Producing...

I started REBEL PILGRIM PRODUCTIONS about 18 months ago to make my first short film. Since then I have been trying to figure out what to do with it. I'm happy to finally have some direction with my little company. I'm preparing now to produce the My Take shorts in November and it looks very likely that I will be producing my first feature film in early 2007. I have meet some new people over the last few weeks who are excited about my concept...and have a few old friends who are willing to jump on board. It's a mockumentary style comedy. I can talk more about it once I get it registered.

It has been fun to find my way in the entertainment industry. I love acting, but I'm beginning to enjoy the idea of producing, writing and directing as well.

The in-laws are visiting from Indiana. It's nice to have them here.

Today I audition for a motgage company...typical "talking head" commercial. Not my favorite thing, but I am being called in by a casting director who has been very good to me.

More to come...

A Break

Life has finally slowed down a little bit this weeked...lots of doing nothing. My last four or five auditions have gone very well, but no word on anything yet.

So...I'm going back to doing nothing now.

Busy Summer Days

The last few weeks have clipped by for our family. Both Debbie and I have been working non-stop on one thing or another. The kids are doing well, but a little testier...likely because we are so busy. The ancient fathers have taught me that busy-ness is a sin and that life is lived in the serenity of each moment. I wish the ancient fathers had lived in Orange County with a mortgage payment...but they generally lived in monestaries and the desert wilderness...sometimes perched atop large wooden poles. Since I'm not moving to the mojave to live on a pole anytime soon, I'll try to figure it out as I go.

My new San Diego agent (Shamon Freitas Agency) has landed me an audition tomorrow for a new soap opera called "Art of Betrayal." As you know, I'm nothing if not a soap star. Today's audition was for a feature film called Grindin'. It was at Sunset-Gower studios in Hollywood...several network shows are made there. I've been to most all of the major studios now. The quality of my auditions has grown exponentially since my return from the Hampton tour. I feel like something is close to breaking...

In my spare time (he laughs as he types), I am producing the My Take films and another 3-minute comedy short. I hope to have these done by the end of the year. Right now I'm building a production team, looking for final funding, and dusting off the books from my production company, Rebel Pilgrim Films, which I started in Las Vegas last year.

Now I must go watch Rock Star: Supernova. It fills the American Idol void. (Wow, those two sentences makes me look really lame.) Lost and The Office will be back soon...then I can feel a little more hip in my TV watching.

Shalom.

Tired

Man, I'm tired. It has been a busy week...over 1,000 miles driven this week. Five auditions. A booking. Signing with a new agent in San Diego. Throw in a conference and teaching tonight, and I'm spent.

I'm not complaining...it's all good stuff.

The audition for Adam Sandler's film went very well. I think it was the best I could do. No nerves or anything...now we just wait.

Going to bed. I have an audition tomorrow :)

Big Audition Tomorrow

I'm heading over to the SONY to read for Adam Sandler's new film. Guess what? I'd play a preacher. I think this movie will be funny. For a while it was called "Chuck and Buck", but the sides called it "Chuck and Larry." I just read about it in Entertainment Weekly. The part has several lines and concludes with the preacher getting punched by Kevin James...would be great fun.

The commercial went fine today. I met George Clinton. He was very funkadelic. I spent most of the day sprinting down a Burbank culd-e-sac in my business suit...chasing an ice cream truck. Yeah...Hollywood is glamorous. It was a national promo, which means no residuals.

I'll be over at Saddleback church tomorrow and the next day for a recovery conference during the hours that I'm not auditioning.

Hyper-busy week.

Booked a National Commercial...

I booked a commercial for tomorrow featuring George Clinton...gotta get my funk on I guess. It's a comedy spot that will be largely improvised...I'll be the playing the white guy in a suit. That's happy good news. On the producing front, the MY TAKE winners have been announced. (See link over on this side -->) Now we start the effort to produce the five films. I'm in the middle of seeking co-producers/investors now. If you have any leads, shoot me an e-mail.

