Celestial Somphou Thomas's Posts (2)

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    The Urban Film Summit of 2018 had a great turnout as producers, directors, actors- aspiring, and working- congregated together at Carol’s Books on Saturday, December 1st. The summit was a conference that gave the floor to the innovators of the entertainment industry to educate the growing artist populace of Sacramento. Speakers like Aaron Leong, Gerry Simpson, Mark Clebanoff, and Toni Staniewicz shared their experience in their specific fields of expertise. The crowd left with not only FREE knowledge, but networks to fuel their next projects. The casting call for the California Film Foundation’s annual Fashion on Film event took place as well. The influx of people at the casting call allowed fashion designers the ability to compile the talent they wanted, and needed to showcase their woven art pieces properly. 

     The journey to put Sacramento on the map as a utopia for artists of all crafts has not been an easy one, but with the persistence of the veterans in this fight, and the courage of new participants to join in, the war will be won. Thank you to all those that participated. If you didn’t get a chance to please be on the lookout for some of the footage of this particular event, as well as updates about future events here at californiafilmfoundation.net.

- Celestial

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The career of acting is not for the faint of heart. For those who have decided they want to be an actor know the journey to fortune, and fame will not be a smooth ride. The question therein lies, “where do you begin?” While education is the first step in a lot of careers, it is not the only step. Finding a mentor, I feel, is the perfect way of understanding the journey ahead. 

This past Saturday, August 18th, Martin Anaya interviewed  Mr. Vincent Dee Miles for CFF ( The California Film Foundation). Vincent to us in Sacramento is the Cine-Sol Program Director. In Hollywood he is best known for a role he played in the movie  “The Lost World: Jurassic Park” directed by Steven Spielberg (check him out on IMDB).

Vincent spoke about how he became SAG eligible, titles of books to study and a variety of vital topics. The moment that stood above all others was when Martin interjected and pointed out a pattern in Vincent’s experiences on set. Martin pointed that when Vincent is on set he doesn’t just speak to the deemed “important people”, he talks to everyone: the people in lighting and the tech guys-those that are never given much thought. You never know who will open doors for you in this industry. Therefore, according to Vince and Marty, leaving the imprint of your best self is important.

While this mentality I feel should be common sense, life moves so quickly we often forget to apply the basic life skills that are essential to building ourselves. Vincent left the audience an awesome piece of advice: “ Do what you love,. if you don’t love it find something else to do.” 

Learning from the RIGHT sources holds the key to unlocking Sacramento’s potential to become a metropolitan area for actors. Stay current, broaden your minds, and help yourself by joining in on the “discussion” at Carol’s Books on the first, second, and third Saturday of every month where we'll be presenting ongoing workshops in filmmaking.

 Before I sign off, I would like to give a shout out to Carol’s Books that hosts not only this event but various other projects that need a home base. When you stop in please consider donating a dollar, or two- OR buy a book! It will help keep her business going so that we can always have a space to congregate.

For more information about CFF, and upcoming projects go to: http://californiafilm.net/events/event/listUpcoming

Thank you for your participation fellow actors, and good luck on your journey. 

- Celestial’s Diary

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