Backstage Newspaper Article: Tips for a deep mental focus.

Time and time again I keep hearing/reading the same thing over and over; mental focus is what will make or break an actors audition.

I’ve been reading BackStage Newspaper, lately. I figure that its a great way to stay current in the minds of casting directors here in LA. In the October 6th - 12th issue, there is an article that begins on page 8. The article is called “ You Can Do Anything For Three Minutes” - How to find mental focus in the audition room.

The article starts out talking about the different emotions that we go through often times before an audition. What really stuck out to me was what I read next. “FOUR SIMPLY TASK” to use before your audition, but in the lobby. 

1. Sense of place: Where are you in the scene?
2. Relationship: Whom are you talking to in the scene?
3. Intention: What do you want at the top of the scene?
4. Pre-Beat: What happens or is said at the moment before the scene starts?

When I read this, I thought to myself, “wow this is really coming up so often in my life. Each time I am hearing such info, it always very specific to acting. Maybe the universe is tying to get me to acknowledge that I am not focusing correctly? Maybe I need to dive deeper in to the character that I am auditioning for? This makes sense. Although it isn’t very easy.

Often times, when auditioning for a commercial I find that the script is not very long at all. For example, the sides (script for lack of words) are one or two lines, and possibly some self improv. How do I implement the above tips with a few lines and improv? The only thing that I can come up with is that I need to simply, make it up and show my personality.

I often hear that personalty is one of the most important parts of the commercial audition. I guess a smile goes a long way. :) 

Whats this mean to you? Well, dear fellow actors, take the advice of Backstage and implement it. Dear, fellow humans, take the advice of Backstage and implement it. Here is what I mean. If you are an actor, try this sense of focusing before your next audition. Everyone else, try this for your own life. You have place, relationships, intentions, and pre-beat in everything that you do in life. See how it works for you. LET ME KNOW! 

Wow, I think I just figured it out. The more I use these tips in my everyday life, the more natural it will come before, during, and after my auditions. Game on, I will make a very conscious effort to implement these steps in my daily life. With as many interactions as I can remember to I will work on implementing at least one tip above. If I focus on one at a time that relieves me of any unreal expectations. This should be fun and challenging! Thanks for reading. All comments are welcomed!

My iTunes single, "Come Away With Me" has been REMIXED! An Australian DJ, by the name of Scotty Gee, presented me with the remix earlier this week. Scotty Gee, informed me that he has been playing the single in Australia and that "they are loving it" there. 

What a blessing! My music is being played in another country. So many people dream about such a wonderful thing. And its actually happening to me! I knew hard work really does pay off in the long run!

Well, without holding you up any longer, I hope you enjoy the remix! Thank you for all your support! Please remember to share this link on your facebook and twitter. Thats the BEST form of support (other then money of course)!

Come Away With Me DJ Scotty Gee Remix by kevingerdes

Indie Night Out

Indie Night Out

The Plan, the summary, the goal, the dream!

I'd like to tackle this event over three topics.

1. What "Indie Night Out" is all about.

2. Why it was started.

3. How YOU can be a part of the event and/or support it.

With that said, I know that after reading this post you too will be inspired to participate.

What the heck is this "Indie Night Out" thing all about?

Simply put, Indie Night Out is an event, currently in development, that will help local independent artist complete their projects.

You may be asking yourself, "what does that mean to me?"  The answer is simple, an INCREDIBLE night out!  An evening filled with all sorts of different styles of art and local entertainers.  From singers, bands and dancers to comedians and actors, to painters.  There will be a full range are artists at Indie Night Out!  Maybe even a few friends of yours!

Often times people ask independent artist, "how can I help."  Well this is it!  Just come show your support and have a great time!

Someone knows someone that is looking to "make it."  Indie Night Out is a simple, fun, entertaining and effective way to help a HUGE group of "up and comers!"

Come to Indie Night Out, enjoy a night of various mediums of art, and help jump start someone's dreams!

If you know me personally, you probably know that I'm a DREAMER.  I believe that ANYTHING is possible.  If you can dream it, you can manifest it.  With that, I'm on my own journey, a journey to make my dreams of making music, a reality.  I dream of my music being heard around the globe!  This is the journey that brought me to LA a year and a half ago.  It's already taught me so much.  I'd say one of the fondest things  I've discovered about myself along the way is that I absolutely love the joy that comes from helping someone else.  I inspire to be able to support others dreams one day, every day. That inspiration is what lead me to "Indie Night Out" - local independent artist acknowledging their peers projects, coming together to make their peers projects a success!

“Where there is love there is life.”

― Mahatma Gandhi

Indie Night Out is a night of art!

Funds from ticket sales will be go to the featured artist of the event with the intent of funding a specific project for that artist. Featured artist profile and project profile will be released via Facebook: Indie Night Out.

