Actor Growth

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.

Well this was an interesting comment that a person told me while on set. Basically, I was doing some simple background work and one person was telling me about the pay and how sometimes it is not enough for him due to the non full time nature of the field. I then commented that I personally don’t do things like background work for money but rather as a way to get more involved in the film business during my downtime as an actor.

He then commented on how at least I was doing it for the right reason which I thought was kind of interesting. I say that because in the end it is just a job I suppose as some people could be doing it for money and others could be doing it for experience. So with that in mind is there ever truly a “right” reason for doing a job such as this?

I mean hey, I even volunteer for various film productions as an actor too where there is no money involved. You definitely need passion though that’s for sure. In some funny and cliché way too these things don’t even feel like a job to me in a traditional sense.

I had a fun day today helping out with that film project. It basically took about 8 hours for a 4 page script and apparently the person is going to try and edit everything by tomorrow.

The group then made a comment on how we should trying to make a film every week and so every actor will get an opportunity to continually work on something to gain experience while possibly turning it into bigger and better things.

Sounds like a great pro-active way to get one’s career going. It’s kind of an interesting dynamic too since there is a good mix of people who only want to specialize in certain fields of making a film whether it be acting or say directing.

It appears that some people that I met on a previous set are trying to make a short film and asked if I could help. I agreed as I am always interested in doing film work regardless if there is pay or not. It was interesting too as this made me think how if you just surround yourself with more like minded people it indirectly creates opportunities.

This concept is very true when it comes to business when it comes to attracting clients and building future opportunities. Should be a no brainer then when it comes to trying to develop and acting career huh? Considering you pretty much have to find a way to get yourself out there.

Alright, so I’m still waiting to meet all of the Asians that are trying to make it into the film business as I’m sure there must be a ton of people that want to try and do some creative things since it appears at this point you have to create your own work to get things going.

Today I went into this supermarket and to my surprise I bumped into a person who I met on set. This person has no aspirations in being say an actor, but he got into background work as it was something different and from what I remember he wouldn’t mind just doing that as an income source. Apparently, he hasn’t been called out since way back during that Farwell Atlantis movie and so understandably he had to find a regular job in order to make a living.

This made me think too as a lot of people don’t realize how hard it can be to work in this industry in any form. You often hear those phrases such as the “starving artist” and based on what I have seen that’s no exaggeration when it comes to film work. A lot of people that I know when it comes to acting is that they actually don’t work too much, but rather they just got paid a lot for a certain type of work.

When it comes to background work, I only met one person who actually does it full time too and in some ways it surprises me as he must be in his mid 50’s or so and only makes the minimum as he is not a part of the Union. I personally always view background work as a stepping stone or filler for other things that you are aspiring to do as oppose to a career.

But if you intend to work full time in this industry, I think it is wise to always have some kind of backup or support system that will enable you to survive while you are striving to meet that goal. In many ways, you are like an entrepreneur as it is up to you ultimately to find work and opportunities to make things happen for yourself.

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.