Friday Favorites: Yule Edition

In 2 days, Boyfriend and I are traveling to Colorado to spend Christmas with my family, which means we are flying with Leeloo for the first time (and we all know how I feel about flying.) My biggest fear is that I will start having anxiety attacks before we even get on the plane, which will cause the dog to become very agitated, which will, in turn, make me have a full-blown anxiety-fueled meltdown, which will upset the dog even further and it will spiral out of control in a never ending anxious cycle until Leeloo and I are both trembling and screaming in a huddled mess in the aisle and get kicked off the plane. But maybe I'm overreacting already...story of my life.

That being said, let me distract all of us with some delightful (mostly) winter holiday themed links for your pre-Christmas enjoyment. Joyeaux Noel!

7 Reasons the TSA Sucks
In the spirit of holiday travel, which really doesn't do much for my anxious feelings...alas.

Best Ugly Sweater
Every nerd needs one of these for Christmas!

BS Christmas News Stories
Never fear, the "War on Christmas" is not really a thing.

Hardest VG Decisions
Not really holiday related, but still funny

A Christmas Letter From Neil & Sky
My friends Neil and Sky made this catchy holiday music video a couple of years ago. I enjoy it year after year. (Super NSFW)

35 Pictures Proving the World isn't Such a Bad Place
I've seen a few of these before, but they never stop warming my heart, or tearing my eyes.

The Friday Before Christmas
A magical holiday video made in less than 48 hours by your friends, The White Liars

And finally,

5 Moments when the Eleventh Doctor Broke our hearts
Are you guys ready for it? I'm going to be a blubbering Christmas mess December 25th at 9/8 Central time.

Memory Lane Monday: Merry Christmas! (White Liars Style)

Two weekends ago, Boyfriend and I participated in The 48 Hour Film Project with our friends, The White Liars. Neil and Andrew, our intrepid leaders, recieved the assignment on Friday at 6pm. Each team was assigned a genre -ours was vacation or holiday movie- a specific prop -a trophy- and a specific phrase -"When do you expect her"- which were all required for the film. Then we were turned loose and had exactly 48 hours to write, produce, edit, and score said film and turn it in to the festival producers. We did it with about 4 hours to spare last Sunday. All of us bruised (mostly me) battered (again, mostly me) and sleepy managed to crank out a pretty damn good short film. So good, in fact, that we were voted the Audience Favorite of our screening group last night! 
 

It was just like this, you guys.

 I am super proud of all of my friends who came together to collaborate so wonderfully on what could easily have been a train wreck.
Our fantabulous writer (and star) put it best in his lovely Facebook note to us:

So I'm awake now and just wanted to let everybody know how cool last night was for The White Liars. During the talk-back after the screenings when the filmmakers were asked how working under a 48 hour time constraint challenged us, I realized that it challenged us to get our shit together. Neil Fennell and I spent weeks leading up to this project working out how we wanted the weekend to go, blocking out times for writing, shooting, scoring, editing, securing our team, and apart from a few expected "unexpected" glitches everything moved ahead because of that preparation. What makes it really kind of magical is the rest of the team. Matthew Van Bockern, Lisa Mamazza, Melissa Dennis, Melissa Smith Andersen, Jess Ayers, Jarrett Sullivan, Dylan Myers, Melissa Rosenberger, Adam Pate, Joshua Michael Sausville, Erik Frandsen, Chelsea Vendette Lopez, and Sky Seals. How everybody did their jobs so damn well and without question or complaint after being up for far more hours than we're used to is a big part of the success of this film. What made it cool was that everybody in that theatre last night had a similar experience with their team, and after putting a well deserved check next to their own movie, put one next to ours. We know the love and devotion that goes into our films and projects, but it's really cool when other people see it too.

OK, sorry for the rant. Enjoy "The Friday Before Christmas"
-Andrew Harriss


So, without further ado, please to enjoy our 48 Hour movie.  
(If it won't play, you can click the link above.)

Meme-ory Lane Monday: Harlem Shake Edition

You guys remember the Harlem Shake, right? Well, it's a thing again. And for your viewing pleasure I bring you the White Liars version of the Harlem Shake.  You're welcome.

White Liars Wednesday: The End

This episode went up last Wednesday, but with all the Turkey-themed happenings not a lot of people have had the chance to watch it and I didn't have a chance to share it much. I enjoyed working on these 2 seasons so much. There were times when we were too hot, too cold, too tired, too sick, too sore, or too hungover to feel like filming another moment. But thanks to some hilarious writing and some awesome motivation and direction by our fearless leaders, we made it through. I'm so proud of all of the people I am fortunate to call my friends who contributed to this production; I was able to see everyone grow as artists and entertainers. I've never had more fun playing a character that nobody (and everybody) liked.  Thanks to Andrew and Neil for making me a part of this project. I will miss it!

