FOUR LOKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Masterpiece Chorba: Four Loko from Crandall Miller on Vimeo.

King Henry The Four (loko) coming tomorrow.......

Be afraid....be very very afraid.  Starting tomorrow you will no longer go by the calendar as we know it.  You will describe things as being before tomorrow's debut or after tomorrow's debut. 

Weekend wrapup

Filming went really well with the guys from Gut Punch.  I edited down Falstaff's "sherry" monologue from Henry IV, ii and changed all references for sherry to four loko.  I think that this is going to turn out really great.  Here is a finished project we did as a spoof on Jersey Shore:

The Jersey Hulk from Crandall Miller on Vimeo.

After that, Mrs PhillyRay and I went over to a great friend's place for a delicious and overindulgent dinner and watched the Steeler's sick come from behind victory.  Great day.

My real estate clients' deal just got approved and they are signing leases tomorrow, which is really great and I have an audition tomorrow for the Onion again.  I guess they really like me over there!  Good stuff these last few days.  Here's to hoping this trend continues....

Audition/meeting and weekend acting plans

This week has been a busy one.  Not really for acting, but mostly for real estate.  Since things are slow at the moment, I decided to plug away at real estate this week and try to close some clients.  So far no applications or lease signings, but I have been meeting up with 3 people a day or so....which is a good amount for January.  Real Estate is similar to acting in the sense that one morning you wake up and have no prospects, then by lunch time things can be buzzing. 

This is a good thing because it helps me stay positive but that false sense of hope can serve as a drawback.  I try to ignore the latter and embrace the former.  So, I've been previewing apartments like a crazy banshee and have found some great deals.  I went to preview what was listed as a one bed for $2600 in a doorman building in Midtown East, and lo and behold, it was actually a 2 bedroom.  No brokers fee.  So I am marketing the Hades out of that place.  So far, nothing to show for it....but I do plan on showing it at least 3 more times today. 

This morning I traveled to Alphabet City to meet with a director/producer of a new show that is about people who went through a dramatic change.  I hope that my weight loss of 55+lbs is dramatic enough for these guys because people on the show receive a $5,000.00 wardrobe!  That would be really really great.  I recycled the same writeup that I sent to that Gold's Gym casting notice.  I hope I get this, because I am trying to turn that specific negative into a positive.

Tomorrow Gut Punch is filming the aforementioned Sherri-sack monologue fauxmercial.  I am also considering changing "sherry" to "loko" and "sherrysack" to "four loko".  It would be a lot more topical and with that insane caffeinated malt liquor receiving press lately, it could perhaps go viral. 

I originally mentioned this fauxmercial idea here.

"You love me, you really love me!"

This feels good. Really good, actually. "Persakis Towers" was chosen in the "Top 10 of 2010" for Vimeo.com  I feel all warm and fuzzy inside. 

Vimeo as I've mentioned before, is a video hosting and sharing website of the utmost quality.  Gut Punch's fearless director, Crandall Miller says that it "looks how directors want things to look."  I'd have to agree with the experts on that one.  They have a great business model as the quality of the productions tend to be higher than what you'd see on say....youtube.  This is due to the fact that it costs money to be on vimeo (above a certain data usage).  It separates the wheat from the chaff.

It feel great to be one of the wheatiest bits of wheat.

Four Loko does not make a good night cap

Last night the Gut Punch gentlemen met up to discuss some potential new business and catch up.  It was a lot of fun, perhaps too much fun for at least two people. 

After a bar, a party and a cabbie who told 3 of us that we were too "big for the cab", we went to one of our apartments for further discussion etc.  I cracked a Four Loko open.  Big mistake.....huge mistake.  For those of you who don't know, Four Loko is a caffeinated alcoholic beverage.  People say, and I take them at their word, that it is essentially like having 6 beers and 2 cups of coffee.  I have to agree.

It was the last drink of the night, a nightcap of sorts.  A nightcap that I will never have again.  I'm getting too old for this kind of shenanigans.  I had the watermelon flavor, and it is because of the loko, that I totally mailed in this post today.

You reader(s) deserve better than this.  Have a great weekend and stay away from Four Loko

Acting, writing and producing; SUCCESS!!!!