Come out and support the event! Come enjoy, drinks, art, and good energy! Remember, the cost of your ticket is going to support someone's dream. You're ticket purchase is showing the artist, you believe in them!

"If you are not making someone else's life better then you're wasting your time. Your life will become better by making other lives better."

                                                                                                                            ― Will Smith

Not in or around LA?  Don't worry!  You can still help in supporting the featured artist. There will be a Paypal account that is activated for monetary contributions to the featured artist of each event.  Links to this account will be post on the events Facebook page.  Give what you can to help their project get off the ground. Remember, what you give builds right on top of what the last person gave.

Talent. Interested in being a "featured artist?"  Have a talent w/in the arts to showcase during a featured artist's show?  Simply want to use your talents to support the dream of a fellow indie artist?  Either way, if you are interested in being one of the acts that are preforming at the event contact Kevin Gerdes at indienightout@gmail.com. 

In closing, please remember, what we give to others comes back in ways we would never have imagined!

Thank you for reading, and thank you for believing in the dreams of others!

A Day In The Lap of Luxury

9:00am
Today just feel, right! I had a great conversation in the car this morning with my awesome roommate. With that being said, I want to have an little experiment with myself today, and those I come in contact with!


I am going to extend this feeling of, rightness, if you will; to those I come in contact with today. Extend smiles, handshakes, a laugh, or even just listening to them. Im going to see where this take me today.


Im excited! :) I'll update as my day goes on! #PositivitybreedsPositivity!


12:10p
Great morning. I've been interacting with people... Simply by being nice. Smiling and listening more. 

It's awesome how when you enter into a conversation how smoothly it goes. There is no expectation for anything that isn't genuine to come from it.

Feel as though I walk taller. Also, I've noticed that in only one morning of being aware of the energy that I give out... I am being given that energy back. People are smiling at me.

Over all I'd say that all is good so far. I love that this update is like a mid-day check in on my myself thus far today! 

I'll recap more later. Here's a challenge. Try smiling more today... See where that takes you. Comment below with the results!



4:40p
What a great day! 

Journey's song "Don't Stop Believing" playing. Kids dancing on the grass at The Grove. Everyone is in a happy mood!

The sun is shinning! The energy is so wonderful here in LA. We are all so happy to rejoice in today! You know, being that it's 9/11 I thought the day would be filled with silence and sadness. But no. It's as though it's a day of rememberence an new beginnings!

The best part about it all for me personality; I started the day in a positive mood and so far it's been allowing me to see all the good in my day! Putting out this positive energy has so far done nothing but give me positive energy in return! That in itself is a wonderful thing!


7:30p
Its 7:30p and I will end with this. I have had such an amazing day! I have been at my own will in such a great place. I have had others on my mind all day. I put others needs before mine. I looked around me all day and saw the good in everything.


Making sure I was giving out positive energy helped me to, when negative approached, not even give it more then a few seconds. If it meant putting in my headphones and falling deep into music, then thats what I did.


All in all. This day was amazing. I checked with myself every few hours, to blog about what had been going on. How my energy was. That alone, helped me to stay on track with what type of vibes I was giving to this universe. Always remember, what you give out, you receive ten time more, back! I love you all, and don't forget that Positivity breeds Positivity!

Using Our Resources

About two weeks ago, I bought a copy of “Backstage” Newspaper. The issue was called, “The Audition Issue”. The entire publication was dedicated to auditioning!

Most of the newspaper covered various casting directors (CD’s) giving advice about auditioning for Theatre, Film/Television, and Commercial. Here in LA, its very difficult to nail the-100% correct way to book roles. The entertainment industry; no matter if you want to be an Actor, Singer, Dancer, Writer, Producer, Director, Lawyer, etc is all so very tricky to break into. Having direct advice from seasoned CD’s in my finger tips, I felt was priceless!

If you follow my website and other social media, you know that I am auditioning a lot. To backtrack a moment, I have been on auditions for Kayak.com, Best Buy, Walmart, Nike, and more. This is a journey! And purchasing “Backstage” I felt would help me along the way.

Lots of us here in LA, who aspire to be a successful actor, sometimes forget all the resources around us. There are networking seminars with top industry professionals that are 100% FREE to us, student films that can help us build acting reels, acting workshops with major TV/Film CD’s, and so much more. I think that many of us forget about all these resources because of how difficult it is to simply live here in LA. With all that said, I felt like “Backstage” would be a great tool (this edition mostly) to help me in my auditions.

As I was reading through the newspaper, I though I would share some of the interesting parts here on my site. 

One of the CD’s in one of the articles stated that “They have a few days. So you go in and if you’re not right, you go home and move on to the next one”. 

