Sandra Silvana Gallardo

Sandra Silvana Gallardo, of Paris, passed away on January 2, 2012 at the Jewish Hospital in Louisville, KY. Silvana Gallardo’s face and career are well known to the television and film industry throughout the world. She guest starred on a myriad of hit shows including Babylon 5, Hill Street Blues, Falcon Crest, NYPD Blue, and Golden Girls as well as her recurring role on Days of Lives. Silvana’s film credits include leading roles in Calendar Girl Murders, Silence of the Heart, Copacabana, The Windwalker, Death Wish II, Out of the Dark and Solar Crisis.


Silvana, born in the Bronx, began her teaching career at an early age in New York and later went on to teach and coach many of Hollywood’s biggest stars including Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Billy Drago and Peta Wilson. She received an honorary professorship and Academic World Star Award from the Moscow University for her innovative teachings. She is included in various issues of Who’s Who in America. Silvana currently resides in Paris, KY with her longtime writing partner, John Gavigan. She relocated to Paris after having directed the acclaimed, “Fading To Zero”, feature docudrama based on the life and work of the late Brooklyn Poet Laureate, Ken Siegelman. Many of the locations were filmed locally. She has continued her teachings in Paris and Northern Kentucky.

Sandra Silvana 1953 - 2012

Special Note about Sandra:

It is saddening of Sandra Silvana Gallardo passing, Jan 2nd. Everything she has done inspired and motivated people from all over. She was a wonderful actress, and teacher and have blessed many people. I was hoping this year to have met her in the summer - to work with her and take back with me the knowledge she teaches. Silvana was truly inspirational to many. You may have lived eastern part of Kentucky far from me, but Heaven isn't far to be in the hearts of others. Thank you for all you have done.

~David

Family of Three House Burned Down

Community raising money is: The Six Figures. To learn more please go here: QLXchange or TheSixFigures

View photos here: http://s387.photobucket.com/albums/oo319/Intelneuro/Fire/

I wanted to to share what happened to a family that means a lot to me and this tragic story.

On Sunday Jan. 22nd a family of three had a fire that broke out in their home. Shortly after 2:30pm, the breaker box in the living room sparked and sent out smoke. Three people live in that house and one of them was at work. At that time of the fire, there were two people in the house and she seen it happen and went upstairs to wake her son up. They tried to put out the fire as best as they could, but the fire was spreading very fast through the walls beyond their control. There wasn't any good insulation in the walls so it was more hollow, which made it worse. My friend that woke up only left with his glasses, a shirt, and what he was wearing when he was asleep. They only recovered the laptop quickly and got out of the house. In 10 minutes the house was consumed with smoke and fire and fell down under 30 mins. Despite the delay of the fire department, nothing could of saved that house do to the age and the inside of the walls. They couldn't have insurance because of how old the house was.

I'm just glad this didn't happen at night. Their lives could of been lost. They are all safe and ok, that is the main thing. Such an unfortunate thing to happen and to lose the house and possessions. Barely anything was recoverable after the fire. Some of the pets were saved and one of them recovered well from smoke inhalation. I've listed a short video that I recorded from the camera to be viewed. I'm reaching out in hope of anyone that can give any support to help them big or small. Whether it is cards, gifted, anything to help this troubled family to rebuild their lives. I wish from this community that there are many hero's that could show their support to them.
Thank You so much. They would appreciate much support from others.

Your Headshot

One of the most important requirements you need is your headshot. Thousands of actors go out to casting calls and hand in their headshots that look like them. Right? No. Not all of them do! The worst thing you could do other than having a bad audition, is handing in a headshot that doesn't look the way you did in front of a director or producer. When they want to pick you for a possible spot in their show or movie, they refer back to your headshot and your resume.

That's not a good thing and it happens quite often.

Your goal is to provide the best headshot you can. As you are getting your headshot done, you are looking your "best" and while you are doing your audition, you may not realize your look isn't matching up to your best photo. It's certainly not the best way you should be presenting yourself.

If you have many headshots, don't pick the one you did several years ago, or you looked thinner than you do now. If the director or producer likes the way you are, they are wanting how they seen you to match with your headshot. That is the most important part of discovery for them to remember you as you were. Pick a headshot that isn't more than a year old, until you can be certain the photo you have looks like you are in that current day.

Headshots are a way for them to place that image of you back into their mind and make futher decisions about you and filed for future use.

Correct way:

"Oh, yes! I remember him. Nice photo"

Wrong way:

"WHAT? That's him? Can't be!"

You see, photos have as much as an importance as your audition. It defines you and you want the casting directors to remember who they seen that day and in the future. Thus, all of this giving you a possible call back for the spot.

Good luck in your decisions and remember to properly do your headshot and you should be ok.

2012 New Year Acting

Ever wondered how to start a great way into acting in your area? You can! and it wont take much to get you started either.

Whether your looking for Renaissance all the way to Modern day script to perform... the internet is a great source of information that can provide you with the necessary "equipment" to get you going.

