Category Archives: videos

Day 7 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0 – It’s Sunday

I’m actually really busy today playing catch-up and getting my self-taped prepped. We’re also seeing the new Cirque de Soleil show, Crystal, tonight. So this post is very nearly just an excuse to serve up advertisements and Amazon bounties. Click on those if they are showing things that you might like. Also we’ll be updating the Patreon now that we are making so direction changes since Frankie’s passing. You can find that HERE.

And part of me was fine with a bullshit “at least I posted today” post until we actually saw Crystal. It was REALLY impressive! We also saw it at a very appropriate time. The show story follows a girl named Crystal (hence the title of the show) who is a dreamer, one who is out of place at home, school and society in general. She doesn’t do things the way that she is expected to. I don’t want to ruin the journey of the story but, SPOILERS, she chooses to keep on regardless of how hard things are because that’s who she is. This is a very familiar story to many people who end up in the arts (myself included) and as I’m getting started on this renewed journey seeing an incredible show with this theming was a nice booster shot.

For what it’s worth, Crystal is a really great Cirque du Soleil show. If you get a chance I highly recommend it. It’s all the things you are used to from a Cirque show, but on ice. It’s very impressive.

Now I need to get ready for bed so I can be ready for Monday.

Here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under acting, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, video, videos, YouTube

Day 6 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0 First Saturday

Weekends are my days to be able to catch up on all the stuff that I cannot complete during the week. Working 12 hour days on my other jobs can mean that the weekends end up having some pretty long to-do lists in addition to all the other regular domestic responsibilities that go along with, you know, life.

That being said, I actually need to get on this to-do list.

One of the steps on that list is in regard to an acting intensive that I’ll be doing at the end of the month at the Actors In Action studio in the Alberta Arts District of Portland. This class will be four packed hours of character and script study. Since I’m doing this through my PNW agency enrollment is open to other talent in the agency first, then we’ll open up registration to the public. Naturally I’ll mention that here and on the YouTube channel.

Now that I’m done shamelessly self-promoting it’s time to go back to work.

Here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under acting, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, videos, YouTube

Day 5 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0 – V.O. Thing TONIGHT!

The days are going by so quickly! I’m already one work week in and I feel like I just started this project yesterday. Tonight I go read with the Portland V.O. actors and that should be a lot of fun. Like I mentioned before, I’m not sure what happens to these recordings, but if they become available for public consumption I’ll share the way that you can do that.

I’ve been thinking about the video element of this project and I’ve come to this decision:

  • I will do videos as often as there is something to add to the conversation outside of these blogs and my own journaling. I don’t know that creating a video of me reading or coding at the computer would be all that entertaining and, even though I do want to document my progress, the work and the end result of that work are te most important things so if shooting a video would get in the way of that I will skip it in favor of the bigger goal.
  • I probably won’t do a lot of videos on Fridays and weekends. Friday, Saturday and Sunday are the days that have the lowest views for me. There doesn’t seem to be much point in posting on those days.
  • If I do shoot something over the weekend, you’ll see it during the week, probably Monday.
  • I’m sure that I’ll break these guidelines in the future at some point.

Now I still have some audition prep and some prep for tonight. Gotta’ go!

Here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under actor stuff, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, video, videos, YouTube

Day 4 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0

It is days like today that make the daily-ness of this feel a little repetitive and risk the chance of this whole experiment becoming dull to the public who are choosing to come along on this ride. There is only so much progress a person can achieve in a 24 hour window and when 12 of those hours are committed to other jobs and eventually you want to sleep (at least a little bit) that leaves a very limited window to complete your tasks. This is the cold, unfeeling reality of time. It goes forward whether you are finishing things or not.

In a job interview, if I were to be completely honest, when asked what I felt my worst attribute is I would normally say time management. However, I no longer think that is true. If I actually look at how I spend my time, what goals are accomplished and how all of these things track together I actually think my biggest flaw is enthusiasm management. When I get started on something, like Operation 2.0, I’m usually pretty excited about it, I like the challenge it brings, and I’m looking forward to the results. I want to do it and so I find the ways that will make it work. I can work in batches, manage my time, make the time when it can’t be managed. I make it work. It’s when I lose steam that things start to go awry. If I lose the excitement I also stop being as dedicated to the process of making things happen (which is totally the case with my relationship to the gym right now #CurtisIsBloated).

So, with that in mind, I actually failed to achieve the progress I had set for myself yesterday. This now needs to be completed today:

  • Finish preparing my sides for the audition.
  • Review the VO scripts for Friday (oh lord, that’s tomorrow!)
  • Read my stinking book!

Staying rested is key. A tired brain is a sloppy brain.

Here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under acting, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, video, videos, YouTube

Day 3 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0

Today started off strong! I went in and confirmed that my headshots were finally uploaded into my PNW casting account (that’s a long, dumb story not worth repeating) and got an audition from my L.A. agent for a really cool recurring role on a prominent genre series – THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I’VE WANTED EVER SINCE I STARTED O:TVCA THE FIRST TIME AROUND!!

So, I have preparations to do (maybe get a little coaching too) so that I can put my best performance forward on this.

It’s worth mentioning that typical advice given to the actor is to “book the room, not the job.” This is solid, sage advice that is often repeated and not as often heeded. It’s really easy to fall into the trap of wanting the job (or in some cases financially needing the job) but unfortunately your desire for a job has no bearing on whether or not you get the job. Your amount of control in an audition situation ends the second your performance ends. so it is your duty as an actor, as someone who wants to work, to do the best job you can each and every time so that casting has a reason to call you back even if you aren’t right for the role you are auditioning for that day.