They were speaking about the time that it takes to find and book a role for a commercial. When I read this I felt confirmed and relieved at the same time. Why confirmed? Well, I already knew this was how things happened, through working with NBC’s OUTSOURCED, and doing so much background work on TV shows and random commercials. Relieved, was what concerned me the most. Relieved simply because reading this means that I could stop thinking over and over about my last audition. When it came down to it, after 3-4 days past from my audition... I didn’t get the role. The last part of the above quote “...move on to the next”. So powerful in itself! Just move on. Stop harping on this audition and immediately focus on the next one. Once I finish my audition I need to begin shifting my focus on the next audition, acting workshop, song that I want to start writing, or whatever creative thing is next. But forget about the last audition. If its meant to be, Ill get it. And if not, there will be so many more.

“Don’t let it go to your [DAMN] head”! Now this part of the paper was SPOT ON! This is so true. Exactly how it feels in this industry! Your agent gets you an audition, thats exciting in itself! Then its time to prepare for the audition. You do your necessary preparations-hoping to GOD that you are doing it right. But whats right? Time after time, I hear industry pro’s mention that often times CD’s don’t really have any idea what they are looking for, for a role. That, when they see it they will know. You can imagine the pressure that alone puts on you. haha.

After the audition is over, thats AN ENTIRELY DIFFERENT STORY. I often find myself wondering so much. “How many 100’s of people have they seen for the same role as you? How many times have they seen everyone repeat the same lines as you? How many people have they seen add the same “unique” twist as you?” You get my point? Its difficult to find a way to set yourself apart from everyone else. And you only had a few minutes to do it.

After walking out of the audition room, you are bombarded with thought after thought. “I could have done this better. I should have done this. What if... that was easy... that was really weird...” and on, and on, and on, and on... HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO DO THIS FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE? AHHHHHHHHH! Phew... the best part is, its all possible.

I read so much in this edition, “...audition and move on”. Giving an audition a second thought is pointless, UNLESS it is done in the right way. Its one thing to evaluate how you did, and another thing to harp on the audition over and over. Which leads right into the last thing that I wanted to talk about. What should I do to evaluate my audition?

Which makes perfect reason for the above photo. After my auditions I have started to ask myself these questions, 1. What worked? 2. Why did each of these things work? 3. What could have worked better? 4. Why could have each have worked better? 5. What am I going to do for the next time? Reading these I was thinking to myself, “whoa... this really give you a specific thought process for evaluating auditions”. I also remember thinking to myself, that this info is so valuable. I am blessed to be reading it.

I would say this, in response to this entire issue of Backstage. We have so many resources here in LA that so many around this country do not. Us entertainers should work at utilizing these resources more often. Our ability to learn and grow as actors, singers, dancers, writers, and etc are more then we know. It takes being creative. It requires the will to think out side of the box about how you can learn something new. I did so simply by reading a $3 newspaper. I challenge all my friends here and not local to use what is around you and so easily accessible to grow in your own path!

Here are a few links to some of these resources.

Backstage 

www.backstage.com

www.twitter.com/backstagecast

Casting Networks

www.castingnetworks.com

www.twitter.com/castingnetworks

Whats on my mind...

Today, was a great day. I went to an audition for Best Buy. I'd say I did well. We shall see if I get the call back. Can't wait to see which audition is next. After that I hung out at The Grove for a few hours. Then went to work. Just got home and its time for Lesson 2 of my French Lessons. A life devoted to my art. After French I will work on the East Indian dialect.


Tomorrow, wake up, take care of some DVM stuff, gym (chest day), French lesson 3, submit a video into the LA Metro that I made, then work. Lets see how much of this actually works out. :)

This Journey Called - LIFE!

I took this photo during my Runyon Canyon Hike. There is a large open patch of land at the bottom of the mts that people use rocks to write various things. If you go to the top of the mts you can see it from way up there. I went down an snapped a photo!

I love this life that I live. Devoting your life to the entertainment industry is nothing but the CRAZIEST ride I've ever been on. I can honestly think of a few things that are just as crazy. 

This industry/lifestyle (if you are one of the ones who makes it a lifestyle) goes deep to your core. If FORCES you to think about the person that you are. Your values, your needs, your ambitions. It at times (more so then not) is trying. What I mean by this is, you will often times go without - so that you can be an inch closer to feeding your dream. Its that idea that, "Well this will pay off in the long run".

I can say that, as I am walking to auditions, fighting with the metro schedule, and watching every dime spent (as best as I can, I'm pretty shitty with money) I am more happy with life then I have ever been. I am on a journey, most people are not. I choose my path. Most people do not. With that said. Thanks for being apart of it! It nice to have people to share it with.

Those of you who have helped me in so many various way (words of encouragement, money - right of the page, a place to live, and so many other ways) THANK YOU! Time to go to my next audition. Best Buy here I come! Can you handle this? :)