The Year of Breakthroughs
Hey friends,
It’s time for a little updateski. It’s been awhile, but I’d like to share with you why.
The year of 2013 has been dubbed by me as “The Year of Breakthroughs”. This dubbage came about when my lovely friend Alicia and I were getting our hike on in Runyon Canyon. I said to her that I feel really good about this year (like a geiser is about to erupt). However, I’ve seen people fall into the trap of saying that every January, but nothing happens. I took a firm stance, and looked into the distance at the hollywood skyline (that last part isn’t true, it’s just for dramatic effect), and I vowed not to be one of those people. I mean for some really awesome things happen this year. And so far this year, there are a lot of them! Let me break it up into sections for easy reading.
AWARDS, AUDITIONS, AND BOOKINGS
The day of the Superbowl 2013, I received word from my director friend, Aneesh Chaganty, with whom I had the privilege of working with on the short film, “Adventure, Wisconsin”, that I won the Best Actor Award at the Creative Arts Film Festival. Additionally, the film as a whole was awarded Best Action/Adventure film and was nominated for Best Screenplay, Cinematography, and Editing. We beat out some great indie films, such as one created by Bryce Dallas Howard (Ron Howard’s Daughter). Aneesh has been winning a number of awards this year and is just a Senior at USC. This guy is already making a big splash in the industry and he hasn’t even graduated from college yet. Big things to come for this guy!
You can check it out here (6:30).
Adventure, Wisconsin by Aneesh Chaganty.
Another cool thing happened at the end of last year. I was blessed to book a role in a Feature Film called, “The Starving Games”. It’s from the same hilarious guys that brought you the “Scary Movie” films, “Vampires Suck”, and “Meet the Spartans”. It took me down to New Orleans, which was an amazing experience life experience as well as professionally. I was down there for a couple weeks and I made the most of it! I had a callback audition, another audition for a Series Regular Role, and I got to attend the wedding of a great friend of mine; plus the reception was all New Orleans grub!
Things are moving along and my acting business is continuing to grow at a rapid rate. This business is largely a numbers game and the numbers of opportunities for me have been steadily increasing. I’ve auditioned for roles on various tv shows, films and commercials. I’ve had several pilot auditions, some I was requested for by name from Casting Directors (CDs) who I’ve been auditioning for quite a bit, so that is cool.
Additionally, I have callbacks for a project called Space Command coming up soon. I’m a finalist (1 of 9 out of over 1200 submissions)! This project means a lot to me and it would be amazing to be a part of something like this that is “A Hopeful Vision of the Future.” It’s going to be an entire franchise. They’re currently in the process of creating 5 feature length scripts. This is after raising $221K on Kickstarter and receiving independent funding. So these films WILL be made (which isn’t always the case in Hollywood)!
Furthermore, I booked a lead in a webseries called “Dirty Cues”. I get to work with a number of really amazing people on this project! Not only are they talented and funny, but they’re very kind as well. Stay tuned for more updates about this as we’re going to be going into production later this month.
NEW HEADSHOTS
I’ve posted an example of my new headshots here. You can go to my photos page to see more. I think it’s going to make a huge difference this year. I think it’ll help increase the number of opportunities that I have by bringing me in for more auditions. Let me know what you guys think 🙂
WRITING/PRODUCING
I’ve taken on the task of writing/producing my first short film this year. It’s a comedy called “Ya Big Baby!”; A hilarious short story about a repressed boy named Albert who catches an extremely rare disease which causes his life to spiral out of control. The story’s full of heart and full of laughs 🙂 After a few more tweaks on the script, then we will be ready to hop into pre-production. So stay tuned! You can stay up to date by joining the fan club on Facebook and Twitter. We’ll be releasing a Promo Video of the film soon!
‘YA BIG BABY!’ ON FACEBOOK
‘YA BIG BABY!’ ON TWITTER
In addition to my writing, I have been in talks with a couple other filmmakers about helping produce a couple films that I can act in. The stories are extremely compelling and emotion evoking. Since nothing has been confirmed yet, I’ll just plant the seed of mystery in you now 🙂
CD WORKSHOPS and CLASSES
I’ve been attending Casting Director workshops to start building relationships where I don’t currently have them. I’m getting really great feedback there. I’ve meet Allen Hooper (Casting Associate for Modern Family), Becky Silverman (Casting Associate for Criminal Minds), Eric Souliere (Casting Associate for The Mentalist, American Horror Story), Lisa Beach (Casting Director for Wedding Crashers, Identity Theft, Scream, Horrible Bosses, The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, and more!) and Ally Bader (Associate at Sharon Bialy Casting – Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, Mad Men). All gave great feedback 🙂
I just finished a 6 week class with Judith Weston. She was really great and I intend on studying with her again in the future. After the class ended, she came up to me and said, “I’m really proud of you.” Not to mention a number of fellow students were most complimentary, and that meant a lot to me. They went out of their way to compliment me. Though I try to not let others opinions sway me one way or they other, compliments from teachers and peers definitely do help ones confidence.
