Craig Walker's Lounge Discussions

Hi there, folks, my name is Craig Walker, from Sydney, Australia. I've been in the acting business for about 40 years, and am fortunate enough to be (a lot of the time) a working actor. I've done features (both mainstream and Indie) along with TV, web, stage, musicals and the odd pieces of street/performance theatre as well. Stage 32 has been very helpful in my ongoing education (we never stop learning) and it's a brilliant resource for all. Seeing as I'm a working actor...do I only do 'paid' work? Nope. Sure I do paid work, but when I have the time I happily do low budget, deferred, and unpaid work, so that I keep my skills sharpened and my contacts fresh. Student work? Of course, today's students are tomorrow's crew and Directors and they may hire me one day. To help them now may help me in the future. This is me: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0907650/ Good to meet you-all, and hope to work with many in the future. Cheers

A short feature sport I did for a new Sony online campaign for the NEX-5 series cameras. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMVDRKFClXE&feature=share&list=PL94U2tauv...

Work Ho! I popped online to see what might be coming up - and was snowed under by live-performance Pirating bookings. There has to be something said for the end-of-year-season where people want you to make fun of them (a little) and do some 'street-theatre' / performance-art / something-in-costume where you don the masque and become someone else in real-time, not shot and edited, with all the inherent risks that presents. So there are many performances on in the City right now, I'm fortunate enough to be a working actor and making a living from it, too. Many actors aren't. This is generally the season where businesses take the initiative and round up the faithful, look about for something nice and team-building-like to do, and then to bring them together to have a fun-filled afternoon. I've seen a lot of these over the years; they think, they plan, they drink and they arrive. Many arrive with pre-conceived notions about how the 'activity' is going to work. It's our job to dissuade them of their notions (if they're bad) and just give them a good time (sounds a little 'Velvet Rope', really). We're not just 'playing' Pirates, at 'Sydney Treasure Hunts'. We're also the facilitators. The ones who have a framework, sure, - but in essence concoct the story (on-the-fly) and tailor it to our audience who has been given to us. We make sure they have the excitement to get out and find their clues, to meet up with them along the way and re-fuel that energy and try to help them re-discover that sense of child-like wonder at 'playing'. The Hosts, or MCs, don't have it that easy. They change things to suit every member of the audience. Sometimes with multiple teams, we re-vamp the attitudes and dialogue several times in one performance to each individual member of each team - so that each one has a stake in the outcome. It's gruelling, but rewarding. The best outcome is not just to have a happy set of teams participate in your activity ('street theatre') and come out just as happy. The best outcome is to start with people who you bring into your world (the one of your instant creation) and have them leave enriched by it at the end (even if it's just by a wider smile, a thump on the back, a few hand-shakes, or some heart-felt thank-you's). The odd glass of cider bought by the grateful participants, also doesn't go astray. You know...some say film is hard because you must perfect the delivery and nuance. Some say television is hard because you have to do that and tell the longer story episodically. Some say theatre is hard because you have to remember a full set script and cater to the audience vibe. I say that this is hard (and no more or less rewarding) because you do all of the above, and deal with a constantly shifting playing field and a changing set of inputs from your audience. You're also re-writing as you go. It's hard, it's invigorating, it's fun, and it's a rush. The question? How to do that successfully? Gosh. Do it. There's no substitute for getting out there and making that pirate race happen in their minds as well as geographically. Surround yourself with people who can take this concept, who will run with it, and who will take an idea you put forward and embellish it and run with it in their own way to make the whole of the experience better for all concerned. If your audience is having a ball, so are you, and therefore so are they...it's a self-sustaining performance-engine. Interactive story-telling is what some call it. I call it improvisation. I call it a helluva lot of fun. Yarr!

It’s that time of year when projects you are in start bearing fruit. This is always the proof of the pudding time, and as such whether it be for students, or for Independent Producers or even Professionals, actors wait with anticipation to see how attractive (or not) the look of that ‘pudding’ may be. I was fortunate enough to do a quick piece of work with a supporting actor late last year, and to my pleasant surprise he then penned, and helped to run auditions for, a web-series which I was fortunate enough to get an episode for, earlier this year. Ensemble pieces, and web-series’, seem to be de rigueur, and my episode in the newly released web-series “In Transit” has just gone live. What’s it like coming in as a Day-Player on a web-series which has a established family of ensemble players? It’s strikingly like coming in on a normal TV Series, except there are fewer egos which come into play, and the personnel are more welcoming. The Crew and the Players all have an investment in the project, and as such everyone who comes in to work on the show is instantly treated as part of the family. They want you to have a good time working on set, because that will translate to your performance and to making their project look good – and every actor wants to look good (and I mean this in the non-physical attractiveness stakes, moreso in the performance stakes). I was made to feel very welcome on set (inasmuch as a busy set can take time out to do such a thing). Everyone from Lighting, though to Makeup, established Ensemble players, and the Director all made me feel welcome and were open to performance ideas and fostered a very enjoyable set to work on. The enjoyment of working on “In Transit” comes through in the series, too (well, the first 4 episodes I have watched) and the storylines seem to be nicely progressing. The humour is nice, too, not too over-the-top, and that’s a hard thing to write – and harder to perform (just ask any stand-up comedian). If you try to be funny, you often aren’t. If you’re true to the scene and it’s content, and the writing works, the humour will come out of the truth in the situations in those scenes. Comedy is not easy, but it is rewarding when it works. That’s the thing, though, isn’t it? Truth in storyline and character development are important. It all depends on what you are trying to achieve and the format for that, but overall it’s story, character, and look. These are people who have a passion for what they are doing, enjoy the process (and are apparently already penning Season 2 of the series). It’s my hope that ‘Phil, the Talent Agent’ may get a return appearance, but of course that’s up to The-Powers-That-Be. To see the episode, feel free to either go through to my Facebook Page [ https://www.facebook.com/craigwalker.performer ] (and while you’re there feel free to ‘like’ it), or just go straight through the “In Transit” website, itself [ http://intransitwebseries.com/ ].

