Actor Growth

Looks like there are a heap of audition postings lately from independent sources where the poster simply wants you to send them a picture/headshot to be judged for a potential audition role. Scary thing about this one too is that the person wants people with a kid to teen look.

For myself whenever I read audition postings, if the person requests for a headshot and clamors on about how it is for a big production I usually ignore it unless they provide specific details about the company or the people behind it.

A lot of times people actually just collect photos and then use them in an unauthorized way. Or worst, it is some person who is trying to lure you for something unrelated. I think dating sites are a great example where you often see lesser known actor/model photos where people use them deceivingly as their profiles. Who would have thought things as simple as a headshot can create so much trouble huh?

One thing that should be interesting with the principal agency meeting is that my approach to this one is going to be very unorthodox since I already know the agent from doing other film work. Usually though, the debate is always how you should approach the meeting.

Essentially, you can approach it like an interview where you are trying to find out the agencies direction and goals for you to determine if they will be an ideal fit for your career. On the other hand, some people approach it in an audition style where it’s almost as if they are trying very hard to impress the agent as if they were trying to land a role.

I’ve tried it both ways personally before and to me the interview style is the best. My reason for that is that I don’t think you should have to try too hard to make an agent see your marketability in the industry. If they are truly a good agency fit for you and you believe in your skills, in my opinion they should be able to use their creativity and see dozens of ways to market you.

If they don’t and you still sign on with them for some reason I can only imagine that you will get frustrated as it will seem like you have to work extra hard just to get them to try and push you more. For this meeting though, I am just going to approach it very casual and friendly way. With this agent I want to be able to feel confident that I can speak with them at any time to ensure that the working relationship is always in tact.

I just realized that in 2009 there is going to be a minimum of at least two videos that are going to be distributed on the web that I participated in. This actually interests me a lot as I wonder how this will affect me as a performer.

Usually a lot of web based video gets redistributed in poor low quality conditions which doesn’t exactly make the people involved look too good. Then again, I guess with the Internet it can turn out to be a good thing too where if it is done well you can get a lot of recognition for it.

On top of the fact that I plan to launch my website next year, that will be a lot of online presence for me and so I need to make sure that I manage it effectively. This is something that I really should speak to my new agent about too once that is settled. Fortunately I grew up using the Internet, so this isn’t exactly going to be a scary thing.

I got an e-mail today in regards to a short film I acted in awhile back called The Seven. This was actually intended to be a two episode web release. It’s actually the first film I have ever down too where the film was going to be specifically released on the Internet.

As of now all they have is the trailer and apparently they are making two completely different cuts with one following the original script and the other is not. This was done by film students, so the expectation isn’t extremely high I guess generally speaking. One thing that was interesting is that this is the first student film I saw that used traditional movie credits in the trailer as you can see here:

I had fun working on this film though and hope to get to see the final cut as maybe I’ll even use some of it for my reel.

In one of the e–mails I got from my agent she mentioned about new shows that will be shooting here in Vancouver in 2008 which means more opportunities for people. One of the show is called “Defying Gravity” and apparently the other one are sequels to “Twilight” which is suppose to becoming in March.

2008 has definitely been slow with the strike and all. 2009 is definitely going to be a lot busier. It should be a lot more interesting for me too as I will be trying a new agency with the intent of being more involved in auditioning and trying to land principal roles.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I did less background work as well since usually the drawback to doing it from an actor point of view is that you lessen your chances of playing bigger roles on various TV series. Although, on the flip side sometimes you appear so much that the production decides to make a role for you.

I went to this studio today to quickly film the public service announcement video. It was pretty straight forward and there was only a two person crew. As expected, everything was kind of a on the fly type of matter as it was done in an interview type of style.

It was pretty quick too as it lasted only about 15 minutes. Apparently it will be shown in places like Youtube sometime next month or so and will probably be on the organization’s site too. I guess everyone will get to see it.