A month and a half at imaginary sea

Well here I am again, in the same position I was in a month ago. Unemployed, cameraless and foreverwaiting for a big break to push me forward into my proposed career.

After 5 weeks selling energy door to door I walked out. There was plenty of sales training and work but no time for Matt. that's no time for JKD training, acting, or spending much time with the wife apart from the weekends or half of it, and to top it off the money I was earning was going back into it for petrol and food and any cancellations. I also lost quite a bit of the muscle I had gained before joining this job (no time to eat properly plus tons of walking/running) (pic below taken 1st Jul 2012)

so frantically trying to work out again and build it back. All in all, I felt as though I was swimming in a whirlpool, the momentum I was making was in fact sending me in circles. I had to ask myself did I really want to be doing this, So, even though I enjoyed the team work, targets and the job, I quit knowing I wasn't doing my life the way I set out to do when I first moved here. So now, in my search for employment while I prep and film my debut, I won't be taking commission jobs or jobs that leave me finishing at 10 pm at night. On the plus side, I will be able to watch the fencing and Taekwondo at the olympics now we have figured out all we needed was an antannae plug and not the whole Freeview TV setup box. Awesome :)

On the day of the wife and I seeing spiderman, the NZ cops were outside the cinema doing their thing as people protested national asset sales. I took this photo cos I like cop cars (just not following me lol)

Nothing else to really report, I checked out the Amazing Spiderman and Dark Knight Rises both on IMAX. Very awesome movies, The action in both was very top notch. And was extremely excited to see both on the giant screen, now for Expendables 2!! I also caught up on alot of the films I missed out on while doing my job. Here's some of my fav pics from the films...

The fight scene in the subway of Amazing Spidermans was my fav, It's like Jackie chan meets Spiderman. Andrew Garfield's acting was very cool in this. So much Parkour, the action in this film is shot very awesome, makes Peter parker very believable :)

And Bane was the only villain in the dark knight series where you really want Batman to fight and kick the shit out of the bad guy, it was very cool and their witty skirmishes were very cool too. I wasn't impressed with the ending between the two and I hope they can meet again, alot of Hollywood punches (big swings, not very technical) and not as physical as I have seem them both perform in previous movies, though in suits I can imagine the discomfort lol. Very cool movie. Batman's partnership fight with Catwoman on the roof/tunnels was pretty cool in my opinion too :)

Watching these classics onscreen was a nice inspiring reminder for myself for why I wanted to get into the film industry. Plus, I did a full 7 hour day on Shortland st in an italian restaurant in the CBD in my first week back, won't spoil the scene, but I'm happy to be doing filmwork again (even if just as an extra), so I'm back in the swing of things now. On the downside I got a 200 dollar ticket for my rego or the sticker being affixed improperly, beats me, I paid the parking meter, but Auckland council seems to be quite profit hungry IMO. As you can see below, it's a very nice restaurant.

Below is the Atheltes foot commercial. Don't bother looking for me, It's hard to even recognise some of the people I met there. We really were just background lol and only involved in like 15 secs, but still a very nice ad so well done to the team.

Got the blackbelt mag I saw on Blackbelt's FB page, so happy to see it instores here. Love Bruce Lee, He's the man!! :)

Anyway, will leave you here for now as I regroup. I have applied for everything from government jobs to more sales jobs. I'm quietly confident I will gain some income. But in the meantime I share this comic below which sums up my feeling over the last couple weeks. Do you ever look up at the stars at night? I found myself looking alot, I miss my family in Christchurch and I hope to visit them soon, it's almost been a year since I've seen them. Also I'm 26 this year, where has the last 8 years gone since I finished high school? I really need a fulltime job and to get this movie finished. I can't live a life full of promises, I have to live a life of full of life...

A couple new jobs, and work on an ad.

