Giggity Giggity Giggity - Gonna Be A Busy November! (Amended)

*Note: Another amendment... I had bad information about Trish's staged reading of Courtship on Monday, November 9. She's not reading the stage directions - she's playing the part of the aunt, Sarah. Sorry about that...

*Original Post:
Hey everybody... as the title suggests, Trish and I have quite a busy November ahead of us. Let me give you a quick run-down of what's ahead for us in the coming month (at this point... our schedules are ALWAYS subject to change :) ) :

>> On Tuesday, November 3rd the Portland Civic Theater Guild is presenting a staged reading of The Cemetery Club that Trish directed. Trish will be there to read stage directions and generally make sure things go according to plan... the reading takes place at 10:30 AM at The Old Church, located at 1422 SW 11th Avenue in Portland (click here for a map)... take an early lunch and come see the show!

>> On Friday November 6 and Saturday November 7th I'll be attending the What Is Film Conference I talked about in an earlier post... at least, that's the plan at this point. If another gig comes up, I may have to miss the conference - but I really hope that I can make it. Some very interesting informaton that impacts the Oregon film scene is going to be presented - if I can make it, I plan on live-tweeting from the conference. If you're a Twitter user, be sure you follow my twitter feed... and if you're not, no big deal - just follow my tweets in the white box to the right of this page.

>> Monday November 9 will see Trish in another staged reading - this time it's Courtship at Profile Theater here in Portland. She'll be reading the stage directions for this play, part of Foote's 9-play cycle "The Orphan's Home."

>> Some time that same week, I'll be shooting a scene for the Zombie-apocolypse-based web series The Last Stand - my character hasn't been seen in the series thus far (Episode 1 is online at http://thelaststandonline.com/ - take a look!), but he's a very important part of the puzzle. I'll update you with more information on this as the episode gets closer to release.

>> That same week, I'm slated to shoot a scene in Justin Koleszar's new film (currently untitled). I just play a small part in the overall story but I'm really excited to work with Justin, whose film Now Would Be A Good Time, screened at Sundance last year. I was really impressed with Justin's vision when I met with him at the audition - I think I'm going to be very happy to part of his new film.

But wait - there's more!

>> Later in the month Trish and I are both slated to shoot episodes of Todd Robinson and Craig Johnson's new internet venture, Pilot: The Series. When the series is released, you'll see both of us in familiar roles... with a bit of a twist! I can't really say too much more about it at this point, but prepare to laugh (especially if you're a fan of The Outbreak, Animus Cross, and Lady Wasteland)!

(Say, speaking of Animus Cross... did you see this new post on the Official Animus Cross blog? Looks like we'll have a teaser out on the internet by Halloween!)

>> Trish and I will also be working with Shilpa Sunthankar later this month on her new short film In The Company of Thieves. We were lucky enough to work with Shilpa on her noted short film Biography of an American Hostess a few years back, and we're delighted to work with her again! The film is a tale of crime, revenge, and the devil... great material - and knowing Shilpa's directing style, I'm sure this film is going to be a festival favorite!

>> Finally, before the end of the month some time I'll be shooting a scene in Erick Mertz's new short film First Day In The City - produced by my good friend Stewart Boyles. I've worked with Stewart several times in the past, and I collaborated with Erick on a film called The Collector which he's still developing. It'll be great to work with both these guys on this very intimate, personal short.

So... that's what's ahead for Trish and I in the coming month... along with active pre-production on Steve Coker's new web series The Episodic Adventures of Dex Dixon: Paranormal Dick, Thanksgiving, and whatever else we can find to fill our time (doesn't really seem to be a problem, does it?) So, if we don't pick up the phone when you call or respond to an email quickly... you may have an idea why :)

Hope you're all doing well, and that you have a happy and safe Halloween tomorrow!

-Harold

The New Communicators (Amended)

Note: I'm a bad bad web monkey... I completely forgot to mention in the post below that this event is organized and led by Portland's own Abundant Artist Cory Huff - mea culpa! If you're an artist and you're not following Cory on Twitter, you're really missing out!

