Check out the latest installment of the NEW ‘Hugh Nation Blog’ :)
The results of intention. Pt 2: Synchronicity?
(In October 2007 I started writing a weekly blog about my experiences performing my one man music show all over the Southwestern USA. I also shared my experiences, from an Irishman’s point of view, living in California. Over three years my blog has evolved and now also includes my experiences as an actor in Hollywood. You can read all my previous blog entries via my main web site: www.hughmusic.com )
Hello my friends!
Welcome to my latest weekly Hugh Nation blog. This is the second part of my ‘Results of intention’ blog. It needed two parts to cover everything! The past few weeks have been quite the trip for me with five acting projects wrapped and another (feature film) ongoing and almost complete. Okay, so last week I covered me doing the independent movie ‘Conspiracy Of The Shadow 2: The Rise Of Dante’, shooting ‘live’ in a TV studio a scene from the movie ’I Am Sam’ and also me doing the movie short ‘Mercy’ where I was a father whose daughter was turning into a zombie. This week I’m gonna update you on the other projects I’ve been working on over the past few weeks. So… are you ready? Ok.. read on…
HUGH AS ‘THE DUDE’ GETS TOILET BOARDED!?!
I wrote a story in a recent blog about my first ever audition in L.A. It was a commercial audition for GM where they wanted someone who had the look of ’The Dude’ from the Coen brothers movie ’The Big Lebowski’. Well, about a week ago I auditioned for another project at the LA Film School in Hollywood for the role of ‘The Dude’. It all came together very quickly. I auditioned for the part on a Monday afternoon, got confirmation that I booked it later that night and then after a rehearsal on Tuesday we shot it on Wednesday! 
Jeff Bridges as ‘The Dude’.
The scene we shot was the part of the movie where the Dude is tortured (toilet boarded!) and interrogated by two bad guys who mistake him for another man called Lebowski. The director of our scene put his own touches to it though. First off he had it set in Japan and second the bad guys were Yakusa (Japanese Mafia) and third one of the bad guys became a woman, a 6’7 tall woman to be exact!
The Lebowski scene cast: Me, Rachael Meyers and Isaac Cheung.
It was a great shoot. The set that was built from scratch looked amazing, the director, the producer, all the crew, the other two actors, everything just felt like it clicked. Call it coincidence, synchronicity, the stars aligning whatever floats your boat but whatever it was.. it was great! :)
I got some great shots in this for my demo reel. (If you are squeamish or a germaphobe don’t read this next paragraph) Not only was my head stuck in a prop toilet (just focus on the word ‘prop’) but the crew also built what I’m calling an ’underwater shot’ prop toilet. It was basically a toilet bowl cut horizontally in half mounted on a table and with a small glass pane across the middle. Why? So the cameraman lies under the table and shoots up at my head submerged in water through the glass as if they had an underwater toilet cam! ingenious. If anyone had any doubts about my commitment as an actor I’m pretty sure this ‘stunt’ for want of a better word should answer that question. 
Me as the dude post ‘toilet boarding’!! :)
CHIMERA
This was a very cool project that I wanted to do for many reasons. When I read the script I thought wow, that’s pretty unique, more brilliant demo reel potential in it for me. Then at my first audition I met the director Kimberly McConnell. Kim is an interesting character, she was so incredibly upbeat and full of enthusiasm, picture tinker bell on Christmas morning! :) and the first thing I thought to myself was ’Damn, she’s my kind of people, who wouldn’t want to work with her?’.
When I got a call back (2nd audition) I was stoked. The second audition was a mix and match situation, where me and another actor took turns going through a scene with different actresses. They were essentially looking for the right chemistry. Later that night I was delighted to hear that I booked the project and I was extra happy to hear that the actress they picked was the very talented Ashley Sutton (see pic below). Ashley was the first actress I had run through the scene with at the second audition and in my opinion she was definitely the best choice for this role.
Ashley Sutton. www.ashleynicolesutton.com
If I was to sum up the story of this movie short ‘Chimera’ in one sentence it essentially shows us the strange daydreams of a quirky young woman (called ‘Bari’) over the course of one afternoon.
‘Chimera’ dictionary definition:
In ‘Chimera’ I play the role of this girl Bari’s neighbor, his name is Ray. My character is a shy, socially awkward bachelor (the polar opposite of me!) who while in reality is harmless in Bari’s daydream he becomes many different things, including at one point a psycho killer! This project was shot over two days on location in Sherman Oaks and North Hills, Los Angeles.
Between takes, director Kimberly McConnell adjusts Ashley’s hair on set in Sherman Oaks.
There were some physically involved parts written in the script and Ashley and I, in order to make it look more real, collaborated and came up with some cool ways of adding to the physical stunts we had to do. Ashley’s willingness as an actress to, as she put it, go “Balls to the wall!” was great. I think you’ll see the results of this commitment from both of us when the film is done.
