Back to work

Had a great time at Austin Actors Studio last week--chance to work on a comedic monologue that has somehow oddly segued into scary land. Clearly needs more/different work. Also an improv with Tim and a cold read with Manuel. Nice to see how meaty the scenes are in CC Courtney's class--can't wait to see what everyone ends up doing with them.

Rainy evening rehearsal at the DAC to get back into a short that was begun last fall--so good to be working with Lynn again on such a powerful, character-driven piece. The elusive lines are being nailed down, one by one.

Finished up the week with Lynn's shoot. It went so well--great group, lots of fun, and ended with a huge plate of County Line BBQ and a corner seat under the talking longhorn overlooking the sunset on the Texas Hill Country.

This week looks to be just as packed, with stunt training, a table read and a costume fitting. Not bad for a short week preceding a three-day weekend!!

Fantastic!

So I'm embarrassed to say any more about the SXSW bumper, but these articles are so cool, I can't help it. You don't have to click if you've had enough (which I would TOTALLY understand).

SXSW 2010: What a week!

What do I say? From the energy just standing in line to pick up badges last Thursday, to watching Four Lions tonight, every moment of this festival has been just so much fun.

Thanks to the amazing reception of Joe Nicolosi's Stay Inside bumper, I've met so many great people! From the Texas shorts to documentaries Marwencol and The People v. George Lucas to the hilarious Four Lions, it's been a great week of movie watching. And what a difference watching a movie in a theatre full of true-movie lovers! Not a single cell phone ring, whispered synopsis, etc., just people totally into the experience.

I wish I could capture it in a bottle, uncork it every now and then and breathe the excitement, energy, friendship, good will, etc. in. As it is, I'm just going to make sure I'm there in 2011. Thanks to all who shared this experience with me--thank you SO much!!!

And to the lone wolf whistle before the Midnight viewing of Monsters, you're a sick man. ;)

SXSW bumper is a success!!

So after missing the first few days of SXSW Film, I'm standing in line to see The People v. George Lucas, and a few people come up to me to compliment the bumper! Just standing in line!

So then I go inside, and the director of SX comes out, and she says she wants to introduce a very talented guy, who happened to make a bumper that they love so much they're playing it all the time, and who also made a spectacularly funny short (Star Wars Retold--google it and watch).

And then they played the bumper!




So the first time I saw it, not only was it lauded by the director, and introduced by Joe Nicolosi himself (mwah!), but it was shown in The Paramount, in downtown Austin, in one of the most beautiful theatres I've ever seen, for an audience of 1,000 people.

And I watched it, and still liked it, and then loved the short, and enjoyed the movie, and left, and got stopped three more times on the way out for people to tell me they loved the bumper!

And the whole week has been like that! Really great people liking the bumper, and letting me know they liked it, and more importantly, loving film, and talking film, and greeting complete strangers in line, and striking up conversations like they're all from Texas, and it's just been a completely amazing experience.

So tonight, I'm finally taking the significant other to see it. And I'm giddy!!!

Oh, the glamour

So when I was five, I wanted to be an actress or a princess, which according to a tempera paint self-portrait from that time meant wearing a ballgown and, apparently, a long blonde wig.

Oh delusional five-year-old Aimee. If only you'd known that real acting could mean gallons of fake red-dyed karo and hershey's syrup, 8 hours spent wet in the woods--in February--capped off by a swim in a frigid lake (really)--and that it would be even more fun?

Five-year-old Aimee would have understood instinctively the joy of standing in the sun in a dusty parking lot eating white bread sandwiches and nilla wafers with people she'd only just now meant but already really liked. She would have appreciated how a full-blast heater and a warm blanket would have felt at the end of a long day. She would have marvelled at all the people who just seemed to know when to pick up and move, when to tell a joke, when to hug, and how she seemed to fit seamlessly among them.

She would have. She still does. God, this is so much better than glamour. This is joy.

Stunt training goes outside

So on one of many trips to Houston over the past month, I finally took a friend up on his offer to go indoor rock climbing (thank you Danny!). It was a blast, and Danny and his friends were so generous with their time--helping me both on the ground and on the wall.

Thank God.

Because the very next weekend took me outside for my first rappelling session--stunt training gone wild as it were--and without that little bit of experience putting my life in the hands of one rope and one person, I don't know if I could have actually leaned back in that harness and walked down that wall.

As it was, it totally rocked. So thank you Nate Legacy. And Robert for spotting me when I climbed up. And Donny for being my knot-tying coach. And Sarah for going first.

SXSW Bumper Premieres March 12!

So I got a call from an insanely excited director last week. Turns out he was thrilled with how the SXSW bumper turned out, and so was SXSW! No longer will it be reserved for Midnight and Fantastic Fest Shows--they've decided to play it before certain red carpet premiers as well!!!

Said director, Joe Nicolosi, did a great job. I went over for a sneak peek last week and actually had fun watching it (rare--usually I'm too busy giving it a too critical once-twice-thrice over).

Joe has a short film in the festival as well--Star Wars Retold--so look for it, and look out for Joe. Great guy. Great director.

Work with him if you can--you'll have a blast.

Lazy or busy?

Both? Not only for not blogging in (yikes) more than a month. Sure, February was crazy. But it's a matter of priorities. It occurred to me tonight that I feel rusty--I went to the Austin Actors Studio meeting for the first time in a month last week, heard everyone talking about the latest exercises in our acting class and felt like I was falling behind.

Yeah--I was out of town for at least part of every week last month. Yeah--I finished up the SXSW film project in that time. Yeah--I had a meeting on another short, kept doing stunt training, kept up with my outside-of-stunt-training-training. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I didn't read any acting books. I didn't do any acting exercises. I didn't even write about not doing any of the acting homework (lucky you).

And while waiting on the script for the feature film this summer is a fact, it's equally a fact that I can be--and should be--working on fundamentals in the meantime. It's a matter of priorities. I find the time for the physical workouts--must find the time for the mental ones too.

Starting tomorrow.