Tag Archives: acting

Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

Posted on September 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Having Election Night Alone (or Seeing If My Hard Work Paid Off)

There is so much I stress about during union election season, but sometimes the most stressful thing is waiting while ballots are being counted to see the results. I usually end up having a very late night to see the end of the ballot counting and sometimes I’m so exhausted that things don’t click with me until the next morning. And this year, I knew watching the ballots being counted would be a different thing than normal since it was being done over Zoom.

There were pros and cons to the counting being done online. I didn’t like that I was at home alone watching everything and I didn’t have my friends there to reassure me or to joke with while we wait for everything to be done. But the biggest advantage was that I got to watch while I was working because I could keep the Zoom screen small on my screen while I’m working. I actually was able to watch from almost the start when the ballots were picked up from the post office and brought over to the union. I know it doesn’t sound exciting, but it was cool to see since it’s something I’ve never been an observer for in the past.

I wasn’t able to watch all of the counting process because I was working from 9-5. When I could check the screen, I did. And when people were asking questions on Zoom about the process, I listened. But for those 8 hours, I mainly worked with the occasional check-in on the process. I was also texting and messaging with friends who were watching the entire time.

For all the times in the past that I was an observer for the ballot counting, I was only in the local count room. I was automatically allowed in there because I was on the local ballot (which includes National Board, Local Board, and Delegates). The national count room was for the national president and secretary-treasurer, and to be allowed in that room you had to either be a candidate or listed as a proxy for a candidate. This year, I knew I’d be watching in the local room since that’s the standard for me. But I was selected to be a proxy for one of our candidates in the national room so I was able to be in both (not at the same time, but I switched back and forth).

When I was able to watch, I did try to pay attention to how the ballots were looking to me. The local ballots were harder since there are so many candidates, so I could never tell if someone was voting for me. But on the national ballots, it was easy to see what was happening. And things were looking very close to me. I started to think it might be a split ballot with one slate getting president and the other getting secretary-treasurer. I wasn’t sure if we’d have a very late night or not, but we ended up getting the national results pretty early compared to past years. And I was right, we had a split ballot with Fran Drescher and Joely Fisher winning.

After we knew the results for the national count, we had to wait until the union announced it before we shared the news, but that was easier to do since I wasn’t seeing anyone in person. I switched back to the local count room to see how things were going and to watch the end of those results. When I was back watching the local count, the election committee was working on the questionable ballots and trying to figure out the voter’s intent. Some of these were clear and some were really odd. It’s frustrating when you think that they are voting for the people you are supporting and the election committee can’t agree on what the intent was. I did see the committee debate a few times about votes that they had to decide if the intent was to vote for me or someone else. That was a bit weird.

And in the end, sadly my slate didn’t do as well as we hoped. We didn’t win the local officers and we didn’t get as many board seats as we would have liked. I didn’t get elected to Local Board, which was tough. I knew that it was not going to be easy for me to be elected to the board, but I really had hoped that somehow I would win a seat. But I did win my delegate seat again, so that was good news.

It’s always tough when you don’t do as well in an election as you hoped. And this time, it hit me harder than ever before. Maybe it’s because I did more work for the campaign than in past years. Maybe feelings from the pandemic added to my emotions. Maybe I was affected by watching the count alone at home more than I thought. It doesn’t really matter why, but I honestly was heartbroken when seeing the results. I know that we can’t win everything and having balance is important, but the other side has a significant majority now and it will be harder for us to make an impact in the way we had hoped.

I think I’m still dealing with feeling sad about the results. I know that now it’s time to get back to work and we have to start preparing for the National Convention, but I also need to sit with my feelings and process what happened. The one thing that does help me feel better is that I don’t have any regrets about what I did during this election season. There is nothing I didn’t do that I wanted to do. There is nothing I did that I questioned. I did everything I wanted to do and knowing that I did that made me happy.

And in 2 years when it’s the next election season, I know I’ll be fully in it again and ready to go. And hopefully we will do better then, but now we are just focused on our union service and working hard for all members.

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Default ThumbnailLate Night Election Results (or All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go) Default ThumbnailThe Votes Are In (or An Uneventful End To The Election) Default ThumbnailAlmost Election Day (or I’m Asking You All To Please Vote) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The SAG-AFTRA Elections (or Being An Observer) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

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Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

Posted on August 5, 2021 | Comments Off on Now It Feels Like Election Season (or Creating So Many Things)

For me, election season for my union starts a lot sooner than it really begins. Not only do I do social media work year-round, there are different phases to election season. There is time before the candidates are announced where we see who is interested in running and making sure that we have things in order. Between the time of candidates being finalized and ballots going out, there is a lot of preparation and announcing some candidates and what our platform is. And when ballots are mailed, everything ramps up and there is a lot more going on with making sure people know who is running and sharing who else is running with Unite For Strength.

