New to site -- Actor- would love feedback

Palmpilot said:
Nice resume'.

I wish Law and Order LA had succeeded. I thought it showed promise.
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You and I both. I was very lucky to have had a chance to work with Alfred Molina, he is one of my favorites and it was a great experience!
 
jmp470 said:
Ace,
You need a big a** watch, Aviator glasses, and a leather jacket. Then you have to be extremely cocky, overly confident and be extremely cheap! Everything costs entirely to much in aviation, even the landing fees.... Oh and when you land in FL, expect the world and refuse to tip... Say something like "I'm sorry, I cannot afford to tip you, do you know how expensive a new tire is for my $16 million jet?" :lol:

and don't worry, we will be discussing your movie and questions years after the movie is released. :D

Oh and that's another trait of being a pilot... you need to talk about aviation extensively. Everything relates to aviation.... but mere mortals just don't seem to understand us (hence cocky attitude) :)
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LOL, all in all, sounds like a lot of fun to me. Wish that was stuff I could use for the movie, but apparently, I'm not as winning in the script ;)
 
murphey said:
And if you've already been cast, the odds are that the intro flight and any subsequent lessons may be considered deductions on your taxes...
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Quite possibly, but it really is dependent on what else I work on throughout the year as an actor. But, we're done with tax season now, let's not dampen our fun ;)
 
AggieMike88 said:
Yes, Mr. Exec Producer, the private and instrument rating and the airplane are all legit research expenses. Besides, now I can just fly between Santa Monica and Burbank and not get stuck in the traffic on the Five.
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Well, if I could only afford the AIRPLANE, I'd be in good shape once they h
shut down the wilshire exit in a few weeks on the 405.

Thankfully I'll miss a few good weeks while I'm filming. I suspect you guys in the air may encounter some unusual congestion if that santa monica/burbank pass is as good as you claim!
 
raider said:
don't file a flight plan and violently manipulate the controls during cruise to add drama
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Not sure I'd want to risk dying and missing out on the chance of getting abducted in Colombia. Why would I do that now? ;)
 
NotoriACE said:
By the way, did you see RED TAILS?! What did you think?
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Well since I'm up all night at work, I'll answer that question:lol:.

Yes I saw it twice in the theaters and just picked up the Blu Ray. I think is was an awesome movie! Decent acting and a great tribute to these great men!

I wasn't too crazy about the soapy love story but then again, I understand the need for Hollywood sake:rofl:

Also, at first I was expecting more of a documentary type movie like "The Tuskegee Airmen" (I kept wondering why they left out an important figure) but once I accepted the fact that this wasn't a documentary, I enjoyed it better.

Overall, I enjoyed it for what it is and highly recommend it PLUS the P-51 is my all time favorite warbird of WWII, followed by the Spitfire!
 
Wow, I was just reading your bio. So you're a New Jersey kid huh. I know where Perth Amboy is, that's not too far from my home town...Newark!

You were an electrician before becoming an actor. Cool, I'm an electrician. I worked at EWR for over 8yrs.

I don't watch much TV, that's probably why I've never heard of you. Now I might just have to check out some of your work:)

That said, is any of your films sci-fi? When I do watch TV it's either Aviation, Science or Sci-fi. Soaps and reality shows don't hold me.

Nice bio and resume!
 
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As others with more experience have mentioned, the drugs and FAA do not mix but there are a few ways this could work.
  • Does not hold a US pilots license?
  • Some shadyness on his medical, especially if a foreign license?
  • Lost FAA license but still flying. A very common thing in some places, I understand.
  • Simplest, just self-medicating and withholding that from FAA.
I personally would not think it outrageous to see a pilot self-medicating in a film, especially if someone comments "Better watch that, you could lose your ticket" or somesuch.
 
I would suggest to the OP that the accuracy of flying scenes is of questionable importance. The number of pilots in the country, and indeed in the world, is vanishingly small. Sort of like worrying about the sensibilities of one-eyed blond haired lepers. Good luck.
 
steingar said:
I would suggest to the OP that the accuracy of flying scenes is of questionable importance. The number of pilots in the country, and indeed in the world, is vanishingly small. Sort of like worrying about the sensibilities of one-eyed blond haired lepers. Good luck.
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No doubt a perfectly excoriating letter from the lawyers at SOEBL is even now on its way to your door. (Society of One Eyed Blonde Lepers)
 
Ace, can you tell us if this is movie will be for TV release? Or the big theater?
 
NotoriACE said:
If anyone knows of someone I should speak to in this area, please let me know. I'd love to see if I could get a tour of an aircraft. There is one scene in the movie that is actually INSIDE of the plane, the rest of the movie, we just know I'm a commercial pilot. However, in this one scene, I have to fly from CARTAGENA, COLOMBIA to Miami in a small jet. Again, if anyone has any leads I should look into, please let me know.
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Two suggestions:

1. I would think you could wrangle a tour of the cockpit of a small jet in any number of ways. Are you talking like a 9-pax bizjet or a 50-pax commuter. Perhaps someone can suggest a dealer or broker you can go visit. Perhaps you can just ask around at an FBO. Would folks that drive bizjets give a tour to an actor if they were just hanging at the FBO with the jet on the ramp? I see them doing that (hanging) at my FBO in Miami, especially during a sporting event or race.

