Here are two photos from the filming

I received my next scene for my show reel in the email today and I have two more scenes to learn, plus a monologue for another class.  Things will be very busy for the next few months.

I  played a dead vampire victim for a feature film called, Bio.  What was really cool was that we were filming at a cinema, Toy Story 3 was playing and I was underneath the cinema seating playing dead with a film crew. Naturally we had to be ultra quiet, so not to let the movie watchers know we were directly underneath them. 

It’s also been six weeks since my photo shoot with Actors Now, I have spoken to them and they will be ready to pick up next Thursday, I am interested to see how they turned out.  I am keen to be put on the books officially and be promoted for advertisements.

In the three months that I was not workingI put on 4kgs.  This is something that will be rectified in the thext few months as I am joining the gym at work.

I am learning new things every week and hopefully am becoming a better actor.  Will keep you all posted!

Leon

So much has happened in the last few weeks and it has been a little overwhelming.  I have started a showreel class with Worldwide Screen Actors Online and have been looking for scenes to perform for my showreel.  For those that don’t know the industry, a showreel ia a compilation of many small scenes performed by you to send out to casting directors.  This way if there is an audition in another country you can simply send the showreel to the casting directors for them to view and they can make judgement on your showreel whether to bring you in for a audition.  Showreels are also good to show any people your acting skills.

I have also started Luciano’s course and am relieved that the first two classes are voice and breathing classes.  This means there are no lines to learn yet,  and gives me some time to concentrate on my showreel class.  I am considering taking up Yoga to strengthen my core, stretch muscles out and learn to breathe properly.

My weight has ballooned out of control again, mainly because I have not been working, been eating badly, done no excersise and I guess lost a bit of self confidence.  I had two weeks of bad performances in the showreel class and it really made me doubt myself as an actor.  I had a good chat with lots of friends and now am feeling more confident in myself, I haven’t restored my full confidence. but it is coming back.

One reason I love acitng is because of the awesome people you meet.  I find acting friends are different to everyday friends, I believe it is because as actors we are all vulnerable on stage, we get to see the truth, the real soul of a person, and it makes you closer.  I have made some fantastic friends in the six months of acting and just love hanging out and chatting about acting, life and everything.  Actors are a intense and passionate bunch, the energy is great to be around.  Thanks to all my new friends, you know who you are:)

Here is a scene from the movie, Heat, that I have chosen to do for my showreel.  The scene starts at 47 secs and is between Al Pacino and Robert De Niro speaking at a diner, I have big shoes to fill to make it work but I am in confident in my acting skills.

Thanks for reading and I hope you like the new direction I have taken.

Holy Smokes! June has come quick, and here’s a half time update.  Things are progressing well and I feel I am moving in the right direction.  I am still unemployed, but that’s OK, I am looking for the right job. I have knocked back a couple of offers, even when they have offered me what I want.  I feel like Tom Cruise in the movie, Top Gun, when he says, “It’ just doesn’t feel right”, and in the last minute disengages with his jet fighter leader.  I know in the next few weeks I will find a job I am passionate about and also get paid the money I want.  I am positive and confident in my future! 

On the acting side of things I have signed on for two new courses, the first being a 14 week masterclass show reel course with Worldwide Screen Actors Online, and the second is a 1 year course with Luciano Vecchio who is a great mentor and also has experience in L.A.  I believe both these courses will greatly boost me in the right direction and give me the lessons I need to become a greater actor and perfect the craft.  Another great update about my acting career is that I am having a photo shoot with Actors Now (Acting Agency) for their commercial faces portfolio.  In simple terms I will have an agent who is going to represent me for TV and print advertisements!  So in the future you might just see my face on your TV or when you are reading your next Target catalogue.  Scary isn’t it. 

My photoshoot happens in two weeks and now I am back on the wagon to losing weight and looking and feeling good.  I did waver for a while but I am back and focused!  I am training daily to lose the weight again.  This involves, walking my 10,000 steps, training with my personal trainer, boxing at home and also eating healthy fresh food.

Lot’s of my time has been consumed by job hunting, acting related activities and exercise…..oh and Facebook.  I think I’m a little addicted to staying in touch, I am working on slowly weaning myself off being on Facebook 24/7.

