Actor Growth

I was talking to a person recently who mentioned that he would be interested in seeing me publish simple videos of times when I am on set in a simple Q&A type of setup for the visitors. While many people post video clips of their days on set and such, I guess there isn’t too many performers that take requests from readers.

My first thought was that a big reason I suppose people don’t do this is that film sets can be super sensitive about what people publish and most people want inside story scoop information which we can’t do. Usually though we are free to say generic stuff such as talking about what we ate or who we met/worked with. That’s not that exciting is it? Lol. Going to an audition itself is kind of an open book though usually.

Maybe I’ll put together some little videos I took of just me hanging around with other performers on certain sets or the places I have had to travel to. But, feel free to ask if anyone has a particular request as maybe what’s considered routine for me might be super exciting for others.

I might consider making a no budget online reality show out of it if it turns out to be something fun.

Well, that’s it for this particular workshop. The day started out in a very unorthodox fashion where we all had to stand in a circle and go through a routine as a way to open ourselves up to each other. The exercise involved things such as blurting out words without vowels to trying and channel your energy to another person.

Besides that, for the most part the day was the same as other days where we performed a scene and got feedbacks. There was one interesting comment of the day that stuck out for me personally. The acting coach was giving feedbacks to another Asian person and he specifically encouraged him to keep at it even though there aren’t many opportunities for him.

That immediately made me think because I am Asian too, of course, and have been prepared since the beginning knowing that my opportunities will be limited and to try and find ways around that as a result. Speaking of which, I was surprised to see many people doing scenes that they wrote themselves. Afterwards, he talked about his new sessions that were taking place in the future and that was the end of this experience.

Was this worth it overall? Again, I base my value on the results I get in getting auditions/roles and so I can’t judge that yet. But overall my feeling about this particular workshop is that it seems to be more beneficial if you are already out there in the industry such as casting directors being aware of you.

I say this because when it comes to the acting work in this workshop it is definitely very thorough. The coach does a lot in trying to get you to do things a certain way while challenging you to go deeper. So if your goal is to become better at your craft of acting then this would definitely be a top choice in the city I’d say.

However, I know most actors take workshops like these to try and find a way to even get that first opportunity to showcase themselves in the first place. So when you think about it, in that sense these types of workshops may not be right as you would want more focus on audition techniques as well as ways to better promote yourself.

Interesting experience overall. For my next journey into various acting workshops, I have chosen a place that seems to specifically focus on audition techniques while the instructors seem to emphasize that they want to see you get work as a result of taking its workshops. This won’t start until next month, but I will be doing an audit of sort next week.

I was reading a post from the Actors Voice today where the advice for actors who still haven’t made yet is to simply get better. Essentially, it is addressing the issue how people say that they have tried everything to get their break and nothing works. The comment seemed pretty blunt too where if you honestly say that you tried everything then maybe that just means that you aren’t good enough to make it and need to get better. You can read the article at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/ that was posted today.

As an actor still working hard myself it’s kind of interesting as I personally didn’t find it “offensive” in anyway which I’m sure it will for a lot of people. I think the bottom line is that it comes down to your attitude as if you are always negative then most likely you won’t get anywhere. At the same time, I suppose for myself I have that business and entrepreneur attitude when it comes to acting.

Like a business, it is up to you to try different things and be persistent if you are not getting the results that you are looking for. Example, you can blame things like the economy for your woes or simply adapt to the situation in order to achieve your desired results.

At the same time, I always remember the general value of a business offering when it comes to getting customers. If you offer something unique then people have to come to you for those services. If you don’t offer something that is unique then you are competing against price and convenience. I believe this holds true as an actor that is looking for work too.

One thing this article didn’t really address too much is your look and presence. You hear stories all the time about people who got the parts based mostly their looks. Or in the more rare incidents, they get discovered off the streets based solely on appearance. So in that sense, since the article focused mostly on your training as an actor I think things like your image portrayal kind of throws a wrench into the mix where there are so many ways to reach your goal.

With that in mind, that got me thinking too….. Is it more about becoming a better “actor” or becoming a better “talent” that gets you those opportunities? Example, there is a MMA (mixed martial arts) oriented movie coming out where there are actual UFC fighters acting in the movie apparently.

Are they better actors than many of the undiscovered film talent that spend thousands of hours training to act in front of the camera? Highly doubt it. Are they better fighters? Probably. So in that case, would training to be a better actor or a more talented fighter be better for your career path assuming those are the types of roles that you want to do? I personally think this is an overlooked aspect for aspiring actors.

