The effects of boost season

Wow, I did a fantastic job of keeping up with this thing during the festival! Well, in my defense, by the time I got home I was in no position to be thinking clearly. I have the whole experience written down, and maybe at some point I'll filter out all the BS and transfer some if it onto here.

In the meantime, it's Emmy night tonight. The awards season always falls perfectly in line with my loss of morale, which tends to happen around the fall. I use these awards as a sort of booster, because they make me want to keep pushing to break into the industry. (I shall call this: boost season.) It's not a matter of wanting fame and all that junk, but I've always liked when a room full of people get together and get excited about movies and TV. That's what the entire film fest was, so to a certain extent, I got an extra boost this year.

I've decided to not go after advertising, because I've made peace with the fact that I won't be financially stable for the early part of my life. Instead, I'm going to do freelance film jobs and auditions. It's really the only way. I had to figure out what would make me the happiest, and when the response was acting, as it always is, I figured that it was time to stop ignoring it. Now I know, I always say these things and never follow through. So hey, maybe this won't work out for me. But I plan on beating the idea to death and doing everything I can to make it work out. If it doesn't work out, no regrets. At least I tried and all.

I signed up with backstage.com to keep tabs on any auditions in the area. I signed up on a Friday, and people tend not to post things over the weekends, so hopefully there will be lots of auditions posted starting Monday. Once I complete this freelance job I think I have, I'll be able to get down to Philly and get my headshots done. Right now, my one headshot is rather week.

Oh, and also, the fest helped spawn a Keira Knightley obsession. And I'm talking obsession! After seeing her in person, a switch flipped for me. I think she's great, and I'm trying to get a hold of her movies that I haven't seen yet. I went back and watched PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and realized that Joe Wright is a complete genius, and we have the same outlook on method acting; we think it's crap. His movies are so interestingly choreographed and directed, and during the making the cast was saying how they played sardines (hide and seek) in the house they were filming in to get acquainted with it. What a cool idea. I think I may steal that. Trouble is, being in Atonement, P&P, and general Joe Wright mode, I'm back in the mindset to work on the period piece script. Bummer, because I wanted to finish Armaan. I guess that's what bothered me most about writing under pressure in school... it's impossible! Better get used to it, I say.

Boost season always makes me do unexpected things. Last time, it made me audition for David Mamet's acting class in NYC. That actually worked out. So that's where I stand: freelance film work, constant writing, and auditions. That sounds exciting to me, even if it means I better start getting comfortable living downstairs.

Toronto, Day 2

So last night was the big party from Time Magazine. Once we got there, we walked past that huge sign with all the company logos where celebs pose. The photographers realized we weren't celebs and didn't take our pictures. Sad times. Across the street were people just camped out watching the celebs walk by, so it was cool to be able to walk right into the building.

The party itself was pretty swanky... there were little Swarovsky crystals scattered everywhere and there were two bars made of ice. Open bar, of course, which was bad news. Well, not really. The final celeb list, for those of you I didn't harrass with texts, was Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal, Clive Owen, George Clooney, Don Cheadle, Shekhar Kapoor, Tilda Swinton, and a really really hot Indian actress, Sameera Reddy. They made a run for the VIP section behind the bar, but they had to walk by us first. If you go to the bar to get a drink you could just stand there and gawk. That's what we did, and we saw Reese dancing to MC Hammer. It was cool at first but then we just stopped caring that they were there. Eventually we got into that VIP section where Don Cheadle was the only one left. He was sort of frantically realizing that no celebs were left so he peaced out. After that we made some friends, exchanged cards, drank more wine, and peaced out. It was really a lot fun though because people were really great, and the music was pretty kickass too.

So, today we're seeing a b&w documentary on this crazy Italian opera singer, and then we're seeing this Spanish movie called King of the Hill, which I picked based solely on its title. I mean there are only a handful of well-known movies here with big stars, and the rest you just sort of pick and choose. And tomorrow is Elizabeth and The Last Lear!

That's all for now...

Night 1

Here in Toronto. Weird city... like an American one but more chilled out. The people look the same but little things are different. Tomorrow night is the George Clooney party! And hopefully we can catch a couple of movies beforehand. The train ride was 12 hours, not 11. felt like 122. so far, so good.

Pre-Fest Planning

So I finally decided to take on the mammoth task of figuring out how the fest is laid out, and where it is in relation to my aunt's apartment. I discovered this stalker-ish but amazing feature that google has, where you can look at maps via satellite. I know I know, you knew it existed ages ago. But every time something like Google or Facebook comes out with a new feature, I always resist getting into it for a while. I don't know why that is...

So it seems that my aunt is pretty conveniently located in relation to the rest of the festival. I think everyday, my plan should be to get to the box office as early in the day as I can, and I'm talking like 8 in the morning. I'm sure there are random coffee shops in the city that I can hang out at while I wait for the box office to open. Then when it does, I can pounce like the desperate moviegoer that I am.

I've added 'Sleuth' to the list of movies I have to see. The others are Atonement, Elizabeth, Lust, Caution, and Michael Clayton... and Across the Universe... and a few others I can't remember. It's always been my theory that the longer my list of must-sees is, the more chance I have of actually getting to see one. I also plan on sitting in a coffee shop reading the GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK script I recently bought, so that should George Clooney stroll in, we can discuss the script. Because I'm sure he has time for that.

I guess most of the anxiety at this point stems from uncertainty. If I don't know exactly how every detail of a certain event is going to play out, I get really nervous. I want to know exactly how the train ride will go, when I'll get out of the train, if I'll be able to get to my aunt's place without a hitch, etc. So many little details I can't coordinate from here! On top of that, I am technically going to a different country. Little things that you expect from an American city may be totally missing or switched around somehow. Nerves, nerves, nerves!

Two days, and a large chunk of the mystery surrounding my trip will be clarified!