Look what I got for Christmas...

An IMDB credit! http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3731335/

Happy Holidays everyone. I hope all is well in your lives and here's to a wonderful 2010!

Saturnalia teaser is up...and it is AWESOME!

Holy cow am I excited about this.

I don't have any idea when the actual film is going to be done, but it's already getting some press from the underground/independent film site twitchfilm.net.  Film festivals, anyone?  Fingers are crossed!

Imagine Me Summer Films

This summer I was cast in two projects with the ImagineMe Film Conservatory -- my third round with this award-winning company which works with middle and high school students to develop their own films. It's always a lot of fun working with the kids!

One of the projects was a piece called Saranoia. I play Jared, the fiancée. Here's the film, in two parts:

The other project was entitled When Life Gives You Lemons. In this one, I'm Avery Mann. Here's the film, in two parts, as well:

Part II coming...

Wait -- scratch that.

Guess I won't be doing the Monologue Challenge after all.

I got a call from a casting director yesterday to do photo doubling in a scene with Al Pacino. It's an HBO project about Dr. Death, Jack Kevorkian, entitled You Don't Know Jack, and co-stars John Goodman and Susan Sarandon. It's directed by Barry Levinson (yeah, the Oscar-winning director of Rain Man). So I decided to do that instead.

So far I know it's a pivotal scene in the movie, a long day of shooting, and I'll be getting a SAG waiver. So that's nice. I'll have more info tomorrow.

Summer update

This has been a busy summer! I've been doing a bunch of film stuff -- took a couple classes and put three projects "in the can," as they say, even though two of them used tape and one was on memory cards. (But that's good, too. It's still work, even if the old phrases don't apply anymore.) One of those was an independent feature entitled Saturnalia, and will be my first imdb.com credit once it gets posted up there. So that's exciting! Here's a clip from the film where you see me for the first time:

This coming Monday, Aug. 31st, I'll be performing a new monologue I wrote called "Kids say the darnedest things..." in The Actor's Project NYC's Monlogue Challenge -- you can still get tickets if you want to come and vote! I've competed in three of these over the past couple years and made the finals in two of them. Hopefully this new piece will get me to the top of the podium. And if not, at least I'll have a strong piece of material that sells me and my type better than the last few that I wrote. So that's good.

As the summer winds down, I'm gonna continue pursuing film projects and training and networking and submitting. I'd like to start working with a manager or agent in the coming months and really making a push into the film and television worlds. Theatre and commercials would be great, too, of course.

Lots of film...

In the past couple months I've starred in two student films which are currently in post-production; I should have footage of those soon and will post them when I can.

Also, I just booked a role in a new feature by Gustavo Mercado, who is a professor at Hunter College and won a Showtime Latino Filmmaker award a couple years ago. My first scene films around Memorial Day and I wrap in June. Big thanks to Tom Ashton for thinking of me for the part and hooking me up with the production team! I'm very excited about this!

Let's get political...

As I mentioned in my latest email newsletter, I took part in the filming of some satirical videos recently. Now those videos are posted. I have small parts in three different videos, which you can see on 236.com, the Huffington Post/InterActiveCorp's news satire website. For your viewing pleasure, here are the direct links:

• Give Us Your Money, Or Else
• Trust Us, We Are Wall Street
• Will The Real Sarah Palin, Please Stand Up

They are also available on YouTube.

Ghost Town - Funny, but sad...

The movie turned out to be a lot funnier than I thought it would be, which was awesome. Unfortunately, all the time the other extras and I spent in the freezing cold chasing Ricky Gervais around the streets of Manhattan and up the steps of the Met turned out to be for naught. All the running around got cut from the final version of the film. It was still a lot of fun, though!

I'm just worried people will start thinking I'm lying about actually being in these projects! At least I have the trailer as proof, ha ha.

The Henchman and See I A... now on YouTube!

Check out www.youtube.com/watchjustinhoch for the videos! I will post them here when I get a chance.

See I A... Trailer and Screenings!

The trailer for the short film "See I A..." (formerly titled "Running Blood") has been released and can be viewed here:

Many thanks go out to Jill Ahrold, Imagine Me, and Big Colums Productions for putting this all together. Screenings of the film will take place April 4th and 5th:

I'd also like to make note of an upcoming benefit for the Shooting Stars program at PS 87 which will feature the previews of both Imagine Me shorts as well as the classic film, Some Like it Hot. Proceeds will help provide scholarships for kids to participate in theatre and film production!

Updates

The Best Party Ever
Turns out I won't be the g-string-clad character in the show. My mom is relieved. And I'm okay with that, too.

Running Blood
Had the cast read-through on Monday and filming began on Thursday. My first scenes are coming up on Sunday. Exciting!

Showcases
Showcases are taking place on Monday the 18th and Monday the 25th. Check out more info here: www.justinhoch.com/actor.html.

Running Blood - my first leading film role!

A few days ago I was cast as Kenny, an ex-cop who is caught up in a cat-and-mouse chase with the CIA after witnessing a torture session that he shouldn't have seen. It's an action-thriller and promises to be a lot of fun!

One cool thing about this project is that it's being done by a group of middle and high school students with an artisitic director supervisor. Last year, one of their projects was named an honorable mention at the Tribeca Film Festival - so these kids are no slouches! And, I'm getting paid, too, which is a nice bonus.

Filming will take place in February and is slated to be released in April!