Original Post:

I'm honored to be part of "Art is War: Reinventing the Art Sales System with New Media," a panel discussion tomorrow night from 7 - 9 PM at the Art Institute Portland (1122 N.W. Davis Street • Portland, OR 97209-2911, Portland, Oregon - Click here for a map).

The discussion is part of the New Communicators Conference, an innovative decentralized conference aiming to "share experiences and inspire discussion about how we communicate with others using both online and offline media."

In a nutshell, the conference is about understanding the massive shift in communications we find ourselves in the midst of right now... more and more avenues for communicating with friends, family, business associates, and customers are popping up each day. Ten years ago, "social networking" meant going to parties and get-togethers and interacting in person with people... then came email lists, which were followed by blogs... and then, suddenly (over the course of about three years), we had MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and any number of new "social networking" applications that could be accessed from home or office.

Now, we could argue 'til the cows come home about the pro's and con's of this shift (Pro: easier to stay in touch with friends and family, broadening connections around the world... Con: Wall*E. 'Nuff said there). One thing that can be agreed on though, is that the potential for businesses to reach new customers through social networking is enormous.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "there's no business like show business, but show business is like any other business." As actors, we have to market ourselves to our customers (the audience) and our business partners (the other actors we want to work with and the producers who hire us). These social media outlets give us a valuable, inexpensive way to do just that - market our services and increase our audience-base. Sadly, many actors don't utilize the internet to market themselves effectively. There are a lot of reasons; they may be intimidated or overwhelmed by the breadth of social media channels, they may be undereducated about what's available, they may be worried about how much time is spent... whatever the reason, this event is a good introduction for actors and visual artists to utilizing the internet to effectively sell themselves and their work.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow night... this promises to be an inspiring and energizing evening!

See you then...

-Harold

A BIG Update At Haroldphillips.net (Including A Store!)

Hey folks

Just a quick note to let you know I've added a bunch of new content to http://www.haroldphillips.net/ :

>> The Home Page has been updated with all the latest info, of course...

>> My local Home Improvement Show commercial has been posted in the Video section. I also posted a clip (finally) from Crackin' The Code - those of you who haven't seen the movie yet can finally see the much talked about "blow up scene."

>> The Photo Section has new photos in the Production and Behind-The-Scenes areas from Owl and the Pussycat and Series II of Animus Cross

>> And, perhaps the biggest addition to the site is the new Store section. Now, I know what you're thinking - "Oh boy, here he goes 'selling out' again..." This "store" isn't about me making money, though. Sure, I'll admit I get a small referral bonus from a couple of the links on the Store page; the main reason for the Store, though, is to provide a "one-stop-shop" for my various projects.

Several of the films and series I've done over the past couple years sell DVD's and merchandise online. I hear from people all the time, asking how they can find this merchandise - rather than respond each time with a handful of links, I figured it would be easier to put a page on the site that collects those links in one spot.

So, if you've been waiting to see The Bicyclists or Walter Ate A Peanut... or you want an official Animus Cross sweat shirt or Lady Wasteland hat... you just have to visit the Store section on http://www.haroldphillips.net/. It's all right there.

Hope you're all doing well...

-Harold

Those Alaska Slideshows

Hey folks

You might remember that a while back, I took down the links to the photos I'd posted from Trish and my Alaska Cruise, saying that I'd restore them once the photos had been re-arranged.

Well, the best-laid plans and all that... between everything that's been going on and my trying to find some time to spend with my lovely wife, I never quite got 'round to doing that... but Trish and I are sort of taking it easy this weekend, and it felt like a good time to get these shots back out there to you all.

So... click the images below to see slideshows from the cruise... of course, if you want to see ALL the pictures, feel free to visit the full gallery at http://s169.photobucket.com/albums/u229/trishandharold/Alaska%20Cruise%202009/ ; be aware, though, that there are over 250 images in the gallery. You might want to let the slide-shows play and save yourself the carpal-tunnel you'd get by clicking on each image. You can hit the "stop" button in the lower-right-hand corner if you want to pause the slide-show... and if you want a larger view of a photo, just click on it.

