After over a year of post-production work, Patient Zero, a short drama based on the universe of Resident Evil was released online and is now available in HD on YouTube, or Direct download in 10 languages.

I star in it in the lead role of Albert Wesker, a cold, calculating, manipulative scientist. It is a fan film written and directed by Jerome Chagnon, a dedicated fan of the Capcom franchise of Resident Evil. It is full of references to the game that only fans will get, but remains entertaining for everyone else.

One week after the release it reached a total 10,000 views/downloads. Congrats Jerome and the rest of the cast and crew!

Since I haven’t posted in a while, here are the highlights of my film related activities of the past few weeks:

Last weekend, was the film premiere of “Nobody’s Laughing“, an award winning comedy in which I played a disgruntled French office worker. Thanks to Dave Moutray, Miguel Toro, Marcus Sams, and Aliza Rupert for organizing this great event. The turn out was excellent and it was fun reconnecting with everyone.

Also last weekend, I played a supporting role in a film noir written, produced by, and starring Jacintha Charles and directed by Miikka Skaffari. The production ran very efficiently and it was a pleasure working with the crew and talented lead actor Ben Johnson and Jacintha.

Earlier, I gave voice-over performances for two unrelated projects, almost back to back, and both in French. The first project, which I booked thanks to Stars Agency, was for a commercial for which I signed a non-disclosure agreement, so I will say no more about it! The second project was for the narration to an independent short film written by Robbie Ikegami.

Finally, in parallel to all this, we completed principal photography and are now working on editing my film production, “The Life Of Eric Richards”. Editor Kee Heywood is making great progress and we should have a first draft ready by the end of October. The film will likely not be ready for Scary Cow‘s film festival in November as originally planned and will have to wait till next round. But I am very excited by what we have so far and grateful to everyone involved. Production stills taken by Gary Rocchio during the last days of shoot are available at The Life of Eric Richards – Album 2

It’s been a while since my last post, but luckily, it is not not for lack of news. Rather, it is for lack of time to write about them! We are still shooting my film production ‘The Life of Eric Richards‘, which is taking most of my free time and energy. Only one more shoot day to go before principal photography is complete. In parallel, I have been cast on two film projects: ‘League X’, written and directed by Elijah Collins, and a yet to be titled Film Noir, written by Jacintha Charles and directed by Miikka Skaffari.

On other news, a short drama called ‘Hanna’s Question’, produced by the San Francisco Art & Film Workshop, in which I play a young father dealing with his daughter, was premiered at the Dolby screening room and is now available on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVwAy9f_N6g, or at http://www.filmworkshopsf.org/films/2011/Hannah.html. Many thanks to Ronald Chase, Ruby Drake, Miranda Henrich, Jesse Filipko and Max Sokoloff, who were all a real pleasure to work with.

For the very first time, I am producing a short film (under the SAG new media contract) that I wrote. It is a comedy called ‘The Life Of Eric Richards’ and after weeks of preparation, we started shooting last weekend. I had a total blast and the results so far are well beyond my expectations.

Many thanks to the prestigious Beverly Hills Playhouse acting school, where I have been studying for over a year, for providing a cast of talented and well-trained actors (Victoria Ma, Dan Bernstein, Kristine Gerolaga, Zavier Alexander, Steven Cloyles, and many more, see full list here). Robert Zimmerman, our acting teacher himself, offered to help direct the film and did an incredible job at running a tight ship, getting the most out of the actors, and handling smoothly all the unexpected situations we encountered. I also want to thank the non-BHP actors on the cast, which included the talented female lead Holly Covell (full list available here), for giving terrific performances.

Kudos to Scary Cow, the indie film co-op that I joined and provided me with an awesome crew, including award winner cinematographer Samir Sinha, gaffer extraordinaire Bill Spafford, sound recorders Alisha McCutcheon and Jeff Boron, and many more (full list available here). Kee Heywood, a director I worked with in the past (see this post), was the 1st assistant director on this project and will now begin the gargantuan task of editing.

Production stills are available here: The Life Of Eric Richards – Production Stills – Album 1

We still have one more weekend of shooting, and the goal is to finish post-production by the end of October so that we can screen the film at the Scary Cow film festival in November. But the primary target of this film is to be distributed online on YouTube. I will be sure to keep everyone posted and let you guys know when it is done and available for your enjoyment.

I just changed agent and signed with Stars Agency. It is the largest agency in the Bay Area. Although their headquarters is in San Francisco, they also have a division in LA, so they will send me to auditions down there if there are any juicy projects that match my profile.

On other news, it is official, I am now SAG eligible, thanks to my role in Shahaub Roudbari‘s short film ‘What the Hell’, still in production. SAG is the largest labor union representing actors. You can only join by participating in a SAG project that sponsors you. It is a big step as it means I can now audition for any SAG productions (all Hollywood movies are SAG productions).

Last week, I performed in a Web series called The FBI Office, created and directed by Ed Moy. As the title indicates, it is modeled after the hit NBC TV show The Office, but it takes place in an FBI office. Ed gave a lot of room for improvisation to the talented cast, which included Douglas Olsson, Kristen Matia, Nicholas Totis, Ann Scott, Catherine Kim Poon, and Amanda Low.
For more production still photos, previews, and updates, check out and ‘like’ the series fan page on facebook here.

My acting school, the Beverly Hills Playhouse San Francisco, is holding its second industry showcase on July 20th. A selection of our best short scenes from film and theater will be performed in front of agents, casting directors, and film makers. I’ll be performing in three scenes from the movies Notting Hill, Before Sunrise, and Talented Mr. Ripley with fellow BHP students Zulaika McEwen, Megan Phillips, and Dan Bernstein.
Unfortunately, it is not a public event, but if you are in the industry and would like to attend, please contact me for the details.

Update:

The event was a great success! In front of a select audience of agents from Look Talent, Marla Dell, Stars, and Tonry Talent, as well as local film makers, we showcased 10 scenes from various films and plays. I performed in three of them. Here is the full program in PDF format: BHPShowcaseProgram.pdf.

Except for a few minor pick up shots left, the production for short Scary Cow film ‘The Vintage’ is complete. I played the lead role of Dayton, a vampire bartender who tries to seduce and subvert one of his customer, Jane (played by Vanessa Donley), a young woman who is contemplating becoming a nun. John Moeslein plays a scientist studying the paranormal activity he suspects is happening in my character’s wine bar. The film was written and directed by Samir Sinha, and shot with the impressive Red One camera.

Production stills by Gary Rocchio will be posted shortly, but for now here are two iphone photos taken during the shoot. The first one shows off a glimpse of the great work of the talented make up artist Liz Rische, who was flown in from Austin, Texas to work on this film. The second one shows Vanessa, in front of the red camera operated by Director of Photography Terry VerHaar. There will be a screening of the finished movie at the Castro Theater in October as part of the next Scary Cow Independant Film Festival.

I booked a supporting role in a short comedy called ‘What the Hell!’, written by multi-talented Shahaub Roudbari. Shahaub is a good friend and a fellow acting student at the Beverly Hills Playhouse (BHP). This will be the third film we work in together (after Mafia, and Mr and Dister Action). He will be directing as well as playing the lead character in the film, along with Eric Kim, Angela Averiett and Kathreen Khavari. All three of them are also friends and fellow students at the BHP. The script is hilarious and my character is a quirky Frenchman who should be very fun to play. Last but not least, this is a SAG production, so it will give me SAG eligibility.