The Public Service Announcement (PSA) shoot went really well yesterday. I had an 8am call-time and left enough time to be able to sit patiently in traffic. I parked at a Universal Studios lot and was taxied to the set nearby. I went through wardrobe and make-up and that all went pretty quickly.

I was playing a dad that was breaking the news to his son that the parents were divorcing. The director wanted me to look like I'd been through hell -- wearing a rumpled suit, like I'd been sleeping at a lousy motel. I didn't shave that morning to help complete the picture. I really felt badly for the character. It was an anti-drug commercial but there was no mention of drugs in our scene. The tagline at the end would be "You've had the hard talks before. You can talk to them about drugs."

The director for the shoot was Jeffrey Plansker, whom I'd met at the callback. He's a very accomplished director and has directed a ton of commercials, including the Cadillac spot from the last Super Bowl.

I hung out with my wife-for-the-day, the talented Jennifer Bascom, and we talked and watched part of Million Dollar Baby on her laptop while we waited. The young man that I'd worked with at the callback had been hired but there was some union problem so they had to replace him with a nice young man named Chandler.

The actual filming took about two hours and we shot in a really nice home in North Hollywood. It was an older house so it had lots of character and interesting antique furniture to match. From what I could see on the monitors, the footage looked great -- wonderful lighting and framing. The script was really poignant too. Unlike most commercials, this stuff looked like it came from a film. With any luck, I'll be able to use some of it on my reel.

Chandler had to leave for another shoot by 1:30pm (the life of a busy child actor) so we wrapped around that time for lunch. After lunch, Jennifer and I were released and soonafter returned to our cars. A painless shoot. The PSA should run for the next one to two years but I have no idea where or when. Those kinds of spots are usually used as fillers when TV stations have extra commercial time. So, if you're up at 2am some morning watching a rerun of The Tonight Show, and you see someone that looks like a tired, haggard version of me...

I hadn't heard back from the casting director on rescheduling my film audition so I decided to take a chance. I changed my clothes in the car and drove over to the location in Culver City. I knew that it could be a big waste of time but the audition was for an agent character and I felt like I had a unique take on the character. I felt like it was worth it to take the chance.

Unfortunately, I hit horrible traffic every step of the way and didn't make it there until 3:30pm. They'd wrapped an hour before. I was bummed but was still glad that I'd given it a try. Nothing ventured, etc. etc. I did find out that they were going to be returning the today for more auditions.

After driving very slowly home (accompanied by several thousands of my commuting friends in their cars), I emailed the film production and ended up getting an audition for today.

The director and producers seemed pleased with my audition and laughed out loud a couple times. I felt good about it and didn't have regrets as I left the building. It was the same building where I'd narrowly missed being hit by a ton of glass a month before. Suffice it to say, I didn't dawdle in front of the building this time. TREVOR KIMBALL AUDITION ACTING ACTOR AGENT CLIENT HOLLYWOOD LOS ANGELES CALLBACK COMMERCIAL PSA HEADSHOT

great post as usual!