Los Angeles Or Bust » Miscellaneous

Cold Read + Angry Writer = Awesomeness

Aadip — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 07:16:01 +0000

A bunch of us from the Board went out the Seattle Cold Readers “event” at the Alibi Room to see what’s up.

I think their hearts are in the right place, but maybe a cold read isn’t the most useful format for motivated and serious screenwriters. We witnessed some pretty atrocious acting (lack of projection, odd creative choices and accents, lack of presence, etc.) Without a director, it’s pretty tough to give it a good go.

The room is in the basement of the restaurant, which, as someone who had a regular trumpet gig down there, is not the most hospitable environment to listen to actors sans mics. Plus, the noise from upstairs is distracting. Oh well, they’re trying.

My favorite part of the evening was when an actor went “off the reservation” and made up dialogue not on the page. From the audience, the writer steamed until she couldn’t take it any more. She blurted out “optimism” which I thought was part of the performance, but then screamed “you’re not reading what I even fucking wrote” or something like that. Awesome. I would’ve been pissed too, but I would’ve said something to the organizers/actor at the break. It all seemed like a more actor-centric thing than a writer-centric thing, especially after the guy running it announced that the writers are taking a big risk by having actors improvise on their scripts. Not really something I would’ve said or even sanctioned.

Another Audition

Aadip — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 23:00:31 +0000

I got a call for another audition, this time for a Boeing industrial on health spending accounts.
I rocked the audition, walked out the door thinking, “Nice job, dude.” Then the casting director chased me down the street
and asked if I’d cut my sideburns off. She said, “It’s OK if you won’t!” I said, “I’d cut them down, but not get rid of them.”
Surprise surprise, didn’t get the gig. This experience taught me that, no I won’t be a whore. That’s pretty cool. Once again, happy I rocked the reading. They thanked me for being so well-prepared. I was also early, so I got out of there early.

Call Back

Aadip — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 23:00:17 +0000

Just had my call back for the commercial. I think I nailed it. My scene partner was an arrogant, non-acting Indian guy
who thought $7,500 for one day of work was not a lot of money. Last time I checked, if you worked 5 days a week at that, you’d make a quarter million bucks a year. I just have gratitude for the opportunity to be myself and get paid to do it. Beyond that, whatever. Small victories.
I’m happy with performing well.

Ten Little Indians

Aadip — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:00:34 +0000

I did something that I’ve done in the past, but not with any particular regularity–I
auditioned for a TV commercial. This time it was a gaming commercial for Samsung.
I got the call from the casting agent, her database reminding her that I’m
an Indian guy in my late 20s/early 30s and that I have “giant mutton chops"
(her words). Despite having ordered a brand new sideburn trimmer from Amazon.com,
I had to wait, since she wanted my burns to be prominent for the audition.
So, I went in for this non-speaking, high-paying role, where I basically play
a video game or cheer someone on that’s playing.

The weird part
was that it was obviously a call for Indian men, because I was sitting around
the waiting area with about nine other Indian dudes of various height, weight,
shading, hair styles, etc. It was pretty funny, and we’ll see if I get the jorb
(see
www.homestarrunner.com for
reference) or not. Either way, I met a guy name Aamole. Aadip and Aamole.
A match made in AA heaven (not American Airlines or Alcoholics Anonymous,
or maybe, yeah).

L.A. Trip – Day 7

Aadip — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:06:03 +0000

Flight home. Junkie time. Yep, got on the plane, a cool technology consultant
guy sat two seats over and tried to convince me to act scary so nobody would
sit next to us. "Roll up your sleeve and show off your tats, I’ll do the crazy
eyes" We thought we were good to go, but right after they closed the doors
to the plane, a woman said, "Is that seat taken?" Damn.

The first thing she
says is, "Sorry I’m stinky, I just got out of rehab." Oh shit, it’s gonna be
a long flight. We warned her that she sat between the wrong guys–we were
planning on drinking the whole flight to celebrate his 100th flight on Southwest
Airlines.

Talk about a captive audience. We spent the next two hours talking her down,
trying to keep her from freaking out and puking her guts out on the plane.
We were regaled with her rehab buddy’s junkie poetry, sat
through a slideshow, begged for pills, saw pictures of her "baby girl," and
asked if we made a lot of money. We did meet a fit model and most of the flight
attendants were nice to us, so it wasn’t all bad. But, my advice, if someone
is going through withdrawals from opiates, try not to let them sit next to
you on a plane.

All Indians Look The Same / Girl 27

Aadip — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:04:25 +0000

Just got back from another Obama planning meeting for my district. Sadly,
somebody mistook me for one of the OTHER Indian guys who volunteers on the
campaign. Not the first time that’s happened in my life, so I took pity on
the guy. If I had been in a bad mood I would asked if “All us Indian guys look
the same to you?” There’s
nothing more demeaning than being mistaken for someone else simply for being
of the same "race." Of course we are not similar in how we dress, how tall
we are, our facial hair (duh, sideburns), hair, speaking voice, etc. Good thing
I wasn’t in a freakin’ police line-up.

I just watched Girl 27, a documentary about Patricia Douglas, a girl who was
raped at a party in 1937 for a bunch scummy MGM sales dudes. Not only does
it make you feel bad for being a guy, but it also highlighted the deep and
pervasive level of corruption by MGM in Los Angeles at that time to use their
power to cover it up. Not only did this effect her life, but the lives of those
in her family behind her. I’m glad the story has been told, because Patricia
deserves to be applauded for standing up against the system during a time in
which nobody would do that.

Troy Hunter

Aadip — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 23:27:59 +0000

I just got back from dinner with Troy Hunter, writing partner with Geoff
Hunter and former Guild member. We covered a lot of ground. We talked
about what it’s like to take meetings with the big boys, what winning the Austin
Film Festival can do for you and what the Writer’s Strike can take away,
reading comic books (not graphic novels) as adults, writing treatments for
the ultra-famous, our mutual crush on Wonder Woman (aka Linda Carter, who was
my uncle’s neighbor at one time), and why Santa Monica is the only place to
live in LA (close to LAX and Culver City, beach, fresh air, walk to stuff,
etc). So, basically we were just a couple of Seattle writers dorking out for
a couple of hours.

Hug-A-Writer Day (Canada)

Aadip — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 23:10:08 +0000

Apparently today is Canada’s Hug-A-Writer Day.
According to the site, “This new Canadian annual holiday (which, strangely, has yet to be endorsed by the Canadian government) is dedicated to all writers – especially the copywriters who toil in anonymity through weekends and nights.”