So, without further ado, the final episode of White Liars:

White Liars Wednesday: Shit(bird) Gets Real

As Season 2 nears its end, things heat up for Tim and the former High Society Predators cast. Plus, Mary gets more than one line in this episode! She gets a whole slew of them!

 

White Liars Wednesday: Halloween Edition

Episode 5 of White Liars dropped today! Hurricane Sandy may have destroyed a lot of my city, but Boyfriend and I are a-ok. We never lost power and thankfully our water is still safe to drink, but we haven't gone outside to survey the damage in our neighborhood yet. The subways are still shut down so I have no way of getting to work, so Happy Halloween to me! Boyfriend and I and several of our friends will go out on the town this afternoon dressed as DC characters. I will be going as Ravager. I'm super excited, so pictures and a report of the festivities are still to come! But, for now, enjoy Episode 5 of White Liars. Enjoy Samhain tonight and stay safe everyone!

 

Not Quite a Real Post

In case you missed it, White Liars episode 4 "What Dreams May Come" dropped yesterday! I make a brief appearance in this one and get to be all crazy and borderline evil. That bow and arrow is my favorite thing ever. This is my favorite episode we've done, so watch it! Watch it and enjoy! There will be more Mary in the rest of the season.

More White Liars Wednesday: Ep 3

More White Liars!!! My character, Mary has not shown up yet in this season, but maybe you'll get to see her next week...

White Liars Wednesday!

I plan to be at New York Comic Con this weekend, so this might be my last post for the week, and it's not even a real post. This morning, the second episode of White Liars went up and you should watch it.  I'm not in this episode, but I will show up very soon. Enjoy!

Not Really a Post

I'm currently working on my review for Tokyo Jungle, which I started playing last weekend. Until then, please enjoy episode 1 of White Liars season 2. (I'm not in this episode, but I'll show up soon enough.) And, a HUGE thank you to anyone who donated to the Kickstarter fund for this web series. You helped make this episode happen!  Enjoy!

White Liars Season 2

The trailer for White Liars Season 2 dropped today! This season is funnier and we had so much fun shooting it. Please enjoy and get acquainted with Season 1 if you haven't seen it yet!

The Sometimes-Not-So-Glamorous Process of Film-Making: or Time to Hyperventilate? (UPDATED: Now With Edits)

UPDATE: Ok, I read up a little more and this post is now just another example of my anxiety-ridden crazy brain going into panic mode.  What do I usually do when that happens? I either hyperventilate and curl up into the fetal position and cry, or I write it all down and I just sound like a crazy person. You're welcome. I'm going to go take my meds now. Also, www.playbillsvspayingbills.com is the best website ever for actors.
 
Over the weekend, you may or may not have seen my tweets from the set of White Liars. Saturday was a shooting day of epic-ness. It was the longest day of filming I've ever done outside, but we couldn't have asked for better weather. The skies were ominous early in the morn with some left-over rain clouds from the night before, but by the time I was called to the set at 10AM, the skies were clear and blue and the sun was shining for the rest of the day.  Beautiful.

Film-making is filled with a lot of "hurry up and wait" moments.  Hurry up and get to the set at your call time, then wait until they're ready to shoot your scene. Hurry up and get into position, then wait for all of the elements to fall into place: wait for sound, wait for the camera to record, wait for the director, hold for sound - there's a motorcycle, hold for sound - there's an airplane, stop, cut - some dumbass pedestrians walked into the shot. Reset - get pack into position, try again. It was about 14 hours of that.

Not that I'm complaining, but after Saturday, I completely understand why professional productions with a larger budget than ours have so many people on a crew. Our writer/director/editor/sound op/production coordinator/P.A/actor(s) are all the same people; in an independent production funded by donations and shoe strings we all have to wear many hats. Either because of, or in spite of all of this, I love TV/film production. I love the energy of the set, I love being able to laugh about the ridiculousness that comes from filming on the streets of NYC (I now understand why Hollywood uses back lots all the time.) I just get a rush from being a part of a large creative endeavor, even if my creativity has to be in stop-and-go mode all day. There's something just bohemian and fun about suddenly losing your sound guy because he has to fly to Houston for a last-minute paying job in 3 hours and then everyone turns to you and says, "Congrats, you're the new boom operator/sound engineer for the rest of this shoot. Here's your headphones." And I was a damn fine sound op, if I do say so myself.  I may have found a new calling talent.

What are these jokers doing in our shot? Don't they know we're filming a low-budget web series here?!

