Keep Writing Anyway

Genius writing advice gem from my alma mater --

The Hump Day Update: Crazy February Edition

How is it March already?!?!

February was a complete and total blur, filled with the same feeling as always - "I should be writing more!" Though when I look back, I can see how incredibly busy I was. Doing what, you ask? Here's a brief recap --

• Finally finished my latest TV pilot script and delivered the draft to my agent. Phew! Holding my breath while they read...

• After doing ten episodes as various nurses on Grey's Anatomy - ER Nurse, OR Nurse, Peds Nurse, etc. - I was finally given a name! Introducing Nurse Ruth --



Nurse Ruth was quite the rabble rouser in this episode --



• Saw two great theater productions starring great actor friends - the best kind of theater to see!

First was King Lear starring Larry Cedar --



Then Chinglish at South Coast Rep starring the lovely Michelle Krusiec. Went with my friend Katie, another fabulous actor that graduated from MIT. We should play sisters!



• Recorded some ADR for yet another episode of Grey's Anatomy --



And channeled my inner Majel Barrett-Roddenberry while recording a robotic computer voice for a friend's upcoming short film --



• Devoted several fulfilling volunteer hours to non-profits WriteGirl and Break the Cycle. Represented both at several community fairs --





• Finally, I booked and shot an AFI student short that fulfilled my fantasy of being in a science fiction film. I played a space pilot who got stabbed - how fun is that?



That was my February, people! No wonder I'm so stressed. Here's hoping March is nice and calm...   #yeahright

Nerdiest Awards Show Ever

Awards season is teeming with red carpet sightings, but none can be as exciting to me as seeing Bill Nye the Science Guy in his signature bow tie.

The setting was the S.E.T. Awards, produced by the Entertainment Industries Council, presented to film, TV, and other media for "accurate and impactful entertainment portraying and promoting the fields of science, engineering, technology and mathematics."

That's right, awards for best nerdiness. I was there.

I brought my friend Manish, a fellow MIT grad turned actor/writer/producer. (You can watch his awesome feature Kissing Cousins on Netflix!)

We snagged a quick picture on the red carpet ourselves --

Better than our first attempt - this is me demonstrating how to use my point-and-shoot to someone who's apparently never used a camera before - just push the button!

Then we settled back to watch the stream of random celebrities attending the event. Mostly strangers, like this guy (who will reappear later in this blog post) --

To surprising appearances, like Sarah Brightman from the original Phantom of the Opera! Turns out she sponsors a STEM Scholarship for high school girls interested in math and science. Go Sarah!

The ballroom was dressed to the nines --

The awards ceremony was filled with delightful nerdiness - Star Trek transporter sound transitions, a flying robot host, and appearances by a NASA astronaut, a legendary Disney Imagineer, and the founder of Atari.

The best moment - the random guy from the red carpet pic above, a producer for Through the Wormhole on Science Channel, ending his acceptance speech by yelling, "Science! F#%K YEAH!"

The worst moment - Michael Bay getting an award for Armageddon, a movie in which scientists fail and a bunch of miners led by Bruce Willis save the day. How is that an accurate and impactful portrayal of science? Boo.

More highlights from the awards --



During the awards, we learned that Dolph Lundgren received a Fulbright Scholarship to get his PhD in Chemical Engineering at MIT, but decided to become an actor instead. How's that for nerd cred? Manish kept saying, "It's Ivan Drago!" We had to get a picture --

Managed to catch Michael Bay and Bill Nye on the red carpet on the way out. Talk about an unusual juxtaposition --

Thanks to the Entertainment Industries Council for a great afternoon! Can't wait to win one of these awards myself!

Video Distractions: Super Nerd Alert!

Yes, I'm an artist who went to MIT. And even though I spend most of my days creating words and envisioning characters, I am damn proud of my techy-nerd heritage.

My latest favorite videos reflect my penchant for all things geek --

First, perhaps the most amazing Gangnam Style parody ever - MIT Gangnam Style!



