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I booked a role on 24, the well-known Fox drama with a never-changing number of episodes from season to season. Many thanks to Peggy & Debi and Michael & Brad!

Yesterday, Friday, 18 December 2009, I visited Jim & Jean in the wardrobe department for a fitting, and then I’ll shoot my scene on 24′s next working day. This is a common way to schedule things in TV work, but there’s something quite uncommon about it in this case. The entire production team is taking an extra-long holiday hiatus, so their next working day is Monday, 18 January 2010. In fact, Season 8 premieres one day before my scene shoots. It will be thrilling to watch, I am sure, so watching it will not be a good idea. Thrilling TV keeps me up at night, and I have an early call time!

Recently, the Sundance Film Festival announced their lineup of competition films for the 2010 version of the annual Utah event. I have decided to follow 3 of them closely. My decision was based on a few, loose criteria: Scripted (fictional) films where the actors and directors are non-famous and the budget is pretty small, and they were filmed or based largely in southern California. Only three films met those criteria:

Douchebag, directed by Drake Doremus, with a cast that includes one actress I’ve recently met, Amy Ferguson. (This isn’t even her first appearance on a Sundance screen. Sheesh.)

Lovers of Hate, by Bryan Poyser.

Obselidia, by Diane Bell.

I’ve established Google alerts for these people, I’m asking around and doing online research, and I’m rooting for them. Go Team 3!

As mentioned previously, I downloaded a very fun iPhone app called iCaroler (iTunes link). It’s a great way to start the Christmas season! You play with carolers, muting or highlighting the Victorian singers in your choir while they sing very fun arrangements of some Christmas favorites. I don’t know why it’s fun, but it is!

It’s even better when multiple people play with your carolers. A friend squealed, “I love it!” after just a few seconds of setup between iPhones.

That was a few days ago. This morning she texted me: “I’m having serious iCaroler withdrawl!” Enough said — worth 99¢ right there!

Thing Three in my on-going list of things that many people talk about as if they weren’t true of other businesses or other cities. (See Part I and Part II.)

Things about The Biz and LA that are not unique, #3
Actors need to be using social media

This one seems so obvious, that I wonder if it merits its own blog entry. But it’s important. A savvy actor, especially one that is not a household name nor nowhere near that, will engage in social media. Via Facebook or Twitter or such, actors can (smartly or stupidly) get on the radar of casting people, producers, etc. In fact, people assume that if you’re not doing this, you’re not being a good actor because a good actor does all he or she can to further his or her career.

Good advice, generally. Not at all unique to The Biz.

Check out this article from Financial Planning that was forwarded to me from IEEE Spectrum. (If you don’t know what that is, for our purposes it suffices to say that one of the E’s stands for Engineering.) Engineers and financial types and corporate people in general are hearing the same message: “If you’re not using social media–and using it well–you are likely forfeiting opportunities to make the connections that will push up the corporate ladder or get your foot in the door.” The only difference I can see as I read that article, from branding to egosurfing, is that LinkedIn isn’t all that great for actors. Otherwise, this stuff is the same ol’ same ol’. Here endeth the lesson.

Hey there, kids. I just switched from one server to another. It’s a faster, better server from the same company I’ve been with for years now, Joyent, formerly Textdrive, and they say it’s a good way to reduce spammers from using me to spam. (Apologies for participating unwittingly in advertising Viagra.)

I spent a few hours trying to make sure everything is right, but shoot me an email if you see anything not working here on kevinashworth.com, k? Thanks.