And since ballots have been mailed and people should be getting them any day, we are fully into election season which means I’m doing a lot of work. And while I will admit that it can be overwhelming and I’m not sleeping enough, it’s also so rewarding. I have learned a lot of new skills in order to make our social media look the way it does. I am not a graphic designer (another volunteer does a lot of that), but I know how to do some basics and then send it to someone else to edit and correct. And I do get to be creative with what we make and how we present different information.

There have been 2 big projects I’ve been doing for our social media recently. First, we wanted to make images for our candidates to have that show their support for Unite For Strength. We did have a template to make these (which made my life a lot easier), but they did all have to be created one by one. But I’m so proud of how they look and I’m so happy to have this on my personal social media accounts.

And I loved seeing how others loved these too! Seeing so many of them come across my social media feed made me happy and I know people appreciated my work.

And then over the past few days, I worked on our social media voter guides. We do have flyers that announce everyone running with us, but I wanted to create something for social media too. It was easiest to make it on Instagram because of how the restrictions are on other services. But I love how it turned out with the different photo groups for different types of candidates.

I know there is a lot of work I can do on my personal Instagram to make it look beautiful, but I have been able to do so much with the Unite For Strength Instagram account that I really could use for my own. I probably wouldn’t use the same types of grids that I use since I personally would post more photos, but I would like to take a moment when things calm down to see what I can do to make my account look more professional and polished.

And now, it’s all about making sure all members who can vote do so. Just like with national politics, not everyone votes and getting the voter turnout up is something I personally am passionate about. I work on reaching out to all of my friends who I know are members and making sure they vote. And while I do hope they will vote for me and the rest of Unite For Strength, I understand that not everyone feels as passionately about the same issues as I do so they might not vote the same way I would. But getting people involved and voting is so important.

If you are a member of SAG-AFTRA, please vote. I know I ask this every time there is an election, but I will keep saying it every time. I know there are so many people who don’t vote because they forget or they don’t think it matters. But it really does matter. And if you have questions about why I’m running or why I’m a part of Unite For Strength, please reach out to me. I’d be happy to talk to anyone even if you don’t agree with me or decide you don’t want to vote for me.

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Default ThumbnailKicking Off Election Season (or Time To Be Busy With Campaigning) Default ThumbnailIt’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer) Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailElection Season Time (or Being A Part Of Unite For Strength) Default ThumbnailUnite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time)

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Finally Back To Brunch (or The First Mentoring Group Meeting In Over A Year)

Posted on June 29, 2021 | Comments Off on Finally Back To Brunch (or The First Mentoring Group Meeting In Over A Year)

For the past few years, having meetings with my WIF mentoring group has been a regular part of my life. We have changed the frequency of the meetings over the years, but we have been meeting up regularly since 2015. I’m always so proud of our group for being able to maintain our meetings even after the official mentoring circle time ended. And while there are a few members of our group who aren’t a part of it anymore, a majority of us have stayed connected and we have 6 of us who have been regularly there since the beginning.

In 2020, we had one of our brunches. It was right before everything shut down. I don’t think any of us could have imagined what was going to happen in a few weeks. I know we were all aware of what was happening, but it felt like it was on the other side of the world and wouldn’t come here. But of course, we know now that it did come here and we’ve been dealing with this for over a year now.

We talked about having a meeting over Zoom, but we never ended up making that happen. I think all of us were feeling a bit burned out on Zoom, so we didn’t want to do it. As much as we wanted to connect, we didn’t make it happen. Also, I know for myself, I had nothing to really update the group about.

But earlier this year, we agreed we wanted to see each other again and start our brunches. We wanted to wait until we were all vaccinated, just to keep things as safe as possible. And finally, 16 months after our last brunch, we got together this past weekend.

Almost everyone could make it, so that was nice. We used to do our brunches at a restaurant, but we wanted to wait until restaurants were a bit safer. So one member of the group offered to host. That’s how the group started, so it seemed fitting that the restart of the group would be the same way.

It was a really hot morning, but we were able to be in the shade so it wasn’t too bad. And I was just so happy to get to see everyone again! I just wanted to catch up with everyone, even if it was more of a social catch-up than a career one.

