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Published: August 28th 2010
Dinner
Sitting at dinner with my wife and her business friends. Afterwards, I see a dog carrying a rag doll in its mouth, but no one else sees the dog and insists that I'm mad.NOTE: Hello lovlies, this is way overdue. The first 20 or so photos are all from a feature film that I was in, tentatively titled "Shanghai Chill." It took up a large part of my first 2 months in Shanghai as I was the lead actor. It might suck, it might be alright, all in all a great experience. The other photos were taken from March till June and show, among other things, life in a poorer neighborhood of Shanghai where I was living at first, Suzhou, a city with lots of waterways, a Chinese Venice of sorts, a trip to Nanjing, and a trip to the sea. Just little tid bits, I was too lazy for too many comments. This is what happens when you let things pile up I suppose....the story of my life. Ha! Enjoy!
My Life in Shanghai 3/2010---6/2010
The first night I arrived in my small hostel in Shanghai, back in January 2010, I spoke briefly with a fellow Chicagoan who, interestingly, was not only from my hometown, but also on the same flight as me and staying in the same hostel. I told him that I didn't have any jobs lined up, just
Spying through the trees
I come to see Dante (actor Leo) and find out that we are at the grave of his daughter. He then, through tears translates a Chinese police report that I found in my house. my abilities as a teacher, actor and skills as a Chinese speaker. He responded, "You're crazy."
I didn't respond to his interesting comment...and later realized that there was a tinge of admiration in his remark. It would soon turn out of course that following my faith and intuition was in fact quite sane (whereas, I might add, he, working upwards of 60 hours a week, a bit miserably, in an Australian Bank, was quite more crazy), as since arriving I have completed 2 feature films, one play, a couple of voiceover gigs (introducing me to that industry!), and have been working steadily as a teacher. The Universe Spirit provides when we act on it's guidance with faith!
After a sojourn back to the Henan countryside, I have been busy getting established here in Shanghai. Besides getting established as an actor, I have been able to connect with Chinese people via teaching, and able to serve the people in this way, aside from searching how to do this as an actor/performer. Whereas the first time I came to China I was connected with a portion of the population that represents the majority, those coming from poorer families, most of
Reviewing our Chase footage
Dante and I raced home on a little electric bike to stop the whims of a murderous ghost. Our topspeed was about 20/30 km/hr. So Richard (left) is on this bike trailor, lugging Leo (our cameraman) this bike we rented from a Chinese peasant for 50 kuai. And he is just chugging away, like an animal, and we're rolling through these alleyways and busy narrow Shanghai streets. Just total maddness. But Richard comes alive, totally gung ho. Tired of just keeping tabs on our budget, this was his moment to cut loose. He's out there screaming at the Chinese people in our path "Get out of the way!!!!" "Coming through!!!!" It's all hilarious. The best part is that he is on his back on the dirty ground every five minutes, putting the chain back on because it keeps falling off. Chinese faces are in a blank stare at this strange, inspired foreigner, whose arm is caked in black grease, pedaling a peasants bike, probably used to lug scrap metal. Hilarious. whom are peasants living in the countryside or smaller Chinese cities, now I am living in Shanghai, the most westernized, wealthy, and unique city in China.
Just because it is called 'wealthy' of course doesn't mean that all here are, in fact for the first 3 months I was living in a hostel that is in a rather poor area. It was great, because there was a street market right by that had all the flavor of an authentic Chinese town, and was populated by mostly migrant workers from other provinces. Interestingly, I gravitated to a restaurant owned by Henan people who served dumplings. Hmm. Was I drawn to the dumplings, or the familiar Chinese people group? Perhaps both.
I starting working full time for an English training company, having mostly one on one students. I have also had some really smart private students, on in particular who I was preparing for the GMAT and to study abroad in Scotland. This teaching situation provided great flexibility, where I could work 15-25 hours a week and still have freedom to do other things like act.
I cut my hair, thinking it would get me more work, and slowly
Stretching for my fight
I said since the start, we needed good training for the fight, wasn't within the scope of the budget, so I just prepared for 6 hours before shooting with Drago, our fight choreographer. But I was getting in shape the whole month before, a little. began to learn about the industry here. But by late March I was cast in a feature film being done by an ex-pat formerly from LA named Eric Heise. He cast me as the lead in his psychological horror about a fighter from the States who moves to Shanghai with his Chinese-American wife and starts to see things that others don't see. But he's on meds because he got his ass seriously kicked right before coming to China. So, are the ghosts real, or is it in his head? And can he think for himself and discover what they seem to want to show him, or will he be controlled by other peoples thoughts/influence as has been the way in his life? The story was quite good, but the script was incomplete, and the ending horrible. But we all worked on the script, and I as able to bring a lot to the table and totally create my character, who otherwise was a blank page. This proved difficult, for I was creating a development that was not exactly written into the script. In many ways the production was not up to standards, but afterall, we were in China! OH!!!!!!
Attic Research
Doing research about ghosts and stuff But the cast was great, and I made many many contacts through this experience. It was also my first time as a lead in a feature, and as I was in about 90 percent of the scenes, the responsibility fell on me to carry the bulk of the film. I hope it is alright, if not, we know where to place much of the blame, me of course. But it should be alright, I feel. Overall, I learned so much and built some great relationships, which are most important. So all April I prepared for the film. From April 30th till May 21st I was practically on set everyday, all day, often sleeping over at the director's home, where many of the scenes were shot. It was hard work, but we plowed through and put it in the can. Now it is being quickly edited with an aim at distribution and festival circuits.
Literally the day after the film was done, I had an audition for a new film being made by a foreigner and began rehearsals for the Importance of Being Earnest, in which I was cast as Algernon.
I switched my teaching job to a part
Fighter?
Man, I hope this scene doesn't suck. I think I look like a bit of a panzee, not totally believable as a fighter, at least in this pic. time schedule to accommodate these acting gigs, and with the feeling that by being more and more connected, more acting gigs would soon come my way.
The play then dominated my life until we put it on from June 11th til the 15th. It was awesome! I learned so much from the director, cast mates and whole process. I learned about comedy and Victorian society, and voice training (Charlie Mayer, who was in Eric's film with me, was our voice trainer in the play, he being a pro from England with a sickly awesome voice, and he is also a fab teacher. I'm probably going to keep taking classes with him privately). But when it was all over I was well ready for a break!
I did a couple scenes in the other feature, being made by Sam Samore, an artist from NY who was commissioned by an Art Museum in Shanghai to make his film. I was the narrator, whispering intelligent, witty, and sometimes absurd commentary about Shanghai, psychology, love, religion, culture, etc as an off-camera voice. That was an awesome experience, and I did have a few on-camera scenes, one in which I used Chinese! That
Drago and I
Here is the choreographer and he who woops me in the fight. was my first time using Chinese in a gig and it, honestly, was way too rushed. We had such little time to shoot that, and the lines were changed right before we rolled, something I can endure if it is my native language I am using, but not Chinese...come on guys! Just kidding, the director said it was alright, but then again, he doesn't speak Chinese! We'll see. It was a highly artistic, experimental film, kind of like the one I did with Catherine Sullivan in January. That will be my second film in a museum, an unforeseen genre of film that I am getting connected with, but one that I feel I am well suited for. They are so open-minded and artistic, and resonate more with spirituality.
All this acting work took a lot away from my teaching and studying of Chinese. That's ok in one regard because my real passion is art/performance/acting, but I do want my Chinese to keep going. So I hope that in the future I will have an opportunity to work with more Chinese productions.
My Chinese co-actor, Leo, who was in the horror film with me, generously offered me a place
to live for free right after we finished shooting, which is awesome! So we have been living together and I've been helping him to prepare for the GMAT. We are also reading through the Lord of the Rings, of course I've got him into that! He's an actor and his father is a professional Chinese actor. I've learned a lot about a different aspect of Chinese society through our friendship and we get along quite well so it's all good.
Now I am on a break in Chicago. It's been interesting being back here for 10 days. I've seen some amazing people. But my spirit is back in Shanghai, I'm ready to drive forward after this conclusion to the first phase of my journey there.
Sorry for this unenlightening blog, I know, it is pretty mundane, just about what I have been doing on the surface level. But thanks for reading, I love you all, and please keep in touch with me too! Let me know what's going on in your life and I hope that you are all growing and changing and being ever more awesome and feeling great about your place and what you are doing
Rocking Horse
This horse forms a scary and important part of the story, here is from left to right: me, Eric (director), Tony (sound/crew), Bill (crew). in this wonderful life! Be blessed! Be loved! For you are Loved! Shine on!
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So interesting
Hi Geord. This was soooo interesting. I am going to have to reread it several times as you told so much about what you are doing. I love the play "The importance of being Ernest". Were youi going to perform it in Chicago? You have really done a lot of film work and are keeping more than busy. I am so happy to hear that everything is going along well, and that you have a good place to stay with a friend. The pictures are great and you look good and happy. Aunt Ursy is coming to visit on the 10th and we will take the train to Pasadena to see Karin and Cam then go on the Santa Barbara to spend a few days with Aunt Bea (don't think you ever met her). Then back to San Diego and the next day she flies home to Milwaukee. The summer is going by very fast. I have no plans to travel anywhere this year and will not be able to make Lindsay's wedding. Traveling by plane is just too difficult, and although some days I feel "yes" I can make it, other days I know I can't. But, I will look forward to seeing all the pictures on Facebook. Thank you Geord for taking the time to write this blog and bringing us up to date on what you are doing. Love, Nana