Being that it's 2012, you can start your year off putting on a play in your local area. But wait I bet you have questions! "How do you do that, and isn't this going to be difficult to do, and where do I get the scripts?" The answer is easy and it is not very difficult! If you have a local coffee shop, school, or any other community activities, you can communicate with them and see if you can land a spot. You may have to put on a short demonstration for them to see, so prepare yourself for that ahead of time.

Your local school is a great way to start off as they would help you and your actors get the play out to the general public. Since you are doing this in the local area, look out for any sponsors that may be interested. Your school would be one!, and following also with other local businesses in the surrounding area.

Check out lodging areas, or special community buildings that require membership. Take note of business that require membership for services they provide. With them getting you there, it makes their membership even better for their business, their customers, and even benefits you in the end.

Remember to have your performances free to the general public - and not charge them, as well as having volunteers for your plays. Accept donations or any sponsoring for your hard work and use the money too for costume and scene setups. If your play was a success, you would be granted to do more plays at the area more often! The more you do this, you'll see more of the community getting to know you, your actors, and have a full house at your performances.

If your not a script writer, don't worry! Going back to once of the questions earlier in this post about scripts, you can check out Eserver Drama Collection online to find any type of script you want for your plays. Looking for Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, 17th, 18th, 19th, Modern, and Contemporary scripts? They have it all and much more. This collection will help you to familiarize yourself with scripts and how they work.

And once again, keep an eye out in your area that may not have community performances. This is a great way to start.

~David

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays, whichever you prefer.

A little update on how you can find resources online and could help you in your journey. There are many acting resources online, but finding them is the challenge and making sure you don't fall into the wrong hands that like to take your money.

First I would like to provide Bonnie Gillespie's : The Actors Voice, columns that she writes up and responds to your questions and concerns. She is an author, producer, and casting director and She specializes in casting SAG indie feature films and webseries: http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/

and she can be found at: http://www.facebook.com/CricketFeet

Second, try out Actors Access. This is the place I started with and they have a forum you can communicate with others in this field. You can place your Bio and resume, if you have one. They provide many other resources for you on the site. Actors Access is the source that can help you in the future. The CEO of Actors Access were at my first annual film festival in KY a few years ago holding a seminar: http://www.actorsaccess.com

Not only can those provide you with benefits but also find what areas are looking for your talent. ActingMidwest can help you with that. Casting directors would place up a listing for a casting call, extras, or anything else they may need from you. This is a great site to check if anything is happening near you: http://www.actingmidwest.com

Of course the internet is huge and you can find much more online about acting and where to start. One more thing to remember, never pay on a site that promises to get you help. And the same apply's to having an Agent. an Agent helps get you a job and then takes a cut out of your expense. Not the other way around having to pay up front first. These four links I provided will steer you in the right direction. Have fun and explore the forums if you have any question.

Tony Dyson

Today I talked with Tony Dyson who was known for films such as Moonraker, Superman and Starwars. This was all done online in SL. I have to say, it was incredible to talk with him and learn about movies, and all of the scene sets that it takes to complete the look.

Tony has been fortunate to work with companies such as Sony, Philips, and Toshiba. With all of his great work, Tony explained his experiences in the past, that made him & R2D2 famous.

You can learn more about Dyson from these sites:

http://tonydyson.com/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0989174/

http://twitter.com/therobotmaster

Meeting Another

It was a week ago that I met someone I haven't seen for many years while I was over at a friends house. While all of us were talking, he mentioned he wrote plays and had them performed at church. I was intriged when I heard about this. Then he went on and asked us if we would like to see his audition he did not long ago to get the job. It was very funny and well played out.

I held back mentioning what I do currently online, until he was going to leave. I didn't feel it was my place to talk about it around everyone else. So after awhile he was going to leave, and I needed to leave as well. I talked to him outside that I'm a Machinima Actor that does animation plays and cold reading to others online. He was into the Entertainment Business and possibly would be getting a job in Florida.

We talked a few about this and he was interested in what I do in this part of acting online and offered me to come by his business and talk more about it. I did go to his business and explained what I do online. He thought this was very interesting and would like to view these plays. After a while of talking, we both may go out and try any plays or movies since he is interested in this field. Where we are located, getting to these offers are under 100 miles away and the likely hood of getting any part wouldn't be very hard as they are independent films.

No matter where you live, anyone near you or your neighbor could be interested or in this field already. It can even be your friend.

We'll have to wait and see what happens for the next year.

Contact

Peter Woodward Producer of "Conquest"As of September 28th 2011, I logged online and had a notice about Actors joining together on the live feed doing cold reading. I was contacted after this vo actor notably known for Executive Producer & Creator of the Television Show, "Conquest", heard the voice-over I done that was played in California. Lara, the writer and producer of "The Fire" directed me to talk with this voice-over actor. His thoughts and help are the next directional step for me in my career.

"Thank you once again for your help. I value this."
"My great pleasure"