So Last weekend I did two film related jobs, the first was another walk on role on Shortland St, just reading a magazine in the waiting lounge. Easy 5 hours to do one 10 second scene. It's not really news/exciting til I'm prominent or get a line, but I'm letting you know so I reinforce myself that I am doing the work experience I need to get under my belt as an actor, even if it's just background work. Also Last Sunday I did work on an advertisement by Good Oil films (who did the Takara commercial I mentioned a couple months ago) This time they were doing an ad for athletes foot -the shoe shop not the medical ickiness lol,

But we spent most of Sunday dressed in different protest outfits shooting around Britomart and hopefully that ad will air soon so I can share that with you here. I met a girl while shooting called Paz and she was from Chile, She's an environment technician or something like that and she was really cool to talk to. These shoots are always easier if you have somebody you can get along with. This is usually why I don't enjoy the Shortland st shoots as much I guess. She was the second person I've met from Santiago since I moved to Auckland, I never realised that Auckland was a location they'd ever dream of coming. Anyway in regards to the ad I doubt I can be seen in it but trust me, I'll be the first to point it out if it's possible.

Outside of these couple jobs I've been looking on the market for a real job. That market research role has given up the ghost, so no more calls from them so yeah, a short lived celebration I guess.

With no other options left in the market since I have no experience apparently (bs) I've reverted to applying for jobs along the lines of my old GKR karate job of door knocking and working on commission sales. Sure enough, I got a call the very next day from the marketing company I applied for and was due to appear at 2.15pm for my interview.

Ok things are going to be good today, I told myself. Still I left a little late and sure enough Murphy's law hit the fan, First off 1)I was low on petrol but couldn't waste time filling up at a gas station on the way, 2) I had to stop at EVERY red light (unbelievable - I could have run a couple but I'm not spending money on tickets I don't need to), 3) for the first half the motorway was held up travelling at like 30 k instead of the normal 80-100 kmph, so 3) thinking at one point I should take out my cell and let the office know I was running late I reached for my phone but decided against it. If I'm late, I'm late. Sure enough, I look up again and a cop is flashing his lights, just about to take off after pulling somebody over, He would have seen me if I had been on the phone just by looking in his rear view mirror as he pulled back into traffic so another intuitive decision on my part  I guess lol, then 4) when I got to the place I couldn't find a park. I guessed and hoped that ME sales was right (it was so phew) then 5) I had trouble finding 7a. it went 6 then 7b. What the hell? I walked all the way to 1a and asked there where mysterious '7a'would be? (It's like harry potter's 9 3/4 station) turns it out it was in the corner between 5 and 6 (usually its 567 not 57a67b oh well)

Anyway, Long story short, got past the interview, second interview, 2 training days and now today was day 1 of my 6 day evaluation. So all going well, WHEN I hit my targets next week I will have the job as well as a cool paycheck and then finally FINALLY be able to get my Camera and rid of some debts.....It's been a long road, I tell you.   I've spent the previous week up til doing this job, thinking positively about attracting money, when today 'out of the blue' I got a letter in my mailbox from the tax refund place I signed up for once in 2009, and got 2 checks worth a bit of cash. I think things are gonna be all right now :) In related news, 2 weeks ago my computer's hard drive died a peaceful death, it suffered little and beeped out it's last squeak. I think if i don't upgrade it I'll just buy a mac....whatever's easier to edit my future film with. No matter what, I can't forget the main goal. Become a local action star.    But bills come first, and I love jobs with personal development, targets, uncapped earnings and team work. Today was great, I can't wait to try my hand at my future....

So yeah, thanks for following the blog, I promise I will do something big at some point this year, til then I'm just keeping up with everything via my wife's laptop and trying to give 200 percent to this job so i can make a big income, fund my crazy dream so yeah *high five!* Out of the unemployment market, ready to become a shark :)

Splash!

(also came across a cool saying that I wanted to share with those who like inspiring quotes
 After the game,
the king and the pawn go into the same box.
Italian Proverb

don't let anyone get you down, we're all the same at the end of the day and are just the product of our choice....)