Awesome Hank

So I Want To Be An Actor

So you want to be a Professional Actor, you are confused and don’t know what to do? Well having been a professional actor for the past 18 years I can hopefully help you learn from my mistakes in this Article. I am going to cover various points, from acting training, Agents and representation, resources to help you pursue your career. Obviously I can only draw from my own experiences, and any views I may have are solely of my opinion and you may choose to agree or disagree with me.

So you want to be an Talent and Production but you just don’t know where to begin? I believe you have a few options. Before you explore the options, I think you should truly make a decision that an acting career is something you wish to embark on and also ask yourself the question… Am I truly any good enough? If you believe the answer is ‘yes’ then congratulations, this means you have decided that a life likely full of infrequently paid work and disappointment is for you.

Now you have carefully considered your career path, now you must get some head shots before you go any further. The purpose of head shots is so that potential employers can see your look. You can get headshot’s by searching search engines for a Headshot photographer in your area, although some may be expensive you do tend to get what you pay for. I always recommend that you research the photographers prior work before you book. If you simply cannot afford to pay for headshots, I recommend finding an amateur photographer, photography enthusiast OR a photography student.

Okay, now you have your headshots you really need some experience. I recommend a few options. You may either a)join an amateur theatre company b)take acting classes or go to drama school c) befriend film school student. Now I will give you a break down of the pros and cons of a/b/c.

A) the positive aspects of joining a amateur theatre company also known as ‘Am Dram’ in my opinion are you get great ensemble experience of working with others, you also learn your strengths and weaknesses in your performance (local paper theatre critics and comments you overhear) and you learn that magical feeling of performing live on stage… Ok now for the cons… A lot of the time amateur theatre groups are just that… AMATEUR. You will find lots of bitter ‘wannabe’ actors who are in it for the lime light. This is bad because working with people so self indulgent does nothing to improve your skills as a performer.

B) Acting Classes & Drama schools are great in my opinion but it very much depends which class you are willing to take & drama school you would like to join, Drama schools can be costly so if you aren’t prepared to study constantly and spend thousands on drama school you may want to take another rout such as Acting classes. In my opinion, I would only recommend having private classes on particular occasions such as if you wanted to work on a monologue or if you need to privately work on an accent or dialect. Basically private lessons are very much for perfecting your current skills. Whereas group lessons are fantastic for interaction with other actors, learning from others acting  styles and working with new people. There aren’t any real negatives on acting classes but I would do my research before booking a class, look online for reviews and other students opinions before you book anything.

C) When I suggest that you befriend a Film School Student, It is not on the off chance that your new found friend becomes the next Quentin Tarantino, Ken Loach, Mike Leigh or Ron Howard and will be casting you as a leading role in their next blockbuster hollywood movies, although don’t get me wrong, this would of course be a huge bonus!

The true reason of becoming friends with a film school student if purely for – exposure, experience & a chance to play different acting characters and roles, plus the fact that every short film you act in of theirs you can obtain the footage for your showreel. A showreel is an absolute must for an actor. A show reel is a culmination of media you have performed in which can include, short films, corporate videos, feature films, commercials etc…This is edited together onto a dvd or computer media file such as .mov, wmv, mp4 and enables you to send it to potential casting directors, producers, directors, managers and agencies in the hope of landing a job or Auditions at the very least!

The editing process can be expensive and or time consuming for any young and thriving actor however there are a few cheaper options available to you. You can ask your new found filmmaker friend to repay the favour of your unpaid performance in his short film and kindly ask him to edit a show reel for you or you can edit the showreel yourself. When i suggest editing the showreel yourself rather than spending thousands on posh and fancy video editing suits such as Avid and Final Cut Pro, also known as FCP, there is another option out there for you. I recently found a website called TalentandProduction where you can join for free and they have a built in virtual studio which allows you to edit your showreel on line for completely free. Obviously as it is free software you will not be able to use vast amount of features, transitions and plugins however it is literally so easy to use it is literally idiot proof for a first time user new to editing and it will be sufficient for a showreel.

So I am assuming that you now have the following:

1) A set of Acting Headshots
2) Acting Experience
3) Acting Lessons
4) An acting showreel

Now you have the 4 above points in your arsenal, it is time to try and get some acting work! Before I begin on this section, please be aware there is no easy way to get acting jobs, I am simply going to suggest the most effective ways I have found of getting your foot in the door.

