Actor Growth

I was reading this interesting quote today that apparently came from an actor named Terrence Man. The quote is “Movies will make you famous; Television will make you rich; But theatre will make you good.” What an interesting quote I thought. I have yet to really get a worthwhile opportunity to judge that remark when it comes to movies and television, but one thing most of the other actors I talk to agree with is that theatre really does help your craft immensely.

I started with a theatre background myself and till this date I still think I learned more about acting in general from doing theatre roles than any other film training and experience I have gone through thus far. It’s a good advantage at times too where I find that I usually have an easier time playing dialogue driven roles compared to people without a theatre background.

At this day in age though I think movies and television roles have almost the same type of pull in terms of making someone a well known name don’t you think? I know as a personal example for myself I used to watch that TV show Friends all the time and I would think a ton of those actors are still more well known for that TV show as opposed to roles they have played in movies. In my opinion it just comes down to how successful and popular the film or show is.

I think nowadays as actors we have to factor in the Internet as well. I mean some actors are even including web series on their resumes which is kind of interesting. I have yet to see an Internet based actor get really big globally in terms of getting opportunities to act in like leads in a big budget film or television role. Think the reason for this is that most Internet videos are one of those “For cheap laughs” type of creations.

Actually, in terms of pull and recognition ability I think the Internet is like the television way back. If you considered before that starring in a movie role is “making it” where everything else like TV roles are a stepping stone I think today the Internet can be that stepping stone. The main advantage is that almost everyone can self publish themselves with this medium.

I noticed that there was a another casting director workshop happening in about two weeks and I decided that I will attend this one. There have been a lot of advertisements lately as well for these types of workshops and what attracted me to this one was that it seemed like it was going to be conducted in a semi audition styled setting.

I read that first you would get trained by an acting coach to prepare a scene and then afterwards you will perform this scene on camera for a real local casting director. This fitted in perfectly with my current direction which was to learn less about the actual acting process on set and to focus more on the auditions as you need to land those roles first and foremost.

As well, I wanted to again avoid those “Paid to get seen” type of workshops as I don’t think those are beneficial at all. Unlike the last casting director workshop I went to, this one insisted that all actors must have previous professional training to enroll. Hopefully that is a good sign that this will be some good stuff too at a higher level.

Looks like there is another year for that Asian movie making competition here in Vancouver. As you may all remember from last year, I entered it in the last minute with some people and I ended up having to work virtually every department even though all I wanted to do was act in it. I was asked if I was going to enter the competition this year again.

Currently my stance is that I would only want to participate as an actor. While I can work in other departments, they aren’t my main passion and so I think other people would have more fun doing it. So, as of now it’s just a matter of if there is a team or project that think I would be a great fit for their film.

So, a traditional going in for an audition type of deal. It would be fun to participate in it again though if I end up working with a team in the competition.

That was a unique way of saying it I thought. The other day I was listening to an acting coach talking about how there can be a gazillion reasons on why you didn’t get the part and so you shouldn’t think too much of it. Example, they wanted someone taller, a specific ethnicity, etc.

He then used a humorous example of going into an interview for a bank job first where you have to sit in a room with all of the other applicants (Hence the audition). Then, as you are in the interview room imagine that they think you are the perfect candidate skill wise and it sounds like you got the job.

Eventually, they decide they can’t use you as they want a girl to attract more female audience and at the same time they need specific colored person to help with the company’s diversity image. Not only that, since they hired the girl, even though you are qualified to do the job you were shorter than the girl which wasn’t acceptable for them and so they hired another person.

Where else but in the world of acting can hiring someone be this discriminating and judgmental? Everyone was just laughing at that too as we all know that is just the way it works in this field and we just need to learn not to take rejections personally.

I was reading this interesting article at the Showfax site by a casting director named Bonnie Gillespie at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/index.html which had a lot of important notes about knowing your character type I thought.

There was a lot of insightful points such as if an actor submits themselves for virtually every role it can come across as desperate or that they don’t know their own look range. Another interesting note was the one I read about meeting casting directors.

Basically, she talks about how there are so many casting directors out there where it is better to just research the one’s that usually cast for projects that you would have a good chance of getting as oppose to just trying to meet everyone. Usually people tell you to always take every casting director workshop for example. I guess this puts it in perspective in terms of narrowing down your focus. You can probably end up saving a lot of money too.

It was a good read and I would recommend everyone take a peak at it if you are an actor as well.

Art and film is usually one of those very subjective topics where one person could think something is the best in the world while another would say the opposite. Recently I was reading some comments on a short film that I acted in where people commented mostly on the direction and technical editing work.

There was this one critic that sounded like he directed dozens of films and was an authority on the subject. While some would say you should ignore those and critics in general, I think from an acting point of view it is interesting to get feedback about your work regardless if it is negative or positive.

I think the key is ignoring the emotional rant that the person may have but rather really focus on what they are really trying to say. Actually, it’s a lot like doing a good scene where you want to focus on what they really mean and not necessarily the lines they are saying.

I guess it is kind of like networking or meeting new people too. Sometimes people are just complete jerks to you for no reason. In actuality it can end up being that they just don’t know how to approach people and are afraid of rejection. Or a person bragging about their expensive jewelry could really be saying they are poor and need to look rich.

So with that in mind I always try to listen o every type of criticism as even if you feel it helps you in any way artistically it can be useful marketing information if you are trying to target that particular audience.