I heart this parody so much! Not only does it show off a campus I love and miss, it's a great showcase of the incredible diversity at MIT - cultural, academic, sports, and more. Plus perfect lip-syncing, Logs a cappella, and Noam Chomsky! MIT PRIDE!

One of the comments said it best - "Only an MIT Gangnam Style video could feature: the MIT Dean of Admissions, one of the principal leaders of the Human Genome Project and co-chair of President Obama's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, the father of modern linguistics, and one of Time's '100 Most Influential People in the World' in 2012 for his liquid metal battery research."

Another fun tidbit from the comments - "Richard Yoon, the star of this video, is an absolute legend. 5.0 GPA, plays on the football team, and I once witnessed him save a kitten from a tree in Killian court."

That's an MIT overachiever, baby!

Next up, a nerdy video referred to me by an MIT alumna --



Did I make one? Of course I did! Still working on getting them perfect - it's my new dinner table trick...

Finally, proof that nerd work is cool --



A little too much woo-ing, but who doesn't love a good Rube Goldberg machine?

Do you have any nerdy videos to share?

The Hump Day Update: Video Distraction Overload Edition

My lack of blogging lately is due to two factors. One, I've been focused on developing a TV pitch that's actually going to be heard soon. My days have been a mix of focused bursts of writing and Olympic-level procrastination.

Two, the summer heat wave that hit Los Angeles this past week has inspired more laziness than creativity. The earthquakes have been fun too.

One thing I have been doing is watching plenty of videos. (Sigh, perhaps my next New Year's resolution should be a year-long hiatus from YouTube.) Here's the rundown of my latest obsessions --

My nerdiness has been in high gear thanks to the Mars Curiosity Rover landing. Here's the play by play if you missed the live event --


An MIT friend's husband works on the Curiosity team and the whole family is supporting him by living on Mars Time. Check out the teen son's blog MarsTimr for more on their adventures.

Also obsessed with two music videos - one from Sara Bareilles, directed by Jonah Hill --


And another made by a fierce Asian kid who replicated Beyonce's "Countdown" video SHOT FOR SHOT! Incredible stuff --


And of course, plenty of comedy videos --



Including my favorite "Call Me Maybe" parody video to date --



Yes, I'm a ST:TNGnerd. My favorite part is the Ferengi yelling, "CRAZY!"

And finally, as if we needed it, more proof that Joss Whedon is the coolest creative ever --

The Hump Day Update: Catch Up Session

Many, many happenings in Teresapalooza-land since Oscar night - here's the rapid-fire rundown:

• Attended a great panel at the WGA called TV Series for Virgins. (No, it wasn't about that.)
  
  Heard fantastic advice about navigating the television world from showrunners Lee Aronsohn (Two and a Half Men), Jenny Bicks (The Big C), Matt Corman & Chris Ord (Covert Affairs), Graham Yost (Justified), and ICM agent Mark Gordon, moderated by Jeffrey Melvoin (Army Wives).
  
  Heard my favorite new showbiz quote - "The most important thing in Hollywood is sincerity. And if you can fake that, you've got it made." Word.
  
  During the reception after, I chatted with writer/director Shawn Ku and writer Michael Armbruster about transitioning from features to television. Though mostly I just gushed about their amazing film Beautiful Boy, which should have nominated for an Oscar, in my opinion...
  
  
• Audited this year's CAPE Pitch Lab pitch session to network and support writer friends who were pitching.
  
  I pitched at this event the two previous years, which helped get me get in the door to pitch at CBS this season, which eventually led to the selling of my first pilot. The exec who bought my pitch in the room was there and it was great to see her and thank her again in person for the incredible opportunity. Ah, the memories...
  
  
  
• Continued the pitching spirit the next day - pitched my proposal for the CAPE Digital Marketing Initiative to a room full of execs at FOX. Stared longingly at the Emmys and Golden Globes in the lobby.
  
  Heard later that night I was one of the three winners - hooray! More details on that to come...
  
  
• Hosted a happy hour before the LA screening of Cast Me If You Can, written and directed by MIT alum Atsushi Ogata. The point was to support a member of my alumni community the way I would hope to be supported when I have a project to promote.
  