But we still went around the group to discuss what we’ve been able to accomplish in the past year. Some people had more than others, but that’s ok. Honestly, I’m just glad we are all ok. One member of the group had gotten COVID, but she didn’t have too severe of a case and she is fine now. But I know how lucky we are that everyone is safe and healthy.

And I did share the few career-related things I had to update everyone on. I have had auditions during the shutdown and I have gotten better at self-taping. I also have a way to do voiceover auditions now, and I didn’t do those before. And I shared some of the struggles I had while isolated and not being able to be around others. It was nice to share those things with a group that understood how I felt and was completely supportive of me.

We had a longer brunch than normal. Partially because we hadn’t seen each other in a while and partially because we weren’t at a restaurant and felt like we needed to leave. I’m so happy we did this. I missed all of these women so much and I missed the support of the group and the special bond we have with each other. And I needed time around friends, and this was the biggest group of friends I’ve been around in a long time.

We are hopefully now back on track with our regular meetings. We might not be back at a restaurant for a bit longer, but we will find ways to meet regularly. Maybe we will just rotate from one house to another. Maybe we will find a park or other public space. We don’t know how we will meet up just yet, but we know we will meet.

I’ve said so many times how special this group is. And showing how we didn’t let a pandemic stop us just proves it even more.

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Default ThumbnailLast Mentoring Group Brunch For The Year (or Switching Things Up For Next Year) Default ThumbnailFinally Seeing My Mentoring Group Again (or Our First Brunch Of 2020) Default ThumbnailAnother Business Brunch (or A Delayed Mentoring Circle Meeting) Default ThumbnailFinally Having Our Brunch (or Almost All The Mentees Together Again) Default Thumbnail4 Years Of My Mentoring Circle (or Celebrating With Brunch) Default ThumbnailMeeting My Mentoring Circle (or Being In The Minority)

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Finding Some Crossover With My Skills (or A New Way To Use Self-Tape Skills)

Posted on June 11, 2021 | Comments Off on Finding Some Crossover With My Skills (or A New Way To Use Self-Tape Skills)

There are a lot of skills I have gained in life that are really only good for the reason I originally learned them for. For example, I used to work in credit card disputes and I gained a lot of skills on how to complete and win the disputes for the company side. I guess technically I can use these skills in understanding how disputes work for other aspects of my life, but so much of what I learned there was specific to that job. It’s the same with a lot of my acting skills. Some I can use for other things, like becoming good at memorization, but many don’t have a purpose outside of acting, like breaking down a script into beats.

But occasionally, I will discover that a random skill that I have learned at some point in my life works for something else. This doesn’t happen too often, but it’s really fun when it does. And I had that happen the other day when I was preparing to renew my passport.

I didn’t realize my passport was going to expire this year until I was doing something and happened to look at it. This was the 3rd passport I’ve had, and sadly it was the first one that had no stamps in it. My last international trip was in the beginning of 2005. I do want to travel again and have ideas of countries I want to visit, but I have no clue when that will happen. Now, it’s not as much of an issue of money (since I have money saved up), but it’s an issue of the world being safe again for traveling. I hope this won’t be much longer, but I am in no rush either. I just hope that by the time I have to renew my passport in 10 years, the one I’ll be getting soon will have at least 1 stamp in it.

Even though I have no plans to travel internationally right now, it’s important for me to have a valid passport. If I do make plans to travel, that’s one less thing for me to worry about. Also, one of the things most actors have is a valid passport because you never know when you might book a job that is out of the country. And since it can take time to get the new passport, having a valid one is the easiest way to be prepared.

The passport renewal process is pretty simple. I was able to complete my application online and print it out. I have my old passport that is about to expire so that eliminates some of the work I’d have to do too. The only thing that I really had to do was to get a new passport photo.

Every other time I’ve gotten a passport photo, I’ve gone somewhere to do it. I don’t remember if my past ones were at AAA or a drugstore like CVS, but I do remember getting them done and having them printed out. I’ve had a few good passport photos, but I have always hated my most recent one. So I was happy to be getting a new passport with a new photo. But I didn’t necessarily want to go somewhere to get it done, and I know some places that used to do passport photos have put them on hold for now.