By the way, speaking of ‘film’ this project was actually shot on 16 mm film which is again a brilliant thing for my demo reel. Why? well most projects don’t shoot on film anymore unless they’re doing a big motion picture. This is going to look f**king great.
Me about to make my ‘psycho killer entrance’ @ the North Hills location. Check out the old school camera the crew were using.
FEATURE FILM!!
The story of how I booked my first feature film is a classic example to me of what the results of the power of intention can be. In a universe where impossible is only what you believe it is, anything is possible.
First off I got chosen for this feature film by my photo on LA Casting, (LA Casting is the main web site actors use in LA to get auditions). This is unusual because technically this is not a typical actor head shot (see pic below). I chose this picture to put up on LA Casting simply because it was the best picture I had at that time. I did do audition before I was fully confirmed for the role but not in a conventional way. I actually auditioned via a conference call at the unusual time of 11pm on a Saturday night! The casting happened this way because of shooting deadlines on the project and because they needed to cast an actor in this role ASAP.
The picture that got me the part :) © 2010 Edward Knuff, All Rights Reserved.
For legal reasons I cannot speak specifically about this project now but I can tell you that I have spent five days shooting, so far.
I have had a chance to see the parts of the movie that have been completed. And all I can say is… WOW… It’s hard to describe but imagine the filmmakers John Woo, George Lucas, Quentin Tarantino and Guy Ritchie made a movie together!! Yeah… The writer and director of this movie has created a universe with this project that in my opinion is genuinely unique. He cleverly mixes a variety of movie genres creating his own definite style and he brings it all together in a way that I have never seen in a movie before.This project was shot on locations around Europe and the U.S.
I promise I will share more info with you, my loyal blog readers, about this exciting project when I can :)
THE RESULTS OF INTENTION. THANK YOU’S.
It has not just been my intention and my efforts that have been involved in these kick arse past few weeks. There have been a lot of people who have contributed to the results of my intention. I have met and worked with some amazing people over the past few weeks and I want to take a moment here to thank them. Perhaps this positive intention energy I am sending out is bringing all the stars into alignment? I’ll let you decide.
Actors: Kelly De Sarla. Rhonda Morman, David ‘Dax’ Bauer, Cody Vaughan (& all the cast of Conspiracy of The Shadow 2). Meaghan Keaveney, Isaac Cheung, Rachel Meyers, Ashley Sutton. And the cast of the feature film.
Directors: Richard Zapp, Shanon Carriere, Zach Berg, Ingersoll Avaelo and Kimberly McConnell. Also to Monica Serva, Mikiko A Convis and all the talented and hardworking crew members at all the shoots I have had the honor of being a part of.
Erin Prater, Shari Scott, Crissy Campbell, Salo Stanley and Jessica Lewis.
To my brilliant acting coach Mark McPherson I say.. (Here comes the sport analagy!) Damn coach! looks like you put me (your player) in the right position! This is only the beginning :)
Edel, Matthew and Daniel.
And finally to everyone who has posted comments and likes on facebook, sent me personal messages and called me over the past few weeks thank you all sincerely for your support and encouragement. I really appreciate it.
Quote from the book ‘Oneness’.
Have a great week my friends!
Hugh
The results of intention. Part 1: And so it begins!
(In October 2007 I started writing a weekly blog about my experiences performing my one man music show all over the Southwestern USA. I also shared my experiences, from an Irishman’s point of view, living in California. Over three years my blog has evolved and now also includes my experiences as an actor in Hollywood. You can read all my previous blog entries via my main web site: www.hughmusic.com )
Hello my friends!
Welcome to the beginning of my 4th year of weekly blogs. This is the start of a new chapter of weekly blogs for me, in what I see, as a natural evolution of my blog. For those of you who liked things just the way they are with my blogs don’t worry I will be retaining most of the elements of my previous blog format. The changes I’m making will be gradually done over the next few weeks. To start off with I am switching my blog home base from MySpace to Tumblr.
THE POWER OF INTENTION: INTRO
I recently wrote 2 blogs about the power of intention and now after shooting five film projects in 11 days!! (and with two more film shoots happening this weekend) I thought this might be a good time to, stop… take a breath…. ahhh, and write about the results of my intention. Results that many of you, have had a direct part in. :) So are you ready? Read on….
MY FIRST INDEPENDENT MOVIE SHOOT
So my first independent film project is a film entitled ‘Conspiracy Of The Shadow 2: The Rise Of Dante’. This is a futuristic action film, a sequel obviously, and in it I play the role of ‘Ivan’ who is one of the leaders of the good guys. The costume for my role was a suit, I didn’t have one, so I decided rather than rent one I’d just go for it and buy one. I needed one for auditions anyway. This would not be the last time over the next 11 days that I would throw caution to the wind and spend money I don’t have. Why? because sometimes you just have to spend money to make money. And yes I am THAT convinced that all this is only the beginning of what’s to come :)
Picture by Rob Schouten.