 On another note, I want to thank everyone who donated to the White Liars Kickstarter campaign! The production is now funded and is also SAG-AFTRA approved, which means that those in the cast who are already members of the union will get paid and not be in danger of losing their membership for appearing in a non-union production. Plus, that also means that those of us who are currently non-union can very very soon be eligible to join SAG-AFTRA also. I am freaking out about this a little bit. I got the e-mail this morning about needing to send our producer my "particulars" so he can submit the Taft Hartley papers. I'm excited and scared and hopeful all in one! It's really scary when a piece of your dream starts to fall into place, but it also means you'll make a major life choice. 

I am under no obligation to become SAG-AFTRA eligible at this time, but how can I turn it down? Once you are eligible, you have a 30-day period to accept as many union jobs as you can, and then you either must join the union officially if I want to work another union job or not.  If you choose not to join, you will have to start over again working towards union-eligibility (in my case, years.)  
Apparently I know not what I say because the SAG website info is crap. Now I know better.
If you choose to join, you will have to pay the union dues and any additional fees (upwards of $2300) which at this juncture is a fee I cannot afford to pay in a lump sum. 

Maybe my landlord just won't notice that I don't pay rent for 3 months due to union dues...

SAG-AFTRA has a credit union where you can get a loan and pay your dues in increments which is awesome, but I have shit credit thanks thanks to medical bills and credit card charges I racked up just trying to eat and pay rent during the 8 months I was unemployed in the year everything went to hell-or 2008, as it is known to some people.  
So right now, I'm feeling a little bit like the universe is taunting me, or has issued me a passive-aggressive ultimatum on pursuing my dream. I know it really is never too late to go for your dream, look at the wonderful Kathryn Joosten, who lost her battle with lung cancer recently.  She had a full and active acting career which didn't start until she was 42 (something almost unheard of in the youth-obsessed culture of Hollywood) but she was recognizable both in face and voice usually as, "Oh hey, it's that lady." Plus she won 2 Emmys! Or look at Jane Lynch.  She's been a working actor for years, but was not very well-known until The 40-Year-Old Virgin, when she was in her 40's. So, it's never too late. But I still feel like if I were to pass on this opportunity to join the union now, I would regret it. I'm also not assuming that I'm going to be famous just by joining the union.  In fact I would rather not be a celebrity.  I just want to work at something I love and get paid enough to pay my bills. That is the "American Dream" isn't it?

What's NOT standing in my way? 
-Emotional support from those who love/care about me
-My drive/yearning for this to happen
-My talent
-My love of the industry

What IS standing in my way?
-Fear
-Money (or lack thereof)
-More fear  
-Insecurity


Welcome to my existential inner conflict that plagues my mind.
I guess I just gotta pull on my big-girl panties and power through.





You see what I did there, right? Yeah.

U is for Uncolored Un-truthers



Sourc

Ok, so un-truthers is not really a word, but for all intents and purposes of this blog post, it is now!
I've mentioned before that I'm also an actor. It's what I went to school for, it's what I still enjoy doing, and my dream career would be something incorporating my love of video games/nerdy stuff, writing, and performance (much like my newly-appointed mentor, Felicia Day.) So this is another post about pimping out my friends and their/my creative projects.  Don't feel obligated to give to their Kickstarter campaign just because I'm in it (I know you all love me so much...all 3 of you reading this right now.) We're all starving nerds/artists right now, I get that, but if the video Imma bout to share makes you laugh and/or intrigues you, go check out the webseries' website or YouTube channel or vote for them on Funny or Die and maybe give a dollar if you feel so inclined (seriously, no pressure.) I think it's hilarious, hopefully you will too! Without further ado, I present the season 2 look at White Liars:



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White Liars

As I've mentioned before, I'm a theatre geek.  I got the performance bug in sixth grade when I got cast in a school play.  I studied theatre and acting in college, and got my degree. I moved out to NY in 2007 to pursue a career in the entertainment industry, but mostly I wanted to act. I want to write, and perform, and play video games. I don't think that's too much to ask from life, is it?

Luckily, in NYC there is no shortage of arty folks like myself, and I've gotten to do some really fun projects...and a lot of shitty ones. One not-shitty and very fun project I've had the privilege of being a part of is a web series called White Liars. It is written and produced and starring a good buddy of mine, and we've had so much fun making it. Season 1 premiered last summer and is available to view on their YouTube channel and on their website. 

Today, we shot one of the teasers for the Kickstarter campaign for the anticipated second season. I'm really excited, because I really think this season is going to be crazier and funnier than the first, plus I get to use a bow and arrow.  Here is the teaser from season one, enjoy! If you like it, please go watch the rest!