New Job, Safe, Opportunity?

Hi all,

Just got back from watching SAFE at the cinema tonight with the wife. I had been looking forward to this for a long time (since announced actually) so It was awesome to see the final product didn't disappoint. It had everything I wanted from an action film, an entertaining story with stakes, brutal action, one liners and a great pace. It was cut well and Jason Statham is a complete badass in this, imagine frank martin without the rules, He messes guys up left right and centre in this, watch it if you haven't....Just sharing cos these are the sort of films I intend to make and watching a movie as cool as this just inspires me to follow my dream even harder :)

So finished my first full week as an ICA for a sales and marketing company, It sucked it had to rain all week but I try and enjoy all the moments. They say you fool me once then shame on you, you fool me twice than shame on me.....try 5 times, 5 times I thought since the sun was out and it wouldn't rain, sure enough EACH day without fail it rained/pissed down, halfway through. It's nice to laugh it now but standing on someones door step looking like a horror film fisherman from a stephen king novel doesn't help with my first impressions. My team leader is pretty cool, I've learned to be alot more enthusiastic and know my shit after watching him work the streets. It's quite eye opening and it feels like being in a pressure cooker being apart of such a successful sales team, I was told by the guy who hired me that I beat out 130 other applicants for the role. I couldn't belive how naive I was when I walked in expecting they hire just anyone with good availibility and a desire to learn, so trying to meet and exceed their expectations. So yeah, in short, made a start to the sales career hitting my target for the first week, so hoping next week I double it so I can make it to the next level and start earning what I want to be earning....then camera, computer and editing equipment will be mine!!! (never forget the goal, this job is just a step up the ladder for me)

Had JKD training today, I can only train once a week right now since I finish work so late, But there is something calming about training for me, 3 hours a week that I can forget the world of bills, demands and plans and just focus on mastering a few certain moves of the body. I also talked to sifu about helping him grow the club, ultilising my skills, I'm excited about it and hope to show him the plan next week. More students equal more potential people to learn with/from in my eyes. Plus hammering a tyre 300 times is much more fun when you do it next to someone. The alternating thumps actually remind me of lemmings lol

Also got a call this week from someone I did a student film with who says that the director wants to put me in his feature film that he is working for, a drama he thinks, so I'm looking forward to a callback so I can check out the script. More experience leads to more opportunities. Anyway, That's really all I can share this week so with that note I'll leave you the following calvin and hobbes comic which though always funny, also makes you think! haha :)

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....)

A wise man once said, wake me when it's over.

June the 4th. Time is flying by. Not much to fill you in on, but trying to keep a record of this transitional time. Looking for work has its perks (not many), the main one being a lot of free time. So, in it I like to play Alpha Protocol on Xbox, snap some necks, shoot some bad guys, otherwise in quiet times I try to learn guitar, I can play some of my fav Placebo, Audioslave songs now as well as little ones by dido, avalanche city, johnny cash, and other fav songs like hurt, father and son, white Christmas etc. Getting better :)

  

Landed a job finally, Its a casual 4-6 week contract with a 4 hours a night doing market research,  the good news is I got to work for 3 days, the bad news is the shifts have fizzled out. They said they'd call me. I'm staying optimistic but my bank is rolling it's eyes.

I've also put my name down on a number of 'extra' opportunities but not getting picked, I'd update my photos but I'm sans funds. Still, I hope for something or some job to turn up soon, if I'm another 'NO' closer to a yes then this employment field must be pretty barren of yes's.  I've had department stores, sales jobs, courier places, and all sorts turn me down. I can see why others stay on benefits for so long. (I'm not btw, I don't qualify since my partner makes a certain amount which is BS but hey, I'm not in charge of the country)

Wifey and I visited One tree Hill yesterday for some 'us' time. A little disappointed there was no tree as such, but as I don't keep up with national history I'm sure I missed something somewhere. Anyway, was a good trip, below are some photos. (wife doesn't want me to share ones with her in it apparently)

Hmmm.

Mt Wellington (home) from here.

Yes, I'm up to something ;)

Rocketman :)

Also, now that my little catch up on WWE (bought wrestlemania 28 and have a poster lol) is over I have been rewatching some favorite movies I had as a kid in a vain hope to emulate that experience with my own work. Over the past few weeks I have been watching Arnold films. He's just so cool!