My first scene was with talented actress Rhonda Morman (see pic below) her first words to me in the scene were.. ”Ivan….. sir” which was kind of cool! I was in my new suit so feeling in charge was definitely made a little easier.
Rhonda Morman.
My second scene wasn’t so pleasant though! ha ha… I had no time to get cocky about being called sir! because in this scene I literally get throttled and thrown to the ground by the lead character Dante (played by actor David ‘Dax’ Bauer). Dante says to me “You are strong (Ivan), but in my eyes you are weak!” and he tosses me to the ground. Boom! Back to reality… ‘sir’ :)
A week later I shot another scene in the movie. In it I get cold cocked with a fist by a villainess! This was a fight scene with five actors involved and so while it was challenging it was also very rewarding to co ordinate, rehearse and then shoot.
At the end of this scene the character of Brian (played by actor Cody Vaughan see pic below) kills another character and I say to him. “Great work… so that’s why they call you Brian… the virus” :)
Cody Vaughan.
MY FIRST STUDENT FILM (TV STUDIO) SHOOT!… WITH A MOVIE STAR :)
Then came the recreation of a scene from the movie ‘I Am Sam’ (which starred Sean Penn, Dakota Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer). Yeah this was not an easy scene to do! When the actress on this project flaked I called my friend actress Kelly De Sarla who in spite of her busy schedule very graciously stepped in with only days to go before the shoot! I was thrilled. Not only would I be doing my first ‘in studio’ scene but now I was getting to do it with a freakin’ movie star!
Kelly De Sarla.
Kelly has worked with some big names in Hollywood check out her demo reel on her website and you’ll see what I mean. www.kellydesarla.com
You’ll be able to see Kelly on the big screen next in Henry Jaglom’s movie ‘The Queen Of The Lot’ which stars Noah Wyle (ER) and Tanna Frederick. It opens November 19th. www.queenofthelot.com
I have mentioned Kelly in previous blogs about acting before, I first met her through my songwriting teacher Harriet Schock, Kelly plays flute in Harriet’s band. I then ended up in the same acting class as Kelly, at Mark McPherson’s Studio 24 Seven acting studio in Hollywood.
Check out Studio 24 Seven acting studio on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Los-Angeles-CA/Studio-24-Seven/128757810492246
Kelly has been very helpful to me as I have tried to navigate my way through these uncharted waters of acting. Kelly speaks both ‘musician’ and ‘actor’ (yes there is a dialect for both) and she has had to translate ‘actor’ speak for me on quite a few occasions. She has also been very patient with my endless questions and boundless child like enthusiasm :) sharing her knowledge, experience and expertise of acting. Kelly is one of the reasons I have had made so much progress so quickly with acting.
Getting back to the ‘I Am Sam’ scene. It was a great experience for me to shoot a scene like this ‘live’ in one take in a fully equipped TV studio. Doing this with an experienced actress made it brilliant. It was a pressure situation and Kelly and I simply HAD to produce. And being the professional entertainers we are, we did. We put that scene on (when the other actress flaked) after just three rehearsals together! (one of which was o a short run through on set before we shot the scene). It was my honor to do my first scene like this with a talented actress like Kelly. She made me up my game.
‘MERCY’ (ZOMBIE THEMED MOVIE SHORT)
‘Mercy’ tells the story of a father and daughter struggling to survive after a zombie outbreak. My character’s name is Jonathan and in ‘Mercy’ my daughter Claire (played by actress Meghan Keaveney) has been bitten by a zombie and wants me to kill her before she transforms.
Meghan and I on set rehearsing the final scene in Mercy.
This scenario obviously created a very dramatic piece. I saw the playback of what we shot afterwards and man the tension created by the set, the writing and the acting was palatable. Meghan is a very natural actress and was brilliant to work with. What makes her talent even more special is the fact that she is only 18!
Check out the zombie bite on Meghans neck… very well done.
To check out my photo album from the set of ‘Mercy’ just click on the link below: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=255613&id=771511384&l=f493b9f2d2
PART 2 COMING SOON!
There’s just too much good stuff to fit into one blog! I’ll be posting the second part of this blog in a few days and in it I’ll be telling you how I got ‘toilet boarded’ in a scene playing ‘the dude’!!, about an interesting project I’m about to film called ‘Chimera’ where I get to play a psycho killer!! and also share some info about shooting my first feature film. I will also be taking a moment to thank everyone who has contributed so much to this amazing past two weeks I’ve had. 
Photo © 2010 Edward Knuff, All Rights Reserved.
So until part 2… be well my friends.
Hugh
