A Lot Can Happen In A Week!

Whew!!!

Hey folks... it's been a week since my last post... and a pretty packed week at that! Now, it's not unommon for me to go few days in between posts... some times there's just not much to say... and some times I get too busy to post, and have to commit huge chunks of blog space to getting caught up. This is definitely one of the latter instances. Settle in... this is going to take a while...

>> First off, my work on Crackin' The Code is officially wrapped (really, this time for sure!). Sunday night I headed over to the Slingshot Lounge (a bar in SE Portland that plays a very prominent part in the film) to coordinate a climactic fight in the film. Actually, the fight I staged was pretty simple: one grab, a little grapple, and a punch. The actors involved (Jon Ashley Hall, Illya Torres-Garner and Doug Zaminsky) took to the action really well. From what I could see, everything looked good! I could see every take, though... since I was there, I played "background artist" and occupied one of the seats in the bar while the fight was going on. Hey, it got a little more screen time (well, the back of my head grabbed a little more screen time).

So, other than a few pick-up days, production on Code is pretty much wrapped. I'll keep you posted as the film goes through post-production... Director Steve Coker is hoping to have it in shape by the middle of September so that he can send it out to Festivals. I would hav e said that was overly-optimistic... but hey, he managed to shoot (most of) the entire film in 12 days. I'm not putting anything past him!

The Associate Producer, Patti Adkins, got some great shots of me on the set... I'll try to get them posted on http://www.haroldphillips.net/ in the next couple of days.

>> Giggity Giggity Giggity!

A couple weeks ago I responded to an audition on Craigslist for a web industrial for Blue Volt, a continuing education school for electrical workers. Last week my ActorTrack software reminded me to check in with the Associate Producer, Joe Marks, on the status of the audition... and he let me know that I was on the short list of candidates. I just got word yesterday that the producers decided I was right for one of the featured parts... so I'll be shooting that project next week.

But wait, there's more...

>> Giggity Giggity TWO!

Trish auditioned for Key Productions next play, Prelude To A Kiss, last week (you might remember the movie with Alec Baldwin and Meg Ryan from 1992). She got called back to read for the female lead's mother on Sunday... and got cast almost immediately afterward! So, we're going to get the chance to see her on stage again pretty soon (the play opens September 12th at Portland's Interstate Firehouse Cultural Center).

She attended the first read through Tuesday night, and is pretty darned excited about the cast... sounds like this show is going to rock! Guess I'd better get the home page of http://www.trishegan.com/ updated with this info too...

>> Animus Cross, the new webisode series Trish and I are in, starts shooting in a couple of weeks (I've mentioned it a couple of times in the past... really, the only thing I'm authorized by creator A. L. Steen to say about the project is that it's a "Western Fantasy." Don't worry, though, you know how I am... I'll be sharing more about it when I'm allowed to).

The first three "pilot" episodes are being filmed in northern Idaho with cast and crew from Oregon, Idaho, and Nashville... which makes it kind of hard to have rehearsals before we get on set. We did have a read-through of the pilot episodes on Saturday with the Portland-based cast and crew, though... I'm getting to work with Kathryne Bukowski again (she was also in The Outbreak with me)... and Jerry-the-Man-Buxbaum! This shoot is going to be a blast!

A lot of my time over the past couple weeks has been spent getting ready for the shoot... I don't think I'm revealing too much to say my character is a civil war vet, so I've been doing a lot of reading on the period. I've also been doing more research on the war itself, to figure out what part my character played in it. I have a basic understanding of civil war history (what I learned in high school), but I'd hardly call myself an expert or aficionado. It's been a great excuse to do some historical research.

I made good use of our local Library (an invaluable actor's tool, let me tell you!) the other day, and brought home some fascinating books:

• Everyday Life During The Civil War by Michael j. Varhola is a fantastic sourcebook for writers, reenactors, dramaturgs, and anyone else who needs quick details about what life was like in the 1860's. If the series goes forward, I may just buy my own copy of this one.


• The Essential Civil War by Jayne E. Blair is another great sourcebook... it's got sections on each battle and personage who played a part in the civil war. A great resource to draw on.


• The Civil War In Depth by Bob Zeller is...well, it's just plain cool! Stereoscopes were the holograms of the 19th century; essentially, they were taken by a special camera with two lenses spaced about the width of the human eye. When the photos were developed (side-by-side) they were put into a special viewer that created a 3-D image. This book publishes several stereoscopic images from the civil war, and has a handy collapsible stereoscope so you can view the images as they were meant to be seen. It really is like looking through a (static, black-and-white) window in time.
• Then there's The Expansion of Everyday Life by Daniel Sutherland... this book is more narrative than Everyday Life During The Civil War, so it's less of a look-up-a-quick-fact sourcebook... but it deals with the period after the civil war, which is the period Animus Cross is set in. It's a pretty good read, too!

I also found a great new band to help get me "in the mood" of the piece... has anyone out there encountered Salter Cane in the past? They're a great, dark, "alt-country" band... generally I don't go in for country music, but they've really struck a chord with me (if you'll forgive the pun). Check 'em out!

So... that's what's been going on in Trish and my life lately. Needless to say, we've been kind of busy! I'll try to get the next update posted faster... then you the three of you who actually made it down this far won't have quite so much to wade through.

Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold