debor009

Flying out to Nevada I took along the book Making Movies by the late and great director Sidney Lumet ( Dog Day Afternoon , Murder on the Orient Express , Network , The Pawnbroker , Serpico , 12 Angry Men , Running on Empty , and on and on through 73 films and TV episodes). What a find! As actors we tend to see just one part of the elephant and can only guess about the rest. This book takes you through the entire movie-making process and explains the considerations at each step: concept, funding, writing, locations, editing, lighting, sound, directing, acting, post-production, audience previews, and marketing. Why does a film need star casting? On what take is an actor likely to be giving the director their best? What is the preview process like? Why does a director choose to do a particular film? How has the film-making process changed over time?  And does it now make sense?  Not always.  Not even to Sidney Lumet. But this book illuminates a lot of the whats and whys th...

The Goblin Baby , Shoshana Rosenbaum's supernatural short, premiered to a full house on September 27th at RiRa's in Georgetown. Michael Gabel , Oriana Oppice and I were among the cast who attended. Well done, Shoshana! On to the film festivals! (L to R) Actor Michael Gabel, actress Kathryn Browning, writer/director Shoshana Rosenbaum (and son), actress Oriana Oppice, and production staff Robin Noonan-Price and Victoria Buksbazen.

Every year or two an up-and-coming actor needs new headshots, and since my hair had gone from almost black to ash blonde (Hey, blonde is the new gray, Baby!) mine were overdue. Over the years I've come to the conclusion that the point to headshot photography is to show what I will look like when I walk in the door to audition. Well of course, you say? Try convincing the photographer! I've had inexpensive family photographers and really expensive New York photographers. I've been flat-lighted to the point where my face looks like two eyes and a mouth on a white sheet of paper. I've been photoshopped to the point where I look like I'm made of plastic. Every actor has had this experience and the odd thing is that (1) the photographer thinks that you want it that way and (2) his or her ego is such that they can't release a photo without making you "pretty." But the result is that whenever I see a breakdown posted, half the time the casting director now ask...