Chapter 5: LA part 11 – Lost Focus part 2 Waiter

Recording date:

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The evening: Monday 9th of June 2003.

Heading for Newport Beach

I drove out from LA Center Studios (after a day working on Mtv’s Burnt) heading for Newport Beach. My Call Time for Lost Focus was 8am at Newport Channel Inn, so I figured I might as well get there there that night and check in instead of leaving at 6am from Santa Monica driving in traffic to get there.

I arrived at the Inn past midnight and fell asleep as soon as I went to bed.

Tuesday 10th of June

The alarm went off at 7am, and I took a shower and went outside to look for crew people. One of the crew guys drove a van back and forth from the Inn picking up crew members and dropping them off at the marina where todays scenes were to take place. I talked with the Director, Sanford Fleishman for a few moments about the project. He is financing the $100.000 movie entirely by himself. He wrote the script and is directing the movie. I asked him later in the day if I could possibly get a copy of the movie sometime in the future, and he said “of course you are now a part of the production crew,” which made me smile with pleasure.

Here is your check

I hopped into the van and a few minutes later we arrived at the marina. I stood around and waited for a while before I decided to walk over to find the set, and stood around there as well. The scene was with two of the actors sitting outside a Mamma Mia restaurant eating lunch. One of the waiters working at Mamma Mia loaned me a black bow tie, and wardrobe loaned me a black apron so I actually looked like I really did worked at the restaurant. The scene began with the real waiter coming outside setting plates on a table next to where the actors where sitting. I came out and said to them “here is your check” and left it on the table for the two guys. Finally the chef came out and asked them about the food. The scene was repeated a few times from different angles. Suddenly it was a wrap, the scene was done and the crew began to pack up their stuff.

I was done, and the Director told me to go to the office trailer to pick up the $100 be had promished me. I hung around for a while at the Marina with the others before the van went to go back to the hotel. I rode along with a few other actors.

Calling Central Casting – picking up a new job the movie Starsky and Hutch.

I picked up my car and I drove back to the marina to get some food before going back to Los Angeles. On the way back to Santa Monica I almost fell a sleep a few times so I decided to call Central Casting´s hotline to hear what jobs were available, so I had something to focus my mind on. I had signed up last Friday with Central Casting the company that gets perhaps over 60% of the extra work on TV and on film. Two jobs fascinated me, one was for Starsky & Hutch and another for a documentary. When I arrived back at the apartment in Santa Monica I called the number mentioned on the hotline for the job. The first thing Marian asked me was for my social security number which she typed it into her computer to see my picture. She asked me if I had been on the movie yet. I said no and she gave me a fitting time for tomorrow at 10am, to get cloths as a guest for the 1970´s Jewish Bahtmizvah. The work is for the following Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Acting class

I made it to my acting class that evening. I met Mary a few weeks ago at a Casting Director course hosted by ISM. I mentioned the acting class I went to on Tuesdays evenings. She and her friend Sarah came to last weeks acting class and enjoyed the class and wanted to come back again. Sarah came back again this evening, while Mary could not make it this time. It was the first time we had girls in our class so the interaction in the reading also became very different. I saw different softer sides in the other guys. Tonight I had my first reading with a girl, and it was a different feeling than having the reading with one of the guys of the class. My emotions in the scene were stronger, as the scene related to the relationship of Will and Skyler from Good Will Hunting.

The missing VHS tape

The acting class I took through the Actors Fellowship led by Casting Director Jules Dean Fonder was a really nice place for me to explore acting. There is a VHS tape of my various performances in class but I do not have it. If you happen to know Jules and can get a hold of a copy for me that would be great!