Roll up your sleeves and work.

I'm rather a limbo slump at the moment. I'm loving life in Los Angeles and doing all the right technical things I can possibly do on my own, whilst apartment hunting and visa applying but truly until my visa has come through I may not by law work for anyone else. 

In the meantime, I write new work that I may produce myself on little-to-no budget. Though in the past few days, I've struggled to motivate myself to do that because, let's face it, limbo sucks.

This morning, however, I read something that has completely reignited that fire in me (and I am going to have it printed and put on my wall right away).

"The best advice I can offer to those heading into the world of film is not to wait for the system to finance your projects and for others to decide your fate. If you can’t afford to make a million-dollar film, raise $10,000 and produce it yourself. That’s all you need to make a feature film these days. Beware of useless, bottom-rung secretarial jobs in film-production companies. Instead, so long as you are able-bodied, head out to where the real world is. Roll up your sleeves and work as a bouncer in a sex club or a warden in a lunatic asylum or a machine operator in a slaughterhouse. Drive a taxi for six months and you’ll have enough money to make a film. Walk on foot, learn languages and a craft or trade that has nothing to do with cinema. Filmmaking — like great literature — must have experience of life at its foundation. Read Conrad or Hemingway and you can tell how much real life is in those books. A lot of what you see in my films isn’t invention; it’s very much life itself, my own life. If you have an image in your head, hold on to it because — as remote as it might seem — at some point you might be able to use it in a film. I have always sought to transform my own experiences and fantasies into cinema."

-Werner Herzog
(full article here)

Acting Advice from Jessica Chastain to the drama school graduate.

Today, I had a life-changing experience.

To update you first: I have done 3 out of 6 auditions. All of them have taught me much more than I could've asked for. Especially Juilliard - which I didn't get into. I've since realized (and it's taken me the full week to realize it completely) that it's probably a blessing in disguise. I was bruised and battered and buried under the reality of it my 'failure' and guess what? I'm still here. I'm still alive. And I will win if you bet I haven't learnt one of the most important lessons for an actor to learn:

"Right after The Tree of Life (2011) came out, I started hearing about strategies for my career. And I made a decision that I wasn't going to do anything based on a strategy. If I don't continue to challenge myself and risk failure, I have no business being an actor. I'm not an actor to be a personality. I want to see every part I take like a master class. And you know what? I'm going to fail sometimes. And that's OK. Because when you fail, you learn more."

-Jessica Chastain.

Since my Juilliard audition, I've had a lot of ups and downs trying to figure out what I can do to be better. And so many ideas run through my mind but I can't do it all and I have to be clever when it comes to designing my 'practice' because another thing I've learnt up here at the 'centre of the universe' is that there are millions more just like me trying to do what I want to do.

By the way, beautiful brainiac, Jonathan Sierck recommended this book to me and it's brilliant and if you nodded your head even subconsciously while reading that last sentence, you should read it:

So, here I am, left with trying to work out how to do this because I am hell-bent on doing it and doing it properly. I joined Juilliard's mailing list (before the audition... awkward) and a few days ago I got a mail from them advertising an exclusive 'Conversation with Jessica Chastain' at Lincoln Centre, Friday 3pm.

Wow. I went on my own today to experience (because 'listening', 'observing', or 'attending' would not do this justice) Jessica Chastain speaking about everything from going to Juilliard, through her many incredible films, her methods and challenges, to fellow actors and directors, projects, theatre and work ethic. At the end there was a short Q&A and without preparing or deciding to actually ask a question, my hand shot up and they selected me to ask her - best actress nominee - anything I wanted.

And the first question that came to mind (probably because of how much thought I'd given it for the past week) was at 52:30 in this live recording of the conversation. And the answer, so simple and brilliant, has catapulted me psychologically to where I need to be to make it happen for myself.

"Do the work when no one's watching."

And I will thank her to her face on the other side of the work.

X

Meryl Streep: 52 Nominations and Counting.