Okay, you have several options of landing acting work, the key to everything is persistence and being proactive. If you can’t be bother to do either and or think jobs will roll in thick and fast without doing anything you are wrong. Even Actors who have an Acting Agent or Manager still have to be constantly letter writing and networking because an Agent has many clients and will not focus on your acting career 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The old saying “the cream always rises to the top” I am afraid is not the case in show business, a solid work ethic, ambition and persistence however will dramatically help your cause and increase your chances of landing Acting Jobs.

The first tip I would give you as a thriving actor is to perfect your letter & email writing skills. Search various employers such as production companies, theatre companies, casting directors etc, research the type of work that they employ actors for and it is the kind of work you are interested in then make you you are personable in your approach. Do not write 1 generic letter, attach your Resume and Headshot then send it out to the masses… Your letter will end up in the trash. Another tip: It is VERY IMPORTANT that you firmly attach your Resume to the letter / email and make sure your Headshot is either embedded or stapled securely to the Resume. The reason for this is because employers may lose your headshot and in effect your headshot and resume are useless without each other.

Another few resources I would recommend you join are:

1) castingcallpro.com – useful resource for auditions however you do have to pay a monthly fee to get the most out of the service
2) www.talentandproduction.com – totally free social networking site with jobs and auditions and the edit suite i mentioned earlier
3) for USA actors: Nowcasting.com – again useful resource for auditions however you do have to pay a monthly fee to get the most out of the service
4) for USA actors: SAG – Screen Actors Guild, Google it to find out more… This is perfect when you have gained more experience.
5) for UK actor: Spotlight – Again, Google to find out more

They key to success in showbusiness is to never give up and keep going to matter what happens. I am aware that everybody has their own views on what is best to pursue an acting career so if you feel i have missed any vital point, please add a comment

Good luck everybody

Gain helpful recommendations about internet marketing – please go through this page. The times have come when concise info is really only one click of your mouse, use this chance.

Tags: Actors
Posted in Theatre · June 18th, 2010 · Comments (0)

Renewable Energy Sources Do Get Depleted

Are you truly sure that you realize about the advantages of applying renewable energy for your home? You must already have found out that we need numerous of them. It will even be more helpful with using less quantity of the fossil fuels. Of course, the very first advantage concerns environment. It even help us a lot to use the renewable energy. Then you will be sure to expect fewer emissions in the air you breathe. The devastating of the global resources will also slow down. The air will be surely cleaner.
The more people are going to use this power the more important and good for the oil that will be used. Dependency on the oil of the foreign states should also be a thing of the past. Gasoline rates finally will have a chance to fall down. Since the prices rates will change the interest of the other countries and world leaders will also change. All the resources that are renewable do not have any limits and no price for their use.
The more people turn to the use of the solar energy the less is the price of the solar energy. The investments of people for those solar panels still are really outside of the people’s means.
You will find out numerous advantages of those things, first of all it will help you to decrease your bills for power. Solar energy can help you to provide about the half of the needed for the appliances. You could start saving big money by way of using solar energy instead of that.
You can as well be able to apply wind power for providing your needs for a living. The efficiency of it depends largely on the quality and the speed of the wind turbines and in any way wind turbines cannot be considered the best decision. The best advantages of making use of the alternative energy are first of all, of course, use of solar panels. Since the panels at the moment can be bought in any shop you see in your location. You can as well search through the internet and look through the numerous manuals and guides with reviews of the people who have already made their choice come true. Before buying that stuff be sure that you trust the company and the brand of the manufacturers, producing the very kind of the panels. Then make a choice of the size of the things, depending on your area and needs of the energy provided.
After that the only question that may arise is concerning the installation process. This implies that you can do everything by yourself, that is install yourself according to the online free manuals or pay for the experts doing that.

No doubt electricity has an important place in our lives. In many cases people want to have an independent or alternative heating supply source. If you are one of those who search information on Air Source Heat Pumps, please go to this site. There you may find lots of details about MCS and how to order it.

These days the online technologies give us a really unique chance to select what one needs at the best terms which are available on the market. That is why if you are properly armed with the knowledge in your topic you can be sure that you will in any case find the way out from any bad situation. So, please make sure to track this site on a regular basis or – the least time consuming way of doing it – sign up to its RSS feed. In such an easy way you will have a direct shortcut to the freshest info updates about Ground Source Heat Pumps here. Blogs can be helpful, you just need to understand how to use it.

Tags: air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps, heat pumps, renewable energy, renewable heat
Posted in Theatre · June 2nd, 2010 · Comments (0)