I hope to have a more exciting update next time, so stay tuned

Ever since going to the Araluen’s Fremantle Chilli Festival in March I have been obsessed with chilli, a few weeks after the show and finally getting taste back in my mouth I decided to buy some chilli plants to grow.  My aim is to grow heaps of chillies, dry them out in the sun and make chilli flakes.  Here are some photos of how they are going., you can see one massive chilli growing.

I’m not much of a green thumb, but this is my little project so I take care of them and give them as much water and sun as they need.  One of the things I feed my chillies to make them grow is worm juice, this juice is harvested from my worm farm which I have had for over two years.  They are such productive little guys, they eat all my food waste and provide me concentrated liquid fertiliser for my chillies.

My worms have a diet of, bannana peels, old fruit and vegetables, crushed egg shells, used tea bags, newspaper and any off cuts of vegetables that I have while cooking.  Worms do not eat general trash like, meat leftovers, dairy products, onion, garlic or anything citrus.  Worm farms are great because you can use your organic food waste to feed to your worms to produce fertiliser for your plants, hows that for sustainability!

Thanks Captain Planet, you’re my hero!  Actually, thanks to my wife Kirsty she’s my hero, she has taught me everything I know about sustainability.

I stayed over a few nights ago and had a few spooky experiences in our cabin.  I spoke to lots of the cast and crew an they also had experiences, so I know its just not my active imagination.  I have a 6am shoot on Saturday and don’t particularly want to stay over on Friday night, I am still tossing up whether to wake up at 4am at my house and drive up or take the chance to be spooked again and stay the night.  The location of filming is up in the Perth Hills, its about a 45 minute drive with long roads, hills and the occasional kangaroo.

Here are a couple of spooky things that have happened in the past 2 weeks.

• Objects being moved
• Bed shaking
• Footsteps following you but when you turn around no one is there
• A girls scream from a certain cabin, when investigated no one is there
• Lights switched off
• Sheets being pulled off whilst sleeping

The above is why I don’t want to sleep there, my personal experience was a pen being moved when I know I placed it somewhere else as well as lights being switched off. I am not particularly fond of spirits and ghosts so I am really leaning towards staying at my house, waking up extra early and driving up.

On location at Redback we had channel 9 and Fairfax media come up to interview Loren Johnson, Luke Ledger and the rest of the main cast about the upcoming film.  Here are some photos taken from the WAToday news site.

Moving on to my job search, I never thought it would be so hard to find a job I would like.  With my experience working for two of the largest media companies in Australia coupled with my Internet and business development experience it’s not hard for me to find any job.  What is hard is finding my ideal job,  here is my essential criteria:

• I must feel I am making a difference
• Work/ life balance
• Excellent remuneration
• Opportunity to be mentored
• Management and skills training
• Team environment
• Large multinational company with clear paths for advancement

I don’t think I am asking too much, do you?  Hopefully my next blog entry I will have some great job news.  Fingers crossed.

• Work for the most inspiring, intelligent and driven manager possible, and learn everything you can (ask them to mentor you, I have been lucky enough to find two so far)
• Stay out of office politics (it’s much harder in a smaller office)
• On occassion you will find you have and office bully and if you are being bullied make sure your management knows about it
• Work isnt everything, make sure you have work / life balance (I like to start work early in the mornings and finish early in the afternoons)
• Always build on your skills and look towards promotion

I am now looking to work in something that I am passionate about and will give me a great work/life balance so I can also focus on my acting.  I am now entering a new phase in my life and turning over that leaf.

Moving on to another subject, I was watching the news last week and saw a video of a young chinese girl on a tightrope, and underneath were 6 Siberian tigers (licking their lips). She is walking across and balancing as best she can, the wind is blowing pretty strongly and she falls! I cant believe this stuff goes on, shes only 3 years old.  You need to see this video yourself, check it out.

Real crazy huh?

Heres a photo of one of the tigers nearly getting an early dinner

Well thats it from me today folks, Ill keep you updated on my job hunt:)

Happy Easter everyone!  This long weekend has been really hectic and fun at the same time.  On Friday and Saturday I was able to assisting the the casting of a new Australian film called, “Redback”.  I was able to see how auditioning process worked and also get a better understanding what the directors were looking for in an actors audition.  I had the opportunity to see a whole range of auditions from exceptional to ordinary (mostly because of nerves).   I have a featured extra role in the movie, what that means is that I will be in the background somewhere doing or saying something.  Happy Days!

