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10:11 AM - FRI 11.04.22
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Live From DocUtah

I'm writing this entry "on location" from St George, Utah!

On Monday, I had a second day of ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement) for the commercial I recently shot.

(Here's one for the "Things Work Out...And Sometimes Even Better Than You Imagined" File - When it looked like I might have a conflict with the original Monday ADR date, they rescheduled me individually for last Friday. Then when it turned out I could do Monday - with all the other actors in the "Chorus" - they had me come in for that as well. So, in a word, "Ka-Ching!".)

The ADR was a lot of fun. We'd enjoyed working with each other on the day, so were happy getting to meet up again.

(And beyond that, I just liked the novelty of being in a sound studio - I did ADR once for Shameless and I've been in recording studios a few other times for one reason or another, but it had been years).

And the next day, I left for Utah with Jane.

I found the trip here pretty arduous, for various and sundry reasons I shan't get into (Basically, as a traveler, I made some "tactical blunders" that hampered my movement when I really needed to be un-hampered. Though that said, it was pretty sweet to get to hang out in the Skymiles Lounge during our layover in Salt Lake City, a perk Jane gets for being a frequent flyer, and a perk she was able to share with me.

But whatever challenges there were on the way, it's been nothing but fun being here.

On Wednesday, Jane taught a "master class" in documentary filmmaking to a group of film students and showed Apotheosis (Her second film) while I weighed in as I saw fit.

(I'm by no means an expert in production of any kind. But I do now know something about being a documentary subject. And of course, I've logged time on a number of professional sets over the years, so had some theoretically helpful observations about that.)

We had a full house, and while it might have been mandatory - I'm not sure - the students seemed quite enthusiastic and attentive (And it felt meaningful to me that we were both approached afterward by a number of students with more questions).

(I thought it was funny when, at the beginning, Jane asked, "Who's seen Shameless?", and just two or three kids raised their hands - Afterwards, it was clear more of them knew the show than were letting on. But it's understandable - We are in Utah, after all.)

The next day, we were both quite pleased when we were told the students had been "buzzing" about the event for the rest of the day. And maybe better yet, one of the instructors told us he thought it was great that we both focused a lot on being "organic", taking advantage of "happy accidents" and rolling with things, because he worried that some of the students might be a bit "locked into" one view of how things should go when making a film.

Afterward, the two of us had lunch with Tisa Z., our film-festival connection and second-in-command.

It feels safe to say a good time was had by all (We both think she's great, and she seems to enjoy our company as well. And we met her husband Mike last night, and he seems pretty cool too).

Yesterday at 4:00 pm was the first screening of Acting Like Nothing Is Wrong.

We didn't expect to have a full house like in Santa Fe, and this group was the quietest so far in their response to the film, but from the applause after and the questions during the Q&A, it seemed pretty clear those assembled had appreciated what they'd seen.

The two of us had dinner afterward, then hung out at the theater till it was time for the nightly "mixer", where we mostly just talked with Tisa and Mike, which was fine (And we both had already interacted with some folks beforehand).

Today Jane's "taking the day off" so she can rest and do some stuff for the next leg of our adventure in East Lansing (Which has two sold-out houses), while I sit in on the daily "DocTalk" panel (Honestly? I'm feeling a little "iffy" about it - I'm not a filmmaker - but the facilitator actually encouraged it, as they don't get the perspective of the documentary "subject" very often, so...why not? If nothing else, it's worth it to try and get more people to our final showing tomorrow morning).

Well, there's loads more to write about (For example, I've had three self-tape auditions since I've been here, two that Jane helped me with and a really simple one I was able to do myself, so I'm checking my phone every other minute. But I also had a Cameo come in last night that I have to get done, then I need to start getting really for my "DocTalk" debut.

Till next time...


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