I've said this to a lot of people since returning from the cruise... but if you've ever thought of taking a cruise, you really should. Before I left, I was one of those "why would I want to be trapped on a boat for a week?" types of people... this trip really opened my eyes, though. You're not trapped on the boat, for one thing - the ship docks regularly in different ports-of-call so you can get out and see different areas. Also, you're not "trapped on a boat;" you're booked into a five-star-resort (with, I might add, five-star food and entertainment) for a week... it just happens to float.

Seriously... if you've ever thought about it, go. You won't be sorry. The slide shows are below (each has its own individual post)... enjoy the rest of the weekend!

-Harold

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Departure: View of the Port of Seattle

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Departure: Views of the Port of Seattle

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - On Board The Norwegian Star

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- On Board The Norwegian Star

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - The View From The Decks

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- The View From The Decks

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Ports-of-Call: Ketchikan, AK

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Ports-of-Call: Ketchikan, AK

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - A Humpback Encounter

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- A Humpback Encounter

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Ports-of-Call: Juneau

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Ports-of-Call: Juneau

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Glacier Ice... And Seals!

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Glacier Ice... And Seals!

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Ports-of-Call: Skagway, AK

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Ports-of-Call: Skagway, AK

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - People On Board

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- People On Board

(Sorry, no shots of Julie Goldman, Judy Gold, Caroline Rhea or Cheyenne Jackson... we never managed to get the camera out in time :) ).

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - Ports-of-Call: Prince Rupert, Canada

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- Ports-of-Call: Prince Rupert, Canada

Alaska Cruise Slideshow - A Final Surprise: Orcas!

Click The Image To See The SlideShow- A Final Surprise: Orcas!

I'm "Preppin' The 'Net" With Cisco Systems!

Hey everyone!

A new internet video I appear in for Cisco Systems just launched... well, "internet video" doesn't quite to the scope of this little project justice.

See, the deal is this: Cisco has this product called the ASR 9000 router. Without getting all geeky-speaky, it's a bigger pipe for internet communications to go through. In order to promote this new router, Cisco created a web site around a kooky scientist who exhorts the viewer to help him "Prep The Net" with this new router.

And that kooky scientist... well, that's him above and to the left.

Ok, so if you don't care about computers, routers, exobytes of data and so forth, there's still some fun stuff to do on the site... Cisco is asking users to print off and tape together paper versions of their ASR 9000 router - and to take photos of these routers in various locations. You can upload the photos to the site, and they'll be displayed for people to take a look at and share.

I should mention that "V," the mastermind at Visual Producers, directed the video on the site... he and the fabulous Mason West at Ascentium were the creative minds behind the concept. Everyone was a blast to work with on this project... we all had a GREAT time putting it together (even the pedestrians I freaked out on Burnside St).

So, visit with this kooky scientist at his wacky web site: http://www.prepthenet.com. And go ahead! Download the "paperware" and have some fun!

A Step Towards A Sustainable Oregon Film Industry

So, my friend, Animus Cross Co-Star, and all-around good guy Jerry Buxbaum and I were talking the other day... and, as so often happens, our conversation turned towards the state of our local film industry. While we're both very happy with the forward momentum we've seen in recent years, we were also both a little (just a little) concerned.

Now, don't get the wrong idea... things are going great here in Oregon, especially in Portland. If you've been following my twitter feed, the blog here, or the news in general, you know that we've had a banner year with Leverage, Extraordinary Measures (formerly the "Untitled Crowley Project"), and Gus Van Zandt's new film Restless, which starts shooting in Portland soon. Even more production is headed our way next year, with Leverage returning for a second year, and the just-about-confirmed news that the fourth Twilight movie, Breaking Dawn, will be returning to Oregon. A lot of jobs and money have come into the state from out-of-town production, and we're all very grateful for it.

The thing is, though... these are all "out-of-town" productions. These productions are coming here because of the talent and locations that Oregon has to offer... but they're also coming here because they're getting a good deal from our state's very generous film incentive program. As Jerry pointed out, these things are cyclical... eventually, the out-of-town producers are going to be offered a better deal from somewhere else, and they're likely to move on to those locales. Again, don't get me wrong - I wouldn't blame them. These are business people after all; if they can get a better deal somewhere else that increases their profit potential in a VERY speculative business, why wouldn't they?

