GOT SAG-E! WOOHOO!

It's been an incredible year but being SAG-E tops the list of achievements.  Getting that letter welcoming me to join was awesome! 

Saving money to get in is another matter.  I just don't have the funds, not even half of it.  All my money goes to paying the rent and my phone bill and internet to keep getting work and I'm barely keeping my head afloat.  If it weren't for living with family, I don't know what I'd do.  Probably never give up the day job, I'm thinking.

So attending film festivals has been the new line of work I've been doing.  Attended my very first red carpet last summer.  So the movie wasn't seen in the main theater but an offshoot of the same building.  So I didn't have a lot of attendees come -- the producer and writer didn't get people to come either.  We went to subsequent film festivals, and it was becoming painfully clear that the so-called contacts just weren't coming.  We did film fests in Jersey and New York City, the one in NYC was free and in Manhattan so readily accessible.  Yet....it was a bit disheartening but I moved on, because I believed in the project and the producer and writer.  I was proud of my work and involvement so why not?

In the end, all the publicity and reaching out to newspapers in NYC and Jersey led to only one college newspaper showing up and the producer disappearing to go get interviewed, leaving us all in the semi-darkness to fend for ourselves and welcome what few people who attended to thank them for coming and staying to view the film.

It was an experience and a learning experience, very valuable. 

The next project I'm in is a short film, and that has just been accepted at a Jersey film festival, so I'm really excited about that, new project new people new producer and all that.   And I have to make a trip to Atlantic City but that's all good.  Going to show support and show my face for networking purposes I pray people will show up. 

Another small film I am in is in post production so I still have yet to get a peek at the finished product.  Meanwhile, I continue to submit for work, whether acting or day job, because the rent still needs to be paid whether I can get my creative ways to pay me or go work as a Brand Ambassador or office temp.  Dealing with employment agencies has been heartbreaking, because you know you are not the only one looking for flexible work, but at the same time, telling them you are available for the next three months is just not an agency's cup of tea.  They want to know you are only focused on them, so unfair but so be it.  Somehow some people make it work so I know it's possible.  I continue to focus on the dream and make it happen.