But I did remember I had some photo paper that I’ve never used so I decided to do it at home. So I set things up just like I did for taking a self-tape audition in my dining room. I already knew how make sure I had good lighting and had a ring light available if I needed it. I also have gotten pretty good at setting up my phone or iPad on a tripod for self-tapes so I am in the frame the way I want and I know I’ll be in focus. I thought about doing a video first and taking a screenshot from it for my photo, but it ended up being easy enough for me to set the timer to take photos. I took a few photos, looked at them, changed my setup a bit, took some more, and repeated that process until I was happy with how my photo looked. And that was a nice benefit of doing my own passport photo. I could make sure it would be a photo I’m ok with for the next 10 years.

There is also a guide on the government website for passport renewals where you can upload your photo to make sure it has the right dimensions. I know there is still a small chance it won’t be perfect, but I did use that tool online to have the site crop my photo and make sure it has the dimensions around my face (it’s not just the size of the photo, you have to have a certain amount of space from the edge to the top of your head). I’m hoping for the best and that I won’t get something back saying my application has been rejected for my photo. But I feel like enough people print out photos at home that it should be fine. Not everyone probably uses a ruler to confirm everything like I do.

I don’t know how many other ways I will use my self-tape skills to use for something else, but it was nice to find a new way to use them. And it got something accomplished that I needed to do, so that’s a win too. And hopefully, renewing my passport is a sign that maybe I will be traveling again soon.

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Default ThumbnailStill Finding New Life Lessons With Dating (or Some Skills I’m Proud Of And Some I’m Not Sure About) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailSelf-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot) Default ThumbnailBeing Hurt And Finding Closure (or Still Finding Out More About Myself Through Dating) Default ThumbnailFinding New Ways To Be Creative (or Almost As Good As Acting) Default ThumbnailForgetting To Document Some Things (or Focusing On Being In The Now)

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Posted in Acting, Fun Stuff, Travel

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It’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

Posted on May 20, 2021 | Comments Off on It’s Almost Election Season! (or Planning For My Summer)

Every other summer for the past 6 years, I’ve spent a lot of my time campaigning for the SAG-AFTRA election. I’ve done this 3 times so far and each time has been a little different.

The first year I was running, I was running as a delegate and didn’t have much of a leadership position within Unite For Strength. I did end up having a little bit of leadership with some of the in-person campaign events, but it was just because I was going often and could help make sure people had the information they needed. The second year, I had a bit more of a leadership position within the slate with social media work. I was much more comfortable campaigning and felt like I really knew what to do. And the last time I was campaigning, I was even more involved. I was running for both a delegate and local board position. I was fully running the Unite For Strength social media. I didn’t attend that many in-person campaign events, but I worked hard in other ways to make sure members voted and encouraging others to support my slate.

And it’s starting to be time to campaign again now! And this year will be even more different than before.

First, I’m not sure yet if I’m running for both delegate and local board or just delegate yet. That’s still being decided and there is time before that has to be figured out. Either way, I’m excited to be a part of union service again and I hope I’m elected.

But the biggest difference is how to have election season during a pandemic. I am glad that we weren’t doing this last summer when things were much worse, but things still aren’t back to normal again. It’s already been announced that the National Convention will be held virtually this year. I’m not sure how it will be compared to the past 3 conventions I attended, but I know it will be different. I’m going to miss the time I had to meet members from other locals and the social aspect of Convention. But we will still be able to work hard for our members just like we have in the past.

And I don’t know how much campaigning will be able to happen in person either. Last time, we didn’t get to campaign at the DGA since the Film Society didn’t happen the same way it did before. And I’m pretty sure the Film Society won’t be back by this summer, so that will be out. So there will be a lot of virtual campaigning this time, which is something I am used to.

I’m still in prep mode for election season. There is a lot to still work out for both the social media work and all the rest of campaigning. And while I do have time, I know the real election season will be here before we know it. Even though this year seems to be moving slower than normal, I know that the end of the election and Convention will be here quickly. And I hope that I’m just as successful, if not more, this election season as I have been for the past election seasons.

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Default ThumbnailThe Official Start To Election Season (or I Can Finally Share Some Things I’ve Been Working On) Default ThumbnailElection Season Time (or Being A Part Of Unite For Strength) Default ThumbnailMore Election Fun For Me (or I’m Running For 2 Things) Default ThumbnailElection Campaigning (or Being A Captain And Getting Out There) Default ThumbnailUnite For Strength (or SAG-AFTRA Election Time) Default ThumbnailThe End Of The Election (or Actors Please Remember To Vote)

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Some Friend and Acting Time (or Still Helping With Self-Tapes)

Posted on April 27, 2021 | Comments Off on Some Friend and Acting Time (or Still Helping With Self-Tapes)

It’s been a little while since I’ve had an audition. That’s ok, I know that not everything is back just yet and it might take longer for more shows to be back in production. And for a lot of shows, they are trying to limit the size of their casts, so they might not have as many co-stars as they had before. It is getting better than it was earlier this year, but it’s still not back to full capacity.