  The happy hour was a success, though not a single MIT alum showed up. Ah well.
  
  Here I am with Atsushi and fellow MIT grad turned actor Tohoru Masamune -
  

Finding Connection Lost

A week before Valentine’s Day, my MIT friend and playwright Vladimir Zelevinsky let me know he’d written a Web series called Connection Lost: A Love Story, described as a thriller-romance.

Always excited to support a fellow MIT artist, I mentioned the show’s premiere on my blog and watched each new episode leading up to the Valentine’s Day finale.

It was pretty great! Solid dialogue, good cliffhangers, and an Ocean’s Eleven-worthy twist at the end. And their sponsor – Equal Exchange fair trade chocolate bars – was integrated smoothly into the series. There was even a contest – find the coupon code among the footage and win free chocolate! (I found the code and won two fantastic chocolate bars – you know I couldn’t miss that opportunity...)

What was most impressive was the number of views for the Boston-based series – over 50,000 for the first episode alone! And that’s without any big name stars!

I reached out to Anna Callahan, Executive Producer and Director of Connection Lost, to learn more about the project.

Tell me about yourself.

I was a jazz trumpet player for about 10 years in LA, then came to Boston and became a software developer. I now run a startup company called CrewTide -- we match independent filmmakers with brands that want episodic, narrative video.

What do you think was the most effective part of your marketing plan?

Two things were very effective: Facebook and YouTube SEO. In our title, keywords, and description, we had popular and relevant phrases. I think "Valentine's Day" in particular helped us a lot.

How did you connect with Equal Exchange to sponsor Connection Lost?

I couldn't get any chocolate companies to answer my phone calls or emails, so I picked a local one and drove down to their office and waited in their lobby till someone came out to talk to me. Sales is hard!

Why did you choose to produce a Web series for them instead of a short film or feature?

Series are much better for viewer engagement. We would never have reached 150,000 views in a week if we'd only had one video. I also prefer Web series to shorts or features as both a viewer and director. There's just more time to explore character development, relationships, philosophical ideas...everything.

Dream lunch date?

I don't really think much about famous people. I have a dream lunch date every time I eat lunch with my sweetie. :)

Watch the first episode of Connection Lost below!

Mentor Day

Saturday kicked off with a quarterly meeting of great Asian-American minds in entertainment, held this time at Visual Communications in Little Tokyo (also home to the East West Players).

I go for the networking, encouragement, and inspiration, but also to see people I've come to consider friends and colleagues. We had a sparkling discussion about Lin-sanity, diversity casting and hiring in television, and why it's so damn hard to break into directing TV.

I also found out an actress friend is 25 weeks pregnant (Congrats K!), talked on a panel with Leo Chu, creator of Supah Ninjas! on Nickelodeon, and spotted yarnbombing on the sidewalk. All in all, an illuminating morning.

In the evening, I met up with MIT undergrad J who reached out to me because he's interested in acting. My first piece of advice? Graduate and get a good job! This acting thing is a marathon, not a sprint - there's plenty of time to figure out acting classes, headshots, and agents. Get a job, an apartment, a good car - then worry about the rest. I guaranteed he'd be happier in the long run than that guy working as a barista to support his acting career.

He was only in town for the weekend, so I suggested meeting at my favorite burger joint in LA - Umami Burger. Sorry, Father's Office, but this place rocks my world. New addition at the La Brea location - each table had a touchscreen unit for viewing pictures of menu items and playing games.

J recognized the tablet immediately because the company who makes them had been recruiting at an MIT Career Fair. Ah, I miss those career fairs - swag galore!

We chatted about acting and what's going on at the ole 'Tute, then headed over to the Kodak Theatre for a glimpse at the Oscars setup. We couldn't see much, but there were a few good spots, including one at the top of the stairs before the entrance to the theater. We used our brass rats to activate our Wonder Twin powers:

How are you spending Oscars Sunday?

Reality Check for a Multitasking Lunatic

We had this saying in college –

MIT: Work. Play. Sleep. Pick Two.

Ah, the self-deprecating humor of overachievers...