I've watched Jingle all the way, True Lies, Total Recall, Last Action hero, Twins, Pumping Iron (doc) and Eraser lately, so now I'm off to hopefully buy copies of Predator, Commando and Kindergarten cop soon.

Growing up he inspired me as much as Stallone did, one of thing things I admire about him (not sure if mentioned this in a previous blog or not) is that he liked to set a goal and then conquered it. He wanted to be a bodybuilder, but not just any bodybuilder, he wanted to be the best in the world. They said no, but then he did and became 7 times Mr Olympia :) After succeeding in that he turned his attention to hollywood, they said no, your name is strange and you're too big, but putting in the same amount of work ethic and mental drive as he did in the bodybuilding field he succeeded in becoming a hollywood legend. :) after that he set his heart on politics, and become Governor of California for a number of years. The dude's my hero ;) I'm so looking forward to Expendables 2 :)

 Watched Men in Black 3 yesterday night as well with Melody, It was really good storywise and the end was a nice happy twist, really proud of Jermaine's portrayal of the bad guy Boris (above) really funny, and good to see a kiwi actor keep his footing with legends like Will smith and Tommy Lee Jones, was some really cool effects in this film. Some of the jokes were flat but overall we had a really good time.

The Jeet Kune Do club opened up their new Gym today so I went to the opening and I'm really looking forward to training again. Gonna be a ring with ropes and everything, will probably catch some members with a sharpshooter for fun :) Oh well, just need to get the cash. On that note, I better go and look for jobs lol. Till next time, adios!

ps. I'm not angry about being unemployed, I think being broke now karma for later when I get rich (i'm sure of it) so like Donald Trump said ,"Don't get mad, get even" ;)

Still Waiting...

Hello boys and girls.

I am still on a somewhat tropical island in the middle of nowhere, having deep conversations about the universe with a palm tree. A romantic way of saying still unemployed surrounded by swimming cash sharks cows with their jaws out waiting for cash I don't have." Time is ticking, and when it gets to 0:01 there is no hero to snip the wire, no beefcake to push me out of the way saving my bacon and no way you'll see me coolly walk away as if the impact will leave me unscathed. No, I'm stuffed like roast chicken. Boy, I'm sick of sending out CV's, I may as well blow SOS smoke signals and get the same results. But negativity only brings more rainclouds so I try and stay on the bright side, work on making my script tighter, watch movies I hadn't got around to seeing, keep our house tidy, workout a little - try get that lean action figure I need for Chase, learn guitar finally and try learn little bits of my wife's language and annoy her with my perfect pronunciation. So far so good, she's a frown away from throwing me off the balcony ;)

I just finished watching Another Earth which is a good simple sci fi/drama film and I love how it tackles the question of a theoretical Multiverse - What if there was another you? right now? would this doppelganger be exactly the same? maybe fitter? not as fit? smarter? richer? Put simply when you made a decision, you chose A and they chose B? Where did they end up? Should I have chased this insanity dream? Should I have instead stayed at school, did some boring degree and end up better off?  Should I have not bothered with the music and joined the army instead? Am I crazy for wanting to do acting/directing for a career when the other me is a real estate agent starting to build his nest egg? Sometimes I think like that, I'm happy others do too. You know, 2 words I learnt when I was young I learnt from my boy Stallone in 'Over the top'. Regret and Obligation. There I go, I've fallen off the rainbow again. The words should have been, Perseverance and Determination.

I had 2 interviews for a sales position at Whitcoull's Sylvia Park. The first one went well, me and the guy clicked and talked for over an hour. I was a little surprised the job would be minimum wage but I said if they offered opportunities to rise through ranks through hard work and results I would be keen. I was pretty confident about getting the job, I didn't really want it to be honest but that shouldn't have cracked the surface. So of course I was happy when I got the call to come in for a Second Interview. Both times I turned up for these interviews and the interviewer was late, maybe a warning sign, or an excuse to flee. I stayed. 

