Progress again, yes!

Time for a new post. And this time there's a reason - I am progressing with my this year's to-do list. Alright, so it's easter vacation right now and I am going back home for a few weeks to relax, and rethink some stuff that I really need to. Up until now I've been doing some homework, so that I can scratch something from my list.

First of all, I got my black belt in karate. Thirteen years have finally paid off, and this belt will help me a little bit in future, I hope. I've got plans on working as a personal trainer as my survival job, so that might count a little bit. Also, having a black belt in some kind of martial art on your actor's resume might get you a very small, but still, bit of work. So there you are.

And I finally got my headshots. They are not as professional and as good looking as the ones that Los Angeles actors are getting, but they are still head-shots. As a student I cannot afford a high professional, so instead I got a very cheap one. But I hope these will still help me get a little bit of background/extra work, at least. And I look more professional now, even though I'm just a first year acting student.

Reading is going well, learning English not so much. I have got loads of work for University, and I am still thinking of doing lots of monologues at home, recording them and putting on YouTube (on private channel only). Yeah, so I really need to focus on my Uni work right now, just one month left and then all the extra work I want. OK, going to pack now... home, here I come!

Progressing!

Still here, still here. Keeping the score of my life time for myself, and myself only. So a quick post just for the record. Stuck with a new diet plan as promised from the beginning of this week - two months for bulking up, and then one month for getting ripped. Seems like not much time, but I'll try to achieve the maximum. Spend a nice amount of money for creatine, BCAA aminos, vitamins, omega-3, Liver Aid and protein bars. Ah well, it's just for few months. Can't wait for starting my losing weight diet, I'm already chubby now - I wonder how I'm going to look like in two months (boiling 1kg of brown rice right now, for the whole week). Well, the good part is - I'm eating an awful lot of food, and I love stuffing myself. It's not burgers, but still... meat is awesome!

Also, another good news is - got an appointment with headshot photographer for this Thursday! So I'm spending a few evenings reading Back Stage and some other sources on "How to make a good headshot". These ones are going to be very cheap (probably the cheapest professional headshots in UK), but for the beginner - it's awesome. And especially for someone who's only in his first course of Acting degree and only half a hear in England. Now drinking plenty of water, eating lots of fruits. Going to have as much sleep as I can today and tomorrow - need to look perfect in front of a camera.

So, as you (I?) can see, I'm going through that to-do list which I made for this year. Hopefully those headshots are going to help me to start getting into the business - I mean extra/background work, maybe one or two student films, fingers crossed. Eh, will see. Oh yeah, karate competition is this weekend, and the a week after that is my black belt grading. Going pretty serious on my training right now, need to accomplish these goals and mark them as "checked" on my this years to-do list. That's pretty much it. Going to eat my rice a beef-sausages now.

Currently reading: "Sanford Meisner on Acting"

An alternative career

One of the best things for an aspiring actor to have is an alternative career/job, which will provide him with stable income while building resume, looking for acting gigs and playing characters in unpaid projects. And beginning to think about it even before the start of an actor's career would be a smart move, as I would think.

There's no secret that most of the actors are out of work or don't get much of it. And it's important to realize this as soon as possible, because once you'll get out there, you'll be on your own. A lot of people in the business are saying that there's no need for an Acting degree, so it's better to get a diploma in some other field which will support you. I agree with that, but I don't regret starting an Acting degree one bit. The reason for that are my goals, which I promised myself to reach by the end of the third year. While here, I'm sharpening my English skills, I'm learning what is it like to "act in English", and that is why I needed to begin with an Acting degree. My three year main goal is - finding an alternative career path, of which I am currently thinking about.

There are three fields that I am really interested in, and I would be very happy to get into one of these. First of all, that is a job as karate instructor. Sharing a passion for this martial art and practicing it hardly for more than 13 years would be a great support for me, but unfortunately there's not too much opportunities for this, unless I would open my own karate school. So that is my first choice, and probably out of the list. The second one is becoming a Personal Trainer. I've always been interested in a lot of kind of sports, and ofcourse fitness and sports nutrition. This is the field which I really enjoy researching, and the place where you can always find me is gym. I'm going to get my Gym Instructor certificate this summer, and a Sports Nutrition certificate afterwards. Then I will probably gain experience throughout the year, and will try to get (if I'll save up enough money) a Personal Trainer certificate. This one sounds pretty believable, if I'll have enough cash. And as for the third choice, it's High-Scaler or atleast Construction Worker. That is what I would definitely enjoy doing, especially working as high as possible. Although I'm not sure if anyone will give me work without proper University education, but I'm figuring that out at the moment.

Hopefully I'll decide by the end of the summer 2010 which one of these alternative careers I'm going to pursue. A good thing would be to have as much training/education and experience in all kinds of fields as possible, not only because you can later support yourself while searching for an acting work, but also because it will help you in your career as an actor. Any kind of experience will be taken into consideration by casting directors when auditioning for the projects, so here we go...

OMG, I'm so lazy on keeping my blog updated... I guess I'm not that interested in sharing thoughts with everyone, same as readers of this blog - I doubt that at least one person has checked this blog. It has been more than a month after my last post in here with a promise of keeping the blog updated, is it? Anyway...

Its the end of February, my English is still in the same place although I'm already working harder on bringing it up to a higher level. Classes in University currently consists of Shakespear Introduction, Yoga/Body, Voice and Theory (that's Theatre Studies). Yeah, I know - I'm not in a Drama School (I wish, but they definitely wouldn't take me) so we are doing less work than those guys. Apparently, we are suppose to do everything on our own, at home. Well, I can't say I'm not trying to, but still - there's not as much as could be done.

Looking for new job to support myself, there's no income and the money is dissapearing fast. Hopefully going to get that thing in a night club this week, fingers crossed. Alright, so enough of depressing stuff. I'm actually enjoying my time in UK, and I haven't been any happier ever in my life. As for keeping up with my this year goals, I'd say I'm on right track - I'm on a diet now which is going pretty well (lots of new protein meals which I'm learning to cook, it's fun!), I've booked a photoshoot with a headshot photographer for the beginning of March here in my city, and I'm reading as much as I can, also researching stuff on becoming Personal Trainer. So everything's extremely fine. Nothing too special right now, so I'll keep being silent for a little while until any work or interesting news comes up.

See ya'll later.

Currently reading: "The BackStage Actor's Handbook" by S.Eaker

Set up goals for yourself, or you will fail again this year

Alright, so the lame blog posting continues... it's been almost 4 months since my last post (I think), and I didn't get better in English, although I did learn some awesome stuff on my Acting course. So, I avoid creating posts in here for only one serious reason - I suck at writing.

OK, I'll keep doing this and hopefully I will get better. I know currently I'm alone on this weird blog, talking to myself, but I really hope to get better and have atleast one reader (my mom doesn't count) so that he/she can correct my stupid grammar mistakes. I do have some interesting stuff to tell you, but... well, let's just wait and see.

So new year 2010, ofcourse - new resolutions. Did you made one for yourself? Two? Ten? A hundred? I've made about five, and I'm definitely going to work towards my goals this year. Actually, I've thought of a couple of goals only up until summer, and then I'll think of something else (IF I'll manage to reach and complete old ones).

I know that actors in the business have made some serious resolutions for this year to push their career forward. Well, serious or something like these ones, which I prefer better: forgeting about auditions after leaving the room, carrying simple wardrobe clothes for last-minute calls, keeping track of expenses, etc. These are good, and every actor should probably stick with them for the rest of his life (or atleast for the rest of his career).

Since I'm not in the business YET, my resolutions are something like this: get ready for my shotokan karate blackbelt; read more not only about acting techniques, but also about nutrition and exercises; get in shape for gym instructor courses; practice English grammar and diction; save enough money for gym instructor courses; get gym instructor certificate; get into MMA gym; take at least 1 acting class in summer; and maybe go through lifeguard course.

Yeah I know, that sounds a lot, but hopefully I'm going to finish at least half of this. Or even everything, if God grants me with 48 hours in a day. I also have plans for next year, and even 2012, but we'll talk about this in about two years. If this blog will still be around...

Currently reading: "Daniel Craig Biography"and "Twentieth Century Actor's Training"

Already in place and lovin' it

So, here I am, already in my room, all settled up. I'm in here for almost a week now, and I definetely love it here. Got a very nice room, in a very nice apartment; a nice flatmate too. Really looking forward to starting my acting course, but it's just less than a month till that happens. I've got some stuff to do before that, so I'm on it.

I already opened an English bank account, and going to get myself an English phone number tomorrow. Today I bought Al Pacino's biography book, it had a discount in book store so I couldn't resist. I really like reading about those out there, it gives me inspiration. Probably the most inspirational thing for me.

There's nothing more to tell you right now, 'cause nothing is happening - just hanging out all day, reading and stuff. I've got very annoying cough that's killing me, so after I'm done with it I'll probably going to storm job agencys; I need to find some work to support myself throughout my studies. That's probably it, just wanted to update the blog and have things memorized. Thanks for reading, stay tuned, fellas!

Currently reading: "Lawrence Grobel - The Authorized Biography: Al Pacino" [in English]

Only one week left...

Just saying 'hi' to everybody out there. Here comes another one, with huge plans to move to Hollywood and dreams of becoming a good actor - yeah, that's me, but I'm not here for a letdown.

My name's hidden, I'm from secret, and I'm an aspiring actor (one of the millions, I think). This is my first blog, and my first post, just to commemoriate (I don't know if it's an actual word) my journey to show business and out of work industry. A week ago I have turned 20, and it is about time to start doing some changes in my life, especially bringing to life my career plan of which I have thought about two years ago.

As this post's title says, only one week left till I leave my home country, where I have lived for 20 years, and move to United Kingdom. On August 13th (it's an awesome day...) I'm arriving to Airport, and heading to a small town. I have been accepted to University, and starting a BA (Hons) Acting course in the mid-September. That's what I consider my frist big step toward a successful actor's career, hopefully.

I will have a full month before my studies begins, so I will try to spend that time as wisely as possible. My plans for a month so far are: getting a part-time job, look up every talent agency in the county, get as much info as possible for a part-time occupation courses, join an MMA gym. Also, I will have plenty of time to update my blog, and keep every reader informed of what's going on. Actually, I'm not willing to be updating it everyday, just if anything interesting comes up, I will try to write about it.

Thank you for your time on checking this post. Hope to hear from you in comments.

Currently reading: "K.Stanislavski - An Actor's Work: A Student's Diary" [in russian]