2. Make your discovery flight a bit more than just you getting to fly a bit. Have the instructor shoot a couple of precision instrument approaches and have him explain the what he is doing and what the controllers are telling him. You may be able to tag along with someone free if you ride in the back. Maybe someone on this board will help out.
 
alfadog said:
[*]Simplest, just self-medicating and withholding that from FAA.
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That is certainly consistent with what he said about the character being discrete about it, and the label being ripped off the pill bottle.
 
alfadog said:
As others with more experience have mentioned, the drugs and FAA do not mix but there are a few ways this could work.
  • Does not hold a US pilots license?
  • Some shadyness on his medical, especially if a foreign license?
  • Lost FAA license but still flying. A very common thing in some places, I understand.
  • Simplest, just self-medicating and withholding that from FAA.
I personally would not think it outrageous to see a pilot self-medicating in a film, especially if someone comments "Better watch that, you could lose your ticket" or somesuch.
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My thoughts exactly

denverpilot said:
Red solo cup! :)
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With a lid, no less:redface:
 
And to think you joined POA to send me a PM (scary too) because by googling the words "valium" and "pilot" you found I was at the top of the list.

That was my very first post on the site, too, I was scared to get dental work with sedation and had Doc ask questions on my behalf.

There was a traffic jam that day and I was late (need to arrive early to take sedation). I ended up just paying for laughing gas so that I could drive home after the procedure. I hate teeth pulls, they are the worst. But no Valium.

Thanks for speaking with me over the phone, you should go and get that intro flight if you can. Let me know if you're ever up in SFO area.
 
Ace,

Since your in the area, you should head over to Van Nuys airport and go to Signiture Aviation. It is an FBO that has many Corporate jets arriving and departing. You may be able to talk yourself into a cockpit tour if your film calls for a corporate jet over a comercial jet like a boeing. Also there are many good schools there as well worth looking at for a discovery flight if you like.

Also Santa Monica has a nice school, but if you were to train there you would occasionaly have some weather issues with fog and such much more over Van Nuys. I currently train out of Van Nuys

Oh and Vallium is OK..Ted Stryker uses it to keep his sweating down..



Marc
 

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I just want to say that it's very nice to see anyone in the movie industry actually doing some research about flying before filming! It's too rare, I'm afraid - and TV/Movie and even the News mediums gets a lot of flack from us over their idiotic gaffs...
 
Off topic with apologies, but did anyone here ever see "Altitude"? Terrible stuff for a real pilot to watch, but nevertheless entertaining to the masses I am sure.
 

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Gubbins said:
Off topic with apologies, but did anyone here ever see "Altitude"? Terrible stuff for a real pilot to watch, but nevertheless entertaining to the masses I am sure.
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I saw it, and I suspect strongly that it was somewhat less than entertaining to the masses, not to mention sufficiently inaccurate to violate the suspension of disbelief of even the most grounded viewer.
 
steingar said:
I saw it, and I suspect strongly that it was somewhat less than entertaining to the masses, not to mention sufficiently inaccurate to violate the suspension of disbelief of even the most grounded viewer.
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I certainly don't want to spoil the film for anyone, but the Wikipedia summary of the plot is thoroughly cringe-worthy, and probably not in the manner intended.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altitude_(film)
 
And yet famed critic Richard Scheib called it "... a film that never insults its audience’s intelligence or opts for easy cliche dramatics."...

:rofl:

Sometimes it is fun to watch a bad horror movie. If you get REALLY bored, you can watch it sometime. I streamed it off Amazon one evening a while back while very bored and somewhat inebriated.
 
Gubbins said:
And yet famed critic Richard Scheib called it "... a film that never insults its audience’s intelligence or opts for easy cliche dramatics."...

:rofl:

Sometimes it is fun to watch a bad horror movie. If you get REALLY bored, you can watch it sometime. I streamed it off Amazon one evening a while back while very bored and somewhat inebriated.
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And how did that work out for you? I stopped reading the plot at "tentacle" on wiki, so I'm dying to know.
 
That plot exemplifies just how badly the War on Drugs is truly going. Wow. Ha.
 
I connected with the op and am taking him flying end of the month.

Show him around la. Let's hope he reports back and wen he gets the high paying gigs I get the technical advisor credits. Maybe we can stop having every stock shot of airplanes look like the stock shot IN Airplane.
 
redtail said:
Well since I'm up all night at work, I'll answer that question:lol:.

Yes I saw it twice in the theaters and just picked up the Blu Ray. I think is was an awesome movie! Decent acting and a great tribute to these great men!

