Please note these are raw exercises. Look for what works. It's a collaborative process, creating a film. You don't have to have every skill. But I will argue you have the most important skills: acting & a history of contributing to stories. YOU CAN DO THIS if you chose to.
Sometimes you gotta take a chance...
Dear Mr. Tyler Perry,
My friend Michelle Graci just visited you on your private island and told me that she spoke of my filmmaking work to you.
Is it true? Do you really have an island?! Did Michelle *(bless her sweet heart)* really talk to you about my directing?
If it's all true, I am honored to have an excuse to reach out to you.
**I love your movies and plays!**
The elements you weave together are universal. Good, evil, rich, poor, sex and music. Just saw the movie **Temptation** and loved it. It reminded me of my all-time favorite movie **Lady sings the blues.** I am trying to play with these same elements in my web series [JUSTICE](http://blip.tv/justicetheseries). It's got a ways to go.
As one who longs to do what you do, I thank you for your writing directing and acting.
The body of your life's work shows how you love your audience.
**Just one or two more things to thank you for**.
- Your life's transparency, allowing us to witness your journey and not playing like you had it easy.
- Thank you for taking time out of your busy successful life to inspire artists like me.
I watch your videos and I'm on your mailing list. I read your articles. Right now I am trying to do just one thing and let God multiply my kingdom. I appreciate your efforts and pray that you have the energy, passion, and fortitude to continue the work.
I hope this letter reaches your eyeballs & your heart.
Mad respect,
[Rosalyn Coleman Williams](http:rosalyncoleman.com)
*Fav moments in Temptation**
* The party scene through the end of the breakup.
* From when she went to pick up her computer thru him punching her.
* The introduction of coke into her world.
Humph. Sold out. :-)
Wonderful show. It made an old couple hold hands. I love being able to watch the audience. I have always loved watching their reactions. It never stops being facinating. That's the same thing I love about sitting amongst an audiece ad they watch a film I have made. It's all for them, to get those reactions. And when they say thank you I realize it was all for me, for the high that had me run 4 blocks for the bus tonight. Thank you universe for the opportunity to do what I love and the good sense to know it is a blessing.
Auditioning!
Seeking Pernell, White, 35 - 50, former assassin who now runs a covert agency that hires out contract killers. He speaks several languages. We are particularly looking for someone comfortable with speaking Russian or any Eastern European language.
Seeking Brian, African American, 35-50, strong loving and warm leading man. â
Non-Union/Union (SAG New Media)â
Pay $100
Shoot Date - April 12, 2013
Email headshots/resume and links to reel - redwallcasting@gmail.com
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iRozapp
I am so proud of this...here's a sneak peak.
One Woman Show On Fire. This is what I have been doing on Sundays
Justice The Series, Episode 4 - Justice Returns
DColeman Unchained (the D is silent)
I miss writing about "the boy." Used to do it much more, but you get so busy raising, you really don't have time to jot down moments large and or small. You just hope you remember them.
An ever so gentle nudge from my wife inspired to write.
I saw Django, pure and simple, I loved it. I thought it was a really entertaining film. I'm aware of the whole socio political moral historical controversy going on, I get it, no judgement here, this is my view.
There was a spirit of the film that I enjoyed, a spirit of triumph, of winning, of overcoming. Django had a singular purpose, he didn't know exactly how to go about it, he made things up as he went along, but he was determined to reach his goal. I knew what he wanted and I desperately wanted him to get it. And he did.
I know there are things wrong with the film, it's not historically correct, relationships are not accurate, events are out of place, QT is not a genius (that might be news to him), he just told an interesting story.
I liken it to being on the Megabus traveling from NY to DC and sitting next to a figgety old guy who turns to me and says "Did ya ever hear the story about Django?" Now with no where to go and knowing I'll be stuck on this bus for the next 4 hours, I turn to him and say "no, no I don't." And then the kindly stranger proceeds to weave the tail of "Django." Some parts amuse me, some parts confuse me, some parts make me cringe, some parts me me howl out loud. But at the end when the n****er on the horse, rides off into the night with his n****er gal on her horse, I'm left with a good feeling.
It's been a few days and already there's a lot of specifics I don't recall about the film, but I do remember how it made me feel - hopeful!!