The set up to this one was totally different, similar questions but different environment. I wasn't seated across from my questioner, instead I sat in a chair in the middle of the room facing a wall, while one assistant talked and took notes from my left side and the manager asked her questions from the right. She was attractive too which made me a bit speechless (as in Raj from Big Bang theory) but I got my bearings back and even with my attention divided I tried to stay cool but a couple times I was left blank. When have you gone over and beyond  for customer service? Uh..talked about my GKR days working with kids and grandparents...Whats something in the workplace that displays your creativity? I said most jobs didn't allow me freedom to break protocol. So she said what about at home? I told her about when we moved in we had no mattress and all the shops were closed, So i put all our clothes on the floor and plumped them up and slept on that for the night, I was doing DIY at home and didn't have a hammer for the little nails so I used the nunchuks which worked for the main ones (bought a hammer the next day to finish them off), using cardboard boxes for tables etc

Long story short. She emailed me I didn't get the job. I would have preferred a phonecall like the Secure parking guy did but OK. It's a little like a break up over a text, but that was a fun waste of a week anyway. I've applied for another 10-15 jobs this week so hoping something sizzles. speaking of sizzles, Fancy a hotdog? Funny costume huh

Worked on Shortland Street today as a friend mentioned he had been on the show in an armed defenders squad role. Thought I'm available, may as well put my name down, so got something from my agent, just a walk on role, but then I remembered why I don't really like doing shorty. The people are nice (one of the actors said hi) but being referred to as 'Hey, green hoody, come over here' instead of being asked my name sort of gets under my skin the 4th or 5th time I do this thing. But hey, take the crumbs build a cake. Soon as I get a bloody job I can put this plan into action, get my camera, get casting, shoot this damn Chase film and have a ticket to wave around and open some doors. The film game's like the job game, all catch 22. No job, no experience, but if you have no experience how do you get a job?

In terms of Chase news, I added a new character, Alice, the camera-woman following around Chase has officially replaced 'Paul' so now the script has got more of a buddy feel. Also Nazim won't be directing as I originally planned as he had some family affairs to take care of back home, so it's a one man show for now, but I have a couple acquaintances whose services I plan on acquiring prior to shooting.

Anyway, keep out of the sunburn and play safe ( I know its winter, but the UV still gets you, you should check out my sunglasses. I look like a one man goodcopbadcop, they call me the babyfaced badass. I'm going to bed now before I do any more damage to the interwebs, good night, that's all folks!)

(the recent eclipse as seen in Philippines, supposed to be a Venus thing happening in June too- space is pretty cool, why didn't I become an astronaut? maybe we all are and don't know it? cool film premise ;) haha)

Work on my debut feature 'Chase' begins!

Ok so for all news Here is the link to the official Facebook Page for = Chase Movie

 

Finally, printed and bound (not in the pic but trust me) at 71 pages without the action scenes (a comfy 20-30 minutes I reckon) This film should be a nice ride. A fun NZ action film. We don't make em so I'm sure I can market the hell out of this here in NZ/AUS. So now with the script all finished we move on to the next step, locations :) (as you can see on my plan sheet below which is stuck on my fridge)

Seeing as My place will double as chase's most of the locations are quite close, here's a couple pics.

Looks nice huh? Money Shots! 

Me (producer, writer, lead etc) and Nazim (director, editor, fx) had a small meeting and discussing of ideas about the film yesterday. I'm pretty excited to start work on shooting it, but I got to make sure everyone involved is available for the shooting times and schedule it all accordingly. So till next post, Our first step begins the journey of a million miles :)

All Moved in, all systems Go!!

 Say hello to My next door Neighbor, Mt Wellington :)

 Hullo!

It's now the 9th of May and we have been at the new place for a whole month now :) Finally have the internet and Phone line connected so welcome back to the interwebs! The area is nice and our home is finally all decked out and ready for action. I've started the groundwork on Chase (next post) and also gotten myself a Car (thanks to Emperor), a computer chair (thanks to the Takara commercial lol) and a couch, desk, cabinet, microwave etc... thanks to our savings... So without further ado, let me fill you in.

First Off, we have an oven now and heaps of space in the kitchen so we can masterchef our dinners, check out these pics of a couple of our dinners :) Wife cooked the crabs, I made way to many jokes about crab zombies for me to do it :P

New Car - The Mattmobile :)

I got paid the second part of my earnings from the Emperor Gig and got us a cheap but worthy Car! It's a 1996 Rover 416, Automatic, sunroof, central locking, immobilizer, 1.5 L vroom vroom vehicle, cosy interior and 10 disc cd changer in the boot. Loving it, check out some pics. Definitely a change from my last 2 cars which were Blue, 1.3L mid 1980's models cars. In the big city with motorways highways and overkill on the hill, a more powerful car was needed, introducing...

