Actor Growth

There are a lot of big featured films being released soon where many of them were shot here in Vancouver. As a result, it’s not surprising that many of the films have local actors who have roles in them. I happen to know a few of them too and I think it is so cool to see them get their opportunities for which they have worked years to get. While there is always a chance someone can just get “discovered” and have all the opportunities pour in, for the most part it is one crazy journey. That’s the fun part right?

Okay, so that means next one of you actors out there in cyber land with blogs that I follow need to report right away when you land a big gig too. I want to see more successes.

I recently just read that there was supposed to be an event happening here soon where there is like a panel of industry professionals who then discuss about their thoughts about the current film and TV industry. As well, it looks like they accept questions from the audience.

It looks like the panel would consist of people such as casting directors, agents and even actors. I was debating if I should go or not as I never attended anything like this before where it was specifically geared about the film industry here in BC.

So I was talking with my agent recently about my growth and direction thus far as I was curious if he had any input when it comes to myself in comparison to other local Vancouver actors who get seen by casting directors. Essentially, I was trying to find out what other people’s competitive edges were where they would be called for something over myself or vice versa.

He began by mentioning how it would make his job so much easier if he knew exactly what a casting director wanted. However, most of the time they just ask for very generic descriptions for a person such as the age and sex of the actor.

Out of that conversation too he addressed that a casting director usually calls 15 actors to audition per character. As well, he estimated that there were approximately 60,000 male actors here in the BC area. Putting that number into perspective should really make you think how competitive this field is.

He even mentioned that even though I’m ethnic, which puts me in a smaller demographic, there is no way to figure out what characteristics a casting director is looking for unless they mark Asian males only in their casting information.

You know, casting directors always say that if you even make it to the audition room you should be super happy. Many times I don’t really think too much of it, but thinking about those numbers sure puts everything in a different perspective. If here in BC we have 60,000 male actors, does that mean LA has like 500,000?

Now I know what my old acting classmate meant when he said he went to New York and couldn’t even get seen.

I thought this was a very interesting point that was told to me. Basically, the notion was that the most successful actors in the business are the ones who take a pro-active role in not just acting in a film but rather producing it as well.

Come to think of it, I suppose that is true in many ways. Producing it doesn’t necessarily mean forking out millions of your own dollar either. It could be that if you are chosen to act in a film that you are also say heavily involved in the stunt choreography as you want it to reflect accurately to real life situations from a personal standpoint.

It was funny too as I just got a script today for a potential role and it seems like the person wrote it with me in mind and asked me for any ideas. I think this is safe to use as an example where I would try to use my off screen creativity to help with the script and story telling as well where it would be as if I was producing it too.

So I went to the audition today and it was a pretty typical setup when it comes to auditioning for an independent production. It would seem that the competition is for some kind of Doritos chip where they need to create a 30 second commercial of some sort.

That wasn’t the most interesting part of the day though. After the audition I was talking to some people who were asking what I did for the day and I mentioned about the audition and what it was about. Immediately, one response was “You are not going to get it for sure because you are Chinese”.

That was so interesting I thought as that was coming from a person who is not into the film industry professionally and so I guess you can consider that as an average person’s view of a person like myself when it comes to trying to land roles. Clearly, in his mind he felt that ethnicity plays a huge role even for parts that are not ethnic specific.

I personally agree that it is a factor, but it is something that I have accepted as part of my challenge. You just have to learn to embrace these kinds of challenges I’d say as oppose to dwelling on them.

I was watching this video interview from a casting director where she was talking about basic items such as how she got into the business as well as how she goes about looking for talent. One of the most interesting lines was how she mentioned that in most cases she did not look for novices or people who were not serious about their craft.

As a result, she mentioned that she looks for the people that are right in her hometown of LA as that is where the action is and is where she can find the serious people. Basically, in her mind the people who are serious about acting too will move to LA to build their career.

That was indeed interesting I thought as people often do say that once you go to LA the film credits that one has gotten here in Vancouver won’t mean much. For myself, I don’t even know anyone personally that lives in LA which would make it really tough if I decided to make the move. Although, I do know some people who are going to try that soon and it will be interesting to see how they do.