Photo Shoot and Q&A

Hi everyone!

It’s been a while since my last post, so kudos to Jesse for keeping everything up to date.

First off, we wanted to let you all in on a project we’ve been working on for Liz.  She and Shiri Appleby (see previous post about our awesome trip to the set of Dating Rules from my Future Self) have a meeting in a few weeks with Hulu and were asked to pitch an idea for a web series.  They came up with a concept, and I helped out by fleshing it out and preparing a little pitch for Liz, Shiri and the other Minterns.  At this point, Jesse, Elizabeth and I have each gotten a chance to do such a pitch to practice conveying our ideas and visions for a project.

So on Tuesday, the Minterns headed over to Shiri’s for a photo shoot.  The plan is to create sample posters so Liz and Shiri can show off the concept’s marketability.  We can’t reveal the full concept of the potential series, but suffice it to say that big love can come in small packages!

On Monday, we were lucky enough to get to meet Josh Randall, an actor Liz directed on Franklin and Bash.  He’s been featured on Joey, Cold Case, CSI: Miami and CSI: New York, Lost, The New Adventures of Old Christine, The Mentalist, Law and Order: SVU and Grey’s Anatomy and has completed character arcs on Ed, Scrubs, Courting Alex, Men in Trees, Pushing Daisies, Raising the Bar, Greek and Criminal Minds…among others.  He came by and we trapped him in the Min so he could answer our questions about life as an actor in L.A., the TV industry, and what he likes in a director. 

Since television directors are usually hired by the episode and often are neither producers nor creators of the show, they are in a very unique position compared to film directors.  It was interesting and very helpful to hear what Josh had to say about his preferences for a director’s balance between letting the actor handle his character and trying to find new angles or richer layers.  Essentially, the take-home message was that you really have to play it by ear; he said he’s had directors who have been able to deepen his character and his character’s relationships, but he’s also had directors who have turned to him for advice about a show’s tone or comedic style.  And it seems like both can work well, as long as each party respects the other’s input.  Of course, that might not always be the case.

Thanks Shiri and Josh!