Joe Bastianich, a very successful restauranteur and entrepeneur said in his NY Times profile "Art without commerce is a hobby." 

Ouch!  It stings!  But that's because it is oh-so true. 

I am proud to admit that Gut Punch is now, technically speaking, a boutique ad agency with real clients.  I love our current client.  I love their idea; I think it's genius.  I gotta tell you, it feels really effing great.  Here is what we made.  And now a word about Gut Punch's sponsor: Pongr.

The major problem I have with applications like Four Square is that there isn't any real world recognition, that, and the fact that if people know you are somewhere else, they could in theory, rob your home.  On to the real world recognition part, you "check in" at a bar enough times and you become the mayor of that bar.  That's cool.......I suppose.

But wouldn't you like to take pictures of you enjoying your favorite brand, such as Brooks Brothers?  You take a picture of you wearing brooks brothers, or a picture of the golden fleece logo etc, you get the idea here and you send it out to the Pongr universe.  Eventually, your rank in the company grows and  you can get free stuff.

Who wouldn't want a crisp, sharp Brooks Brothers tie?  I would love one.

So check it out people, it's fun! 

Acting class recap and production tonight

Happy 90210 everyone.  I am blogging from the Peach Pit today.  For the past 2 weeks or so I have been growing sideburns in an ode to Dylan.

Something tells me that Luke Perry pulled them off a tad better when he was my age.  But can YOU PULL IT OFF BETTER THAN LUKE PERRY?  Post your pictures in the comments.  The winner get a paisley necktie!  I'm tots serious. 

Anyway.....acting class went well last night.  Really well, in fact.  I feel as if Steve and I have figured out what I have to do.  I have to attack each scene with a sense of mischief, confidentiality and it wouldn't hurt to add in some game-play role-play and vary up my rate, inflection, pitch and dynamic.  I know that I mentioned the mischief revelation a few posts ago, but it came as a huge relief to hear Steve say so as well.  Steve said that if I employ these tactics, I will attain a certain amount of "societal acceptability" with my work.  If I am too big, too broad, too.......cartoonish, I won't get cast.  (Unless the scene specifically calls for that.)  I've only had one part that required me to be cartoonish, and that was for an actual cartoon on Spike.com - ha.

What do I mean by rate, inflection, pitch and dynamic?  Rate is the speed at which you deliver your lines.  Inflection is what word you choose to highlight.  Pitch means is your voice low like a bass or high like a heavy guitar solo "whaaaaaa!!!!"  Dynamic means the volume, like on a stereo.  Hint: stereos are what people used to listen to their music on before iPods.  Here is a demonstration:

So that's that.

Gut Punch is filming tonight for a new client.  We are still figuring out all the nuts and bolts etc, this will be great.  Filming from 7-12, so it'll be another long night.  Last night I didn't get home till around 1130 and I was out the door at 845am.  Class is back in session now, so I have to get used to peeling and pulling myself out of bed at 8am.  If I put water on the stove to boil for coffee and hop in the shower, it forces me to get going, and I am generally fine.  Besides, it's not like we have kids now, so I could theoretically sleep in on Saturdays and Sundays.

Speaking of Sundays, I am SO GLAD that football has returned.  Nay, ELATED, BEJOYED.  Bejoyed?  I think I just made up a new word.  I'm down with that.  Like loved, beloved.  Joy, bejoyed.

Coming soon: a re-creation of last nights monologue.  

Gut Punch Pre-Production: Actors, Directors, Producers all have to roll with the punches

Our initial top location choice looks like it's a big no-no.  The insurance has not come through, heaven forbid something should happen.  There will only be 8 of us or so, but still.....it just takes one light to fall on someones head and all of a sudden Arnold Diaz has us on "Shame on you!".  So as a well connected and well oiled comedy production teams are known to do, we fired off a few e-mails to each other and came up with another location.  We are now going to film in the penthouse of an advertising agency.  Supposedly, its all red and white in there, very mod.  This should go pretty well. 