I will be hanging on to this advice between now and when I submit my tape.

Something I keep forgetting to talk about is that I’ll be doing some classes up here in the PNW through my new agency Actors In Action. They have a studio in the arts district and it seems a crime not to use it. I’m doing a one-day intensive at the end of April and will mention that more as we get closer to the date. #ShamelessSelfPromotionIsComing

Things are starting to happen!

Here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under acting, actor stuff, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, video, videos, YouTube

Day 2 Operation: Television’s Curtis Andersen 2.0

Today has been pretty simple. Between jobs I did an update on the blog coding and updated my AdSense information since I’m seeing a sudden spike in traffic (Thanks for that everyone!). I also continue to read my book. These are the little steps, the “warts and all” steps that need to be taken to get where I want to go. This is not the glamorous part – in fact, like most things, there’s not a lot of glamor until the very end when you hit the goal – but it is a very necessary part.

That being said, I do have a gig this Friday!

Being a performer (in my particular case an actor) means that you are required to put (at least some) of your career in other people’s hands. For the most part, especially when you want people to book you for the better paying jobs, you need someone to book you for work. To get those people to book you they need to know what you can do. In order for them to know what you can do you need to put yourself out there. Often this happens with things like acting reels and going to auditions, but sometimes it is just dropping your name in a hat.

Last week I dropped my name in a hat for voice actors in Portland. They were looking for people to participate in script reading at a local radio station. Surprisingly I got cast in this week’s group! I don’t think this is broadcast, but if it is I’ll share a link. I just got the scripts today and it looks like a lot of comedy, so it should be a lot of fun. This is a bonus “achievement” (I should work out the vocabulary I’m going to use for this) that was unintended, but following the advice of my friend Amy (subscribe to her channel) I’m taking the time to appreciate each victory.

And here’s the playlist for April:

Leave a Comment

Filed under actor stuff, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen 2.0, videos, YouTube

The Gunslinger – I read it

This is NOT about the movie. I did not see the movie. I don’t think I’ll see the movie unless it’s free on a plane. That’s how I saw Batman vs. Superman and I still wanted my money back (Good gravy, that movie was terrible!).

No, today I finally posted my response to the “Should I Read The Dark Tower?” video I posted back in June. As a refresher, here’s the video:

And here is the response:

Want to check it out for yourself, or maybe this would be the perfect gift for the reader in your life? I’ve got links to the books down below and a link to the amazon Prime trial for that sweet free 2-day shipping!

Leave a Comment

Filed under books, fanboy, fantasy, fiction, friends, video, videos, YouTube

There is SO MUCH Going On!

I am currently on location in Harrisville, New Hampshire at Aldworth Manor shooting the new indie horror movie Squirrel. It’s been a lot of fun and you’re going to see a lot of it if you’re following me on social media.

Autumn is my favorite time of year and October is one of my favorite months. Rene and I got married in October, we LOVE Halloween, the weather is my preferred type with clouds and rain and chill, it’s our cup of tea. It’s really hard to be all the way across the country away from her and Frankie. They seem to be having a good time back in Portland and Frankie is super-cute in his outfits to keep him warm, as you can can see in these pictures:

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

But it’s still hard. So I’ve been keeping myself busy in my downtime.

In the interest of Halloween, I’m telling spooky stories here at the manor. The first one you can see here:

I’ll be doing more all month and these stories are TRUE! Also, the manor house is apparently haunted so I’m going to be going through it with some of the cast and crew later this month to see if we can “catch” anything. Here’s a preview of that from Friday the 13th:

Of course, it wouldn’t be Halloween if I didn’t post Bloody Mary again – it’s a tradition:

And since we won’t be able to do LIVE Discussions for a while, here’s one that i think is still incredibly relevant on being a journeyman actor:

Oh, and I forgot to mention that we have COOL NEW MERCH NOW! You can see that HERE.

You can currently order these cool designs:

Of course, our patrons have first crack at all new material and at the higher levels of patronage you get discounts on your order! You can check that out HERE.

Please like, subscribe, click the links, share, follow – you know, do all the good social media stuff! We’ll see you soon!

1 Comment

Filed under acting, actor stuff, adventures, behind the scenes, blatant plug, career, filmmaking, horror, independent film, making movies, movies, Operation: Television's Curtis Andersen, projects, video, videos, YouTube

Storytelling Discussion Highlights

We had a great conversation on Sunday talking about storytelling, how we do it, and what it takes to make that your career. I’ve trimmed down the over hour long conversation into about twenty minutes of just the most advice dense parts. And there’s a little bit of Skelly in there too.

Below is the full discussion if you liked what you saw above and want to see a bit more:

Don’t forget to check out our panelists where they do their work:

Jeff Garvin at JeffGarvinBooks.com

Erin Stegeman at her Twitter

And Zeke Pinheiro at FunSizeHorror.com

And of course check out the Andelon Productions Patreon. You get exclusive access to content and material there and it only takes a dollar a month to be a patron!

Leave a Comment

Filed under actor 101, Andelon, artist, business, career, creativity, Hollywood, how-to, insight, inspiration, internet, video, videos, YouTube

Fireside Chat Episode 2 RELEASED!

Over a year ago one of my oldest and best friends, Jeff Garvin, and I sat down in front of a camera and read from our high school journals. It was an embarrassing trip down memory lane. It was in response to this blog I posted: The Value of Journaling but was also something that Jeff thought might be neat for the readers of his novel, Symptoms of Being Human, since it would be a window into his actual high school self. What follows is the stuff we caught on camera after we edited out most of the swearing and inside jokes:

Leave a Comment

Filed under Andelon, friends, friendship is magic, funny, video, videos, YouTube