We both agreed that now, while the industry in Oregon is booming, it's the perfect time to be training and building the capacity of our local filmmakers - the ones who will still be here when the boom inevitably fades; the ones who have always been here, making films and web series and television properties. See, we've got lots of talented, creative people here in Oregon with the drive, experience, and knowledge to make quality films and television... but they lack a couple of key elements:

1) Investment in their projects, which allows these filmmakers to fund their projects from the beginning, and...

2) Distribution and sales expertise so that, once the project is finished, the filmmakers can get their creation out to an audience.

Obviously, this conversation has been happening between a lot more people than just Jerry and I. Two events are coming up in the next couple months that address some of these issues, and attempt to get local filmmakers the information and resources they need to close these gaps.

First, on November 6th and 7th, the What Is Film Conference (hosted by the University of Oregon at Portland's Turnbull Center) looks at the future of Film as a medium, how the digital age is affecting audience and distribution, and the state of the industry here in Oregon. The program for the conference is choc-full of Portland-area film workers discussing how they make a living in the medium and the challenges that our region is facing. I'm definitely going to make time to attend this conference (registration is just $20, after all!).

Then, on December 5th, the OMPA and OPA are hosting their second film financing workshop, focused on Movie Marketing. As the materials point out,

For decades all a filmmaker had to do was make a great film, license it to the highest bidder, and sit back while the distributor figured out how to market it, booked it into theatres, leveraged the ancillary rights and collected the money.

Today, traditional one-stop pick-up deals have all but vanished as the costs of theatrical distribution escalate and a new frontier of digital opportunities emerges. Making back your investment, much less making a living at filmmaking, now requires savvy marketing to compete on the festival circuit and attract a mix of viable distribution partners, as well as paying audience.

Look, any industry depends on the exchange of money - it's Economics 101. Whether you're making shoes or shows, the fundamentals are still the same: something is created to sell to someone else. In order to make that something, you have to have facilities, personnel, marketing, and distribution to the customer. Our industry is just like any other in that respect... and here in Oregon we're close to making that industry truly self-sustaining, and able to compete globally.

These events are an opportunity for everyone working in our industry here in Oregon. The only thing that we lack is the expertise to close a couple of gaps... and we'll have a financially thriving film industry in this state, as well as a creatively thriving one. I really hope that people in our industry take advantage of these opportunities so they can work together to achieve what we all know is possible.

Keep your eye on the "Big Picture," folks...

-Harold

Sometimes, People Ask Me How I Got In The Computer Business...

Many of you know I supplement my acting income with what I make as a freelance computer consultant and web designer. Often, when people find this out, they're surprised; after all, actors are supposed to be artsy, head-in-the-clouds types, not nerdy, linear, computer types, right? How the heck did this happen?

Well... It was pretty much like this: http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp08232009.shtml

Ok, that's not exactly true... there I was, a young actor fresh out of college, looking for a day-job that would pay Trish and my bills while I worked on making a name for myself in the Portland theatrical scene (remember, I was pretty fresh in town when I graduated... I'd transferred from Western Washington University to the University of Portland just a year-and-a-half before. Somehow meeting Trish during a summer stock season messed up my "move down from Alaska and infiltrate the Seattle market" master plan... ah well. A story for another time).

After taking my brand-spankin'-new (er... drama) degree into a bunch of interviews, I ended up working in the file room at a law firm... not as soul crushing as it might sound: it was a firm that specialized in Art Law - working on contracts for artists, trademark, copyright... all kinds of good stuff.

Ok, lets not put too much of a blush on that rose - it was still a law firm and still soul crushing. Again, a story for another time.

For the rest of THIS story to make sense, you have to realize that this was back in the mid-90's; the "dot com" boom was in full swing, but personal (and business) computing was really kind of in its infancy. These new boxes that everyone had on their desks were kind of mystifying... the secretaries and lawyers knew how to use WordPerfect, but that was about it. We didn't even have an office-wide Internet connection - at that time, such a thing was very expensive.

