Annual ARTy-fact Re-enact
Throughout High School and College I studied all forms of Acting and Media Studies. Most notably where I topped the state in College during my end of year assessments. The years that followed, I worked as an actor in the many forms required as to survive in a country where we had four main national television stations and limited theatre spaces. Australia is a phenomenol country with many great actors and industry professionals who export their work more than what work is available to give them support. Training developed my skills as an Actor, Singer and a Dancer and with time opportunities as a voice over artist and a hand model, broadened my horizons.
The UnREAL Showreel
To build an actor's showreel there are two distinct, although not inclusive, methods. An Actor can work straight onto their showreel with selected scripts alone or with the help of other actors resulting in a shorter downtime. Then there's my preference which is the post-production showreel that is collated with actual pieces of work that an Actor has created over time, albeit a slower process. One is not necessarily better than the other, it falls upon the preference and needs of the individual.
A previous Acting role was for an internal police training video where I played the part of a schizophrenic son who lived with his parents and he hadn't taken his medication for a few days. My role was unscripted whilst the real policemen and social worker where given guidelines on what to say and what actions needed to take place within the law and safety of the distressed patient. I took the opportunity to spend some time with the social worker to understand how a son with that condition would feel and re-act during a bad episode with strangers in his house. I wanted to play my role as real and as respectful as possible.
I stayed in character so much so that I couldn't even hear the directions of the producer when we finished filming. Playing the role of a distressed person with schizophrenia could easily be over acted, over shadowing the dialogue and actions required to film that training video to aid new police officers. But at the same time I wanted my performance to look as real as possible. At the end of the day, I asked the social worker who has been in this situation many times for feedback and he said "I was right in there with you, it felt real".
An Actor-To Be, Is It A Hobby, Or Not To Be
The world of the "Extra" was a far more profitable world as the work was consistent with steady pay. Especially when Fox created studios in Sydney. Actors where advised not to work as extras as there was a conflict of interest when it came to agents booking auditions for us. Like a pilot fueling and loading luggage just before flying the aeroplane. They might be hungry for the extra work, but their focus may not be where the passengers need the pilots focus to be. Nothing is beneath me, I was willing, but not able.
The buzz was electrifying, it lasted for several years. There was hope that Aussie Actors would be giving up their day jobs, that supported them inbetween Acting gigs, instead of preparing to migrate to Los Angeles. The buzz, after some time, turned to a fizz. I didn't give up my days jobs, plural. Not that many jobs are flexible as to allow you to take time off for auditions at short notice, let alone the time that an Actor needs to learn their audition piece and relevant songs as was the case in my musical theatre world. I knew it at the time and I balanced two to three casual jobs.
Crime Investigations Australia-The Will Of Death"I have an audition for you at Fox Studios" my agent called me. At that time, there wasn't any big American movies being filmed in Sydney anymore, but rather a host of local production companies that had their offices there which made sense as it was still a creative hub for smaller local productions.
"The producer saw your headshot, he thinks you might be perfect for the role, no need for an audition piece, more like a meet and greet"...all this just from my headshot? It's not as an Extra on set, I didn't need to memorise a script? I did work as a hand model, although I am not model material, I was so confused. "The brief is that you look like an alleged murderer. It's a television re-enactment". Schizophrenic patient one day, alleged murderer the next day, or so. Me play a romantic lead?..perhaps not.
As an Actor you are told that you are too thin, not thin enough, too tall, not tall enough. Age? Generally you are within the certain age bracket that a producer or a director need you to be before you audition. There's some room to move with fictional characters if an Actor is a few years different to the character as imagined in the script. I can act any age. My day job as a makeup artist, albeit in the retail sector, gives me the skill to look older with some makeup magic if need be.
My headshot got me the audition, but I wasn't as close to looking like this real person as much as another Actor did at the time. A future of people mistaking my identity for that this man...I was ok with not getting this particular lead role. But listening to the producer and the film makers talk about this unsolved murder mystery, was fascinating. I told the producer that I wanted to be involved in this production somehow and he offered me a role as an Extra, a friend of the lead characters. I would have happily sat behind the scenes, a murder mystery host if you will, with people who knew facts about the characters and how it all actually unfolded. I might as well get paid at the same time.
By far this has to be the shortest piece of footage that I appear in and yet each year, it is replayed on an Australian national television channel, brought to my attention by work colleagues, friends who send me a text message and customers who ask me "I think I just saw you on television? Did I?". Yes you did, wasn't the story fascinating? My mum didn't find it fascinating the first year that she saw it as she didn't know what a re-enACTment involved, she thought perhaps this was in real time, maybe I should have over re-ACTed during the filming? "What did you do?!" she asked. I had some explaining to do.
THE WILL OF DEATH-In 3 parts as the full 25 minute file is too large for this blogger page.
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