And I’m also ok with it since I don’t usually get a ton of auditions in normal times. I do want that to improve and I have some things I’m hoping to change in the near future to hopefully help, but for right now I’m more focused on making sure I’m in a good spot to take advantage of what I’d like to do. So while I’d love to have more auditions and opportunties right now, I’m not that concerned that things haven’t changed that much for me.

But I have had some friends noticing an increase in their auditions lately and that’s awesome. Some of them are going into a casting office for their auditions, but doing self-tapes is still a very popular option. And while there are some things I don’t love about self-tapes, there are a lot of benefits too. And learning how to do self-tapes when people are not together in the same place has been something everyone has been learning to do.

Normally with self-tape auditions, you’d have a friend come by to help you by having them be the camera person and saying the other lines in the scene. And even though I’m vaccinated and many of my friends are as well, we still aren’t going to someone’s place to help them record. This isn’t that bad of a plan, because it’s nice that we all know how to help friends do their self-tape auditions even if we can’t get over to them. I don’t hate having to drive across town to help a friend, but it’s nice to not have to do that.

And I got the chance to help friends do self-tapes recently and it really does make me happy. I obviously would prefer to have my own auditions, but even being a reader lets me have a little time where I get to have a bit of acting time. The most recent self-tape I helped with was for my birthday twin friend, Joanna. It was for a film project and I was able to help her over Zoom so I was being the reader while in her house.

It was an interesting audition to be a reader for because almost all the lines were ones I had to read. Joanna had some lines too, but a lot more of her audition was about reacting. So it really gave me time to feel like I had playtime with acting. I wasn’t doing anything too crazy since it wasn’t my audition, but I still tried hard to make sure I was the best reader possible for her.

After going through a few takes with different options, Joanna had a great take that I thought was amazing! We did another one after that just to be safe and she checked her camera to make sure that everything looked and sounded fine. It was perfect and we were able to get her entire audition done in only a few minutes.

But since we both had set aside a bit more time for her audition, we stayed on Zoom and had a nice chance to hangout and talk. It’s a little crazy to think that we are actually having more hangout time in a pandemic than normal times. We usually text throughout the year but only really see each other for our birthday and for our cheesecake outing. But this past year we also had the Drag Queen show and the times we’ve helped each other with our self-tapes. I love that somehow the pandemic has given us more chances to see each other and talk. And since we had just seen each other somewhat recently, there wasn’t a lot to discuss in our post-audition hangout. But it was still nice to have some time with a friend since that’s something I still am not doing that often.

I hope that either I get some self-tape auditions or I have friends who need help so I can be a reader coming up. When there aren’t a lot of things I can control in my acting career, having these moments are so much fun for me to do. And it’s even better when I get to also have a friend hangout after some acting fun!

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Default ThumbnailAlmost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now) Default ThumbnailHelping Out A Friend (or Getting To Act) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailMaking My Acting Bold (or Feeling Great From An Audition) Default ThumbnailSelf-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot)

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It’s SAG Awards Time! (or I Still Love Watching To See Who Wins)

Posted on April 8, 2021 | Comments Off on It’s SAG Awards Time! (or I Still Love Watching To See Who Wins)

The SAG Awards is one of the award shows I look forward to the most each year. It’s the one award show that I get to have a real hand in selecting the winners. I love getting to vote for all the different categories. And I do take voting seriously. I watch all the movies and shows that I can (I can’t always watch everything, but I try my best) and I pick based on the performances and not just wanting to see someone win. And I love watching the show because it feels much more connected to me than other award shows.

But this year, like so many things, the show had to be a bit different. I think all the award shows have been trying different things to see what is going to work and seem like the same show they had before. And I have to say, I love what the SAG Awards did.

Many shows seem to be doing something as close to normal as possible and having all the nominees appearing on Zoom so they can give their speech on live tv. And the run time for the award shows has been similar to what they were when everyone was in a space together. But the SAG Awards almost honored that we are in a different time by not trying to make it seem like a slightly different version of normal.