Gut Punch is excited to earn actual money as a creative agency.  Ha.  This is life imitating art, and not the other way around.  I cast three background actors and I suppose I'll offer my services as a grip for the production.  I might even do the VO, this remains to be solidfied.  "Grip" for those of you who don't know are part of the production crew.  They are on the other side of the camera.  They carry things around: sandbags, lights, stands etc.  Hence the term, "grip". 

No auditions this week, but as always I have to perform, so I resumed making video tours with witty commentary for apartment ads on craigslist.  Here is the video:



If you are looking for a 2 bed that can convert to a three bed in the Upper West Side of Manhattan, oh boy.....do I have a deal for you!

New Gut Punch content coming soon and UPDATE

Gut Punch is scouting locations today for a Thursday shoot for our new client.  We are very excited about this new client and their business model.  I think that they will really take off and become the next big thing in social media.  When it's finished you can bet your ascot that I will tell you where to go.  Typically, I would have told you more about it, but we did sign a NDA.  Word.  We are also waiting on the finished product for the Jersey Shore Incredible Hulk parody.  That's gonna be pretty hilarious. 

Oh also, this is my 100th post.  I feel pretty good about it.  The blog is just a year old, and most of my posts have been, err, posted since March.  That's a pretty good frequency I think.  Tomorrow my acting class starts up again after a much needed 4 week break.  I love the class,  but its also good to step away and digest what I've learned and try to apply it. 

I'm going to work on a monologue from last season of "Breaking Bad".  For those who watch the show, it's Mike the Cleaner's monologue at the end of the "Half Measures" episode where he tells Walter about his regret of not killing a wife-beater back in the days when he was a beat cop.  The wife-beater predictably killed his wife two weeks later.  "...of course", the monologue goes.  It will be a great exercise and challenge for me to keep the tone down and tell a story and keep the tempo flowing.

UPDATE:  Well, its about boxing last night, not Gut Punch.  Boxing went pretty well, I came home drenched as well.  I'm up to the point where I am instinctively throwing counter-punches and following that up with a combo.   I used to think "Ok, here comes his left hook so dip and counter with a left hook to his body."  Now, I just do it.  I'm not saying that I am at Keanu in The Matrix kind of levels, but I can see th ings coming around. 

My footwork is improving too.  I think that has a lot to do with the jump rope I've been doing.  I begin and end a workout session with 300 jumps, varying up the speed and way that I do it.  Double rotations, single foot jumps etc.  I still cant do the cross, that's when my arms are crossed and I jump and I bring my arms back to the regular position and continue the jump.  Got what I mean?  I think that when that comes around I will be considerably more nimble and quick. 

We had a light sparring session last night.  Who I went against dictated what I could and couldn't throw.  Against a 3 year boxer I could throw everytyhing but no hard rights to the head.  Agaisnt a woman or someone new I could only throw a super light jab to the body to keep my distance. 

"When getting in good shape goes wrong" - Running Blunder

Today is going to be a busy day for me, so here is a "throwback jam" if you will from August 10th.

My loyal reader(s) know that on Mondays and Fridays I have a boxing class.  I hate to miss them, but acting takes priority over boxing.  Gut Punch is definitely acting, so I missed boxing last night.  Upon returning home I decided to take a run.  I went to this site to figure out a running path.  It looked good.  It would be 3 miles.  Not bad, I can handle that.  For those of you who have never been to Queens......this boro is why GPS was invented.  There are streets, avenue, places and drives most of them are numbered.  Some of them stop for no reason and pick up again a few blocks away. I've lived here for 3+ years and I still get turned around.

I think you know where this is going.

I made a wrong turn and wound up in the projects. Here is where I dun goofed up.  Scroll down a bit and the pointer should be right by Vernon Blvd.  Hint (it runs parallel to the river).  I was supposed to take Vernon to Main and take Main to 12th street, make a left on 12th street and take that to Shore Blvd, to the park, make a right on Ditmars, right on Crescent and run home.  But nooo-oooo.  I had to get confused by how Main breaks in 2 and becomes 30th Avenue for 25 yards.  Wahhh wahhh.

I made a left on 8th street and found myself smack-dab in the middle of the Astoria Houses.