Meryl Streep has been nominated as best actress for:

16 Academy Awards (Oscars),

11 Bafta Awards,

25 Golden Globe Awards,

and loads more.

Holy smokes, lady.

Rachel McAdams

Brings a new meaning to serious audition work. We go into castings and we're so concerned about ourselves and our look and our personality - which, granted, is all very important - but I know I've never just clearly worked on straight up this is the story and this is what I want stuff like she does in this video. It may not be perfect. But it's pretty insane for an audition tape. Especially considering she got the script the night before.

"The year of the Gosling"

The next big thing. In my opinion. And lots of other people's opinions. Ryan Gosling:

I recently watched Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive the other night. Bare script, low budget, brilliant acting. Carey Mulligan and Ryan Gosling reignited a dimming spark in me that has always wanted to act on screen. This is how it should be done. Simple. Truthful. Beautiful.

I also watched George Clooney's latest film, The Ides of March. A sort of Hamletesque American politics film. He's brilliant in that, too. And up for a Golden Globe for it.

As my good friend Roelof Storm put it: "it is the year of the Gosling."

Infrared Kate Davies

I haven't blogged in ages. I've been waiting to find something worth blogging. I found it:

Cape Town based photographer Kate Davies has recently had a solo exhibition of her infrared photography. Using an Infrared modified Canon DSLR she has created these otherworldly landscape images. She says, “I am hoping this infrared exhibition will help to inspire people to not rely on the norm, but to use all and any options available to express themselves.”

“Infrared photography is by no stretch of the imagination a new form of photography, but for me it has drastically changed the way I look at the medium, as well as the world around me. In brief, Infrared conversion is the process whereby you remove the Infrared filter which sits in front of the camera’s sensor, thereby allowing the IR rays to hit the sensor. The second step would be to use an IR filter in front of the lens, to allow only a certain wavelength of IR rays through.”

Kate is mostly self-taught, excepting two short courses, and aims to create an emotional connection between the viewer and her images. As for her near future, she plans to continue to explore the various mediums within photography and continue to push the boundaries of what is possible and what is not, using anything from film, polaroid, pinhole to modified digital.

See more of Kate’s work on her blog.

Nuff said.

#equalityforall.

Albany, New York (CNN) -- New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed the state's marriage equality bill hours after it passed the Republican-controlled Senate on Friday night, making it the sixth state in the nation to legalize same-sex marriage.

Cuomo signed the bill into law after the legislature cleared the way to legalize same-sex marriage with a 33-to-29 vote, the first time a state Senate with a Republican majority has approved such a bill.

The new law, which will allow same-sex couples in New York to marry within 30 days, drew a sharp rebuke from opponents, who spent millions to try to defeat the measure.

Good job, NYC. I love that LadyGaga has been backing this campaign to legalize gay marriage all along. Legend.

This bizarre youtuber is superhappy:

And this person is just naïve. Sweet. But so naïve:

Peace out and well done almal.

X

Stop motion devotion.

I was looking for something special for someone special (the kind of special thing you have to find online because it's the only way to send someone something special when that someone is 5979miles away). This is what I found and I liked it so much that not only do I wish to inspire my someone but I wish to do that for you, too.

Enjoy:

Chalk Pipe

Robin Rhode. Thanks to Kat ten Velthuis for introducing me to this artist. Jack of all arts. The creation of his pieces is a performance that people can come and watch (call it 'performance art' if you will). The piece is then photographed and video'd and sold as artworks in a gallery at another point in time. I think that's pretty dope.

Check it out xxx

Rosas Danst Rosas

Get goosebumps every time I watch this... The precision, the detail, the beauty. Just love it... I'm going to create something inspired by this soon.

and part two:

Ffffound

Catherine, my good friend, has popularized this website: www.ffffound.com (yes - four fucking 'ef's) in our friend group. So, occasionally, I have a squizz and this is an image I found today that I liked. I agree with everything on it. I reckon. Yes. Cheers.

Reading really IS crucial. Only just starting to figure that one out...