THERE IS A GREAT DEAL YOU CAN DO TO HELP YOUR OWN CAREER... In the UK, Actors are encouraged to be so passive in their own career development and I hate this. They are taught to empower Agents and Casting Directors as Gatekeepers to their career and this results in Actors taking a reactive approach to their career. Rarely do I come across an Actor who is being proactive. This is a very big part of why over 80% of Actors are out of work as an Actor at any given time, why only 4% of Equity members earn more than £30K a year and why 4 out of 5 Actors quit the profession within 3 years of graduating from Drama School. IF YOU ARE FRUSTRATED BY YOUR CAREER THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!!! As for shooting something specifically for your reel, be VERY careful about engaging someone to do this for you. A reel is only ever as good as its weakest link and if you were to shoot something just for the reel, I guarantee the production values of this clip would let the reel down badly unless you spent a great deal of money. Anything cheap to do will just look amateur and will say to the viewer, "well, I've not done much but shot this with a mate". The result will be that you just shoot yourself in the foot. If you need to generate more footage, then you have two choices: 1) To do the No/Low budget route and make sure that you get clips for your reel and be prepared for all the bullshit that goes with so many of these types of productions...
Incidentally, every Gatekeeper you come across in our Industry will want to say "no" to any approach. This is because no one has ever gotten themselves fired for saying "no" but a good many people have run into career problems for themselves by saying "yes" to something or someone. So then, what you need to do is be completely honest and objective with every single element of your approach strategy and eliminate the reason ANYONE would give for saying no to you. As an Actor, examine the following questions and make sure whoever you are approaching won't be given a reason to say no:
Go to TOP 2) YOUR ATTITUDE There is one overriding characteristic that seems to define those who will have a career from those that won't - it is TENACITY. Talent is taken as read and you can be dripping with talent but not stand any real chance of a career because you lack tenacity. People lack tenacity for one real reason, namely a lack of confidence. A single rejection can (and indeed has) crushed many a career... I'm afraid rejection goes with the territory and you've just got to school yourself with accepting it and NOT letting it become a millstone around your neck. This is easier said than done but if you accept that you're just going to come up against rejection time and time again, then when you do, it shouldn't break you. Instead, just play "the numbers game" (i.e. the more times I am rejected means that, even if someone will only say "yes" perhaps 1% of the time, I'm getting nearer to that "yes"). It isn't easy but the Buddhists have a wonderful saying: "a man does not appreciate a good meal unless he is hungry". REMEMBER, according to a recent survey published by Equity, something like 90% of Actors on their books are NOT working in Acting at any given time... That's a hell of a lot of rejection. However, work is out there. JUST KEEP GOING!!! THE LAW OF AVERAGES WILL EVENTUALLY PLAY IN YOUR FAVOUR. Go to TOP HOW DO I COPE WITH A PHONE THAT DOESN'T RING? It really all seems to boil down to one simple concept – vis. Who do you, as an Actor, consider responsible for your career? Do you see Agents and Casting Directors as the sole “Gatekeepers” to your future or are you prepared to try to push your career yourself as well? Sure you leap at every opportunity your Agent gives you but in the meantime, what do you do to further your career yourself? You apply for all the castings you can (and I suggest below that I can’t help thinking it is SO much better to be a “sniper” rather than a “machine gunner” when it comes to castings), you go on training courses (when you can afford to), perhaps you may or may not read the Trade Press online every day for free (and if you don’t know how to do this, just email me and I’ll tell you) but, most especially, do you work as an Extra (with all the associated risks and benefits) so that you are still working within the Industry, making contacts etc, or do you choose to work at Starbucks instead? Consider this: These days, so many Actors I meet seem to prefer to be REACTIVE instead of PROACTIVE in their career. They empower Agents, Casting Directors, Producers and Directors with the sole responsibility for the furthering of their own career and sit around waiting for the phone to ring, wondering why it hasn’t rung, wondering why they are not getting more work and blaming anyone but themselves for this. Meanwhile, they get more and more bitter as they work as a dispatch rider, in a bar or in an office to pay the bills and feel like the "party is happening without them". This strikes me as foolhardy. Agents are very busy people. Even if you are signed to the best Agent in Town, you won’t be their only Client. If you are lucky, you’ll get maybe one phone