Actor Growth

I got a notice recently that an independent film I volunteered for has been finished editing and that people could pick up a copy to see how it turned out. This just got me thinking about the conversation I had the other day about whether or not you really need a professional demo reel of clips as an actor and if so what scenes you should choose.

The funny thing was I thought is that the conscience so far is that when it comes to professional casting directors if your clips aren’t from say a TV show or movie from one of the big studios that you shouldn’t even have a reel at all. So, this means virtually all of the independent films that I have participated in to this date are not usable in that sense. It was then emphasized that those types of work are more for finding an agent.

That’s kind of too bad as you would think the purpose of a reel is to show what you are about can do regardless of the budget that was attached to the production. I still enjoy volunteering for various films if the projects sound interesting to me. It’s just too bad these types of work aren’t as appreciated I guess you can say when it comes to being a legitimate way to showcase an artist.

Well something interesting happened today. While I was on set and getting ready around the wardrobe department one of the main actress of the tv series went up to me and asked if I attended a particular high school. Indeed I said yes and she reacted by saying she knew that she recognized me from somewhere. That was so funny I thought because it was bugging me too where I thought I recognized her from school before but figured “it can’t be that person can it?” type of deal. Turns out it is indeed the same person.

That got me curious tonight to just research what she has accomplished and such. It seems like she made it pretty big too with a ton of credits under her belt. It was kind of weird when doing the research too as evidently she is a performer that a gazillion guys go gaga over and reading all those fantasy comments is just weird when it comes to people you know. lol.

This would usually be a good opportunity to learn and share experiences on what others have done and the roads they have taken to get to where they are at. However, she wasn’t exactly in the same grade as I was and all so I never really spoke to her before. So, I thought it would be a little inappropriate to ask too much in regards to acting career stuff. It’s just one of those moments where you just have to solve it or it will bug you forever. So, basically for the most part the day was just treated as a regular work day with surprises.

I guess she is technically the most successful actress that I know in one of those “before they were famous” type of deals. What a funny way that it was discovered though.

I guess like any other job, when you are the new guy in the scene you usually want to make the best impression that you can and not wanting to make a big deal about things. Just the other day I was talking to a person who felt that many times there were productions that didn’t credit him appropriately as they simply don’t want to pay the rates of having to upgrade a person to a certain category.

The tricky thing he mentioned was that he is not exactly a big name or anything and so for the most part he just sucks it up as he doesn’t want to be excluded from future projects simply because of the notion that he say asked for an upgrade one time. In contrast to any other job it would be like people hired and paid to be say a cashier yet for some reason they then find themselves having to do merchandising, accounting work, scheduling, etc.

I suppose for myself it is fortunate that I enjoy most aspect of the film industry. So just having the opportunity to be a part of various productions is usually a good reward in itself. Have there been times where I felt that I was taken advantage of like with the example above? Absolutely.

But my hope has always been that I will just continue to do the opportunities that are presented to me to help myself grow as eventually I will either meet the right people or land the right opportunities to enable me to take the steps to move forward. I don’t see too much point in spending so much time and energy trying to get say a production to upgrade you from a small principal actor to a supporting actor if they are reluctant.

Like in that case, if you are still kind of fresh I would think just the fact that you were in the production will give you a lot of new tools and experience to do even greater things.

The shoot was fun and interesting. For the project I was put into an ice skater outfit as if I was one of the Olympic Athletes in the city for the 2010 Winter games here in Vancouver using our local transportation system. I was paired up with another lady to make an Asian duo pair.

Was I every sparkly too. That clothing item had glitter like I was some person ready for a Disney on ice show. Everyone kept commenting about it and at the same time people couldn’t stop asking if I was a real ice skater. I actually had to wear real ice skates too. All in all it ended pretty quickly.

For the most part it was mainly holding positions as the photographer wanted to get the perfect shots and all. Was kind of painful holding these very awkward positions as that is what was needed to get the good shots. One guy was shocked that I was able to hold it for so long. I’m no Yoga master or anything but that’s what torturing yourself in awkward stretching positions for martial arts can do for you I guess. lol.

This phone call completely caught me off guard today. Essentially I got a call from the agency and assumed that it was to confirm whether or not I would be needed for a certain production as I was put on a six day hold.

Upon answering the phone the agency receptionist was telling me that I was submitted for an Olympic shoot before and that they wanted to book me for tomorrow if I was available. Of course, I said yes to it. I was just thinking to myself too how sudden this was and that to work in this profession you have to be readily available at virtually anytime.

I actually don’t even know the exact details for the project either. The only info I got out of the phone call was that it was for an ad campaign. Let’s see what happens.

I was working on a TV show today and while talking to other people it sounded like so many people were contemplating about creating a web series of some sort. Interestingly enough, over the weekend I learned that some of my acting coaches were interested in it as well.

Guess more and more people are taking the creating your own future route. I was trying to think of an idea and I think I thought of something that would be right up my alley. I think I need a female actress to partner up with that has the right background though as that would create the perfect dynamic for the theme.