Room For One More

Here's a short film that I was fortunate to work on with students over at UAT.  Enjoy!

Room For One More from So Major on Vimeo.

Support AZ Film

As many of you already know, the APA is fighting to keep the Arizona Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program alive (MOPIC). As an actor living in AZ, it's imperative that you contact your Represenative to ask them to extend the program. Below is an email template that you can use to email your local government officials. Many thanks to fellow actor, Pete Kelly, for setting up the email template. All you have to do is cut and paste the email addresses and body of the email into your favorite email program. Obviously, replace my name in the email with your name. Also many thanks to all involved in drafting up the talking points in this email.

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To: kcheuvront@azleg.gov
CC: rgould@azleg.gov; dmccunedavis@azleg.gov; rmiranda@azleg.gov; rpearce@azleg.gov; spierce@azleg.gov; bleff@azleg.gov; jwaring@azleg.gov; paboud@azleg.gov; aaguirre@azleg.gov; callen@azleg.gov; sallen@azleg.gov; malvarez@azleg.gov; rburns@azleg.gov; mburtoncahill@azleg.gov; jgarcia@azleg.gov; pgorman@azleg.gov; cgray@azleg.gov; lgray@azleg.gov; ahale@azleg.gov; jharper@azleg.gov; jhuppenthal@azleg.gov; llandrumtaylor@azleg.gov; llopez@azleg.gov; amelvin@azleg.gov; jnelson@azleg.gov; jpaton@azleg.gov; rrios@azleg.gov; jtibshraeny@azleg.gov; tverschoor@azleg.gov
Subject: AZ Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program

Greetings State/Senate Representatives !

My name is Raj Suri and I'm a local working actor.It is my understanding that the Arizona Production Association is fighting to keep the Arizona Motion Picture Tax Incentive Program alive (MOPIC). An economic Impact Study is underway and the preliminary results are showing that the information the Dept.of Commerce (ADOC) has provided to the Legislature is critically flawed and underestimated.

· ADOC is only looking at taxes generated from post-approved spending and not taxes generated from all production spending ($44 million versus $91 million for pre-approved applicants).
· While some of the post-approved spending was ruled ineligible for tax credits, it still has a positive impact on the economy and should be included in the model.
· The permanent jobs that are created are career jobs that pay an average annual wage of $39,788, which is above the state average annual wage of $27,917.
· Since the initiation of the tax credit program, the state has seen a significant increase in the number of productions, production companies, and total production-related wages paid in Arizona.
· The economic impacts of this industry are similar to the tourism and convention industry. It supports hotels, restaurants, rental cars, etc., but in a vastly greater way since stays are not typically one to two weeks, but rather months at a time.
· The tax credit program is not a "spending" program. No state dollars have been appropriated within the state's budget to give away. The State is not losing anything by having this program in place.

Please support the Motion Picture Tax Credit.
Thanks very much for your time,
Raj Suri
Chandler, AZ

Great youtube comment..

Here's a recent comment I got on my Comedy Reel on Youtube.

"who is raj suri? Is he trying to market himself through these videos. His video was listed as a sponsored link! Not at all impressive! Were you trying to make the audience laugh or cry? Dont ever try this in India, you may be banned!!"

Rock! My first fan!

New Gigs

Somehow, someway, I'm able to continually use the Jedi Mind Trick on directors and producers and convince them to cast me in their projects.  It's a pretty nifty trick.  I can teach this skill to you for just 3 easy payments of $9.99.  Now how much would you pay?

The latest projects that will have to deal with me are Feed and Mr. E Comics.  I'll be filming a trailer for Feed shortly and a webisode for Mr. E-Comics at the end of the month!  I'm really excited to be attached to these projects.  Check out the links for each project to learn more about them.

Sniper: Anatomy of a Kill

Raj Suri as an Arab
Originally uploaded by Raj Suri

I recently had the pleasure of work with Karga 7 Pictures on "Sniper: The Anatomy of a Kill". I played a Taliban insurgent. I think it'd be fun to try and go through airport security dressed this way. I wonder if I'd get stopped?

Anyhow - the documentary is set to air sometime in Q4 of this year on the History Channel. Here's the imdb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1411248/

New Comedy Reel

I think most of you have seen this but I recently uploaded a new comedy reel to youtube.  It's not a whole lot different than my last demo reel.  In fact, it's exactly identical to my original demo reel.  The one thing that has always bugged about my original reel is that I felt it was a tad bit long.  As much as I like looking at myself, I just really wanted to make sure I wasn't boring the audience (like I am in this blog) so I shortened my original reel by taking out the intro sequence showing me as a bunch of different characters.  There is nothing worse than sitting through an overly long and painful demo reel.  Of course, I've already received feedback from someone saying that I cut out a part they really liked!  Despite this, I think the edit was a good one.

I also am now calling my demo reel a comedy reel.  I was going to add some dramatic material to the reel but I think the reel is really strong as it is in it's current form and I couldn't stand the thought of breaking up the continuity of the funny stuff in there.  Plus, I think the reel gives a casting professinal a good idea as to what my type is and how to cast me in comedy roles.  So, I decided to keep the reel as a comedy reel and I'm going to cut a drama/academy award reel soon.  As of now, the strongest material I have in that realm is from Red Corvette.  Being that it hasn't been released yet, I'm going to wait till the premiere before I upload the drama reel.  The first cut of the reel will most likely contain only scenes from Red Corvette until other projects currently in post get completed.  Of course, the one downside of uploading new reels is that the momentum of hits and ratings of old reels takes a hit.  For example, my last reel had about 200 hits in a few months and 1 rating of 5 stars (thanks mom!).  Oh well, it's good to have fresh material out there.  So, without further ado, my latest comedy reel:

Scenes from the above demo reel were created by the following filmmakers:

RenderFilms

SyntheticHuman Pictures

Gary Sundt

Michael Bast

Some trailers, a premiere and other updates

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thing. With most people able to follow the stuff I do on either Filmixer, Myspace or Facebook, the need for this blog has somewhat diminished. But, not all of you are on one of those sites, so this update is for you - both of you.

Well the most exciting thing going on by far in my acting life is the upcoming premiere for Red Corvette. It's a feature film that I shot late last year with the boys over at D+NA. I've had movies premiere on a big screen before and usually I'm a wreck throughout the whole thing. It's pretty nerve wracking. I typically shake throughout the whole thing. Yup, I'm a big mess. Yay, me! For those of you who'd like to see the spectacle first hand, you can get tickets at this link. Here's the Red Corvette trailer:

Red Corvette on YouTube
As my friend, Lisa Shoap, says, I'm pretty bad ass in this.. Oh, and if you ladies needed another reason to come to the premiere, I've got a pool scene in this movie. Please ladies, try not to crash the internet buying tickets to this thing.

In other news, I've been trying to do the creepy/mean acting jobs lately. I don't want to be the actor who's only known for his good looks, impeccable comedic timing and nice body.. Not to mention, humble, too.. With that mind, check out the trailer to a short film I shot last year called Jones.
Jones

Ooooh, mysterious. That'll be a fun one when it's done!

Last, but not least, I was cast in Spinning Out, a Ryan Noble film. However, 15 minutes into the table read, I was promptly UNCAST from the movie. LOL. Turns out that I had a schedule conflict on my shoot day. That conflict was my anniversary celebration. 2 years! Although some days it feels like 20.. ha ha. Just kidding Ru! I wish the guys at Spinning Out the best of luck and hope to see the final product.

Well, if you've made it this far, I'd like to thank you for reading this and your continuous support! I have had auditions for some really exciting projects recently so hopefully there will be more good news here soon!