Film News
It would behoove you to read this and read it quickly
By Joe O'Connell, Fri., July 27, 2007
Don't pay (or pay off) to play
The most frequent question I get is how to become a film/TV extra. The interest right now revolves around the second season of Friday Night Lights, which revved up cameras last week. The answer? Don't give anyone any money; they'll pay you (albeit only $7 an hour). Some companies that shall remain unnamed are asking for bucks. Don't be fooled. To sign up for free as an extra, go to www.onlocationcasting.net and fill out an online talent profile. The show is not having any open casting calls, so go online, post a photo, keep your cash in your pocket, and wait for the bright lights and endless boredom of the set. What they're looking for: young-looking experienced football players and cheerleaders; coaches; people who can pass as high school students; home-schooled kids; real lifeguards, nurses, and bartenders; and regular folks like you and me. Prison Break is also back in production for a second season in Dallas, marking a strong small-screen run in Texas as we await the big-screen fallout from the new $20 million filming-incentives program -- and as our neighbors to the east await more word from an FBI investigation into possible wrongdoing in their very successful film-incentives program. So far, the FBI raid of prominent film-production company Louisiana Institute of Film Technology's New Orleans offices on June 1 has hardly made a ripple in the mainstream news media outside of the Big Easy. LIFT has been the largest beneficiary of the state's film incentives to date. Louisiana officials are going on the offensive, according to the Baton Rouge, La., Business Report, with a public-relations campaign in the works. Perhaps it should include the smiling mug of Huey Long?
Indie 'Fame'
I've got a very strong gut feeling we'll be seeing Andrew Bujalski's new film -- shooting now around Austin -- at next year's South by Southwest Film Festival. Bujalski is one of the group of young neo-John Cassavetes out there who are probably sick to death of being called that for making seemingly unscripted, thoughtful films on the cheap and on the run, in his case Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation. I'm already curious about this latest effort, in which Austin filmmaker Bryan Poyser appears doing push-ups. Meanwhile, in San Antonio, Jesse Borrego, whom you remember from TV's Fame, is in the cast of Dora Pena's Dreamhealer, about a girl with the psychic ability to cure insomnia, a gift exploited by her greedy aunt. Speaking of sleepers (how's that for a segue?), former Austinite Alex Holdridge (Sexless) has made Filmmaker Magazine's list of 25 new faces of independent film, although with two critically feted indie films under his belt and a third, In Search of a Midnight Kiss, fresh out of the oven, calling him new is a stretch. By the way, Bujalski made the list in 2003. Oh, and I must mention that SXSW buzz film Hannah Takes the Stairs (yes, the one from the trailers) is being released Aug. 22 through IFC First Take.
And the rest ...
Ricardo Ainslie's documentary ¡Ya Basta! is showing south of the border in San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato this month as part of the film festival Expresión en Corto. It explores the current climate of insecurity in Mexico by following citizens ever fearful of abduction... Austin folks scored at the recent Breckenridge Festival of Film. Rowdy Stovall's Mexican Sunrise was named best drama, and Max Schenker's "Stella's Secret" was best short screenplay... A big congrats to Internet film guru Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News and his lovely bride on their recent nuptials.
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