Today was a victory after much defeat

Today I was frustrated throughout the process of the morning, finding no joy in the work I was doing.  I felt nothing was comedic, the general feeling on set was hardly playful, and much of the material has been changed.  I'm depressed about what could have been:  I understand this is the way of the gun, film making is about constant change, but the jokes, the lines, the moments that have been in the script and then been removed represent that which could have been but will never be.  Maybe I'm just drawing allusion within the project to my life, I'm frustrated by so many things that seemed possible and then disappeared before my eyes.  The script of life, like the script of Yogi, is constantly changing without your consent, you must try and deliver the lines you are given and not think about the ones that you could have said, or you once planned to say.  But the greatest battle in that war is forgetting that which was there and now is not, and accepting that all you have is what you've been given and the few moments of genuine improvisation.  I find that in life I struggle with this immensely.  Decisions outside of your control are made and you must bow to them...just as man must bow to those factors in his life he cannot control.  But in the end, we achieved some very good, very real moments, and some real comedy (I hope and pray).  So that is a victory, no matter how small, after what felt like hours of defeat.

TJ/RJ

The difference between you and me

When you talk about Yogi Bear, your kidding.  When I talk about Yogi Bear, I'm dead serious.

It is night

And there is a stillness. The bear video audition has reached over 100,000 views on YouTube, and countless more on other sites. How many of those people appreciate the irony? How many of those people understand the comedy of it?
I am beginning to feel the weight of what I'm about to do, the millions of people that will see this film, the children, the adults, the people in their late teens/early thirties. I can not let them down. I can't give anything less than the most that I can give. I have to review the script, I have to be ready to create a character that grows within the film, takes a journey, to use a tired and worn metaphor, and becomes something different. This can't just be me being me, I have to be something else entirely. Something that will amuse and teach children, and something adults can connect to. I realize that my character is driven to a fault and becomes power hungry--these are common themes of human existence. But what else is there? What is he hiding from or running from, and is it himself? Maybe. I don't know yet. But I need to find out quickly, because we shoot tomorrow.
There is a stillness, but there is also something moving, something moving inside of me. It's my heart and my digestive system yes but something else too.
I will do everything I can to make this the funniest Ranger that has ever been in cinematic history, I won't portray some broad comic caricature. I will make Ranger Jones a 3 dimensional character, someone who is more than one thing, more than two or three things. That is my work on this picture. That's what I have to do.

tj miller

I'm watching Cloverfield

I'm watching Cloverfield in my hotel room in Taupo. I hope that my performance in Yogi Bear will show that I've matured as a comedic actor, I look back at Cloverfield and realize how young I was in terms of film acting. Yogi will really give me the opportunity to show how far I've come. However, I also think there will be less screaming, and I won't yell "Yo this shit is crazy dude" at any point in this film.

A turning point

I think the great turning point for me in my career is going to be Yogi Bear. I'm not talking about career in the sense of how the public views me, or my becoming a celebrity, but my career as an artist. I fan feel an intrinsic change that is the result of joining this film, I'm writing more, the genesis of ideas is coming to me at a rapid rate, and most of all I can feel myself becoming more disciplined. I'm beginning to see clearly what it's going to take for me to become the comedic entity that I want to be, and that is all rooted in a film about a talking bear and his smaller talking bear friend.
Through script analysis I am really understanding the allegories and metaphors that inhabit this film, as well as some pretty interesting threads that interweave throughout, there are of course the themes of identity, love won and lost, and friendship, but the inherent evil nature of government, bureaucracy, ambition and it's darker side in the context of a country that holds it in such esteem is all within the text, it's up to us to expose it in a way that is subtle and not too overt, but communicable to the general public. We do have a shot at making this film great, and it's going to require great effort, and great care, from all of us.

t.j. miller

Rotorua

We just arrived in Rotorua. It smells bad here, just like they said it would.

Physical preparation

I have been rigorously working out every day, lifting weights and doing cardio in an effort to prepare for this role. I have been studying other rangers and officials, such as Barney Fife in the hopes of finding a a physicality that will be both comical and true to the officialdom of the character. I've been wearing my ranger at, the one I used for the second audition and for the bear video as much as possible, sometimes having entire meals with it on to truly understand what it would be like to be a park ranger.
I have watched two John Cusack movies today, 2012 and 1408. I have decided not to model my performance after him. Primarily because there are no numbers in the title of this film.