All of this and I'm planning on going to a Recovery conference Thursday and Friday with some folks from Lifelines. Big thanks to Kris Brown for helping us with our kids this week...some weeks are harder than others to manage two careers and two kids.

I think we are going to go to the Block at Orange tonight to celebrate the commercial with a round of family bowling. Good times.

Reely?

I have three new ACTOR REELS on my other website. Go there and click on "reel." www.joeboyd.net

This and that

I finally updated my acting reel today. It should be up on www.joeboyd.net in a few days...
No big-time auditions yet this week, but I will read for a little indie tv pilot tomorrow. The part is a (terrible) boxer, which seems fun. Thursday holds some meetings with producers in LA regarding some future projects.

Otherwise summer rolls on...the kids are staying up a little too late and sleeping in a little too long...ah, summer. Deb's working a lot these days. I think we are enjoying summer but also looking forward to the daily schedule that school will bring in a few weeks.

Making progress.

My audition yesterday went very well. The casting director was laughing, which is usually good for a sit-com audition. I did well enough that if I don't get it, I think they will have me back again. That's all that really matters. I also auditioned for an improv show last night. They called today and offered me the part, but I may not take it. I'm not really sure why I went in the first place...I think I just wanted to improv at the audition more than anything else.

It's been an eventful summer for sure. I'm starting a new teaching about prayer at Lifelines tomorrow and have been re-reading a few of Richard Foster's books. I forgot how helpful they were to me a few years back. I'm looking forward to see what will happen with our community there this fall.

Pretty good day...

The Disney gig today was fun. I worked with the ABC folks who do all of the web and mobile content for the network. They were great to hang out with...it was interesting to see how many of them were nervous to act or write or be creative given where they work, but once they got into it they had a lot of fun. I hope to work with the guys from teambuilding again.

Here's the good news: First of all, it looks like I've landed an agent for the San Diego market, which is harder than you might think. I also have my third network audition since returning from the tour. It's at Warner Brothers for a new ABC sit-com called NOTES FROM THE UNDERBELLY. Another day livin the dream...

I'm going to Disneyland.

I have an interesting gig coming up Tuesday. I'll be taking Disney employees through a team building exercise which includes creating a commercial (non-airing) from inception through to post-production. The company that runs the event has hired me to lead a team of ten people as they do this. I seem to be the master at booking acting gigs that aren't quite acting gigs, but aren't really anything else either. This seems right in my skill set and should be a fun day. Maybe I'll meet some hot shot Disney producer...or Mickey Mouse.

The group that hired me is www.teambuildingproductions.net out of Phoenix.

Just regular stuff...

We went to the Orange County Fair yesterday. It was our second year in a row, so I guess that means we've been here a year now. No auditions yet this week, but I have one tomorrow and one friday. Eli did a face plant in the driveway tonight and took a nice chunk of flesh out of his knee...he now has a big bandage and he got Taco Bell and Krispy Kreme out of it. I had a bite of each...so I went to the gym.

It's hot.

So, someone who spent the last ten summers in Las Vegas and the last four weeks in Houston, Atlanta and Orlando should not be complaining about the weather in southern California. But I'm going to for a minute. Yesterday it was 97 here and over 100 everywhere inland. Today was almost as bad. The big difference is that, for the first time in my adult life, my home does not have air conditioning. They promised "coastal breezes for natural cooling" when we moved in. That works when it's 79, not 97. So we have been leaving our home as a family this weekend and hanging out at the mall, the bookstore, Starbucks and the movie theater. Turns out that strategy is as expensive as a regular power bill...I guess its a wash.

I'm going to stand in front of a fan now.

Vanished

The Vanished audition went much better than CSI. Two network nods in my first week back was quite unexpected. This week has gone fast and been very busy. I still feel like I'm waiting to rest from the journey. It looks like this weekend might provide that.

CSI...not so great

Back at it. I've hit the ground running with a big audition today for CSI: NY and tomorrow for a new show this fall called Vanished. My CSI audition was a complete mess. I wasn't myself and I could feel myself getting nervous, which very rarely happens. Blah. I'll try to make up for it tomorrow.

