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.

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.