It was like a scene out of "The Wire".  Doods playing dice, smoking, brown bagging it.  I even saw some old guys with fancy canes.  One fancy caned gentlemen told me as I ran by that I "can't just fucking jog down this street."  At this point, I decided to increase my pace, and about 50 strides later, realized I was lost, and how I got lost.  But there was no way in Hades I was going to retrace my steps past Slim Charles, Bodie and D'Angelo.  So I kept on running, by the time I got home I was drenched in sweat.  Even my socks were wet like sponges left in a soaking pot.

I went back to walkjogrun.net and retraced my path, I ran about 6 miles.  Ha. Those gentlemen in the projects were not particularly inviting.  Had the situation been reversed and had they gotten lost and wound up in some place with tons of white people (like a farmers market, baby gap or vampire weekend concert) I would have been nice to them.  Poo poo on them.

Good times good times

So the aforementioned conference call went well.  Nothing is official yet, and I never consider ANYTHING official until the check is in the bank; but, the conference call seems to have yielded some fruit and by that I mean money, moolah, wampum, scratch, papers to be stacked et cetera.  This development kicked off the weekend in glorious fashion.  Celebratory BBQ with Gut Punch and friends, back to NJ for a pool party and then back to NYC on Sunday to film a very funny bit with Gut Punch. 

We should have a rough edit in a day or so.  It's a spoof on the Incredible Hulk and Snooki from "Jersey Shore".  We cast a young lady from my acting class to play the....let's call the character...."Incredible Guidette".  She worked out great.  We are very excited about recent events. 

So, I'm in NYC today and tomorrow, leaving for Pittsburgh Wednesday AM, returning technically speaking Friday AM around 1, and leaving for a wedding in Maine this weekend the very next morning.  Moral of the story is, don't be expecting much in the way of new posts after tomorrow until next week. 

Gut Punch Greatness and success

A few posts ago I mentioned how we missed the boat on an e-mail as it went unchecked for 4 months.  I also mentioned that we shot an apology video to send to the client.  Here it is:


Fashionably Late Reply from Crandall Miller on Vimeo.



Funny huh?  Why, thank you.  And guess what?  It worked!!!! HAHAHAH.  The client wants to have a conference call at 2pm today.  This of course is subject to change.  Stay tuned for updates. 

Update:  Conference call at 4pm.  Fingers crossed.

Two pickets to Tittsburgh please!

I mentioned in this post that my PA agent was going to submit me for work in Pittsburgh.  I asked my loyal reader(s) if they would go to an audition in Pittsburgh.  There was one response involving my childhood station wagon.  Needless to say this was not the deciding factor for me to choose to accept the audition time and go to "The Mighty Burg".  Some deciding factors are: I need to get something under my belt ASAP, the role sounds like a juicy hamburger, the CD is LA based, I have family in Pittsburgh and Megabus only charges $35 for a round trip.  Additionally, my wife thought it was a good idea.  On top of all of that....it's not like I'm exactly swamped with auditions at the moment....so, why the heck not?!!?

The audition is on the 19th, so I'm heading in on the 18th.  After the 7 hour and 40 minute bus ride (!) I will stay with my cousin Johnathan and his wife Jaynie.  I also get to see my agent, Tara!  She just got a new office in Pittsburgh.  I haven't seen her in maybe.....4 years? I look forward to all of this!

The movie is called "New York Heartbeat".  It's about gangsters in the 1950's.  The director looks pretty great too.  This guy has directed a lot of stuff but this will be his first bigtime movie.  I'm excited.  I'd eventually like to entertain the idea of doing the bi-coastal thing, and an LA based casting director could serve as a catalyst.  Sidenote: I love the word catalyst.  (one more time)....CATALYST! I'm going out for the role of "Sledge", a 250 lb gorilla.  An enforcer who takes pride in hurting people and get his rocks off when he does well for his boss, whose name is "Casket Mike".  That role is gonna be played by Eric Roberts - really cool.

Gutpunch is meeting up tonight at 6 to film our apology video.  I look forward to this. 

Gut Punch evening

In a rare instance of life imitating art (obnoxious hint: it's usually the other way around) actual companies have been contacting Gut Punch for advertising work.  Most of the time, the companies are in on the joke, but sometimes we are not so sure.  Tonight we are going to reply to a new business lead we have.  The only problem is, and I find this to be a rather hysterical problem, we are four months late on this response.  Ha.  In typical Gut Punch fashion, since we all had access to the general e-mail account, no one actually bothered to log in and check messages.  So here we are, 120+ days after the fact about to reply to the query.