No Place Like It

I'm home. I realize that I didn’t share much of the details about my 53-day journey…so here are fifty things I have been busy doing:

1. Flying. (From LA to Dallas to Houston to Atlanta to Orlando to Dallas to Orange County.)
2. Driving. A Chevy HHR with my picture on it. 3,750 miles.
3. Sleeping. At eight different Hampton Inns.
4. Wearing Pajamas most every day.
5. Eating out every day for 150 straight meals.
6. Gaining Weight (about ten pounds)
7. Losing Weight (about eight pounds)
8. Doing Radio Interviews.
9. Giving away Bobble Head Pens.
10. Giving away T-shirts.
11. Giving away Starbucks gift cards.
12. Making web commercials that never seem to make it on the website.
13. Sweating. (FYI, Texas, Georgia and Florida are hot in the summer.)
14. Losing my Blackberry and all of the information inside.
15. Buying a new Blackberry.
16. Returning my new Blackberry because it was broken.
17. Getting another new Blackberry.
18. Turning down about eight auditions.
19. Embracing the simple beauty of the text message.
20. Hanging out with local improvisers in LA, Orlando and Atlanta.
21. Eating at the original Chick-fil-A (the Dwarf House) in Hapeville, Georgia.
22. Getting rained on during fireworks at Stone Mountain Park in Georgia.
23. Getting rained on at Disney World.
24. Getting kicked out of an LA Dodgers game.
25. Getting kicked out of the CNN Building in Atlanta.
26. Getting kicked out of Downtown Disney in Orlando.
27. Getting kicked out of a mall in Houston.
28. Doing improv with my friends Mike, Jarrad and Marla.
29. Finishing 4th place at a Texas Hold Em tournament at a bar called B-52’s in Atlanta.
30. Watching Nacho Libre. (not what I had hoped for)
31. Watching A Prairie Home Companion (not at all what I had hoped for)
32. Watching Superman Returns (surprisingly what I had hoped for)
33. Waiting patiently for Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.
34. Getting new songs on i-tunes.
35. Listening to Rich Mullins when I get sad.
36. Pondering Dallas Willard’s comments on pity.
37. Strangely missing Kentucky when I was in Atlanta.
38. Strangely missing Ohio when I was eating at Buffalo Wings and Things.
39. Strangely missing Las Vegas most everyday.
40. Not-so-strangely missing home.
41. Missing Eli’s birthday, Aidan’s pre-school graduation and all the little moments of the last month.
42. Talking to Debbie everyday on the phone.
43. Writing the great American screenplay. (12 pages down, 100 to go.)
44. Loving my new Mac.
45. Having huge breakthroughs in regard to life being a journey and my identity as a pilgrim on the journey.
46. Talking about Jesus with my new friends.
47. Praying differently.
48. Preparing to come home and help some friends through a memorial service.
49. Counting down until today.
50. Being grateful for the time away and the refining power that it has. Nothing has made me value what I already have than leaving it for a month. I’ve come home a better person.

Every Bedhead must come to an end...

Disney World Today.
A Mall Appearance and a Radio Interview Tomorrow.
Flying Home the Next Day...Priceless.

Florida is wet

In Orlando now. It has rained everyday and is supposed to continue through Tuesday. The end is very near now...five days.

Atlanta wrapped.

We finished early today...we went to a 10-K race in downtown Atlanta. This was our last work day here. Tomorrow we have a day off...then on to Orlando. Only five more work days and eight more days until I make the five hour flight home to OC.

We are going to Stone Mountain tonight to watch fireworks and then to the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow to hang out.

I wish I was having a BBQ at home...or at the Caldwell's house in Vegas...but we'll make the best of it here.

This is day three of a very strict diet for me...I think that I've gained about ten pounds since this thing started and I'm hoping to return home without them.

ATL

Day three of eight in Atlanta...thus far I have really enjoyed my stay here. We're going to a Braves game tomorrow which should be fun. We are staying 1.5 miles from The Dwarf House, which is the original Chick-fil-A. I've eaten there twice already and will definately be back. It makes me happy.

12 days left!