I’ve recently be invited into Diana Castle’s class, which I will begin next week. I’m very excited about this. It’s a class that I think will thoroughly deepen my creativity as an actor. I cannot wait! Watch out Jennifer Lawrence, I’m gonna trip harder and more dramatically going to get my oscar than you did this year 😉 (Besides her little spill, she’s extremely talented! …heck, in addition to her spill. She used it in her speech to make a joke!)
GETTING INVOLVED
I’ve also gotten involved with Max It Magazine. Through Max It, there are a number of roles I’ll be taking on. Writer, Host, Actor, Social Medialist (if that’s even a word), you name it. I’m probably going to end up being the live in plumber too…though I don’t know much about plumbery…yet…
I’ve joined Film Independent and the SAG Conservatory…but I’ve been too busy to attend any events yet. I did however get invited to act in the AFI Master Program’s directing class last Tuesday night through the SAG Conservatory. I learned a lot about critical thinking within a scene.
MISCELLANEOUS
I’ve been learning to play the guitar this year and little by little, I’m getting better.
I had a table read last Saturday night for a script called, “Born Loser.” I got to read one of the lead roles. Everyone on the cast was extremely talented! We had so much fun playing around with one another and the director gave us permission to “dirty up the script” or, basically, to add our own stuff into it. That was liberating and we were able to play a lot and improv too!
So until next time, keep March-ing Forward my friends!
Bryan
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March 2nd, 2013 at 6:56 pm
CONGRATS! Just keep doing what you are doing and i will be right with you at the Oscars gettting our awards! That feeling is real i have been having it for awhile! I love actors network and i too have been working on some indie films meeting CD’s producers directors writers and working on my own stuff! Im so happy and proud of you. Funny im playing guitar as well and im getting pretty good at it. I loved Adventure Wisconsin well done well executed! You also have a great look! Thanks for update oh yea great pics! Blessings! Hope to see you soon.
March 2nd, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Bryan,
I’m impressed with your accomplishments AND your ‘up-date’ material & format. Really excellent. Sounds like you’re doing really well. Always good to edit it down a bit but it rings true and it rings of you, so can’t complain. Also, I can learn a lot from you.
Congratulations.
Patrick
March 2nd, 2013 at 11:50 pm
Terrific, Brian! I enjoyed catching up with all you’ve been doing. What an active year! Congratulations!
March 3rd, 2013 at 2:20 pm
Thanks Emily! I’ll see you at the Oscars then. Deal! Glad to hear all the wonderful things you’ve been doing too!
March 3rd, 2013 at 2:21 pm
Thanks Patrick 🙂
I love how we can all learn from one another. That’s what makes the world go ’round.
Thanks for reading.
March 3rd, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Thanks Susanna! I wish for a fantastic year for you as well!
March 3rd, 2013 at 6:09 pm
As always very proud of all you do and know what a great guy you are. You have all the right stuff to be a big hit.
Your newsletter/blog site really is impressive as are your most recent headshots. Wishing you all the best in the upcoming year!
love,
dad
March 3rd, 2013 at 6:14 pm
Thank you Pops!
March 3rd, 2013 at 8:06 pm
Hi Bryan
I’m so glad I’m on your mailing list. I check your tweet log on IMDB with regularity, and it’s terrific to see the steady burgeoning as a result of your focus and hard work. You got my vote for Space Command, so good luck! My impression is that your milieu is primarily folks of your generation, so if you need a more wizened face with some years on it for your upcoming project, let me know. Take care, and hang in there.
John
March 4th, 2013 at 9:50 pm
Thanks John! I thoroughly appreciate all your support! And thanks for voting for Space Command for me 🙂 It’ll be an interesting couple of months to see what comes of that. I hope life is treating you well!
December 25th, 2013 at 11:27 pm
I loved Adventure Wisconsin well done well executed! You also have a great look! The criminal FBI related acting will be suite surely. i like to see you like this..
December 27th, 2013 at 10:16 pm
Thanks for reaching out and I’m glad to hear you enjoyed ‘Adventure Wisconsin’! It was a great film to be a part of. I look forward to sharing more about my upcoming projects. Stay tuned!