ACTING OPPORTUNITIES (The New Tips on 2012)

Here are a few ideas on maximizing your any Acting Opportunities (The New Tips on 2012) that might come your way, or creating the opportunities in the first place.

HAVING AN AGENT

An agent can get your face seen in places that you alone could not. This increases the likelihood of you getting work. The more swings you make the more balls you hit! But there are many acting opportunities to be found without an agent. Though nearly all Film, TV, Broadway and Off Broadway productions will exclusively use agent submissions, you can still find work without an agent. Community and Dinner Theatre, student and some Indie films will take unrepresented actors.

The more experience and skills you have the more likely it is that an agent will take you on. An agent makes money when you work, so they will be keen to sign you up if you can show what an asset you will be to them. There is nothing wrong with sending a Resume and Headshot (more on those later), but it’s essential that you send follow-up cards letting the agent know where and when you will be working, so they can see for themselves what a good actor you are.

RESUMES

Resumes help, they help in getting an agent but once you have one, your agent will use it to get you auditions. There are some rules for resumes, here are are the major ones.

Keep it to one page (8.5 x 11), if its more than one page the pages might get separated and details lost.

Make it neat. People have been known to get around the above restriction by using a small font size, its a judgement call but if the type is too small it will be hard to read.

The Headshot should be recent, but use a photograph that shows you at your absolute best.

Make sure that all your contact information is correct, its also an idea to set up an email address specifically for your acting correspondence, this may stop you deleting essential emails.

The big tip for resumes is DON’T LIE! We have all exaggerated something on an application form at some time, but you should be very careful about what you say you can do on your resume. Future opportunities could be endangered if you lie and you will look foolish if you’ve put motorcycle riding down as a skill and on your first day on set you have to admit you just to get the part.

LOCAL COMMERCIALS

The majority of acting opportunities are focused around the major cities like New York and L.A. But other opportunities crop up all over the country, some of which I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The most lucrative can be commercials for local car dealerships, restaurants and large local stores. These are usually produced by local agencies who will normally use local talent because it’s easier and cheaper than flying in someone from L.A. The director will still only hire actors with the relevant skill and look, but you can improve your opportunities if you have a diverse or “ethnically ambiguous” look, i.e. if you can pass for more than one type of race.

Thanks for taking the time to read this article, I hope that it’s given you a few ideas on maximizing your acting opportunities.I hope it helped and gave you a few ideas.

Acting Auditions Tips (The New Tips on 2012)

Acting Auditions Tips (The New Tips on 2012).

If your looking for acting audition tips this is a good place to start, It’ll give you a few things to consider though because of space its not totally exhaustive, so just consider this a starting point.

Acting auditions can broken down into roughly three sections, The Preparation, The Performance and The Result. We’ll look at all three which will give you enough ideas to make you a little more relaxed about the whole process.

THE PREPARATION

Preparation, as any job interview book will tell you, is essential.

Firstly, do as much research as you can, be it the character you going to play, the director, the company or even the writer. It will show  thoroughness and dedication that could be the deciding factor in your favor.

Secondly, make sure you know your monologues, you should have practiced them out loud in front of a variety of people to get as any opinions as possible, if you can’t get a wide range of opinions you may find it useful to record yourself (video or audio), this gives you the chance to evaluate your own performance from a slightly different perspective.

Thirdly, know exactly where the location of the interview is, how long it takes to get there and arrive early. This allows you to relax and find some where to warm up.
You could be hanging around for a long time so take a book, some water and food or something like an ipod to keep you relaxed and occupied.

When in the audition environment it pays dividends to be nice to everyone, remember, todays rival actor could be tomorrows hot new director. This Don't be intimidated by the other actors auditioning with you, they will be just as nervous as you are. even if they appear cocky that doesn't make them a better actor than you!

THE PERFORMANCE

First impressions count, so upon entering the acting audition room be confident, positive and friendly. It may be helpful to remind yourself that these people in front of you are on your side, they actually want you to be great! Its good to be as open and personable as possible because you want the director to want to work with you personally as well as professionally and any advantage is an advantage.

Try to keep any questions you may have to a minimum, these are busy people and too many questions can seem overly ingratiating.

Your initial monologue should not really be more than two minutes long, have others prepared, these should show your range and diversity, and also have a longer monologue prepared, just in case the Director requests it.
The director may ask you to reread after direction, so good listening skills are important, at this point its better to ask questions than to assume that you know what the director wants, accepting direction also requires flexibility, so don’t stick too tightly to the same old way you’ve done the reading in the past.

THE RESULT

No article on acting audition tips would be complete without a word or two about rejection.
As you have read there are many ways that you can improve your chances of getting a role, but most actors will get turned down for most jobs most of the time. You could do all of the above and more and still be overlooked, but you should not take this as a comment on your ability. It just indicates that the casting panel thought that someone else  was more suitable to that particular role at that particular time.
If you do get called back for a second audition then well done. The same basic rules apply with a few subtle tweaks that will have to wait for another article.

Thanks for taking the time to read my acting audition tips and I hope it gave you a few things to think about.