It feels like this past week has been absolutely pivotal.
Being on set was significant. A 20 year gap is a long time between major gigs, and I admittedly was not sure whether I still had "it" in me. For one thing, I was unsure whether I had the same energy levels. Fortunately, it turns out that I remain a cartoon of a person, but now my back muscles notice. For another, I did not know whether I would still be good at it, so the affirmation of both cast and crew, and especially the directors, convinced me that I do in fact have a knack for it. Perhaps most important though, I did not trust myself to know whether it was just some childhood nostalgia or if I would genuinely enjoy that line of work. But after a full day of shooting was done, I struggled to think of a better day of my life in recent memory. It answered some real questions that I was afraid to ask and clarified some unknowns.
Previous to this, I was having depressive symptoms. I thought I might just be kidding myself and felt as though I had no way in, so along with general depressive thoughts and feelings, I was also sleeping into the afternoon, because why wake up any earlier? Life costs money (breakfast!) and is a big leap from being what I particularly want to live, so just sleep through whatever I can. Apart from a scotch tasting with friends from the set of that show, I have not had alcohol in a couple weeks. I am not holding myself too strictly to anything with that though.
At the standup writing workshop on Tuesday, I told the host that I had something new, and he said that it is probably time for me to start working on stuff that I already have so that I do not just have a pile of second drafts of jokes. Part of my reasoning so far is that I wanted to have some time separating present me from the past me that wrote them, but I can now try to put things together and make the big mean cuts.
Wednesday night, I participated in a screenwriter pitch practice meeting online. It was very good for gaining insights into what pitches can look like, along with what works and what does not. And they reminded us that NaNoWriMo is almost upon us, so perhaps this would be a good time to become more disciplined in the writing. My script has a pitch and a starting point, but not much more, in part because I imagined having a writing group to fill in some gaps. But those would merely be gaps, so I might as well get on with it.
Thursday (yesterday), I was paid to do voice acting for the first time. I did the voice work for the lead characters in two horror films. The second had quite a few profanities, which I refrain from using even in my head, but if it sounded strange out of my mouth, I was not corrected. When I asked for feedback after the session, he booked me again for next week (and said that he would have me do more characters within a given movie) and also gave me another contact for more work, letting me know that I should name drop for the session that we just did. I had asked a voice actor friend about it beforehand, and he had told me to ask for above minimum wage, something in the realm of $10-$12 per hour, but my pay came out to something closer to $15-$16 per hour with a few hours of work. And the best part? It was some fun work.
Then my friend who shot and was to edit the lecture series that I wrote and performed last year got back to me. The developer for their website had apparently been cheating them and doing a terrible job, so after a significant loan, he said that they are "really" six months away from finishing it. And he said that he will be sending me any clips that stand out. So that is nice. I wrote a whole lot of jokes for that, and I believe it to likely be the best of its kind on the market in terms of the combination of practical medical content and entertainment. That plus my scenes from this past weekend will hopefully add up to a decent reel, though I can also fill it in with child actor and student film stuff if necessary. Apart from that, the biggest need will be new headshots since I had my pandemic hair cut. But I am still submitting for auditions with what I have, and just leaving a note for casting to let them know about the hair. My resume fortunately looks impressive, perhaps even if you do not ignore the more dated work. Having said that, the only audition opportunity I have received since I started submitting this week was for an online improv group thing, and I backed out of that once I realized that it was most likely not going to be a legitimate paying gig.
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