I had more computer knowledge than anyone else at the firm - because, frankly, I played computer games. See, kids, back in the prehistoric Windows 3.1 days, you had to actually reprogram your computer in order to play high tech games like Dark Sun, Dune II, and Crusaders of the Dark Savant. Windows was just another program that ran in the DOS operating system, and it took up all the memory that games wanted... so you had to create bizarre, arcane items like boot disks (the pony express would deliver the raw materials that we'd piece together with cat gut and ground up berries... it was a simpler time, ya know).

So, because of my increased level of knowledge, I became the defacto "computer guy" in this small law office. When the firm did bring in a professional to help set up a network (trust me, a much more capable professional than the nit wit in the comic strip above), I became his deputy in the office and helped him set things up... and I was the guy on the "front line" who called him in when I couldn't fix things.

Fast-forward a couple of years... I'd gotten tired of the legal field and had moved on to a new job (but one just as soul crushing) when I got a call from the aforementioned professional. He was moving to a new city, and wanted to leave his clients in good hands... so he wanted me to go into business for myself and take over for him here in Portland.

That was 13 years ago. In the intervening time I've had lean periods and busy periods... but I've also had scheduling flexibility, access to a large group of contacts I might not otherwise have had... and I've gained experience in running a business that I use on a daily basis when running my acting business. And I haven't had to work in a bar or restaurant that whole time - the traditional actor's "day job."

So why is Uncle Harold spinning this long, drawn out story? Well, mostly it's because I saw that comic strip above, and it struck a nostalgic chord... but on a larger scale, this is a story about walking through doors that are opened for you, whether you know where they lead or not. If I'd thought my Drama degree disqualified me from work in a law firm, I wouldn't have applied in the first place. If I had kept my head down at the firm and not used my computer-game-acquired mojo, I never would have gotten out of the file room. If I'd played it safe and not gone into business for myself... well, I might be working in a restaurant right now to pay the bills.

If you take anything from this epistle of mine, make it this - opportunities are all around you, and you have skills someone else doesn't. You may not know where those doors lead... but that doesn't mean you shouldn't walk through them.

Oh, and take one other thing with you - Something*Positive is a great comic strip, and you should pop by and read it every day :)

For what it's worth...

-Harold

On Stage and (Unfortunately) Off

Hey there folks

Some good news and some bad news on the "Live on Stage" front... first, the bad news -

If you'll remember that in an earlier post I said I was going to be appearing in an interactive murder mystery this weekend to benefit the Amaranth Diabetes Research Foundation. Unfortunately, Wild Bills (the company producing the murder mystery) let me know that the Amaranth Foundation hasn't sold enough tickets to the event, so they're cancelling it. It's a pity - as I said in the previous post, these murder mystery shows are generally private affairs. This is the first show in a long time that was open to the public, and I heard from a few people that they were interested in coming. If you're one of those people... my apologies.

Now, the good news - The Owl And The Pussycat reading I appeared in for Mt. Hood Repertory Theater Company on Monday was a rousing success. The crowd at the MHCC Visual Arts Theater wasn't huge, but they certainly had a great time - Derya Ruggles and I got a lot of laughs from them. People were all smiles as they left the theater... and I have to admit, I was riding a little bit of a high as I drove away myself.

I was talking to... someone the other day about the exhilaration that comes from performing in front of a live audience - whomever it was said that she (yeah, I think it was a she...) couldn't imagine getting up in front of people and performing. She said that the fear of screwing up, of being out there on stage in front of everyone with no chance at a "do-over" would be petrifying.

Derya had a slightly different take on that anxiety... as we chatted backstage before going on, she recalled something one of her acting teachers had told her years ago. "Do you feel that quiver in your stomach before you go on stage," he asked her. She said that yes, she did. "That's your talent, trying to get out."

Food for thought, to be sure...

More Animus Cross News...

... of a sort. Series creator A.L. Steen just added this nice little post about the series shoot and wrap on the official Animus Cross Blog.

Needless to say, she's very happy with how things went... pop on by and take a look, and then mark your calendars for April 2010 when the first episode of the new series, "Hell For The Company," is released at http://www.animuscross.com/ (there's no formal release date as yet - we just know that it should be some time in April).