One thing that I learnt was that the camera picks up everything.  It notices peoples twitches, eye movement and everything, worst thing is that it magnifies it!  I must have a look at my show reels to see if I have any of these things.

My last class for 10 weeks is next Tuesday and we start the Show reel workshop in 2 weeks, exciting stuff.  From the actors that I have seen in the last two days I feel I have a lot of improving to do.  But I have also noticed that there were actors that didn’t know their lines, so I guess Im half way there in regards to professionalism.  I would always know my lines when going in for an audition as well as have developed a very distinct character.

Life is becoming full on, with things happening at work as well as looking for auditions and honing my acitng skills.  I do hope everything falls into place. I will just trust the universe will deliver to me what I am working towards.  I feel I am walking in the right direction to have the opportunities delivered to me.

Don’t eat too many Easter eggs!

I performed my monologue last night and it sucked…..I move my eye brows too much and use my hands to much, its the salesman in me.  I need to cut out the animation from my face as well.  I have hit the wall in regards to my acting capabilities and now have to train like heck to get on par with some of the other fantastic actors in the class.  As I was driving to work today I thought to myself, when can I officially say that I’m an actor?  I’m not sure I can comfortably say that because of my inconsistent performances,  I’ll ask the other students out there the same question and see what they tell me.

Heres a photo of me in my costume for my monologue.  My character is a soldier who killed an innocent child during a firefight in Afghanistan.  Simon, another actor in class kindly taped my monologue, Ill put it up once I get it converted into a smaller file.

This weekend I have a 3 Day casting workshop with Worldwide Screen Actors Online in conjunction with JC Casting, one of the biggest casting companies in Perth.  I must bring my A-game and perform to my best abilities because this could help me with breaking into TV advertisements and also still-shot catalogues.  There is quite a bit of money to be made in that side of the industry.

Confidence has been low and I really need a pick me up, I’m getting a little run down but I know it will be all worth it in the end. 

On a brighter note I have hit 97kg. Woohoo! I am doing fantastically well in the weight loss side of things so if i keep it up ill get to my goal of 90kg in no time.

I’m siting here in my home office looking around and noticed that whenever I look at my UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship) figurines, I get motivated and excited.  I have one figurine which clicks me into gear and wants me to keep fit.  Wanderlei Silva is my all time favourite fighter and he inspires me to become the fittest toughest mofo out there.  Check out the figurine and a real life image below. This guys is a brutal fighter, he takes his hits and throws them hard too.  Not only do I admire his fighting skills and strong physique, but most importantly his mental strength and his drive to win no matter how hard his fight is. This makes me into a more focus and stronger player in the game of life. 

I had personal training on Thursday and my trainer Mark said that if I lose one more kilo then I would have shedded 10 kilos since Janurary.  Thats huge!  I am definately on my way to the second milestone of 90kg.  Myfirst milestone was to get under 100kg which I did 2 weeks ago.  Once I make 90kgs I get to reward myself with a professional photoshoot for my actors portfolio, this is a driving motivation for me as I really want to get into acting on the screen.

Life is a fantastic journey, I like to avoid the well worn paths that everybody follows and make my own tracks. See you in the big wide world and hopefully we will cross tracks one day!

Kirsty is back from Bali and I successfully survived on a healthy diet of crumbed frozen fish and frozen vegetables.  I actually enjoyed being a bachelor for 10 days it was a refreshing change to actually be able to do nothing.  I did sleep a lot earlier than usual, I did get a bit bored.

The day after Kirsty came back from Bali we went out with her cousin and husband for dinner at the Hyatt ‘Cafe’ restaurant.  It’s the best seafood buffet restaurant in Perth and the desserts are just awesome.  My mouth is watering just thinking about the chocolate cake, cheesecake, freshly baked waffles and ice cream. MMMMMMM.  It’s $65 per head from Friday to Sunday and if you need someone to go with I’m always available. 

Check out the dessert station

I’m still losing weight at a steady pace, currently at 97.8kg.  Today my pedometer counted my total steps for the day at 19,000+, if I keep this up I’ll be at 90kg in no time.

Not much to write about currently, hope to have some interesting news next week so stay tuned!