Work Hard Play Harder interview Jim Pagiamtzis and Sujit Reddy: Special video Post

  It was November 2019 and Sujit Reddy and I did this amazing video to capture some of the amazing stories and fun we have had in recent years.

In this video you will our experiences in:

 - Both of appearing in Downsizing (2017)
 -Working and volunteering for TIFF17 & TIFF18
 - Massive call for tv show Condor (2018)
- TEDx talk by Sujit Reddy
 - Power of networking and collaborations
 - Following your passion leads to making money and having fun!

                                           

10 Cloverfield Lane (2016): Movie Review

Slow burning candle with no aroma.
                                                                       

             Jim Pagiamtzis review:
                         John Goodman plays Howard who builds a shelter to protect from the outside world. Mary Winstead is Michelle who get caught and then tries to escape from the bunker. It's very small world inside the bunker. Brilliant use of all the dynamics and conversations are intense. Movie is like a slow burning candle with no aroma or very short after taste.

       6 out of 10 stars

                   Movie Plot:

                     After surviving a car accident, Michelle (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) wakes up to find herself in an underground bunker with two men. Howard (John Goodman) tells her that a massive chemical attack has rendered the air unbreathable, and their only hope of survival is to remain inside. Despite the comforts of home, Howard's controlling and menacing nature makes Michelle want to escape. After taking matters into her own hands, the young woman finally discovers the truth about the outside world.

             

                                                      

The Art of Effective Presentation: Video Presentation

Friday November 16th

It was special day to share at the DECA Toronto Regionals.

Sharing this presentation the entire day to students was huge thrills.

Insights on my speaking career, acting accomplishments and then specific information on how to create an effective presentation.

It's an art and science to make it happen!

This is a formula to this success

Get a paper and pen and take notes on how it's done and then put  it into action!


                                                 

Journey from Toronto,Ont to Richmond Hill,Ont for a film

      Sunday Oct 28th

  I had an interested adventure going to Richmond Hill,ONT for a film shoot.

 Below are the details.

Start my trip:  
 
Line 2 subway east to Yonge

Line  1 subway North to St.Clair station bus from St.Clair to Yonge and Sheppard subway

Line 4 subway Yonge & Sheppard to Don Mills Station and picked up by  Aaron and Andrea Zaretsky and take to Edward Hill Hotel on Highway 7 and Don Valley area

Return trip:

Uber to Don Mills Station Line 4

Line 1   Subway- Sheppard Yonge to Lawrence, Bus from Lawrence to St. Clair  . Subway - St.Clair to Bloor yonge

Line 2 Subway west to Christie

Arrive 2:00pm
Finish 4:40pm



  Few lines I had to say.


                                   

Journey to creating the Dream Cloud commercial

March 21st (evening)

It was great experience to give the students some insight on rehearsal, camera angles and acting ideas to produce a 30 second commerical for the Dream Cloud. Stay tuned for it soon..

                                              



                                                   


                                                    

Production of Dream Clouds

Commercial shoot

climatic scene

                                                       

Special post: What would Jim Carrey do?

What would Jim Carrey do?

It was August 2014 and I decided to venture into the acting world. No experience, No idea what to do!

Couple of good friends had done some background work on films with Adam Sandler in Pixel and Bad Moms with ..

I started looking on Kijiji and Craigslist under TV/Radio for some acting opportunities. Didn’t take long to fine student films and a few feature films (more on that later)

Auditions!

They are like interviews / first dates of sorts. You go in sometimes with a script and other times with nothing!

The first audition I went to was at Centennial College (my alumni) at the Pape location where they have the Radio and TV classes.

They had full studio all set up with camera and everything else you can image for film. It was little overwhelming to see it all!

I go in and meet the young students holding auditions for their movie “Struck” I was audition for the father figure role which was very climatic first scene.  

They gave me a few pointers and I did my best.  Before I knew it was over and was escorted out.