Also, you might want to put the Animus Cross blog on your "Favorites" list; as Amanda gets into post-production, she might just be posting more inside info on the blog!

Hey! I Saw Your Commercial!

So, in the past couple of weeks, I saw two of my friends from the Portland acting community in separate TV commercials - and I immediately shot them an email and/ or Facebook message letting them know I saw the spot, and congratulating them on the gig.

Now, I did this for a couple of reasons... the first is obvious: it's always nice when you have the opportunity to pat your friends on the back and give them a hearty "way-to-go-you-got-the-gig." It's no big secret that the odds are against us in this business - there's always more actors than there are roles, and any time a friend books a role they're to be congratulated for beating those odds.

I had another reason for letting them know I saw their spots, though - one that people outside "the business" aren't often aware of. When an actor gets hired to do a commercial, he or she doesn't just get paid for the time s/he works shooting the commercial; s/he gets paid for the length of time that commercial runs. Now, this doesn't make sense to a lot of people with regular 9-5 jobs; it's not uncommon for people to say to me, "why should you get paid for more than the time it takes to do the work? I don't get paid that way."

It's an understandable question; consider, though, that we actors don't work for one boss 9-5 every day. We don't get a regular pay-check for our weekly efforts. Instead, we're independent business people selling a product: our image (well, ok, we're selling a few different flavors of the same product... we sell our voice, our actions, our "look" in a given situation... but you get the idea). We get one check every time we sell that product... and then we have to go out and sell it again. Might take a week, or a month, or a year.

When we sell our image to promote a product, we're effectively out of the market (at least for that segment of industry) while that commercial is running - Pizza Hut isn't going to hire my friend Jim Caputo (above), for instance, while he's promoting Izzy's Pizza. He's the "Izzies Guy," and is identifiable as such. An actor might be able to book a commercial for a different type of product, but even that's not guaranteed; if the actor is too identifiable with a particular product or company, companies in other sectors might still find him or her too "identifiable," and not want to go that way with the job.

So, the actor is compensated for the time that s/he is going to have a difficult time booking more work; part of his or her payment is determined by the amount of time the commercial is set to run. Which brings me back to my hearty "way-to-go-you-got-the-gig" messages to my friends...

Some times, a commercial runs outside the time period its contracted to, and the actor isn't aware of that (because s/he didn't get paid for it). I don't want to necessarily ascribe sinister motives here... some times the company or ad agency just makes an oopsy-daisy: one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, they don't realize the spot is out-of-contract, whatever. Mistakes happen. It's important for the actors in the commercial to know about this, though - if they don't happen to be watching that specific channel at that specific time, they'd have no clue that they should be getting paid for their work (and compensated for not being able to get more work). If the commercial is shot under a union contract (SAG or AFTRA), the actor can go to the union; then union would then contact the producers and/ or ad agency and/ or company (whomever is responsible), and remind them that more payment is due - or order that they stop running the spots. If it's a non-union commercial... well, then it's up to the actor him or herself to pursue it (hopefully with an agent's help). Either way, such measures can't be undertaken if the actor doesn't know the spot has run.

Trish and I have both been in this situation, and we've both been helped by friends who dropped us an email or called us to let us know they'd seen a commercial on TV we should have been getting paid for. It makes a big difference to us - not only to our bank accounts, but to the types of work we're able to pursue while that spot we thought was off the air is running.

So, I'd just like to ask all of you reading this to keep an eye out - if you see someone you know on TV, take a second to let him or her know - mention the station and time, if you can remember it. Whoever you call will be flattered that you saw the spot - and you might do that actor a favor in letting him or her know that s/he is due another payment.

The Return FROM Animus Cross - And What's Ahead

And, just like that... it's over.

We wrapped production on Series II of Animus Cross Sunday night - well, I should say "I wrapped production on Sunday night..." the crew still had one scene to shoot after I wrapped, and moved from Rossi Farms in NE Portland to the fairgrounds in St. Helens, Oregon where they continued to shoot until 2 AM.

