What is the single most common mistake I see from the mostly low budget filmmakers who are posting casting notices online? The mistake that potentially costs producers the better actors they want and need to cast for their projects?

Going up some of those hills about 20 miles into that first ride, the mental picture I had of myself was as Tim Conway riding a tricycle, struggling up a hill, just getting to the top and then toppling over like a stump. It was at that moment I knew one could feel like their [...]

With only two rehearsals, the SAG / AFTRA sponsored, Austin Conservatory presented a live presentation of RETURNING CHAMPION, by Michele Gendelman and Ursula Ziegler at St. Edwards University this past weekend. Director Heather Scobie and a large cast of SAG and AFTRA actors presented a blocked for the state, live reading of the script with [...]

I’ll be serving as the narrator for the latest SAG AFTRA Script to Screen presentation this weekend by the Austin Conservatory. Here’s an announcement from Conservatory Chair, Pamela Weaver: We could use your support in attending our next script to screen this Sunday. As an experiment this time around, we are using audio and visual [...]

Here’s a graphic I ran across on the web. Each thought is a title chaper from a book entitled IGNORE EVERYBODY by Hugh MacLeod. I’m going to pick up the book and give it a read. If the chapters are as good as the titles, it should be a good read. After I read the [...]

Actor scams. When will they end? They’ll end when actors, wannabe actors and wannabe actors’ parents wise up and get educated to how the business works. What prompts this little rant? I received an email yesterday from an acting related blog I’m apparently subscribed to that led me to a link to a message board [...]

After months of acrimonious negotiations between SAG and the AMPTP and cross guild combat between SAG and AFTRA, a new contract has been ratified. For better or worse, and I personally hope we don’t look back on passage of this contract as the beginning of the end for both SAG and AFTRA, the SAG membership [...]

The Whole Shootin’ Match This is a rare opportunity to see a truly landmark independent film in venue other than PBS. Check it out and you won’t be sorry! Screen Door Film, THE WHOLE SHOOTIN’ MATCH WHEN: Fri May 22, 7 PM (Doors open at 6:30 PM) WHERE: Jones Auditorium, St. Edward’s University (3001 S. [...]

It hasn’t taken long for the poop to hit the fan over the new entertainment tax incentive program recently passed by the Texas legislature. As you may have read or heard, a film production company named Entertainment 7 has been at the Cannes Film Festival touting their upcoming production about the Branch Davidian debacle. That [...]

I received an email a couple of days ago and forgot to post this information. Sorry Jamie. Check out the Two-week Turnaround Tour web site at the link below. This looks like something that the Austin filmmaking community will embrace: My name is Jamie Blankenship. I am working on a community filmmaking project called the [...]