How to Become an Actor
If you want to be a professional actor, eventually New York or Los Angeles will be where you will find work. However, you can build a résumé of experience in any major metropolitan area. You will want to take acting classes, and appear in plays, films and television.
Develop different looks. Dress up in various costumes, change your hairstyle and makeup, and take on different characters. Pretend to be each of these characters in front of the mirror, and develop monologues for each of them. Can you be a thug, a stripper, a rich socialite, a hard guy, drug dealer, cop, hero, slut, store manager, nerd or computer whiz? Can you be a cowgirl, insane, stupid, queen, thief, super hero, race car driver or bimbo? Can you learn to talk with accents from various counties, such as British, French, Italian, Mexican, Indian or Swedish? Find the characters that fit your personality, looks and style. Work up headshots, actor demo tapes and monologues for your best characters and try to sell them to agencies.
Many junior colleges have acting classes, and most major cities have acting troupes. Of course, there are hundreds of acting schools in New York and Los Angeles.
Great actors never stop studying, never stop learning, and never stop growing. Many directors will train an actor for months before they begin shooting in Marshal Arts, dancing, accents, or put them in an environment to learn about their character. I read that Brad Pitt spend several weeks in an insane asylums learning the mannerisms of crazy people to prepare for his role in the movie “12 Monkeys”. This kind of study shows how serious an actor is to develop a believable character.
Want to be an action hero? Study Marshal Arts, stunts and fighting techniques. Want to star in roles as a socialite? Go to finishing school; learn to play an instrument, study the rich and famous in magazines and on TV.
You will need to have a great headshot to pass around. This alone can land you jobs. Decide if you want several headshots in your character roles, or just looking your best. Find a photographer that offers actor’s headshots, and look at their work. Compare the work of at least 5 photographers, and pick the one that makes the actors look the most interesting and glamorous. Don’t just go for the cheapest one! If you can’t afford a great headshot, don’t waste your time and money on one that is just OK. Wait until you can afford the best photographer you can find.
Your resume should include plays, dance productions, TV shows, TV commercials, and films you have appeared in. Even if you only had a bit part, or came on as an extra, each listing adds to your credibility. Remove listings from school plays as quickly as you can, it makes you look like an amateur. However, if you went to acting school or have a degree in acting, display that information prominently on your resume.
Join an actor’s union as soon as you can afford to do so, such as SAG (Screen Actors Guild) http://www.sag.org/ Actors' Equity http://www.actorsequity.org/ or AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) http://www.aftra.com These organizations can help you find work and an agency. However, don’t be afraid to take non-union work. There are lots of projects that cannot afford union actors, and these can pay your bills!
Speaking of paying your bills, many actors file for unemployment as soon as they finish a job, and live on it until they find their next job. Other actors take part-time jobs at night or with flexible schedules that will allow them to both eat and pursue their acting careers.
Get in front of a camera at every opportunity. Buy a video camera, and film yourself doing monologues. Find an actor friend, work up a scene and do it on your video camera. Show it to other people in the industry, and ask them to give you some tips on how to improve. Find a section from a film or commercial you like, and learn the lines and do it on video. Try to do it better than the actor in the film.
Go to auditions and casting calls. One of the most amazing websites to learn about what is going on in the industry is IMDB. http://www.imdb.com/ Sign up for the Pro version and you will find company listings for movie production houses, casting calls, information about movies about to start filming, message boards, contact listings, phone numbers, addresses, talent agencies, etc. There is also a place to post your resume on IMDB. Also check out http://www.inktalent.com/
http://lacasting.com
http://www.actorsaccess.com/
http://nowcasting.com/
You can also finding casting calls on several of the modeling websites:
http://www.newfaces.com/
http://www.musecube.com/
http://www.modelmayhem.com/
http://www.modsheet.com/
http://www.onemodelplace.com/
Print up cards with your headshot and info and send them to casting directors and agencies in your area. Make a page about your acting career on social networking sites such as MySpace and FaceBook. Put videos of you doing skits, dances, or crazy stuff on YouTube, Yahoo and other video sharing websites. You are a product! Market yourself!
Always except invitations to industry parties and events. Show up in amazing outfits at movie openings and red carpet events and see if you can get photographed with famous people. Getting your picture in a gossip paper with a celebrity can only help your career. Some actors purposely create scandal to get free publicity.
Much of video work is for television commercials, although actors are used on TV shows as extras, or in movies. Some actors take public speaking classes as well as acting classes so that they can get speaking parts on the commercials, which pay more. You could be selling anything – cars, boats, appliances, makeup, furniture, clothing, food, beverages – the idea is to show the product in use, and to make the product or service desirable. Sex sells and the sexier the actor, the more attractive the product looks to the viewer. A television commercial that will be aired nationally could pay thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. However, if it is for a local, small town car dealer, don’t expect that kind of money.
Getting Acting Jobs
There are two ways of getting jobs as an actor, finding jobs on your own, or having someone else do it for you. Many actors start out promoting themselves, and then work with an agency as they become more experienced. Getting a good agency to represent you is difficult, as they can only represent a small fraction of the people that want work. There are also lots of bad agencies out there – so be careful!
Being an actor is a business, and you are the product! Products must be put in front of potential buyers in an attractive manner, and offered at a reasonable price. If you are promoting yourself, you need to be willing to do the marketing and selling of yourself, and this means working at it every day! The internet has made getting your face in front of potential buyers easier, and you need to have a profile on several major acting websites. A part of your job as an actor promoting yourself is to check these listings regularly, and go to auditions and casting calls.
For rates and package prices for actor headshots, comp cards and portfolios contact Davis@DavisPhotographic.com or call 213-434-3344.
This article was written by Dennis R. Davis, copyright 2008. All rights reserved, no part of this article may be reproduced on a website or in print without written permission. |
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