Strange? Yes hopeful. Because I'm living a life made possible by those Django's known and unknown. Django is fictional, but Nat Turner, Harriett Tubman, John Brown, Margaret Garner, Frederick Douglas, Susie King Taylor and Robert Smalls are not. I know their stories and I can tell them to my smart, funny, obnoxious, spoiled (our fault), very sensitive, very dramatic, loves to play, but does not always play fairly, HATES to lose, 8 year old son.
It's my job, to give my boy access to a life unchained.
Photo courtesy of Vanessa Thor
She Asked Siri
Colman Domingo
Coming to Everything Acting Podcast!
So proud to be a free resource for actors thank you Dallas!
She Asked Siri
She wanted to get into the high school of her dreams so....â
The romance with words
Puma on Broadway!
Puma came w the belief that Opera singers do not act. Oh by they do, they act in many languages, the styles maybe different but the truth & connection on the inside is the same. My dear Puma, never stop sharing your gifts with the world we need your passion and your humor and your music.
So Proud to Direct This Benefit
Assiatou makes a scary debut!
I was lucky to have the incomparable Roz coach me while shooting my first starring role in a thriller film produced by Spike Lee! She listened, saw where I was and took me further than I had imagined I would go. Working with Roz on YOU"RE NOBODY TIL SOMEBODY KILLS YOU provided me with the foundation to explore the work more authentically. Roz, the movie just got released by Lionsgate on DVD, just in time for Halloween, boooooo! If you believe in justice as well as to be scared, download from amazon with one click here: http://www.amazon.com/Youre-Nobody-til-Somebody-Kills/dp/B008JFSQBI
or get it on DVD while it lasts!
ASSIATOU
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Vanessa Got The Job!
When Vanessa called me to tell me she got the job, my face hurt from smiling so hard, I was so happy for her. As an acting coach I am always getting these phone calls, texts, and emails from my clients who have booked the job and are sharing their joy with me. I always feel high with happiness when someone's hard work pays off in the way that they want it to. But then the emails get deleted, the Texas are covered over with new mundane texts the phone calls and the feeling that I get evaporates and I go back to my everyday life. This time I wanted it to be different.
How ROZ COLEMAN helped me book Intimate Apparel- Pasadena Playhouse fall 2012
I went to Roz because she's my dear friend, an amazing director coach and awesome actress!
I
was particularly interested in her insight on Esther because I had seen
her do a kick butt job in the role at a theater in Philadelphia.
I came to her with all my actor angst and a litany of questions.What does this scene mean,
what's
the secret to Esther, what emotional place I should be in for the
particular audition scene I had been given? I figured Roz would know all
the answers she'd played the role (magnificently I might add) she knows
exactly what's going on. She got to discover on her feet what was going
on in the play!
Roz took a breath calmly said "Vanessa have an authentic experience of material."
"Oh!"
I said to myself "Oh ok...I know how to do that. This is beautifully
written material I understand it, I know what's going on, I'm having an
emotional response to the material already."
Roz continued "...have
an authentic experience and don't focus on the result!" In other words
trust yourself, trust your instrument Vanessa ...you can't get it wrong.
I
was relieved and went on to have a fantastic audition armed with this
sage advice and another gem of wisdom Roz had already given me in a
prior coaching session which was "This is your job until otherwise
notified!"
These words I carry all the time to every audition I have.
These words completely and totally take me off the hook and allow me to
relax into the present moment and the present joy of doing the work
that I so love to do. And isn't that the truth of the matter anyway?
Don't we as actors spend so much of our lives more than anything else we
do trying to "get"the job?
So why not go ahead and enjoy this
process, fully embody it and enjoy HAVING the job for as long as we can
or ....until otherwise notified!
I spent more time going over the
scenes, rehearsing, discovering, but now without all the worry. I was
doing the part I was "in rehearsal."At the call back I was calm
rehearsing with the director with the other actors who were also "in
rehearsal."
I saw the other actresses who were also up for Esther,
beautiful, fine looking actresses whose work I'm sure was fabulous, all
the while I had a calm sense of whatever happens it's all good I'm
already doing it, already doing the work.
I left feeling exhilarated inspired accomplished and detached from the outcome... I couldn't lose.
My agent called me three days later...I booked it! Thank you Roz!
Sent from Vanessa's iPad
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