The show was only an hour long. All the award announcements were pre-taped so they didn’t have to worry about technical difficulties during a live broadcast. They did have all the nominees on Zoom like other shows have, and that helped it seem like each category was celebrating the winner together. It was fun to see these different little communities for each award and watching everyone as a group. And between each award presentation, they had these fun interviews with different actors about things that I think most SAG-AFTRA members could relate to. I don’t know if people outside of the industry enjoyed those segments as much as actors did, but I found them amazing. I especially loved seeing the one where the actors were talking about the random special skills listed on their resume and which ones were real and which ones they put on there and hoped they were never asked about.

The only negative thing for me about the SAG Awards this year was something that was my fault. This year, I didn’t watch that many of the nominated films. I watched so few that I actually didn’t vote for the winners. I didn’t feel like it was fair for me to vote when I didn’t really know if the performances I liked were the best of all the options. And I didn’t really have a good reason not to watch the screeners I got. I had the time, I just didn’t have the motivation. And maybe it was because I also am missing going to a movie theater to watch movies. While I love watching movies at home, it’s usually because that feels so different from what I normally do. But now, all movies are being watched on my tv. So I don’t feel the same way about feeling lucky to watch the screeners I got.

I’m so glad that even though I didn’t watch all the movies this year, I still loved watching the SAG Awards. It makes me so happy to see actors celebrating actors and I feel very lucky that I get to be a part of it. And I loved seeing what the producers of the show were able to do to make it feel special and unique even if it couldn’t be the way we are used to watching award shows. Hopefully, by next year things will be able to be done the way we are familiar with and everyone will be celebrating the winners together.

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Default ThumbnailA Night Of SAG Awards (or Watching Union Unity) Default ThumbnailSAG Awards (or Watching After Knowing The Winners) Default ThumbnailEnjoying Movie Nights (or Watching My Screeners) Default ThumbnailThe SAG Awards (or I Am An Actor) Default ThumbnailBeing An Active And Interactive Viewer (or SAG Awards Live-Tweeting) Default ThumbnailEnjoying The Emmys (or This Awards Show Will Be A Bit Of A Time Capsule)

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An Afternoon With The Headshot Truck (or Doing Some Work Photos)

Posted on March 23, 2021 | Comments Off on An Afternoon With The Headshot Truck (or Doing Some Work Photos)

It’s been a while since I’ve had some new headshots taken. I know I need to do some new ones soon, but I’ve been putting it off for a bit. Before the pandemic, I was hoping I would have a different enough look to need them (like if I changed up my hair or lost weight). I know you don’t have to wait until you look different for new photos, but that was the excuse I was telling myself. And then during the pandemic, I’ve been telling myself that I wanted to wait until it was safer. I know several photographers have been doing headshots and have found ways to stay safe, but I was still using that as an excuse.

But last week, I had to get some photos done for my social media day job. We all needed official work photos done. Some people had some that were taken before, but everyone was getting new photos taken even if they had them done in the past. These photos are going to be used on the company website, in our work emails, and when we are doing something where we are representing the company. But because many of us who work there are also actors, they wanted the photos to be great for work and also possible to use as headshots.

The photos were taken with The Headshot Truck. I’ve known about The Headshot Truck for several years now and I hadn’t shot with them before. But I loved their work and was really excited to get a chance to shoot with them. Because of safety issues, the photos would all be taken outside but I knew that they were going to be great no matter what.

Since these photos are primarily for work-related purposes, there were a few things we all had to do. The main thing was that we all had to wear blue since that is the company color. That was fine with me since I think I photograph well in blue. So I wore one option and brought a few others in case I needed to change. We all only had 15 minutes for our shoots, so there wasn’t really time to do multiple looks. But I wanted to have options just in case I needed to change before we started shooting. Fortunately, the outfit that I wore to the shoot was perfect and I didn’t have to change.

One other difference between other headshot shoots was that I had to do my own hair and makeup. I almost always have someone to do my hair and makeup, but since this shoot was a mini-shoot and mainly for work, I wasn’t going to hire someone this time. So I did my own hair and makeup and hoped it would look ok.

The shoot itself was really fun and easy. There were 2 outdoor locations were did the photos in. And halfway through the shoot, the photographer let me look at the photos so I could see if there was anything I wanted to change. I’m glad I did look, because there was something odd with how my hair was going over my shoulder. It wasn’t anything bad or something anyone besides myself would notice, but I’m glad I could fix it because I know it would have bothered me looking at the photos. I will also likely do retouching (since you always need to do that) so I could have fixed it in retouching too. But I am glad I could change how my hair looked so I could feel better about my photos.

I haven’t gotten the images back just yet, but I’m happy with what I’ve seen so far. I’ve only seen a few shots from their computer screen after the shoot was done, but they look great!

