January Career Goals Update

One way to help you stay on top of your resolutions is to have people to keep you accountable.  So, you guys are now my accountability team.  At the end of each month we are going to revisit my career goals I set this New Year's and see how I am doing.

CAREER GOALS

Goal: Attend class unless working an acting gig or sick
Actual: I skipped one Thursday class to go to Disneyland with my sister.  My excuse (I know, excuses are a terrible, terrible thing but ...) I had attended 5 classes already that week and needed a mental health day.

Goal: Work on scenes from plays I can put up.
Actual: I have worked on two new scenes already this year, but neither come from a play I would actually put up.  I am starting a new scene next week that has a possibility of being a cool play to do.

Goal: Read two plays a month.
Actual: I read "A Few Good Men," "Play It Again, Sam," and "Vanities."

Goal: Find and attend a good on-camera class to supplement my acting classes.
Actual: Started a commercial class with Chris Game.

Goal: Complete editing on both my films before the PWFF early bird deadline.
Actual: The five minute one has a rough cut, but b-roll footage is needed to round it out.  The 20-minute one is being worked on by Ricardo.

Goal: Write and produce two more shorts this year.
Actual: Let's finish these other two first.

Goal: Continue to help at the agency once a week.
Actual: I've been helping out at my agency and at some casting offices.  On weeks I couldn't go in on my normal day, I would try to go in a different day.

Goal: Find three casting offices that I can help out at as a reader.
Actual: Worked as a reader at two offices already!  A feature office and an episodic!  I think I will try to add more to this goal.

Goal: Blog every Monday.
Actual: Blogged every week.  And I added a new blog: Being Crafty and Cultured in Los Angeles.  There you can see how I am doing on my personal goals.

How do You Keep Yourself Going?

People always say how difficult it is to be an actor because you hear "no" all the time.  This is actually  not true - most of the time you hear nothing at all.  The way most actors find out they were rejected is when they see another actor playing the role they auditioned for on TV.  Oh, awesome, that goofy bug-eyed girl got that commercial I went in for ... again.

But there is no way around it, being an actor is a life filled with rejection.  And I'm not going to lie: it is difficult and it will get to you.  The people who have longevity in this business are the ones who can take the rejection and keep moving forward.

When the rejection starts to get me feeling down, I look at the reasons I chose this career in the first place.  I love to act; I love the theater; I love performing; I love movies; I love plays.

My first step in fighting the rejection blues is by watching some of my favorite actors in their best performances.  I get the classics down and watch Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singing in the Rain - the movies that made me want to be an actor in the first place.

Another way for me to fight the blues is by wandering around in the play section of my favorite used bookstore, The Iliad.  I grab a couple well-loved, marked up, highlighted plays for a couple bucks and curl up in a dark corner somewhere to read.  One secret of mine: I always act out all the parts in my head while reading a play.

If I am not on an upswing yet, then I pour myself into being more productive.  I find new classes; go to workshops; find offices to intern at.  Suddenly, I am too busy to feel depressed over some lousy one line role or a cheesy car commercial I didn't book.

What do you do to keep yourself moving forward?

Don't Talk Yourself Out of a Job

 Last week I was helping out at an audition and the scene we were using was only a page.  Most of the actors that came in to read were pros who had been in the business a long time and many of them would add a tiny improv to the end of the scene.  This is perfectly acceptable in most cases, especially in a pre-read when the writers aren't in the room.

But, make sure you know when to stop.  Adding one line is appropriate, but a page long monologue is not. 

One very talented comedian came in to read and added over a minute of dialogue after the scene was over.  The casting directors tried to get the actor to stop by saying thank you and he just kept talking.  Then as I was trying to escort the actor out of the room he did a whole schtick about me.  It was like he didn't want to leave the room and it was super uncomfortable for all of us. 

I know actors like to be the center of attention and that is especially true for comedians.  But, take the temperature of the room and know when your audition is done.  One good hint that they want you to leave is when the casting director says, "Thank You."  In casting director terms thank you means good bye.