So if you are going to spend 10,000 hours to try and master something for the sole purpose of moving your acting career, I believe we really need to sit down and make sure that what we are learning is truly the most logical way to do it.

I know for myself with the martial arts example, if my goal as an actor was to become the greatest film martial artist in the world I would be spending my 10,000 hours training in the Dojo and not necessarily with an acting coach. Why? Cause odds are if I focus in becoming the greatest martial artist all time the opportunities will naturally come to my door.

In my opinion too, everyone acts everyday and I personally consider living life as training to a certain extent. I know an acting coach once said in a workshop where when we, the acting students, choose a scene it is not a fluke that we chose it. Something about it attracted us to it and enables us to perform the scene great. To me, it’s about being able to relate to it based on real life experiences and observations.

While I am not a household name or authority figure when it comes to becoming an established actor as I have yet to make it there myself yet, I do believe that sometimes we tend to focus too much on spending thousands of dollars to train to become a better “actor” when really working on our unique “talent” should be more of the focus I’d say.

While on set the other day I was talking to a person who worked on a movie recently and was originally supposed to just be doing some simple background work. However, as it turned out he was playing an even bigger role as in the movie he ended up getting stabbed and bloodied up like crazy by one of the key characters in the film.

Now in most cases you would assume that would fall in the lines of a stunt or principal work. While I wasn’t working with the person to see this myself, he mentioned that he had to also take a fall and the camera was on his face in a close up a lot. However, the production did not give him a credit role for that.

Instead, what he got was an SAE (Special Abilities Extra) upgrade which means the performer gets paid a lot more minus any kind of an acting credit. As a result, the issue was brought up to the performers Union here in BC as the process is that they will review the footage to see if an upgrade or credit is warranted.

Unfortunately, he mentioned that after they reviewed it they determined that his role was not integral in moving the story forward and therefore the production did not have to give him a credit upgrade. He then mentioned that Unions don’t usually fight for you in these types of situations either and so he just left it as is. However, he did enjoy the experience.

I never been through a situation like this personally. But a good point he brought up is that if you ever do have an issue like this you have about 30 days to rectify it. So don’t just sit there and waiting for the last minute to bring the issue up if you encounter something similar.

At the same time, I guess this example shows that you can’t necessarily just rely on the Union to be your savior. In this situation what you could do is ask the production people ahead of time on what type of credit you would be receiving for doing this. Example, like in this case if they said SAE and not stunts then you could just make it clear in a professional way that you shouldn’t be doing say flips if it is not stunt work. That way, you can get everything sorted out right away.

Yesterday was the second last day of the actors workshop. This time the class focused on doing a scene that was more quirky and far fetched in a serious type of way. Since everything kind of required a British accent too it was definitely an out of place scene for me. However, I decided to do it without focusing on the accent.

For the most part I believe I did what I wanted to do. There was one moment where my character gives a subtle flick of the eyebrow to tell this girl not to do something and the whole class reacted to it which was great. Even the reader told me she was shocked by it as it was so fast but it definitely made her think in context to the scene.

The acting coach made a comment in the end how it seems like all my acting around the facial expressions is all great and fits so well. The main complaint is that it’s mainly my body motions that don’t have the same type of expressions and so he was trying to think of a way to get me to improve on that.

He also commented that all of the relaxation techniques in the world such as Yoga isn’t going to help it seems and that I need something else. I then made a comment to him during the break that a big reason for this is because I came from a theatre background where you often can over exaggerate your moves and be more free. However, once I studied film you are taught to not do that.

It then registered for him quickly about the issue as he said he understand perfectly as after film training you are always second guessing yourself about your movements and so you tend to do nothing. I then asked him if there was a scene that specifically focuses on the characters moving a lot and he mentioned he would try to find one.

In the end of the day though, I was late and he just handed everyone scripts. He gave me one that seems along the lines of an X-files type of show. Don’t think there is anything that would force me to use more movement though.

He did throw in a comment asking if it was okay to give me this as it has a lot of technical stuff and he felt that I would understand this type of thing. Hence, he was worried about the stereotype where I might object to reading for something like that. I said it didn’t matter though. So I guess I this will be my last scene though as next week is the last day in training with this coach.

Since I only have two sessions left with the current place I am taking acting workshops from I am already in the hunt for a different one. I actually see one that looks pretty good and have already sent an inquiry about it.

It is located in the Vancouver area too which seems great. One of my criteria this time around was to find a coach that also focuses in trying to help their students actually get auditions such as advice on networking, how to market themselves, types of places to find auditions, etc.

I personally have found this lacking thus far with the current place I attend.