I was sitting at the computer this past weekend getting ready to write the latest installment of my blog. One of our two cats, Summer (so named because we got her from someone living in the Summerfield addition of OKC), decided she would like to take her favorite spot on the desk nestled up against the computer keyboard. I’m not sure what she did next (probably wanted to go outside since she is always on the wrong side of the door), but somehow she gave me the idea to have a guest columnist. And that is what follows:
My wife, Joy, writes a weekly column for a local newspaper in Oklahoma City. The newspaper is FRIDAY, and she has been writing this social / humor column for 17 years. In her latest column, she named the steps she went through to help me with a movie audition I was to send to a director in Austin. Technology has caught up with the film auditioning world and directors will now accept auditions by DVD or email. This is the process I went through for this particular audition. I could have gone for a live audition, but Austin is six hours away and I opted to go with the DVD. The email I received from the director specifically stated that the DVD did not have to be award winning cinematography. With those words, I decided to do this myself with the help of Joy. And the following is what happened:
EXCURSIONS by JOY RICHARDSON (Friday May 14, 2010)
Even on its finest day, this is a wacky household. Add to it my husband making an acting audition tape, and it escalates to bizarre. Jerry’s been taking acting lessons in Norman for about nine months – he could have had a baby in that time, but NO! He wants stardom.
It’s pretty adorable that a guy in his late 60’s has just now started acting – is there a chance of that working? Apparently so, as he’s been in four commercials and a movie – the guy is good! (I’m married to him, so of course I think that) No, he hasn’t had a principle part yet, but he gets paid as an extra, has made a whole group of new, mostly young, friends – and he’s having such fun.
Holding a script sent to him, he gave Marcel Marceau a run as he could be seen mouthing his audition part, that of a priest. We don’t own a video camera, but I’d purchased a fairly sophisticated camera to take images of my paintings, and it had a video capability. We hadn’t yet even learned how to work the camera, much less the video. Instructions, let’s see, gotta’ be here somewhere. There they are! Dad gum, those are in Spanish. We looked for the instruction booklet, instructional CD, and power cords for two days. I awakened with a jolt, remembering where I’d put them for safekeeping (that safekeeping thing - always a bad idea).
First we needed a Priest-y outfit. Easily acquired at the costume store. We had components: priest, script memorized, church gear, camera-woman, and the other actor, Stephen – the later two being me. Talcum powder to the rescue, as I began graying Father Hayden’s hair. He so looked the part.
Barely able to do one thing at once, two things at once were stretching it. I was the cinematographer PLUS “Stephen’s voice”. In an effort to keep my place in the script, speaking to prompt Jerry, (my voice, a suspiciously too-girly Stephen), I kept letting the video camera slip down, cutting off the priest’s head. But after several “takes”, we’d accomplished something fairly good.
Next scene, formerly nice Stephen has tied up Father Hayden and is being nasty. I know nothing before or after as I only am holding four pages of this script. But, the joy in this is tying the priest/husband to a chair. We filmed, and it was, “a wrap”. I left to put laundry in the dryer, as we camerawomen multi-task. In a rather un-priestly state of sarcastic growl, I heard, “Would you mind un-tying me?” Told him I’d think about it.
After being released from his bonds, Jerry downloaded, minimized, and created a file for his audition. Naturally he didn’t have the correct disk, and of course when he got to Staples, it was closed. But with the dawn all was rectified and he sent his taped audition to Austin, with the dream of getting this part. Some people nap and watch golf on the weekends, please; can I just be “some people”? Now he informs me that he is to send two more video auditions off, oh, the tormented life of a groupie. When you’re awake in the middle of the night and need entertainment, check out his website: http://actingyourage1.blogspot.com --------
Her column continues on, but since the remainder of the column is not about me, I opted to delete the rest of it. You can see this column and many of her others at http://okcfriday.com.
Also, check out her website
http://joyrichardsonart.com
As it turned out I did not get the part. I have been taught not to look at the camera when giving an audition. However, when the person giving you the other lines and is also holding the camera it is hard not to look. I now know how to fix that next time if I opt to do it myself. But, I plan to go to one of my acting instructors and have them guide me next time. I do have to send two auditions before the end of May and that is what I plan to do.
Stay tuned to see how that one turns out
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