The Diver Surfaces!

Hi folks!

Well, it's been a long time since I pulled up a chair and told you about what's been happening in Trish and my lives. If you've been following me on my Twitter feed, you know that I haven't exactly been loafing around over the past month - as a previous post indicated, I've been finding new ways to use the "free time" this economic downturn has handed me in a positive, creative way.

I have to say, the past month has been pretty productive... Please, let me tell you all about it (you know what this means... pack a lunch. This is going to be yet another over-long catching-you-all-up post).

>> The big news of the past week is the new regional commercial I shot in Bend on Tuesday. The spot, for Clear Choice Healthcare, was produced by the fabulous folks at Rage Productions - a wonderful group of people who were very patient with me as I struggled my way through the script. Keep an eye on http://www.haroldphillips.net/ in coming weeks - I'll be sure to post a copy of the spot when I get it.

>> Next On The Agenda, I'm working on Todd and Jason Freeman's new feature film My Soul To Take. I'll be playing a pastor who moves with his family to a Northwest town - and who soon learns that the town might not be as idyllic as I had first imagined. I'm incredibly excited to be working with Jason and Todd, two local filmmakers with a proven track record of producing gritty, deeply moving films (I've coined the term "Portland-Noir" to describe their filmmaking style). We'll be shooting three scenes from the film in mid-May; those scenes will be taken around the country and shown to investors to raise money for the full feature. I just found out that Audrey Walker and Benedict Herrman are also going to be in the cast. It's an exciting project, and one I'm very happy to be part of!

>> I'm really starting to focus on voice acting these days as a way to broaden my appeal (and the amount of work I can book). I've been working with sound designer Marc Rose to set up a home studio - in fact, I just got a shipment of equipment yesterday (a new microphone, amp, stand, and some cables). I'll be putting the studio in our garage, which is forcing me to finally deal with... THE GARAGE (insert terrified scream here)!!

Over the past week or so Trish and I have been re-organizing our attic and putting flooring down in the unfinished portion above the garage. Once that job's done, we'll be moving much of the stuff that's currently taking space upstairs, so I can reserve an area for the studio-to-be.

>> Even without a home studio, however, I've been getting my vocal workout of late. Earlier this month I worked with Oregon Public Broadcasting on the narration for Volume II of their Across The Sciences continuing education series. That series is currently in post-production; they're hoping to have it finished by the fall.

I've also been working with Karl Lind and Mercedes Rose on an innovative new project for a local non-profit animal rescue organization called The Pixie Project. Karl, Mercedes and I are producing four Pet-of-the-Week videos that can be embedded in The Pixie Project's web site (or simply spread virally across the internet) in an effort to raise awareness of the organization's mission, and help to get their dogs adopted. Mercedes started the ball rolling (so to speak) when she provided the voice for Mah Jong, a sweet husky-corgi mix. After the video was released, Mah Jong was adopted within two weeks! Now it's my turn; The Pixie Project just released the Pet-of-the-Week video for Burrito, a cute little chihuahua. Hopefully we can get him adopted just as fast! Check him out at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FT6THPSk4k0.

>> And of course, there's my new weekly voice job as the official Co-Host of the internet radio sensation The Quasi-Glamorous Life: The Ups-And-Downs of Life As A Working Actor. The show has really taken off in the past month - our audience has been growing by leaps and bounds, and there's a lot of interest from businesses who want to sponsor the show and reach out to the world-wide audience of working actors we bring to the show each week.

As the audience has grown, so has the show's internet presence. The entire Small Plate Radio Network is in the process of re-tooling to handle the increased demand from listeners, which has resulted in a new address for the show - http://qgl.sprnetwork.com/ (the original address, http://www.smallplateradio.com/013, will still get you to the show... but this new address is a bit easier to link to). We've also added a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter Feed to the mix, to allow our listeners to communicate with us - and with each other!

This Monday, our guest will be voice-over actor extrordinaire Kevin Cooke (you know I'll have LOTS of questions for HIM)! Be sure to listen to the live stream at http://qgl.sprnetwork.com/ at 1:00 PM PST... if you can't listen live, the archive podcast will be posted on the site within 24 hours.

>> If you've been following my recent, infrequent posts here on the blog, you know that I've finally stopped talking about writing my book about professional acting in small markets, and I've actually started actively working on it. I've got most of the outline finished up, and I'm working on the individual chapters. Once I've got a couple of chapters written up, it'll by time to start looking for publishers.

>> You've probably also noticed that, as part of the process, I'm offering a seminar series on the business of acting here in Portland. That's gone... well, not that great :) Simply put, I'm up against a lot of competition right now - there are tons and tons of classes being offered in the Portland area at the moment, and I think the acting population may be suffering from "workshop fatigue." I've had to cancel the first seminar in the series due to lack of attendance, but there are still three more on the schedule, including seminars on Contracts and Negotiation, Networking and Self-Promotion, and Using Computers in Your Acting Career. There's still plenty of space available for these seminars - if you're in the Portland area and are interested, by all means, visit the Registration Page to sign up.

And... that's pretty much what's been going on. WHEW! Needless to say, it's been a busy month. I have no lack of things to keep me busy... if anything, I'm a little TOO busy right now. I'm in a quest for balance at the moment... all of these projects are great, and the coming months are going to lead to even more great opportunities - but we've all got to have some down-time too. I'd like to spend some time with my lovely Trish that's NOT just me sitting at the computer while she sits by and watches.

That's something to work on, to be sure. Hopefully future posts will be about non-work-related activities we're involved with. Then again... you don't really want to hear about that, now do ya? :)

Ok, time to get dressed and attend the final performance of the show Trish directed, A Sunbeam, at IFCC. Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold