2024 has been a good year for my acting career. I have participated in five projects so far, film and television, most of them paid gigs. The first job of the year was acting in a short film called “The Vampire Audition”, now titled “Audition at Mystero”, playing an actor auditioning for the role of a vampire, which was perfect type-casting.
“Audition at Mystero” is the brainchild of writer/director Mariangela Pluchino and was shot on Super8 movie film as part of a self organized residency in collaboration between the Helsinki, Finland-based filmmaking collective Film Tonight! And Baltic Analog Lab”. Mariangela was blessed with the good fortune (thanks to Dante who’s family owns the place, he’s also played one of the auditioning vampires) to have use of a magic theater here in Riga called Mystero, the perfect location for her story. It was a one day production, shot loose and wild, with everyone lending a hand, holding lights or moving furniture, etc. Mariangela’s colleagues from Film Tonight!, Helena Aleksandrova and Jelica Jerinić, also filled acting roles besides working on their own short films.
Helena’s film was called, “Whispers of Odd” and Jelica’s was “Sweet Memories”, shot concurrently with “Audition at Mystero” and I admired how they supported each other’s projects doing whatever was needed to all be successful. The film production felt strange compared to digital, as there was no way to check the take (is the shot in focus? How’s the lighting look? Were the actor’s eyes open?), but Mariangela handled it like deftly and captured some great footage.
The film was completed over the summer and now with the fall film festival season in full swing, “Audition at Mystero” has found a screening at the vampire-themed Diametrale Film Festival in Innsbruck, Austria (October 10-12). This is the first time a film I acted in will be programmed in a European film festival and I truly wish I could be there, but alas it was not possible at this time.
UPDATE! <10 October 2024> – “Audition at Mystero” has been accepted in a second film festival! The KinoSkop in Belgrade, Serbia (November 8-10).
For the future, I am always searching for new acting opportunities, particularly stories of the horror/sci-fi/fantasy variety, so if you are filmmaker in need of my type, I would love to audition for you.
OK HW
