Once in awhile a person stops in and gives of themselves in a way that you can tell is GENUINE and sincere. Going into today's ACTORS INITIATIVE session, I had a lot of questions. The type of questions that deal with process, technicalities and "how-tos". And certainly, Toni addressed those.
CFF's Celestial starts the meeting with introductions of all attendees.
The biggest take-away that I got from today had NOTHING, however, to do with any technique or process. Is it important to understand HOW to audition? Of course. Is it important to understand WHAT to do? Certainly. But here is the nugget, the single nugget that Toni spent MOST of her time addressing: being of service...Having an attitude of gratitude...doing WHATEVER it takes to support the production. You see, Toni broke it down from the Producer's perspective. She indicated that EVERY moment on a set was costing SOMEONE a bunch of money. She indicated that spending days on a set with folks would be a LOT easier of, at the end of it, you STILL wanted to spend time with those people. So she spent the bulk of her talk today, discussing attitude and helpfulness.
Toni addresses a packed house at the CFF meeting
As Toni put it, you may not know how to do everything exactly right. But the people who do the little things, who offer their help, who stay late..THOSE folks are the ones that will be remembered. THOSE folks are the ones who will be asked BACK to the NEXT shoot! I for one was glad to have the reminder: Ask NOT what your production can do for you. Ask what YOU can do for your production. THAT is the way! That is the SECRET sauce. Thank you, Toni, for exemplifying that! Thank you for showing us how an attitude of gratitude can go such a long way in this industry.
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