This particular actor talked themselves out of even getting a callback.  Their read of the scene was actually one of the better ones, but the casting directors couldn't trust the actor in front of producers.

Don't lose a job because you don't know when to stop talking.  Casting directors aren't going to be impressed with your schtick, they just want to see your acting.

What Class is Right for Me?

There are so many classes for actors in Hollywood that it's difficult to know which one is the right one for you.  There are business of acting classes, technique classes, and commercial classes.  Then if you decide to do a technique class, what kind?  Do you want a heavy Meisner class or lighter cold-reading class?

A newer phenomenon in the category of business of the business are these classes specifically geared towards marketing.  Some are taught by people who seem to have little to do with show business and can cost up to $500.  Of course, marketing is important and clearly these teachers are very good at marketing to actors since many are willing to pay the money to take these classes.  Perhaps that does translate for actors marketing to producers, but I'm suspicious.  A few of my friends have taken them and felt like they got a lot out of it.  But are these classes worth all that money?

The same thing can be said for lots of technique classes out there.  So, how do you know if a class is worth taking?

My recommendation is to try it out.  Most places allow you to audit a class for free (and in general if a place doesn't let you do that I would question if it was the right place for me.)  Even some of these marketing classes offer free tidbits online. 

I take every free class offered to me because one thing I believe in wholeheartedly is: free stuff is good. 

Try it out, see if the teacher is right for you.  What's good for me may not work for you, so you can't always just rely on what classes your friends adore.

Recently, I went to audit a commercial class and I knew pretty quick that I would not like this guy as a teacher, but plenty of others swear by him.  If I had just gone by recommendations I would be spending way too much money on a class I would hate.  That allowed me to find another class that was right for me.

Here are a few good websites to find free classes, but be warned some are just trying to sell you on a much larger class:
www.sagfoundation.org
www.actorrated.com
freeworkshops.info

Pay Attention You Might Learn Something

One of my goals for the 2012 was to intern at three casting offices this year.  This particular goal is going along good because today I got to be a reader at a casting office working on an exciting new webseries. 

As a reader you get a great insider look into the casting process and if you pay attention you will learn so much more being a reader than you would ever learn at some cold reading workshop.

Today the lesson I learned was that even if you don't think your doing enough you are probably doing too much.  So many of the actors came in with all these planned out movements and pantomimes, like knocking on a door or making a kissing face.  None of this type of extraneous stuff helped their acting.  You could see them trying to remember what they had planned instead of actually listening and responding.

The best actress of the day, the one that gave everyone goosebumps, didn't move from the chair.  She spoke quietly, but loud enough for us to hear.  Everything was there in her eyes.

You don't have to pad your performance with all that extra stuff.  The most important thing is that you are natural and that you listen and respond to the reader.

On a side note, as the reader I hear all the notes that casting has given to the actors that came in before you.  I know what they are looking for and will do my best to direct your performance with my read, so it helps you to pay attention to me. 

Remember casting is on your side.  They want you to be so amazing that they don't have to see anyone else for the part.

Who is Keeping you Accountable?

Every New Years we make resolutions.  Last week, I wrote about the proper way to set goals.  But, once you figure out what your goals are, what keeps you from forgetting about them a month from now?

First, make sure you post your goals somewhere that would force you to see them as often as possible.  You could print them out and tack them to your mirror, make them the home screen on your phone, or do what I did and make them public by posting them on your blog.  You can see my 2012 goals here.

This leads to the second step on how to keep your goals.  Find a partner who will hold you accountable.  Get a close friend to meet you once a week or so for coffee and discuss where you are at with the goals you set.  By posting mine, I am using all of you to keep me accountable.  I will update once a week to keep me honest on my professional goals. 

For my personal goals I started a new blog called Getting Crafty and Cultured in Los Angeles, where I try to become more like Martha Stewart but on a budget. 

Hope everyone's New Year started fabulously! 

Good luck with all your New Year's goals.