Needless to say, a simple email back to the guy will not suffice, we have to make a video to send to him essentially apologizing for the egregious fuck up.  We have a few ideas, and all of them are funny.   I'm pretty excited about this.   UPDATE: Because we have such an amazing group mind, filming has been pushed to Monday,  more updates to come. 

After that Mrs Philly Ray and I are going to the RUMBLE ON THE RIVER!  This tough guy I have trained with and have sparred with, Sergio is going to box tonight.  He is making his amateur debut.  Guy is really really good.  I outweigh him by probably 100 pounds, and he destroyed me on the reg.  Anywho....tickets are free, its on west 44th street and the West Side Highway and tickets are free, should be awesome. 

I joined twitter.  If Troy Polamalu can tweet, I suppose I can too.

Small thought: The 7 train is like........the Noah's Ark of people.

Check out the weirdness

GUT PUNCH: Ep 4 "RETREAT" from Crandall Miller on Vimeo.

NEW EPISODEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

GUT PUNCH: Ep 4 "RETREAT" from Crandall Miller on Vimeo.

Thoughts on Acting

So, as I mentioned here, I am in the middle of a transformation.  Both in terms of appearance and in terms of acting....style, if you were to allow me to put it crudely.

The weight loss was not only for health reasons,  it was also for my career.  It's not like I was exactly booking work left and right as a big big guy.  Something had to change.

Regarding acting styles.  It was brought up in Wednesdays acting class by my sensei/avuncular figure Steve, that when I play a scene with elements of mischief/charm/confidentiality I am a lot more engaging than when I don't.  Hmmmm.  I will take that advice.  I'm in the class to drink the kool-aid,  so I will gulp it down.  We'll see what happens.  That could be my niche. I'd be cool with that.  For sure.

Countdown to episode 4 release for Gut Punch!  ASAP, you will see this guy......

STRAY THOUGHTS: I'm getting pretty big in Asia.  Recently, I've had blog visitors from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia.....Davao, Philippines......and one visitor from (drumroll)  Kathmandu.  Welcome Asian blog readers!

Gut Punch is taking over the world (or el mundo en espanol)

Andrew Tucci, Gut Punch's whimsical bearded one has a new video out on youtube that is blowing up the interwebs.  He is a commercial director by trade, and his been directing a series of Bounty paper towel commercials.  They involve rapping, autotunes and LA based UCB performers.  Done done and.....done.
 
Bang it here to see Tucci's collaboration with Reverend Run, who is some guy from Queens.

Today or tomorrow the new Gut Punch video goes live on the internet.  For those of you who don't know, the internet is like a dump truck.  Or is it more like a system of tubes?

ADR work with Gut Punch

I am very excited about the next episode of Gut Punch.  All I can tell you is that it revolves around a corporate retreat and I play the leader of said retreat.  I mentioned filming this episode here.  So tonight, the GP crew went to an audio editing place just below Union Square to do some ADR work.  ADR stands for automatic dialog replacement - it is also known as "dubbing".  This can be done for a variety of reasons.

This is what it looks like. Hit it, Vinnie Chase!

Usually ADR work is needed when an actor muffled their line, or it isn't clear enough or the director didn't like the tone/accent/what-have-you.  Additionally, ADR work can be done as a money saver.  Say you have a scene where Matt Damon is yapping on the phone to George Clooney.  Only, Clooney can't come into town because he is too busy pleasure yachting on Lake Como.  Heaven forbid you keep a star unhappy, or even worse pay them for another day.  The director has Matt Damon speak his lines into a prop cell-phone and his end of the dialog is recorded.  They either have an actor on set read Clooneys lines to Damon and they have Clooney dub or ADR over the lines or they can just have Clooney say the lines and they'll make it work in post production. When I did stand-in work on "The Taking of Pelham 123" I read lines over a walkie-talkie to John Travolta. 

It ----  was  ----  really -----  fucking  -----  cool.  (The Travolta part, that is.)