call a week, just “touching base”. Sure they'll put you up for castings when relevant but in reality, whosoever is your Agent is not going to be thinking about helping you with your career 24/7. On the other hand, I bet you are. So then, do you find yourself sitting around waiting for the phone to ring? Do you secretly wish you had a “better” Agent, someone who would have more time for you? My message is: Don’t blame anyone else for you not getting more work. Instead, get off your bum and get busy. START YOUR OWN PROJECTS. Network as much as you can and take responsibility as well as control of your own career progression. One great way of networking is to work as an Extra – today’s 3rd AD is tomorrow’s Director – but remember, play safe and if in doubt, don’t tell your Agent you are doing Extras work. Accept that there is a marked snobbery in this country that means some frown on Actors doing Extras work (it's all because of Class and stuff) and no number of postings on this newsgroup will alter this. However, don’t flatter yourself into thinking that “people” will remember your face from Extras work you may or may not have done at the next casting you go for and therefore not take you seriously as an Actor – why should these “people” find out? Let me tell you a secret, the majority of Directors DON’T spend much time looking too closely at Extras – they are just “walking scenery” to most Productions. I doubt if ANYONE would actually recognize you from working as an Extra on something at your next casting and if they do, deny all knowledge of it! Sure, when you are on-set as an Extra, you will find that some Actors, the Director and Production Staff will not think of you as anything other than an Extra and won't give you the time of day but there will always be someone, somewhere on the production who may be a useful person to have in your phone book - just the person you would contact when you're putting your own project together and need a Grip or a Sparks or a Makeup Artist etc... So then, I'm suggesting that if you are a struggling Actor, take control, take responsibility for your own career, be PROACTIVE not REACTIVE and get busy!
Go to TOP CASTING - THE CONCEPT OF BEING A "SNIPER" RATHER THAN A "MACHINEGUNNER" Some people feel uncomfortable with the costs involved in running off a bunch of headshots "that then get thrown in the bin". This highlights a style of approach to cast calls that so many Actors starting their careers have... I would recommend that when it comes to applying for castings, you work much more as a sniper rather than a machine-gunner. To apply for everything on the off chance that you may get a casting is just going to result in you getting a massive amount of rejection. Instead, be a sniper - choose your targets very carefully and take good aim before you fire. Know your own casting capabilities, what would you be good for and what projects are right for you? Then, ask yourself these questions each time you see a cast call: These questions form the backbone of your covering letter. Use this letter to really sell yourself to the part highlighting why you would be good for the part. Do not just write the same old stuff you write every time...take your time to choose your target, take aim and then fire. Sure you'll still get rejections but I take a well-written covering letter, one that shows the actor has researched the project in question and can clearly demonstrate why it may be wise for me to meet them, far more seriously than just a few lines dashed off in a hurry. All this takes time and the good result of this is that you will then save yourself money by not "throwing away" your hard copies of your headshots by applying for everything going on the off chance that they may possibly see you. Also, it is still very common for Casting Directors to request a hard copy of your headshot. This isn't so much Casting Director shying away from information technology but more out of practical considerations... 1) Emailed attachments of headshots can (and often are) very large Solution to this: You may also want to set up a website where you could have other images and showreel etc available. If you were to do this, then you could sent them a link to your site in your covering letter or, better still, an autobooting CD ROM of your entire site along with your headshot that they could look at offline if they so choose.
Go to TOP READING THE TRADE PRESS FOR FREE - THEY SAY "KNOWLEDGE IS POWER"... Do you read the trade press on line each and every day for free? All the Trades have websites and most charge a subscription for detailed information. However, some distribute free news summaries via email (and/or RSS feeds) which you can opt into for no cost. Perhaps the most well known film-based Trades are: THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER SCREEN DAILY VARIETY And for Television, the Industry Trade in the UK is BROADCAST IMDB (Internet Movie Data Base) is perhaps the most highly regarded web-specific film industry database and there are two versions: There are countless other sites ranging from the good to the obscure but these four cover all major developments in the Industry.