I know my photo of their screen isn’t the best and it’s not easy to see the photos, but I was happy when looking at them. And I’m sure I’ll have a few different ones that are my top choices and I’ll ask friends to help me pick the best one. And maybe I’ll find one that I love for my work shot and another that I love for a headshot!

I love that I had this chance to take some new photos. Even though the main reason for them is for work, this is another thing I was able to do to get ready for being back to auditioning again. I’ve been doing self-tapes over the past year, but I know in-person auditions will be back in the future and I want to have myself in the best spot possible for those when they happen.

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Default ThumbnailTime For New Headshots (or Adding Some Personality Into My Photos) Default ThumbnailA Mini Photo Shoot (or Enjoying A Voter Freebie) Default ThumbnailExpress Headshot Day (or Another Fun Podcast Event) Default ThumbnailNew Headshots (or Trying To Be A Quirky Office Girl/College Student/Young Mom) Default ThumbnailBeing Underestimated (or Does My Opinion Not Matter?) Default ThumbnailGetting Pretty (or A Fresh Look For My New Pictures)

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More Virtual Union Meetings (or Hopefully We Will Be Back To In-Person Meetings Soon)

Posted on March 18, 2021 | Comments Off on More Virtual Union Meetings (or Hopefully We Will Be Back To In-Person Meetings Soon)

Over the past year, I’ve done a lot of virtual meetings regarding SAG-AFTRA. Some of them are more official and some of them are unofficial but still related to union service. I’m not sure if I’ve been a part of more meetings than normal since virtual ones are easier to attend, but I know that it hasn’t been as big of a decrease as I feared at first. There are different virtual meetings and events to attend each week and I only have been a part of a small portion of those. But whenever there is a bigger official meeting, I do my best to be a part of it.

There haven’t been a lot of big meetings lately, but there have been a few. There was one last year regarding the health plan that I made sure to be a part of. Even though I’m not eligible for union healthcare, I wanted to understand what was going on so I could try to help other members who had questions. I also like to understand what is going on because then when I’m eligible in the future I will already have some knowledge about the system. I did that before I joined the union. I attended several meetings that were open to non-union members so I didn’t join without understanding a lot of the union benefits and the important people I should know about.

I do miss attending the Local Board meetings. I was doing really great with attending those each month. And while they are doing those meetings over Zoom these days, they are not open to observers like the in-person meetings are. But as soon as those are able to have observers again, I plan on being back there and being as active and involved in the union as I can.

But last week, there was another big official meeting. The LA Local Membership meeting is an open meeting to all members of the LA Local. Normally, it’s held in a big room and there is an expo before the meeting so members can learn about different committees and services that the LA Local has. And during the meeting, there is a lot of information given, like how things have been going for the union and the progress of things coming up. And for the second half of the meeting, it’s a Q&A where you can ask the local leaders questions about anything union-related. Some people have questions about contracts, some ask about the health and pension plans, and some are more general questions.

Something I love about the LA Local Membership meeting is getting to see so many of my friends. I usually am socializing before and after the meeting. Sometimes a little socializing during the meeting too. But I usually am trying to pay attention and see what new things are happening that I need to be aware of. It’s a long meeting and full of information, but it’s always something I am glad I attended.

This year, obviously they couldn’t have the meeting the way they usually do. So it was done on Zoom with only the leaders being seen. There were presentations about a few things, but not as many as they have done during the in-person meetings. I don’t know if they were trying to keep more time open for the Q&A or if there wasn’t as much to present. But I’m glad they did keep the Q&A time because I know I had a lot of friends that had questions. I had some questions I wanted to ask too, but I couldn’t stay on Zoom the entire time and I didn’t want my turn to come up when I wasn’t on there. So I just listened to what other members asked.

And most of the questions were things that I expected to hear about. Some of the same questions that we are used to hearing at these meetings and some that are specific to this time. Being safe on sets and at auditions is a big concern for everyone, but the union has been doing a great job and creating guidelines for how to accomplish that.

While I didn’t get to meet anyone new in person like I normally do, I did connect to someone through social media after they asked a question that I was able to help with. I’m glad I was still able to help a member, but it was weird having to find them on social media and hope they were ok with a random person messaging them. Fortunately, they were ok with me doing that and I was able to get them connected to others who I thought they should know.