I always loved this because it captured the dilemma of an engineering school life overflowing with demands. Can you guess which two I picked?

Almost 15 years later, my list looks like this –

Work. Create. Play. Sleep. Pick Three.

Because doing all four is utterly impossible. “Work” is a 40-hour a week day job. “Create” encompasses the multi-faced acting / writing / producing / directing career I’m attempting to develop and move forward. “Sleep” includes all the aspects of self-care – doing laundry, getting the oil changed in my car, buying groceries. “Play” ends up being stolen moments with my DVR after midnight or a meal with a friend I really want to see more often. I have no idea where a relationship would fit in. Or exercise. What’s a champion multitasker to do?

Stop multitasking.

Up until now, I’ve just been going going going. Doing a million things from day until night, juggling as best I can. If you read my Writer’s Diet Experiment blog posts, you’ll see just how much I can pack into each waking hour. And even though I’ve been doing a million things at a time, I’ve constantly felt guilty about the million other things I haven’t had time to do.

The most pathetic thing is that I took pride in my on-the-go lifestyle. I had 24 different windows open on my work computer the other day and I finished everything by quitting time. I’m invincible, right?

Wrong. Two things happened this past weekend that changed everything. One, a friend pointed out that I’ve been saying troubling things like, “I need to stop sleeping so much.” Two, I discovered my blood pressure was 137/98.

I’m multitasking myself right out of my life! It’s all about your health, and if my health is suffering because of my frickin’ to do list, it’s time to do less.

So...I’m slowing down. No more hyper-multitasking. One thing at a time. What a concept.

The hardest thing is going to be letting go of my overachieving paradigm that tells me doing more is better. After all, overachieving has gotten me this far. (I was in 10 or 12 clubs & activities in high school – my blood pressure must have been astronomical!)

But sometimes less really is more. Let’s hope I’m slowing down in time...

The Path from MIT to Hollywood

Yes, I really graduated from MIT. I was a smarty pants, teacher’s pet, nerd galore. “Wicked smaht,” as they’d say in Boston. I came from a world of algorithms and equations to pursue a life of creativity and dreaming.

And despite what you may think, I’m not alone in my endeavor. Last week, I attended an MIT alumni event called “Entertaining Thoughts: Converging Media and Technologies,” where I witnessed just what good company I am in.

The room was packed, filled with entertainment executives, producers, marketing directors, writers, actors – all MIT graduates talking about the biz, with a little side talk in numbers.

“What course were you at MIT?”

“6-1. You?”

“I started in 10, then switched to 5.”

“Oh, I switched too. I started in 9, toyed with 1 for a while, then ended up 6-1.”

It was delicious.

Each of the four panelists shared their unique view of the entertainment industry – its hidden potential for innovation, its conventional pitfalls, its missed opportunities – from their individual perspectives as top industry contenders. Hearing their thoughts was invaluable and inspirational. I seriously want each panelist to write a book so I can read it and absorb their amazing knowledge into my brain.

It was also amazing to see how many MIT alumni there were in the entertainment industry. What I enjoyed the most was this feeling that it was only natural for us to bring our MIT backgrounds to our current endeavors. In fact, this was a recipe for success.

The panelists put it best – Andrea Wong, former CEO of Lifetime, told us that because we’d never worked harder than we did during those four years, we all graduated with a sense of survival and confidence that allows us to solve any problem that comes our way. Laird Malamed, Senior VP and Head of Development at Activision Blizzard, talked about the sense of humility we developed at MIT. We were all top of our class in high school, but walking down the Infinite Corridor knowing that everyone was probably smarter than we were, we learned to never get too full of ourselves.

I agreed with both points wholeheartedly. While most people in the industry see my MIT background as fall back career training or at best a novelty, I know that MIT taught me to work hard, tackle challenges with an open mind, and always strive for excellence. And in a career where commitment translates to results, I’m grateful for my geek training because it gives me an edge that no theater major could ever hope to learn in an MFA program.

I’m a nerd and I’m an artist. Hear me roar!

Cosine, secant, tangent, sine!
3 point 1 4 1 5 9!
Go Tech!