MN State Lottery Spot Now Airing

The MN State Lottery spot I shot two weeks ago just started airing this week! I haven't seen it yet (I don't have live TV at home), but my friends have been telling me it's great. One of them mentioned something about human/loon eroticism(?) It's highly possible, knowing how crazy my facial expressions can get.

Mark, Tom Kristjanson (back), me, and director Jason Ho (Photo by Bo Hakala)

Mainly, the shoot involved me drinking a LOT of soda. By the end of the day, my wardrobe was covered in slushie, and I was a little bit sticky and a lot bit shaking from the sheer amount of corn syrup I had ingested, but it was all worth it. 

Shooting the spot was a BLAST! Director Jason Ho and the crew from Committee Films, especially DP Bo Hakala, were awesome to work with...they both have really great upbeat energy. I knew two of the guys on crew (Tom Kristjanson, with whom I worked on the Uptown Girl Movie, was pretty much my personal cup attendant for the day), the makeup artist Mary K. Flaa (worked with her two other times), and actress Jane Froiland was also on set with me. I hadn't worked with Sarah, my wardrobe person, before, but she and I got along swimmingly as well. Nice to have friendly faces around! I'm so grateful to everyone for making it such a fun experience, and grateful as well to Toni at A&E Casting and my agents at Talent Poole for helping me get there.

I've heard the spot will be posted online eventually, and I will share it here when that happens.  In the meantime, check out Jason's and Bo's reels - they've got some pretty sweet footage on there! And also, check out In An Instant on ABC, which was also produced by Committee Films for ABC TV. A lot of my friends appear in episodes of the show!

Booked!

I wish I knew more about the ins and outs of social media in regards to self-promotion in the acting world. I don't want to say anything where I could potentially get fired from my exciting opportunities.  So...here goes nothing! (Vaguebooking alert)

I got booked for a really exciting commercial gig for CLIENT, and I'm shooting the spot tomorrow! As soon as I clear it with people, I will post more info here, but for now, just be happy that I'm getting paid work, which I will then use to get new headshots (long overdue) and record my VO demo (even more overdue).

And I haven't been posting here as much as I would like.  It seems like so much work for some reason, even though it really shouldn't.  Part of it is how many auditions I've been on in the past few weeks (four auditions and a callback last week, two auditions and two callbacks the week before), plus prepping for upcoming season auditions and working a ton of cases at the U of M Medical School. I sat through the first readthrough for Candid Theater Co's upcoming production of Collected Stories, which looks like it's going to be awesome, and helped get the press release ready for the two shows they're running in rep (some of my first duties as a new board member!) I wrote a new article that I hope to shop out soon, and I'm working on another article which is due next week.  So much going on! All great things!

Until the next fortnight...but hopefully sooner,

Billie Jo