I thought that this would be a good time to pop something down about a project I've been doing for the last little while: "LARP: The Crowblade Chronicles" [ http://crowblade.tv ] For the past 7 months (shooting sporadically) and almost a year (from inception to principal photography completion, of this stage), the project has been one which became more than a ‘drive-by’. What are ‘drive-by’ productions? They’re your average short film, one-day appearances, which you go in, do the work, and walk out again, knowing that you’ve done the job and given your best – and then it’s out of your hands. The productions that you do for reel-time and furthering experience. This was not one of those projects. What started as a small idea, which scheduling may have meant that I couldn’t take part in, became one which became quite central to the past year’s amount of work. One doesn’t approach a comedic ‘costume’ series with any shyness, or any hubris. One approaches it wanting to do the best you can and see where the work takes you. As you progress in that journey, you see where the show is going, and what your role in that show is. Now, keeping in mind that in an ensemble show, with less than a half-hour screen-time for each episode, you have little room for ‘character development’. You start out introducing characters and see where that development comes. The more episodes, the more development. However, one should not expect development to any great degree until a second ‘season’ is shot and planned. Until then, you are the character, that’s what you signed on for I guess I have to cite “Two and a Half Men” as an example. The characters are stereotypes and the comedy is in the way they react to situations (hence ‘sit-com’). Most comedies are sit-coms, and there’s nothing wrong with that approach. The cleverness is in the writing, and how you handle the subject matter. I signed on for a one-off Season of a show – which seemed funny and cute, and all depended on the actors and their investment in the show. Mostly, that happened The proof of the pudding is really in the viewing and the reaction. Now I am ready to ink a contract for two more seasons and a follow-up feature which will be the end of the project. Nothing on-going, no reunion specials, a complete arc. The experience was hard, gruelling at times, annoying at others, and ultimately very satisfying. You make a show for people to see and be entertained by, you don’t make it for money (well not unless you’re “in the biz”). Good shows get canned because they don’t equal a formulaic result. If you only have x people viewing it’s not worth the advertisers dollar and so costs networks money in air-time and so – why do it? There’s no stockholder return. Films used to be made for entertainment, not formulaic homogeonised ‘bums-on-seats’ minimums. Thus we see a lessening of creativity. We see endless remakes (which are done for no reason other than capitalisation on a successful, in initial or home release, product). Original thinking is not rewarded as the gamble may not pay off. Risks aren’t taken because people may not make their investment back, or actors may not get famous, or hubris says we don’t need to do anything else like that again because we’ve learnt all we need to… (Hint: You have never learnt all you have to unless you make 100% no errors, 100% of the time. Just sayin’) There are edgy bits to this 1st Season, there are stupid bits, there are crass jokes, and there are some very nice moments. The cast and crew became familial, which is honestly a good thing, because it doesn’t always happen even in theatre (to the extent that most of them are on the verge of signing onto the second season with no guarantee of sales or remuneration, because they believe in the project). More projects should be like this. The larger picture is that more series’ should continue past their so-called ‘commercial’ use-by date if the fans make it possible. The most recent teaser is here: [ http://youtu.be/lqqHw2ah15s ]

I've been performing in theatre, TV and film, since 1967 which means that there's a wealth of experience to choose from. In that time I've been an Actor, Performer, Singer, Musician, Director, Certified Special Events Manager, Stage Manager, and all around good-guy (well...mostly)... With experiences ranging from repeat appearances with Keith Smith (The Pied Piper) at the age of 6, I went to the theatre in both school and outside in the professional theatre, working with such Australian luminaries as Sandy Harbutt (Stone). Later, gained experience in Radio Announcing, both through formal study and experience, I appeared on a few stations as an announcer, whilst never giving up the stage and TV work. I've appeared on TV and stage alongside many Australian (and overseas) talents, was in the original Australian promotional casts of both Rocky Horror and Blues Brothers, I've also written and directed productions for theatre restaurant, and appeared in a number of short and feature films. Apart from the (almost) full-time performing, l also enjoy a bit of writing; watching off-beat (cult) movies (from Rocky Horror to David Lynch); go Goth, Indie, Alternative music/clubbing in my off-times. You can find me at http://craigwalker.protalentsites.com, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/craigwalker.performer - and yes I do realise that this probably sounds a little like a bad pick up line.