Lately I’ve been doing nothin but enjoying myself working on the set of SEMI-PRO. It’s a good experience for me to get a chance to watch some of the best actors in the business do their thing behind the camera as far as dialogue in the movie. Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson and Andre 3000 are all extremely talented when it comes to the comedy scenes in the movie and I try my best to soak up everything I can from a student actor’s standpoint.

For the most part, the whole two weeks I’m here I am in every single play - imagine that. My team in the movie faces Will Ferrell’s team twice, so hopefully I can get some decent airtime. LOL!

In between takes and in all my down time consists of playing ball on set, teaching Woody and Will new moves, reading the BALL DON’T LIE script so I have it down, sleeping and eating. Mostly all I do is eat ’cause there is a ton of food with the craft-services always on hand - gotta love that!

I saw a few playbacks of the movie and the footage looks real dope and authentic 1970s. Hopefully it turns out that way when the movie releases next year around this time.

This is an image that I think Sticky looks at a lot. For some reason, he loves the Ferris Wheel on the Santa Monica Pier. Could be because up there you can see the world past Venice and Santa Monica: “the yellow brick road, the road to the promised land.” I imagine him looking at this image early in the morning when he heads out to get his early morning workouts in. Sunrise is the only time he can let his guard down - predators are asleep and no one’s around. It’s his only time alone. This is his view.

Grayson’s been working some crazy days (even a couple 17-hour days) on SEMI-PRO and has been away from the keyboard, but he’ll hit us with some blogs this weekend about his long week on the set with Will Ferrell and homies…

Wednesday was a good a learning experience for me on the set of SEMI-PRO. It really showed me what it’s going to be like filming all the basketball scenes. Originally, I wasn’t supposed to go in to film until today but we called in early on a whim because they needed one play from our team - The Spurs. The whole day all they needed from us was this one play and they probably took about 40 or more takes of it. All it was was an outlet pass from Will Ferrell to Woody Harrelson who then passes to ANDRE3000’s stunt double who dunks the ball. Of course, my team was on defense the entire time. We had to look intense, like we’re d’ing up for real.

I had a lot of fun out there with everything throughout the day. When I first got there, it was hilarious when they applied my wig, make-up and wardrobe. I have an old-school Pistol Pete-like hair style and the shortest shorts ever, but they definitely had me looking 70s in a major way!

The food was amazing!

I start to film SEMI-PRO tomorrow, so I’m fired up to finally be on a real movie set and see what all this is really about. I look forward to putting in work and know that my parts in that movie will pretty easy for me since it’s all hoops. Anyway, wish me luck, hopefully I run all their set plays the way they want them and they don’t make me look bad getting dunked on by ANDRE 3000.

Meanwhile, was I’ve been being a tour guide to my girl and my bro out here in Cali, I was also putting in work for the movie, practicing some voiceover scenes from the film. I am not where I need to be in terms of that, but am getting a better sense of what direction I need to go with it in doing some exercises such as reading all the lines aloud to myself from the script on the daily and watching some flicks that include voiceovers in them. Also, myself, producer Michael Roiff, and director Brin Hill met with an acting coach by the name of Brad Henke on Sunday. We felt that I connected with him well and want to proceed in working with him which I think will help me tremendously being that I will have a second voice in my ear. We’re thinking that I’ll probably take one of the classes that he teaches, which is exciting to me, and work with him on the side as well. Also, this week, I’ve started rehearsing scenes with Brin in some of the actual locations from the film, so I know this is a great thing and will continue to keep your boy busy!

Lately, as I’ve said, I’ve been hanging out a lot around Sticky’s stomping grounds and I think it’s all for the good. Recently, I hung around those areas a lot when I had my girl and my brother come visit down here and we had a ball! When my girl was here we went to the beach in Santa Monica and laid out one day. Another day, I took her to Venice Beach, she’d never been there before so that was a huge experience for her. Seeing her take it all in was kind of funny to me because she was like me the first time seeing it. She is from Oregon just like I am and things are WAY more conservative up there so it was hilarious to see her wide eyed over it. We also went to

I’ve been putting in work over the last couple weeks and am about to step up my game with Brin. Putting in work in the acting game is a lot like putting in time on the hoops court. Here’s another flick from Japan that has to do with getting my game tight. Push-ups on the hardwood, push-ups on Lincoln.

Here’s a quick little flick of me out in Japan with the AND1 squad.

Lately I’ve been trying to hangout and roam where Sticky roams in the Santa Monica and Venice area. Once again, just getting a feel for his surroundings while growing up is great. This way, when I have to be Sticky, I can really feel his history to sort of become him as opposed to just looking like him or forcing myself to only act like him. I want to own him.

To start doing this, I’ve begun going places in Santa Monica and Venice in the mode of Sticky. I played ball on the beach at a court in Venice the other day for about an hour. Unfortunately, there was a watered down run - wack. I did find out that they run down there during the day, not in the late afternoon, so now that the sun is out here, I’ll hit it. Turns out that Matt, the author of the book, used to play on that very court.

I have been cruising along the 3rd Street Promenade a few times as well - which is another part of Sticky’s stomping grounds. With so much of the story taking place at Footlocker and Macy’s in the mall, it’s good to walk those aisles some. I took my girl there to eat a few times and went to a couple movies, just to feel like Sticky would on a date with Annie. I really imagine this is what Sticky would do with his girl.

Today, I’m going to hit up a couple places off Lincoln to continue my mission, as well as, hang a little at Hotchkiss Park in Santa Monica. I picture the anniversary scene with Annie to take place at this park. Got to run and get back to studying the script. I’ll holler soon with more updates on the creation of Sticky…