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2:40 am - Saturday, Oct. 21, 2006 Shot the Bahamas Tourism �Bahama-vention� commercial on Tuesday (�On location� at a home in Tarzana). All I had time to write, while at the shoot, was a bit basically re-iterating the photo-shoot �situation�, and listing what I had for lunch (bbq baby back ribs, salad, wild rice, and apple pie. The best meal I�ve had in quite awhile). We were the second commercial being shot that day (It�s a big campaign�four commercials and two informercials). My call time was 1:00 pm (Call time for Stephanie and Helen, who played my lovely wife and my rather difficult mother, was at noon). Then they broke for lunch at 1:30, so our little gang didn�t really do anything till sometime after 3:00. But when we did get started, it went pretty quickly (I had told Mio, the Japanese actor playing my boss in the spot, that it would, figuring that they wouldn�t have scheduled two spots in one day if they didn�t expect to knock them out in a hurry). I�m not sure exactly when we wrapped, but it was around 7:15 or so (I got back to Hollywood in time to see an 8:00 show of Little Children at ArcLight, where I left my car and took the Metro home). So how do I think it went, you ask...? Well, there was much to enjoy about the day, from the easy directions there (Most of the way on the 101 North), to the great food, to Jen (The sexy wardrobe girl who attended to me throughout the shoot), to my lovely castmates (Everyone was quite nice�Well, maybe not Helen so much--but I seemed to bond particularly with Bry, the older gent who played my Dad, and the aforementioned Mio, who I�d met the day before at the photo shoot; one of the three pictures we did was me getting a big award from the boss, and looking decidedly glum about it). One thing I was very happy about was that my fellow actors all seemed happy (In addition to Stephanie and Helen and Bry, there was Steve, who played a guest at the �Bahama-vention�, and Danny, who played my best friend). Stephanie in particular said, more than once, that it was �nice to be working�. And you know what? It was (I think I�ve written in here before how, at some shoots, actors have �harshed my buzz� by seeming decidedly unhappy to be there). Martin Granger, the director, was a very funny guy. I don�t know what�s going to get in the actual commercial, but he was feeding the various actors lines that I thought were hilarious (If half of what he gave �Dad� to say makes it into the commercial, I think Bry�s going to be the breakout star of the spot. Very funny �Grandpa Simpson�-esque stuff). The only problem I had with the day, really...was me. The director was so funny, I actually felt like he would have been better in the spot than I was. I just didn�t feel like I ever quite �found the character�. When we wrapped, I found myself thinking, regarding my own performance, �Well, I hope they got something they can use...�, which is not exactly how I�d like to feel about work that�s going to be seen by millions of people at some point. So it was a little bit of a strange day. As I said before, there was lots to enjoy�In addition to the things I�ve already mentioned, the weather was perfect (After a rash of overcast days in the time leading up to the shoot), and I hope this doesn�t make me sound like an asshole, but I really enjoyed little niceties like the A.D. bringing me water after a take. I don�t get �attended to� very much in life, so it�s fun when it happens�but the thing I should have enjoyed most of all, getting to kinda/sorta act, was kind of a letdown. My feeling about how I did that day has lead to a lot of thinking about acting�Who I am as an actor, what I think I can do, what I like to do, etc.�but all that�s going to have to wait for another time...
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