next rewrite for this scene. Keep reading below 🙂

Next week, I will update you all on the progress I made with my acting goal!

Dear Super-Duper Casting Directors!

February 25, 2024 Chasing The George

Happy SAG Awards weekend! Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners! In today’s blog entry, I continue the journey of achieving my goal of booking supporting roles in feature films produced and distributed by independent or mid-sized studios like A24, Neon, Focus Features, Sony Pictures Classics, Searchlight Pictures, etc. My latest round of administration (aka action items) was to start getting on the radar of the super-duper, wonderful, and amazing casting directors behind these films!

As I mentioned two weeks ago, I identified and wrote down my favorite/impactful films that were nominated during the 2019 to 2024 awards season (and most of these films were produced and distributed by the above movie studios.) I identified and wrote down the casting directors for those films. I emailed my agent the list of casting directors to see if they have a relationship with them and to put an introduction for me (and forward my communication to them regarding the film(s) they cast.) If they cast these types of films, chances are they will cast similar ones in the future. Keep reading below 🙂

This past week, I created a Google Spreadsheet to type in the names and contact info for these casting directors. In addition, I also typed in the names of the casting associates and casting assistants who were involved in casting these films as well. As a result, my target list grew and I ended up with a total of 73 names! Once I typed everyone’s names into the Google Spreadsheet, I utilized different resources from IMDB Pro to social media to get contact info for them. This took a MINUTE to do, but it was worth it in the end. I had to think of the bigger picture! I ended up getting contact info for 65 people. I will reach out to my relationship map for help on the 8 people I was unable to get contact info for. Keep reading below 🙂

Next, I began drafting my communications. And I knew that these couldn’t be generic and general communications. They had to be specific and authentic about how their casting impacted me. After sending out a few communications this past week, I realized this would take a little longer than expected because of the specificity and personalization of each communication. So, I need to write and send out at least one communication every day to move through this list with intention. Keep reading below 🙂

As I continue sending out communications to each casting team, I’m already thinking ahead to the next round of career administration for this particular 2024 goal. I already highlighted the next section of administration in my Declaration of Independence (business plan) that I want to tackle after I finish sending out these communications. This highlighted section also includes a couple more things to tackle with my list of casting directors so that I can continue getting on their radar and get called in for future films they will be casting.