Next audition I went for was for a small film called “Blind”  that I found in Kijiji

I went it literally blind (couldn’t resist) and read from a script. Nikisha Millen who was the director gave me a few minutes to review and then she turned on the camera and recorded. I felt better comparted to the last audition. She said “Thank you and will be in touch”

The next audition was at downtown location on Richmond Street East. I walked in to this office and there was pictures of famous actors and actresses all over the walls. I really overwhelmed this time!

Few minutes later I was escorted into a room and give an air duster by the camera guy and he says “make this look sexy!”

I stood there dumbfounded and no clue what to do. It seemed like hours and then an idea click!

I said to myself  “What would Jim Carrey do?”   (recently I had read an autobiography call Jokers Wild on Jim Carrey’s life”

The camera guy sits downs turn the camera on and says “go ahead!” and then starts fidgeting with his phone”

I took a deep breath and started make stuff up “ I would use this to spray my hair, do my arm pits!” 

The camera guy looked up at me and started smilling and looking inside the camera intently with a smile on his face.

I said “ you can use this to spray your friends in the ear and clear their mind when they don’ laugh at your jokes!”

He then started to laugh and nod his head in agreement

He said “that was great! I have not had a good one all day. Very inventive idea. I can see you are big fan of Jim’s!”

With that I was escorted out.

A week later I went to another audition at actor studio near Liberty village.

There three guys evaluation the auditions this time. I was really nervous

One of them say’s to me “dance with a woman!” I said “with what woman?”

He says “invisible woman!”

So I said to myself “what would Jim Carrey Do?”

Picture myself like the character in The Mask (1994) and danced merengue all around the room with an invisible woman!”

All three guys were smiling. The funniest part was there was guy on the second floor of the house reading a book who saw me doing this and he started to laugh and applause to me!

And with that it was over, the normal thank you and have a nice day!

Now you may ask what happened after the auditions?

The answer: I got them all!  I was on fire, I literrlay have the choice of which roles I should do.

There was so much overlap with the productions that I couldn’t do them all. So of the producer were actually mad at me for turning them down!

It has been amazing three year adventure!  Will be sharing some more stories soon..

            The Joker is Wild  read more
            

(True) Story: The Hip Hop shirt, Drake and acting!

Friday June 23, 2017

                                                      

I was taking the bus back from work going to Wilson station when I sat down and had the most interesting conversation with a fellow passenger.

I took the bus from Weston and Ormont on Friday since the other bus was not getting me back to the downtown core.

I was sitting at the front of the bus and enjoying the ride to Wilson station.

Decided to wear this black shirt that had HIP HOP in white letters on the front. During the trip a black passenger go on the bus and was occupied with his old style flip phone making calls with people in his network. Sitting so close I could hear all the conversation.

He phones one guy and ask when they can meet to drop of some electronics to him, after a back and forth they decide at 8pm. He calls a second person and gets very loud on the phone, something regarding he was in the hospital for something. He finished the call and was looking forward.

Then he turned around and look at my shirt. I was wearing my blue Hilfiger jack and he could see the outline of what my shirt.  He gave me a very confusing look!

Few minutes later I decided to say something “it’s my brother shirt, he was in the hip hop business many years ago, I usually wear it around the house decided to wear to work today” I continued to share “I directed a Hip hop video in late December 2016 and the some of the characters we used were Drake, Kanye West, Bill O’Reilly and JayZ

He then said “ I can’t stand Drake, he says all this stuff about smoking crack in his video and he never has done any of it! He has been on degrasse and be rapping stuff that isn’t true.” He literraly became very emotional and agitated about it!

I didn’t know what to do to calm him down!  I change the subject and talk about my brief acting career. He then said “ I wanted to get into that, but I don’t know what to do!” I responded “ here is my business card, give me a call and I can share some strategies on what you can do” he responded “Thank man” we shook hands and with that he was of the bus and continued on his journey for the day.

Moral of the story: Be careful what you wear. I may cause reactions you won’t expect!