Actor Growth

Recently I was talking to an actress who had literally no film acting experience and she had the opportunity to be a part of a production. Interestingly enough though, she was telling the production people that she would only do the film if it met her expectations in terms of quality.

While it is important to make sure you only do work that you are say comfortable with as it essentially does have your name on it, I just thought that was the wrong attitude to have. Especially when you are starting out I’d say you can’t be too picky and expect say an A+ budget film and crew. I mean, you aren’t exactly there yet either if you are starting out.

I suppose it comes down to the attitude of networking too. For myself, I always see doing indie projects as a fun way to build my experience as well as meeting others who I will no doubt see in the future again. The main thing I expect usually is that they are taking it as seriously as I am as it should be a two way streak.

At this point I still enjoy doing student and independent films a lot as it helps me to build my portfolio and not to mention skills as an actor. One thing I do notice is how since most of these roles are on a volunteer notice that the people producing the film usually try their best to cater and make sure you are taken care of.

While I am personally not like those people that say “where is my trailer?” I think that is usually a nice gesture from the producers. Makes you want to do more films with them too. When I think about it, I usually get treated pretty well on independent films and treat it no different though than professional work.

I mean, the same should go around when it comes to treatment where if they are trying to treat you as if you are on a professional set then you should try your best as well to accommodate them too whether it be schedule flexible or effort wise.

I went to an audition recently and interestingly enough the producer of the film project mentioned that he knew me. Honestly, I didn’t recognize him at all and afterwards he mentioned that he attended the film production program at the same school and year where I attended the film acting program.

Sure enough, it rang a bell afterwards. He then phoned me to tell me that I didn’t get the part unfortunately but that he was interested in casting me for another project of his. Ironically, unfortunately I was working on that MAMM film and was unable to do so.

That goes to show you that it can be a very small world in the film business and it is great to make sure that you do as much as you can to generate contacts.

I recently saw an ad from a person who was interested in setting up an acting group where people can teach each other techniques while supporting each other during their acting career.  I thought it was a great idea as with anything in life you usually need to surround yourself with like minded people in order to achieve what it is that you want.

I met with them today and in total there were about 8 people.  It was great to learn about all the different background and experiences that had thus far.  While today was just a meet and greet, next we are hoping to do some monologues or even filming.  An idea flew around too to try and find people who were interested in say script writing or camera work where we can all create our own films to get exposure and experience.