Episode 12 of the 5th season of F2: Forensic Factor titled “Picture Perfect” is airing tomorrow, Friday August 21st at 10:00pm ET then later on at 2:00am ET on Discovery Channel Canada! In this episode, I play the role of the late George Patisso.

For more information about the show, check out the F2 page on the Discovery Channel website. You can also read about my experience on set as well as auditioning for the role in my post titled F2: Forensic Factor shoot. Hope you enjoy this episode!

Just at the end of July, I had an audition for this project. The director Trevor Francis who came and walked me to the audition room was the same one behind the Much Mobile Missions commercial spot I did over two years ago. Right away, I remembered him, how much fun we had and our great rapport. Trevor then told me how he was trying to track me down for this video production and couldn’t get a hold of me (since I changed agents when I moved to Toronto). He was glad that my current agent submitted me for this, and said I was the guy for the part (all this before the actual audition process). Well two days later, I got a call from Teri congratulating me on the role!

This project for Corel turned out to be a promotional video with the style of a short film, created and produced by Hooplah. The concept is that my character Josh, puts together a video using Corel‘s new software with footage spanning over 20 years. I played Josh from his late teens to his late twenties, while Mila (hair/makeup), Kendra (woredrobe) and their assistants worked to make me look the right age. I even went through a haircut during the shoot, and trimmed/shaved my facial hair.

We started off on Friday, shooting at a house in the West end of Toronto and continued in that same location Saturday. On Sunday, we shot a scene at the Greyhound bus station then at a soccer field. Finally, saving the best for last, we had our final day at Kew Beach. Of course, every day was great (not without some slight roadbumps that we encountered, rain being one of those) but what a nice way to finish off this four day shoot.. with beautiful weather at the beach!

I have so many pleasant memories from working on this project.. I could write pages about these four days. The cast and crew where all hard workers and great people. I don’t think I could of asked for better! Trevor’s easy going but professional approach made it easy for us to have fun while putting out good work. I had the chance to see some footage that was recorded and… let me tell you this is going to look great!

This was simply a great experience for me, filled with great moments and laughter. Ask any one of the 40 plus people that worked on this project, they’ll tell you how much fun I was having. I also got to work with a few familiar faces, while meeting lots of cool people. Of course, I’m looking forward to seeing the finished product and sharing it with you!

Yesterday and the day before, I worked two full days as a volunteer reader for a workshop organized by Marc Baur (an actor/coach). If you’re wondering what a reader is.. well, during auditions, you often find yourself doing a scene with one or a few other characters. A reader will read the dialogue of the other character(s) giving the auditioning actor something to work with.

I love doing stuff like this. Even if it doesn’t pay, you get so much in return (not just talking about paid meals.. although that was great too)! Learning from other actors and watching their performances, listening to what the coaches and casting directors have to say and of course having a good time while meeting new people.. can’t go wrong with that!

Marc, along with Janet Laine Green (also actor/coach), would work with the actors in the afternoon, giving them feedback on their scenes and having them do it a second time. Then after dinner, the casting directors watched the the actors and gave even more feedback. The first day featured Tina Gerussi and Millie Tom while during day two, Lisa Parasyn and Marsha Chesley took over the second half. They all had great advice which they passed along to the actors.

I had a great time and it was a good learning experience. As a reader, I also got to do lots of acting and had a bit of practice for cold read type of auditions (because of the sheer number of scebes I was given, I only had the time to quickly look over them beforehand). Now, I need to get ready to be in front of the camera myself.. as of tomorrow I’ll be shooting a promotional video during four days straight. More to come after the shoot!