Go to TOP HOW TO COPE WITH REJECTIONI'm afraid to say that rejection is a VERY big part of what we do. Whether you like it or not, if you set out to be an Artist, you are going to get a great deal of rejection. Sometimes this may come from quarters that you didn't or couldn't predict. Sure, you expect the odd rejection for a cast call, an Agent to not bother to ring you back etc. But what happens when the rejection comes from someone a lot closer to home? How do you deal with loved ones pouring negativity on your dreams??? If you quote Yates at them "tread softly for you are treading on my dreams" then they may feel bad but the motivation for their negativity will remain. So what do you do? COPING WITH PERSONAL REJECTION This is hard! I would suggest that the best way forward is for you to explain to your loved ones that you take on board their concerns and that you share them too. Often, by being this frank with those who are closest to you, you disarm their arguments as more often that not, their motivation to say what they may say is from wanting to protect you from making what they perceive is a mistake and opening yourself up to a world of hurt. Say to them that you are very aware of the risks and explain to them that in order to minimize these risks and better stand a chance of professional success, you are developing a professional attitude to building your career. Show them how you go about doing this, show them the sorts of things that you do that I bang on about on this page of my website. Show them how you are being so damn PROACTIVE in building your career. Explain to them how you take sole responsibility for any professional developments and success that may come your way and, by being so proactive, you are slowly but surely BUILDING ON ROCK RATHER THAN ON DREAMS. Demonstrate how you are being as professional, organized, structured, disciplined and PROACTIVE as you can be and this will go a very long way towards disabling their arguments. COPING WITH PROFESSIONAL REJECTION This is easier! I play the numbers game when it comes to professional rejection. For every 100 NOs, I may get 1 YES. Therefore, each NO takes me closer to the YES I seek. Am I living in a fools paradise? I doubt it...In order to prevent me becoming deluded, I also treat each and every knock back as a learning experience. REJECTION AS A LEARNING EXPERIENCE Each time I get a knock back, I ask myself the following questions:
Rejection goes with the territory. It is SO much easier for a Decision Maker to say NO rather than YES. No one ever got fired for saying NO. Many a career has suffered because someone said "I think this is a brilliant idea" and then suffered the consequences... To prevent this happening, you need to really understand what are the criteria that goes with a NO. Once you can strike each and every criteria off your list, answer the questions that make them want to say NO with something that prevents this knee-jerk reaction, then you're getting closer to a YES, or at least a "LET'S TALK"...
Go to TOP BRANDING vs. TYPECASTINGIt’s come to my notice recently that a fair few actors that I talk to don’t really know the difference between BRANDING and TYPECASTING… The two are very different. In short, I think that when it comes to Actors, “Branding is good, Typecasting is bad!”. This means that I wholeheartedly support Actors exploring and identifying their own Brand as an Actor yet am completely against Typecasting. When an Actor is typecast, they find that they are really only accepted in certain, rather narrow, roles, e.g “The Gangster, The Girlfriend, The Grandmother” etc… This is nearly always greatly frustrating for the Actor concerned as these roles are often rather shallow and not very well drawn, by definition don’t have much depth to them, are not a great stretch and are often completely interchangeable… How frustrating is that!!! However, consider the concept of Branding… In lay terms, branding is the associated images and feelings one gets when one considers something, be it a product, a concept or anything else for that matter. Marketeers spend a fortune trying to get the end-user to identify positive images with their products but I am not for one moment suggesting that Actors should think of themselves as “products”. Instead, think about the general feelings that you, as an Actor, wish to convey when anyone in the Industry considers you. Do you want to come across as professional and prepared or as Prima Donna who just cannot take direction? Are you punctual? Do you exude the aura of a professional Actor? Do you have all the tools necessary to make someone, anyone, feel comfortable with hiring you? Or, are you messy in your approach, vague in the way you perceive how you are seen, vague in the way you interact with people, prone to making suggestions or comments that do you more harm than good? When two Actors of identical talent and experience go up for a role, I bet you the one with the strongest Brand Identity will get the part. So, my advice is: avoid Typecasting like the plague but do all that you can to construct a really strong, solid and dependable Brand image. Go to TOP
WHAT ELSE CAN I DO?If you are not on a paid project and consider yourself to be "resting", then, as far as I am concerned, you are missing opportunities. If you are not working:
Now then, tell me again why it is that your phone doesn't ring???Go to TOP THE ACTOR AS A BRAND?Below is a table of the most common adjectives used in Casting Breakdowns. This table was compiled by DANNY RICHMAN who runs CASTNET. Which of these adjectives can you play? Figure that out and you're some way towards finding your own BRAND IDENTITY...
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