Things have been going good for me recently…the highlight would have to be being cast in an episode of Flashpoint! That’s right, I played a “bad guy” named Mike, and got to be a part of some fun action sequences! Did I get to shoot a gun? Yep, a real one, but with blank bullets. The one featured in the picture on the left isn’t the one used, that one is fake. You’re gonna have to watch the episode to see the real one!

It was one of the biggest sets I’ve been on so far, in terms of sheer amount of people and organization involved. So much happens behind the scenes of a day (out of usually seven) of shooting an episode for this show. It was great being a part of it (I had three days on set: March 5th, 8th and 9th).

Directing the episode (named “The Other Lane”) was a funny and passionate Erik Canuel. As a part of the arms dealers, I played alongside Ian Tracey, Colin Cunningham, Stefano DiMatteo and Jeff Parazzo. As for interacting with the good guys (the “SRU” team as they’re known in the show), I ended up having a confrontation with Amy Jo Johnson and David Paetkau (not in real life, but in the episode of course)!

Everyone was a pleasure to hang out and work with. We had some long days and nights, but in the end I was doing something that I really enjoyed. Since I had a small part, I mostly had free time on set, so I caught up on some reading, etc. It was kind of like waiting for a awesome roller-coaster ride… In the end, when you get your time in front of the camera, it was all worth it. Actually…okay I had more on set time than it may seem, but the analogy still stands. I had a blast! Speaking of, check out these videos of Colin performing some cool magic tricks with forks!

Although exciting, those awesome three days weren’t all that I’ve done since the last time I wrote an update. I had an amazing time shooting an internet video (coming soon) for Dentyne, had a role in a film like training video, played a part in other corporate videos and events, had a few voice-over jobs, and landed some print work! As I had mentioned before, the last few weeks have been good!

The Snack Guru is back, in a new 60 seconds edit for the new Doritos Viralocity contest! Check it out below:

First prize gets $100,000! BUT, if we collect enough points, Doritos will give $250,000! Want to help us get those points? I’d love that! Go to http://bit.ly/9xYXle and play it over there. Then, give it 5 stars, favorite it, and share it! Use the that link (http://bit.ly/9xYXle) to spread it around. Make this video viral… I mean that’s why it’s called Viralocity!

Have Facebook? Use the Facebook connect option and make sure you use the blue share button, right below the video on the left and have it post a link on your profile! Got Twitter? Use the green retweet button right next to it and it will write the tweet for you, complete with link to the video! Know people that live in a country other than Canada? Extra points when they watch this video!

Also notice how I’ve embedded the video on my page? This gets us extra points too! So if you got a website, feel free to do the same. You know what they say, the more, the merrier!

I appreciate the help and support to get us those points and bring our video to the top! So don’t hesitate to share share share! Email your family, friends, co-workers, rate it, favorite it, use Facebook and Twitter if you have accounts, embed the video on your website if you have one… and any other ways to help us win. Here’s a handy image to help. Thank you all!

About a month ago in November, I participated in and wrote about a music video for The Rural Alberta Advantage. Directed by Ante Kovac, this video is the band’s first, and was created for their song Drain the Blood. The band members are featured as the “surveillance team” in the white van, while I play the man in the couple being monitored by the band. Go here for a direct link and higher resolution, or check it out below!

On Tuesday, I took part in my second music video for another indie band. I’m gonna save all the details about the band and their song for when the video is released (end of the month, so not too long from now). Doesn’t mean I won’t tell you about the shoot and some of the people involved though!

Our director, Ante Kovac, has worked on music videos of other Canadian talent such as Matthew Good (one of my favorite musical artists) and The Tragically Hip. As for the director of photography, he looked familiar to me… and I wondered why… then it finally came to me. Both Michael LeBlanc and I worked on a Much Music commercial before. The same one where I met director Trevor Francis, who was trying to track me down to shoot the Corel video. Then I started recognizing some of the other crew members from that shoot! What can I say… This big city of Toronto is starting to get a little smaller!

So as you can see, once again I had the pleasure to work with people who I met in the past. But as always, I met lots of great new people. From the band, to the woman playing my girlfriend and the rest of the crew, people were for the most part pleasant and professional. Another great day on set!

As for the role I played, well how about I share the story of this short film like video with you. My character comes home and notices a white van. He becomes paranoid and searches the house, along with his girlfriend, for a listening device while the band members are in the van, listening to the couple. Actually, Ante wrote me today and said the footage “looks amazing”… I’m definitely looking forward to seeing it. Of course, I’ll be sharing the video with you when it’s released!

Before getting to the subject of this post, I actually just came back from helping some friends move to the city. I’ve talked about this couple before.. Paul and Shalan Crivellari! They intend to continue and expand their photography work here in Toronto. So if you’re in the area and need the services of a great pair of photographers, be sure to get in touch with them: www.cprophoto.com.

In the month of May, I had jobs involving FaceSeal Technologies (more specifically their Fitseal product) and George Brown College. Both were lots of fun and I had the chance to meet and work with great people! On top of that, I continue having regular auditions and castings.

Also, I’m finishing up my improvisation foundation classes at Bad Dog Theater. I’ve completed three levels, each having a weekly 3 hour class, lasting 7 to 8 weeks. Right now, I’m about half way through the 4th and final level of the foundation classes. If you’re an actor looking for more training or just want to have fun and meet people, I definitely recommend it! Most of my classes were taught by an awesome teacher, Alastair Forbes.

Finally, I continue to get small jobs, and doing occasional “live” modeling. This usually happens during meetings where certain companies have clients that want to see clothes being worn. Speaking of, I’ll be doing quite a few hours of it this week!

At the beginning of the week, I spent two days shooting a corporate video. I had the role of the host; the lead character in the video. Due to the fact that this will be an internal video, used within the company that it was produced for, I’m not going to name them unless they say it’s okay. In that case, I’d be happy to share that with you as they are an internationally recognized store, with over a thousand locations worldwide. That, and it’s one that I used to love going to as a kid.

What I can say though, is that it was produced by Chris MacKechnie from Slingshot Inc, directed by Mhel Silva, with Avi Zarum behind the camera.

Before I talk about the video shoot, I have a story about the actual casting process! Well, okay.. it’s not that exciting, but here goes anyway. I initially tried out for a secondary character in the video. Two days later, based on the performance of my first audition, I got called in again to try out for the lead. As you now know, I ended up getting the main role, which as actually planned for someone a bit older than me.

Going back to the actual shoot, this was my first time using a teleprompter and turned out to be a great learning experience! One of the guys on set was hired to help the actors with their French, as this was a bilingual video. Well.. he did much more than that! Not only did he help me minimize an accent when switching back and forth between the two languages, he also acted as an amazing catalyst to get the right performance out of me! We also worked together on proofreading the French version, and making minor changes (although he did most of the work there). Again, this man went above and beyond what he was hired to do and did even more than what I mention here. Thanks Antoinne!

Once again, I had a great time working with everyone involved, including the lovely woman representing the company the video was shot for. It was a blast to shoot, and credit goes everyone involved as well as the fun script and concept. Finally, who can forget Zak, the adorable, well behaved dog who hung out with us on set!