Toren Atkinson’s Absolute Blog

I got a call from my agent about a student film that was doing auditions. These are non-paying gigs but the last one (Hello Goodbye) was quite rewarding so I take them when I can. She had submitted two other people from her roster and I don’t know if they asked any other agencies to send them some actors. My agent described it as “a professor reads a book and is greedy and then scared,” which didn’t phase me as job descriptions are usually vague. The last commercial audition I did, for which I got a call back, I had no idea what it was about and still don’t (Sam got the job – yay Sam!).

Anyway I rode my bike down to the VFS campus on Burrard and Pacific and called one of the guys. They brought me up and described that this is going to be a 50 second short film about a guy who finds an evil book and starts reading from it. He summons a (CG) monster which attacks him and drains his life. End of film. The name Lovecraft came up. They had no idea who I was.

They showed me the animatic they did with one of the other students as the professor. Then they took me into another room and took photos of my head and my left hand from 45 degree angles (straight on, 3/4 view, profile, etc). Then they had me act like I was being attacked by a Cthulhu monster.

A few days later I got an email saying I got the job.

Inking more or less finished. The hard part now will be colouring it.

Last week I received in the mail the most massive tome I ever hope to own. It’s about 12″ by 16″ and 2″ thick. It retails for $395 US. It’s called “Artists Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft” and as such I happened to get it as a contributor copy since it included a copy of my “Where the Great Old Ones Are.” I have a couple other books dedicated to the art of the Cthulhu Mythos, but this one is clearly the most comprehensive and spectacular. And the good news that Jerad from Centipede Press says “if people order the book and mention your blog, they can take $120 off — $275 postage paid instead of $395!” That’s a hell of a discount! Cyclopean, even.

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