Update, Part Four: The Molson commercial post-game wrap up.
The fallout from the commercial, while not a gigantic leap into a steady acting career, has at least been positive.
Cool moments worth mentioning
What comes next in the acting department is getting new headshots done. The one I have is almost four years old now, and really getting out of date. I consider myself fortunate compared to women in the business, as they often have to get their headshots redone every year because of fashion trends. My agent suggested a specific photographer, David Leyes. When I first got headshots done, I knew about him and heard that he was pretty much the best in the city, but I couldn't justify $700 when I didn't even have an agent at that point. I instead went with Monica McKenna, who was one of the high-end photographers but more reasonable in price. (I ended up spending about $400 at the end) I was quite satisfied with her work, and if I was to stick with black & white, I'd still pick her over any photographer I'd seen. However, colour seems to becoming more the industry standard, and I can justify the expense now for David Leyes. I just need to find the money for the expense over the next few paycheques.
The commercial revenue did allow me to purchase my new favourite toy, a PVR. ("Tivo" to Americans) Granted, Rogers' PVR isn't the biggest or best, even compared to Sympatico's version, but it's still very cool. It can automatically record all the episodes of my shows, and you can specify if you want to tape the show whenever the channel airs it, like The Simpsons (which is on twelve times a day no matter where you are), or specify a time slot as per a regular VCR, like just the 11 o'clock news. It also will allow you to choose how many episodes you want to keep in memory in case you aren't able to watch it each week/day. For example, it holds on to 5 days worth of goalie_gurl's soaps and simply replaces the oldest episodes with new ones if she didn't have the time this week to watch & erase them herself. When recording, it even takes into account if an episode is pre-empted by something else (I'm looking at you, CityTV… "Federation Station", my ass) and doesn't bother recording it that week. It's nice having technology that's… clever. Finally, my favourite feature: pausing and rewinding live TV. It's simply a beautiful thing. I'm getting misty just typing about it.
Cool moments worth mentioning
- Reading the stub of my first residuals (royalties) cheque. There was a breakdown of how many times it was played in each city across the country. It was in "units" which are apparently blocks of commercial time. I was told by another actor that a unit is 30 airings in 30 days, but I'm not exactly sure if that's true. Still, reading X number of units in 14 cities from Halifax to Victoria, plus 57 units on Global stations… I mean… whoa.
- Having my first audition back at the casting agency that picked me for the commercial. I was sitting in the waiting room, and the casting director walked through on her way out of the office. She stopped and smiled at me, said it was good to see me again, and commented on how I "totally made the Molson spot work so well"… while a dozen actors sat in the waiting room with me. My ego was inflated for hours after that, even though I didn't nail that audition.
What comes next in the acting department is getting new headshots done. The one I have is almost four years old now, and really getting out of date. I consider myself fortunate compared to women in the business, as they often have to get their headshots redone every year because of fashion trends. My agent suggested a specific photographer, David Leyes. When I first got headshots done, I knew about him and heard that he was pretty much the best in the city, but I couldn't justify $700 when I didn't even have an agent at that point. I instead went with Monica McKenna, who was one of the high-end photographers but more reasonable in price. (I ended up spending about $400 at the end) I was quite satisfied with her work, and if I was to stick with black & white, I'd still pick her over any photographer I'd seen. However, colour seems to becoming more the industry standard, and I can justify the expense now for David Leyes. I just need to find the money for the expense over the next few paycheques.
The commercial revenue did allow me to purchase my new favourite toy, a PVR. ("Tivo" to Americans) Granted, Rogers' PVR isn't the biggest or best, even compared to Sympatico's version, but it's still very cool. It can automatically record all the episodes of my shows, and you can specify if you want to tape the show whenever the channel airs it, like The Simpsons (which is on twelve times a day no matter where you are), or specify a time slot as per a regular VCR, like just the 11 o'clock news. It also will allow you to choose how many episodes you want to keep in memory in case you aren't able to watch it each week/day. For example, it holds on to 5 days worth of goalie_gurl's soaps and simply replaces the oldest episodes with new ones if she didn't have the time this week to watch & erase them herself. When recording, it even takes into account if an episode is pre-empted by something else (I'm looking at you, CityTV… "Federation Station", my ass) and doesn't bother recording it that week. It's nice having technology that's… clever. Finally, my favourite feature: pausing and rewinding live TV. It's simply a beautiful thing. I'm getting misty just typing about it.