Jeez Jon

The Master Plan, Part 3: The Demo

The relaunch of my acting career has been a methodical process.  After getting my debt into a managable amount, I've slowly and surely been getting the rest of my stuff in gear.  The first was my headshots.  The second is acting class; it's been ages for me and now I'm back at Steppenwolf, getting my ass kicked in the best way possible.  Also on the agenda is redoing my reel, losing some weight, etc.  It's all part of the Master Plan, and I'm happy to report that another part of the plan is done.  My VoiceOver Demo is done.

See, as an actor I'm in a weird middle zone.  I'm too old for "Young Dude" but I'm a tad young-looking for "Young Dad."  I'm already a rather specific-looking actor, so falling into this age limbo is not helpful.  So, why not try something where my looks don't matter?  How the voiceover world works in LA is that you do commercials first, then you can start doing animation.  As a young lad who watched A LOT of cartoons, I've always marvelled at cartoon voices.  Mel Blanc is bit of a personal hero of mine.  I follow Rob Paulsen (voice of Yakko Warner & Pinky) on Twitter.  I wanna be Billy West when I grow up.  One of my dearest friends is voiceover goddess Pam Turlow (check out her blog here).  Doing voiceovers have always been part of my agenda, and now I've taken the most significant step forward to making that happen.  It won't happen overnight, it'll take lots of time and effort, but I'm more than on my way.

You wanna hear the demo?  Check it out here:

Jon Collins FINAL DEMO 3-23-11

The Master Plan continues in earnest.

I'll Firefly Away

A little while ago, one of my favorite actors Nathan Fillion did an inteview with one of my favorite magazines Entertainment Weekly about how the Science Channel has acquired the reruns his Joss Whedon sci-fi western show Firefly.  Now here's the money quote:

If Castle had its series finale tomorrow and Fox said to you and Joss: “We screwed up, let’s try doing Firefly again.” Would you do it?
Yes. Yes. I would examine very closely Fox’s reasoning — I’m a little gun-shy. If I got $300 million from the California Lottery, the first thing I would do is buy the rights to Firefly, make it on my own, and distribute it on the Internet.

Well, this comment has sent the rabid Firefly fans into a complete and utter tizzy, trying to raise money so Fillion can buy the show.  Now, avid readers of Jeez Jon know that I'm a big Joss Whedon fan.  I have every season of Buffy on DVD, along with Angel and, yes, Firefly and the follow-up film Serenity.  I'll watch reruns of Buffy on Logo even though I have them pretty much memorized by now.  I have Buffy the Vampire Slayer scripts, figurines, games (video, board and role-playing varieties) and memorabilia.  Hell, I even read for Joss Whedon for the initial pilot of Firefly (for the role of Man #2, who was later cut out, btw. Oh, and I didn't get the role.)  I liked Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog.  I'm all about Whedon and his vision.  So, I am just going to say it:

Guys, Firefly is done.  Let it go.

It ran its course.  Did the show end before its time?  Maybe.  Was it finding its way towards the last few episodes?  Yes.  Did the damn show stop airing over seven freaking years ago?  Yes.  So let it go. Stop trying to make Firefly happen.

When it comes to my pop culture franchises, I do think that there are some that thrive on longevity and others that don't.  Some properties really do well with reinvention (Batman, Star Trek and the Bond series come to mind).  Others are a set story that has to, you know, END at a certain time.  Maybe because they're both based on a finite number of books, the Lord of the Rings movies and the Harry Potter films are good examples of letting things run their course.  JK Rowling did such a good job wrapping up Harry's story at the end of Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows that I don't need another book telling me what Harry's been up to since.  I mean, do any of us think that Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull really answered any unanswered questions about Indy?  Seriously? 

When a show I like (or franchise) wraps things up, I mentally put them away.  Yes, I like to revisit them but I'm not itching to have them continue past their creative expiration date. I felt Joss did such a fantastic job wrapping up both Buffy and Angel that I find both of their follow-up comics to be... superfluous. I mentally put all those characters away a long time ago; I don't need to know nor care that Buffy is leading an army in Scotland or Dawn is a giant or Willow and Amy are fighting again.  Blah blah blah, I don't care, I'm done.  They were done when the shows ended.  The show's over, folks.  Move on.  Same thing with Firefly; it was a fun show while it was on but it's over.  It's been over for A LONG TIME.  Go elsewhere.

Which is why I'm rather nervous about Scre4m; I'm a huge fan of the Scream trilogy (as evidenced by my glowing post about Scream 3) so the last thing I really want to do is revisit the series and have my memories tarnished by a slapdash rehash of the first three films.  I am looking forward to seeing the movie, as I'm curious to see what they do with the characters or it could easily end up being Scream 4 And the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  And none of us want that.