Ads for the American Society of Retina Specialists (ASRS)

This gig filmed in the Chicago area in June.  It was an exciting gig, because it was bilingual.  I didn't think that my Spanish was good enough for a bilingual gig, but they booked me.

English 60 s

English 30 s

Spanish 60 s

Spanish 30 s

Age related macular degeneration (AMD) is much more common in fair skinned people, especially with blue eyes.  I was chosen for this ad, because they felt I looked like an AMD patient.  

My mom did, in fact, have this condition.  I've been told I look like her.  My poor mother had AMD, cataracts, glaucoma, and herpes in the eye.  I'm hoping that the brown eyes I inherited from my father will protect me from some of this.  She had blue eyes.

I learned from this ad that AMD is much more treatable than it used to be -- with injections into the eyeball.  While that doesn't sound so great, the ad emphasizes that it isn't as bad as you think.

The actress for the main character told me that she was particularly interested in this ad, because several of her family members suffered from retinal disease.

This ad was filmed in the Chicago suburbs.  I was out there for a personal trip and was able to combine the filming.  Here's the blog about the trip June Car Camping Trip . 

I am not fluent in Spanish, but I was able to rehearse the Spanish lines driving out to the site.  My pronunciation is good, but I found that the muscles of my face needed a workout to be able to form the words properly, especially since it was medical terminology.  My scene partner, who is a native speaker of Spanish, was very complimentary of my delivery.

#Actor #Actress #ActorsLife #ActressLife #ASRS #RetinaSpecialists #BilingualActor

Updates May 2024

All sorts of things are coming out, clips are being added to the blogs listed at the bottom, as they come out.

There's an audio play called "The Count of Monte Cristo," based on the 19th century novel by Alexandre Dumas, that's starting streaming May 21 on lots of audio podcast platforms, where I play the evil Mme de Villefort. My episodes won't be out for a while.  This was recorded in the fall, director Chloe Wilson.

There's a vertical mini episode series on Short Max called "The Substitute Bride" where I have a role as a witness to an attempted murder.  The episodes started streaming May 2, but I don't know if my episodes are out.  I believe that this may be an English language remake of a series that first came out in China. Director Xiao Ying

The week of May 6, I participated in the filming of "The Divorced Billionaire Heiress" in NJ.  This is another Chinese production.  Apparently, this particular vertical series was the most popular one in China.  The director was again Xiao Ying. She told me I was the prettiest grandmother in New York City, which was very flattering.  There was a second woman there, whose full name I didn't get, who was introduced as one of the top directors in China.

It was interesting working in vertical format.  They were able to use five or six cameras at once, so there was only one or two takes for every episode. With a wide screen, they have to do these views as separate takes, because the views overlap the camera positions.  In the vertical format, there is no periphery.  That made filming much faster.

It seemed to me that older women have higher status in China than in the USA.  In the USA, the roles are commonly "older woman with Alzheimer's" or "older woman with cancer," where the primary feature of the character is that she is sick.  Here, in "The Substitute Bride," I played an important witness to a crime; and, in "The Divorced Billionaire Heiress," I played the head of a large, family business.  I appreciated getting higher status roles.  

Another difference I noticed was that the director was constantly urging me to act in the way that I've learned to call "big" in the acting world.  "Big" means really emphasizing the emotional response.  Most video directors that I've dealt with here in the USA don't like "big."  They will often tell me that I'm too "theatrical."  They want subtler portrayals.  It's been a learning process trying to suppress those "big" responses, but this director liked them, which was more fun for me.

My sister-in-law found a clip from "Mystic Tycoon" that I filmed this year, where I play the evil grandmother, Lisa.  It turns out, which I didn't realize at the time, that this production was actually a video trailer for an audio podcast series. I embedded the Facebook video into a blog, so you can watch it even if you don't have a Facebook account. I haven't recorded any audio for this series, so I guess, if the evil Lisa appears in the audio, someone else has recorded it. 

Links to separate blogs about these gigs (in reverse chronological order of the gigs.)  Some of these blogs include embedded clips or links to clips

https://annebarschall.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-divorced-billionaire-heiress.html

https://annebarschall.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-substitute-bride.html

https://annebarschall.blogspot.com/2024/05/mystic-tycoon.html

https://annebarschall.blogspot.com/2024/05/the-count-of-monte-cristo.html

Student film that I’m in.  Most of my lines were cut out, but you can hear me briefly at around 4 minutes https://vimeo.com/957504849

The Divorced Billionaire Heiress

 May 6-9 I had my first sleep away acting gig.  We were shooting a vertical format web series of mini-episodes.  This is a remake of a series that has been very successful in China.  

Here's a promotional video for the series, my part starts shortly after 19 minutes.  It's a long promotional video.  These vertical series are typically viewed in an app on cell phone.  This one is apparently called Short TV.

Thanks to my sister-in-law for finding this clip. She immediately remarked that the real "Raft of the Medusa" is 16'x24', much larger than the one shown in this clip.

Director: Ying Xiao

Production Studio: Paradox Films https://www.paradoxfilmsny.com/

Here are some set pix

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The director gave me a nice compliment.  She said I was the prettiest grandma in NYC.  Swelled head. 

I bought myself a little souvenir on my own.  Part of the plot includes references to fake antiques.  This is such a one.

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The team that made this series is very impressive.  Since there is vertical format, they can have multiple cameras at once, each one focused on one actor.  They only had to do one or two takes of each scene.  Normally they have a separate take for each view, but this way they don't have to take separate takes for different views.

****

Concerns:

The characters in this show are mostly very poorly behaved.  My cast mates compared this show to a series called "Succession," which I haven't seen.

Some of the characters are depicted committing crimes such as commercial bribery and conspiracy to monopolize interstate commerce.  A concern I have, as an attorney, is that viewers may not realize that these acts are white collar crimes.

If you see a murder depicted on a a show, I think you know right away that that's a crime.  You immediately know that you're not supposed to do that yourself.

I'm not sure if the viewer of white collar crimes -- as shown here -- knows that they are just as much crimes as physical crimes like murder and assault.

I wish there were some kind of warning about the criminal nature of the activity depicted.

#DivorcedBillionaireHeiress #VerticalDrama #ShortTV

Here's an Instagram post that I made about this film.

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