D.I.Y. Man :)

My Dad always taught me never to pay more than you have to for something, I got the TV cabinet below for 25 bucks, 50 dollars cheaper than the tag (75)! The desk was cheap too, halfprice, The chair was average, and the 42" inch TV was also on special and about 550, cheaper than the going rate of 900-1000ish, so it pays to shop around peoples :) I mean think about it like this, every time you buy something you're not paying with money, you're paying with hours from your life so make sure you spend it well as nobody lives forever (or so they tell me)

Part of the appeal of buying D.I.Y stuff is the appeal to the hands on manhandling side of me, so you can imagine how much fun and satisfaction I had putting together these puppies :) Pics to remember the occasion lol

Tadaa finished product shots :)

 

 

Acting

In terms of acting, I haven't really done anything since the extra work on Nothing Trivial, I did do a small role in a student short film starring as the lead, When I get a link I'll share it here, but there were very professional to work with and I had a lot of fun on it. Also, Go Girls season 4 DVD came out today so when the price drops a little I'll buy it so I can share a screen cap of my one second on it lol. Hey, all these seconds around the place add up to experience and it should all pay off when I finish Chase and it sits on Video shelves :)

My latest Obssession

Apart from Chelsea winning the FA cup and getting to the Champions League final, and Jose winning the La Liga with Real Madrid I haven't really been excited about much sport, UFC's Chael vs Silva 2 is still a while away....but then I heard that through FB that the Rock was coming back to face Cena at Wrestlemania this year I got so excited, you see, I used to be a big ass wrestling fan. No kidding, Bret Hart was my boy! I wanted to be just like him. Me and my brothers would dress up like our favorite wrestlers (the other bro's favs were Razor Ramon, Shawn Michaels, Lex Luger and Undertaker) and throw each other all over the house and get power slammed on mattresses etc and then out of breath and laughing it off, run over to the TV when the Friday night show would come on and cheer for our heroes...

When the WWE swallowed WCW I stopped watching as I had other things (life) to do but since moving here to Mt wellington ,and with all of this free time while I job hunt, I've gotten back into wrestling in a big way over the last 2 weeks trying to catch up with all the storylines and beefs before Wrestlemania Cena vs Rock comes out on DVD next week. (I've averaged 3 hours a day of PPV watching over the last week) I even bought W12 for the XBOX and won my first match as my character a couple hours ago lol, I call him 'Matt 'The mechanic' Kinsman'. Maybe I'll do a short video soon to test Nazim's camera before we shoot Chase, actually, that sounds like a fun idea, now to find some cheap tables and chairs to break :)

Home Life -Nice and Cosy, Blue skies ahead!

 Anyway that's all from me for a while, Thanks for reading the blog and from now on things can only get better with this strong a foundation. I've started work on Chase and I'm pretty close to getting a job I think. so The Dream Lives on!!!

New House! :)

Happy Easter! Check out the chocolates I got the wife :)

So yeah, what a weekend! We cleaned up and moved out of our city apartment on Sunday and into our brand new one in Mt Wellington. I borrowed some money off my parents (which was nice) so I could rent a car as I figured it would be more efficient and inexpensive than hiring a moving agency and it was :) It's a nice car too, been a while since I've driven one, last time I did once once last year and i got a tricket lol It's a toyota corolla 1999 manual so was cool, I'm so used to driving 80's rust buckets that it's nice to drive something smooth. Can't wait to buy a new car now that we have a place to park a vehicle (city parking is practically nonexistant).

Moving in was exhausting as there's no lift. Everything had to go up 3 flights of stairs, so I'm happy that I don't have a couch or anything big just yet but 30 kg suitcases tend to get heavier with every landing haha. Not to mention the Fridge we had to move up here on Monday night. But wife was a trooper and together we somehow managed it. There's so much space here, It's nice :)

I've started training again and will put up some photos of this next blog and show off the gym I use everynight now. Nothing on the jobfront yet so I'm slowly working on the Chase script while I can. Really hoping to start shooting by early May but we'll see how things pan out, anyhow I can still work on the script and storyboard for now.

Here's some pics of our very basic set up for now. I'm happy I have enough shelf space for my DVDs now. Now to buy a TV to watch them on!! :P See you all next blog :)

The bedroom featuring invisble mattress :)

Floortop computer, entertainment hub lol

Kitchen, very galley-ish and cool :)

My corner' as the wife likes to say, so set up my gear :)

The bathroom has so much space, it's like half the size of our old place!

Ok byebye for now ;)