Brian Ackley:  

Life I've been living in NY for a couple of years now. Always loved acting so I figured I'd throw in for a few hands, and what better place to become a cliche than New York City! Actually, I've always enjoyed the new city, found it enchanting, exciting; thru movies mainly. Indeed, it remains one of the reasons I've stayed: its ENERGY. It's a world in itself. (Forgive my lyric; I've just finished B. Dylan's Chronicles and have adopted his stream of consciousness prose! Next week I'll be stealing from Dostoyevsky's style...) In truth, the move up had more to do with practical reasoning than impatient reckoning. I had decided that it would be easier to start as a filmmaker than as an out of work actor. Not easier, but more practical; my chances of success would be greater. Hell, I figured if I was the one in charge of MAKING the movie then I could just as well put myself in it. Worked for others in the past- Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Billy Bob Thorton, even Quentin Tarantino. So I found Brooklyn College. Some research online included it to be among the top 5 public institutes to offer filmmaking. Of that short list, BC was the cheapest. And since I had no desire to see Main or visit North Carolina, and since California seemed too far a stretch for my pathetic limbs, I'd decided to live out my fantasy in the capital of the world. New York City was just as fantastic and unreal as I had imagined. I had been here once or twice before- a class trip to Midtown, a concert in Central Park- but now it was different: I would become a participant now, not just a blind observer. I could do things, be a part of things, interact. In the early days I ran around trying to get any audition I could find- even had an agent supposedly "lookin'" for me. Most the time I spent off set on some megamillion production waiting to be featured among a thousand other extras. For the few months I had a go at it, I was really only invited to open calls- that's when anyone off the street came come in to audition. Actual auditions are more difficult to come by, gotta be a certain physical type, often you go...Expand for more