While this was still a really great and productive meeting, I was a bit sad that it was done virtually. So much of what I love about union service is meeting new people in person and connecting with them. You can’t really do that over Zoom. And I think most of us are ready to be done with virtual meetings and seeing people face to face again. But we can’t do that just yet. Things are getting safer, but they aren’t safe just yet. And I don’t know what it will take for meetings to be in person again, but I do trust that whatever the union decides to do, there will be a lot of thought behind it. So I am ok with them not rushing back, but at the same time, I can’t wait for it to happen.

Hopefully, this was one of my last big union events that will be done virtually. I know there is some chance of things coming up that will be virtual, like the National Convention, but that’s also half a year away. Nothing has been decided yet and so much can change between now and then. All I can do is continue attending the things that I can and try to find ways to still be involved and make connections. And I’m sure it won’t be long before I am back to attending things in person and maybe I’ll even start missing the time that I attended things virtually.

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A Different Type Of Self-Tape Audition (or Recording An Audition In Bed)

Posted on January 27, 2021 | Comments Off on A Different Type Of Self-Tape Audition (or Recording An Audition In Bed)

While I haven’t had a lot of self-tape auditions, I have had enough that I feel pretty good about my setup. There are still a few things that I want to get to make my self-tape auditions better, but nothing is desperately needed. But I have a feeling that even when auditions can be held in-person again, there will still be more self-tape auditions than there were before the pandemic. And I’m ok with this because I’m happy for any auditions I can get!

All of my self-tape auditions have been on video. Some have been for tv shows and some for commercials. I don’t think I’ve had a movie self-tape yet, but it’s the same idea as tv and commercial auditions. They are filmed and it’s on-camera. I have a place in my house that I use for recording these because the light is the best and I have a way to set up my tripod and everything else I need to look the best I can. And I know I have to look good when I do them. I might wear sweats on the bottom with a nice top or dress on top, but I look presentable and have my hair and makeup done.

But not all auditions are on video. Voiceover auditions are just sound recordings.  I rarely audition for voiceovers, but I have had them in the past. But those auditions were all done at a casting office or recording studio where they had a sound booth to do the audition in. I know that recording voiceover auditions (and even some jobs) at home has been common for a long time, but it’s not something I had any experience in.

Until this past weekend.

I got an audition notice from my commercial agent about a voiceover commercial audition. It was pretty simple, only 2 lines, but it needed to be done at home. I guess I could have rented a recording studio for my audition, but that would have cost money and I knew it wasn’t necessary. My audition didn’t have to be perfect, but I needed to find a way to make things as clear sounding as possible.

I knew using my external mic on my phone was going to be the best option. I guess I could have tried my headphones, but I know that things usually sound better on the mic than when I use my headphones. And I also knew that clothing and fabric are great for soundproofing and muffling other noises so a lot of people recommend recording in your closet. But my closet is a weird shape where it’s almost like a little hallway with the handing rods in the back. I did try doing one take in there, but it was very echoey and you could hear some ambient noise.

So I did some research online for other options and one that kept coming up was recording under a blanket. Covering yourself with a blanket is the same idea as being in a closet. You have fabric all around you and have a good chance to not have any echoes. I don’t own a ton of blankets, but I figured the comforter on my bed would work. And I didn’t have to sit up to do this, so I got back into bed with my phone in front of me to have the script up and my mic near my face.

I still did a few different takes to make sure I had a take that I liked. There were a few where it didn’t sound the way I wanted it to, but that was about my performance and not any outside noise coming in. It didn’t take too long, but I still took my time doing this. And after doing a little bit of editing to cut out the dead air at the beginning and end, my audition was done and ready to be submitted!

I don’t know if I want to try to pursue more voiceover work. There are a lot of things I don’t know about doing voiceovers that I should learn if I want to do it more often. But it was fun to play with it this time and it would be really cool if I booked it! I don’t expect to since I know some of the other women who auditioned for this part are very experienced in voiceover. But no matter what, it was another day to audition and have fun. And anything that makes me happy and brings joy into my life these days is amazing!

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Default ThumbnailAlmost Getting To Act (or Being On The Other Side Of A Self-Tape Audition) Default ThumbnailAnother Self-Tape Audition (or So Grateful For Anything Related To Acting Right Now) Default ThumbnailUpgrading My Self-Tape Set Up (or 2 Auditions In 30 Minutes) Default ThumbnailAn Isolation Audition (or Working On My Self-Tape Game) Default ThumbnailAudition Horror Stories (or Sometimes I Like Things To Be Boring) Default ThumbnailSelf-Tape Saturday (or Turning A Video Shoot Into A Photo Shoot)

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