I wasn't too crazy about the soapy love story but then again, I understand the need for Hollywood sake:rofl:

Also, at first I was expecting more of a documentary type movie like "The Tuskegee Airmen" (I kept wondering why they left out an important figure) but once I accepted the fact that this wasn't a documentary, I enjoyed it better.

Overall, I enjoyed it for what it is and highly recommend it PLUS the P-51 is my all time favorite warbird of WWII, followed by the Spitfire!
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How cool! I saw it a while ago at a screening on the FOX (I think) lot and it was still not finished. I have to say, the beginning was hard for me to sit through...like you said it was decent acting, but the beginning was rough for me. I think they needed a lot of Voice Over work still and the performances were just tough to get through at first. I did warm up to it a lot and appreciated the story, as much as it WAS dolled up like you said.

I'm glad it did well!!
 
redtail said:
Wow, I was just reading your bio. So you're a New Jersey kid huh. I know where Perth Amboy is, that's not too far from my home town...Newark!

You were an electrician before becoming an actor. Cool, I'm an electrician. I worked at EWR for over 8yrs.

I don't watch much TV, that's probably why I've never heard of you. Now I might just have to check out some of your work:)

That said, is any of your films sci-fi? When I do watch TV it's either Aviation, Science or Sci-fi. Soaps and reality shows don't hold me.

Nice bio and resume!
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Wow, small world!!! Of course I know Newark, we're practically neighbors! Well, when I'm there that is lol. I'll be flying back the 20-23 for my sisters Graduation.

I WAS an electrician yes, almost joined the air force and chose a life in Hollywood last minute lol

I don't really have any sic-fi movies, HORROR, yes. In fact, I just helped produce a few films and one of them was a horror film called MADISON COUNTY, that has attached a good deal of buzz for being a smaller film. I've done a few episodes of Soap work, but I've kept it too a minimum, it's not really my preference. And no worries, I'm no where close to a recognizable name at this point, except of course in Perth Amboy...my family is there ;)
 
alfadog said:
As others with more experience have mentioned, the drugs and FAA do not mix but there are a few ways this could work.
  • Does not hold a US pilots license?
  • Some shadyness on his medical, especially if a foreign license?
  • Lost FAA license but still flying. A very common thing in some places, I understand.
  • Simplest, just self-medicating and withholding that from FAA.
I personally would not think it outrageous to see a pilot self-medicating in a film, especially if someone comments "Better watch that, you could lose your ticket" or somesuch.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the feedback, you are pretty much on the money with the simple, self medicating/withholding. At least, that is the route after talking to you guys, that I am choosing to go. It's so subtle in the movie, and it's not like I'm popping em left and right. There are some crazy circumstances I am facing in the movie with a sick son and divorce, so it's just a small character thing. I just am a stickler for details, and wanted to be courteous to the truth of your guys world as much as possible, so I thought I'd reach out. It's been very helpful so far, thanks again!!
 
steingar said:
I would suggest to the OP that the accuracy of flying scenes is of questionable importance. The number of pilots in the country, and indeed in the world, is vanishingly small. Sort of like worrying about the sensibilities of one-eyed blond haired lepers. Good luck.
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LOL, I guess maybe I should mention we have a brunette, DEAF Leper in the film?

Thanks for the insight. Even though small, I'd like to be as considerate as it's allowed within the film. I'm so picky about details, and maybe it's just me getting into the thick of the role early, but I want to honor you guys.
 
AggieMike88 said:
Ace, can you tell us if this is movie will be for TV release? Or the big theater?
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Hey, thanks for asking! It's an independent film and there is no final distribution in place at the moment. The goal is the big screen with a standard release. Fingers crossed :)
 
alfadog said:
May not be an English-language film at all.
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Actually it is. We're just filming in Colombia to utilize the city and the connections the director has there as a life long resident, but it's an american story.
 
alfadog said:
Two suggestions:

1. I would think you could wrangle a tour of the cockpit of a small jet in any number of ways. Are you talking like a 9-pax bizjet or a 50-pax commuter. Perhaps someone can suggest a dealer or broker you can go visit. Perhaps you can just ask around at an FBO. Would folks that drive bizjets give a tour to an actor if they were just hanging at the FBO with the jet on the ramp? I see them doing that (hanging) at my FBO in Miami, especially during a sporting event or race.

2. Make your discovery flight a bit more than just you getting to fly a bit. Have the instructor shoot a couple of precision instrument approaches and have him explain the what he is doing and what the controllers are telling him. You may be able to tag along with someone free if you ride in the back. Maybe someone on this board will help out.
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Great suggestions! I've had a few people reach out, so hopefully I can put those things to use as you suggest! It is a small plane, probably closer to the 9 passenger one you referenced. I live close to the Santa Monica Airport, so I'm going to cruise around and see what I can find out. :)
 
Jaybird180 said:
My thoughts exactly


With a lid, no less:redface:
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I thought about this forum today and that picture when I heard more Travolta news had been released concerning his former pilot! You guys have great timing!
 
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