This shoot also had some POV shots as the characters interact with whoever’s going through the interactive video. Check out the shot of my character, Soldier Ali! Unfortunately this will most likely not be available to the public; too bad because it was the first time I spoke with a heavy Arabic accent! Didn’t know I could do it until I kept practicing it… If there’s a will, there’s a way, I always like to say!

Now for the juicy part! Director Kevin McMillan paid for my traveling expenses to go back to Ottawa… Why? Well, we shot a few scenes from the pilot episode of his TV show currently titled “Lost and Found in Beijing”. This show features Daniel Lavigne and I playing two male models going to China for a modeling contract. When we get there, there’s no one to pick us up and no place for us to stay. Both the characters are actually written for us and we even share the same first name with them! If this gets picked up, you’re looking at the future star of a new and awesome TV show ;)

This shoot went really well. We had so much fun, the scenes got great humor and it’s pretty exciting that it’s coming closer to being a reality. This show is actually sort of a comedy. Think Entourage, but with two main characters instead of four, and models instead of actors. There’s actually an interview video that you can check out on Kevin’s website here. Daniel and I talk about our involvement in the show (my part starts 55 seconds in). Watching it, I realize I shouldn’t sit like that again during a filmed interview and I should also check my hair in the mirror beforehand!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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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!

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