Honestly, it felt pretty odd not to be going with Jerry, Amanda, Dave, Andy, Galvin, and the gang... for the past two weeks I'd been immersed in the world of Animus Cross; we'd definitely been through the fire of late nights, cold weather, loud traffic, and remote locations together. All in all, it was a great, if exhausting shoot - we really took the series to new hieghts with intense action sequences, deepened relationships between the characters, and more hints about what the creatures menacing this small, frontier Idaho settlement are all about. It was an amazing time.

Want to share in some of the fun? Series creator/ director/ producer/ et al A.L. Steen posted some behind the scenes photos on her Photobucket page... some you may have seen last week when I liked to the album from my last blog post, but new ones have been added.

As the shoot progressed, the press started to get wind of the excitement we were all feeling... Kelly Jo Horton wrote a great article about the series in her Scene in Portland column in The Portlander, and the horror site Burried.com posted this press release about IPA Award-winning photographer Andy Batt coming on board as director of photography.

Now that the series is going into post-production, it's time for me to look ahead to the next projects on my calendar... for instance:

>> Next Monday, the 19th of October, I'll be performing in a staged reading of The Owl And The Pussycat - the inaugural production of Mt. Hood Repertory Theater's 2009/ 2010 Readers Theater Season. The play, by Bill Manhoff, is a complicated and multi-layered comedy about two very damaged people... definitely a challenge! We got a great write-up in the Gresham Outlook this past weekend - give it a read, and then consider coming out to the Mt. Hood Community College Visual Arts Theater, at 26000 SE Stark St. in Gresham, OR (park in Parking Lot J). Tickets are just $8.00 at the door!

>> Then, on Saturday October 24th, I'll be performing in two interactive murder mysteries to benefit the Amaranth Diabetes Research Foundation. You've probably heard me talk about these murder mystery shows before... we, the actors, put on the show while the audience has dinner and participates in the fun. Generally Wild Bills Murder Mystery are booked as private events - as entertainment for corporate parties, meetings, etc. These two shows (at 11am and 6pm in the Shiloh Inns Hotel on Airport Way in Portland), though, are open to the public. Anyone can come and join in the fun! Tickets are $65 for the matinee and show and $75 for the evening show - a little steep, I know, but the ticket includes dinner and the show, and the proceeds go to a very good cause. Consider joining us, won't you? You can RSVP by calling Joy at 503-760-2658. Hope we see you there!

And, of course, there are several other things in the works - including pro-production work on my next web series The Episodic Adventures of Dex Dixon - Paranormal Dick, a couple of short films I'm working on, a part in another web series... it just keeps going and going. For now, though, I have to sign off and get to a voiceover session...

As always, I hope you're doing well...

-Harold

The Return To Animus Cross

Howdy folks

So, if you've been following my twitter posts over the past week or so, you probably already know that we're knee-deep in production of the second series of Animus Cross, the dark "western fantasy" that Trish and I are in. The first series, Hell Runs This Way, gained a lot of attention when it was first released on the internet last year. Now we're back at it again - and this time we're shooting in the Portland area instead of Idaho, so Trish and I get to come home at the end of the day.

Shooting has been going well - wanna see what it's been like? Click here for some behind-the-scenes shots that director A.L. Steen posted yesterday on her Photobucket page.

We've got four days "in the can," shot all over Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington. We're getting ready to go into our final weekend of shooting tomorrow, with a lot of action on tap; I'm going to be involved in two separate fights with the mysterious creatures that inhabit the woods around the frontier settlement of Animus Cross (we're pulling in some new people to play the creatures too... I even talked this guy named Sandy Brewer into coming down from the Bellingham area to play with us!)

I'm really excited for people to see this new series (creator A.L. Steen considers these segments of Animus Cross self-contained serials, rather than "seasons" of the series... she talks a little bit about that in this blog post). We're really "upping the ante" on the production value, the action, and the depth of the characters that were introduced in the first series... and our new DP Andy Batt is catching some GREAT footage! The first episode is slated to be released at http://www.animuscross.com/ in April of 2010... but don't be surprised if I get the chance to release a few behind-the-scenes snapshots like these along the way.

Ok, I'm on the run... got a lot to do before fight rehearsal this afternoon... hope you're all doing well!

-Harold