site
stats

Actor Postcards: How To Save Your Money In 2 Easy Steps

By Marci Liroff
Money! Did I get your attention? As an actor you’re asked to spend SO much money on your career. Classes, private coaches, subscriptions to online sites to list your profile, the gym, voice lessons, and postcards. Postcards? You know those 5×7 color cards that you mail to EVERY CASTING DIRECTOR in town to say “howdy” and let them know you’re alive? Actors ask me this one question all the time. “Postcards? Are they worthwhile? Do you even look at them or are they tossed in the trash?” Good question! I’m here to help you save your hard earned money.
1. HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY. I get TONS (read = piles and piles) of actor postcards and headshots every day. I’d say that each casting office runs differently, but I know that I appreciate knowing what you’re up to. For me, this means send out a postcard when you have something to say….”I have a new episode on CSI/I’m in a new play/I just got a new agent/mgr”. Here’s the secret: you DO NOT have to send out a postcard just to say hello. ONLY send them out when you have some new work to tell me about or have some NEW information to share. See? I just saved you a bunch of mailings = money. DO NOT “paper the town” and send postcards to every single casting office in town. Do your research and send them out to a targeted list of casting offices that are active and are casting shows/films that your type may be right for.
2. TARGET/TRACK CASTING OFFICES INTELLIGENTLY. When you buy a bunch of address labels and send them out to every casting office in town you are wasting your precious time and money. Be specific. Here’s a solution I like. Make sure you have the most up-to- the-minute information about the casting offices you’re trying to connect with. There’s a really great company called CastingAbout. They provide the latest info on casting directors, their staff, and what they’re casting. Co-owners Brian Wold and Blair Hickey are onto something. Here’s some detailed info from one of the owners, Blair Hickey:
“As actors, we’re all trained to consider the subtext in our scripts, but many forget there’s subtext in the business side of our job as well. Too many actors spend significant time and money on “mass mailings” without any specific message (“Please consider me for anything you do…”) or, worse yet, no message at all beyond a name and number. Instead of promoting the actor, this type of message can actually come off as sort of desperate, leaving a first impression that could be interpreted as amateur or (worse yet) “wannabe.” Contrast this with a targeted and personalized message that speaks directly to the casting director’s current needs and activities — such as a postcard informing an office that you often book the types of roles they need for that new series they just picked up, or another congratulating an associate you know of his or her recent promotion. The marketing subtext of these messages are the same:  You understand the business and your place in it, you do your homework, and know what’s going on around town. In other words, you’re a pro.”
CastingAbout provides actors the specific information necessary to build a target list, keep those people informed of progress and bookings, and — perhaps most importantly — stay on top of their career development as well. They track not just which CD is casting what, but where they’re located specific to each project (SO important because most of us CDs are like gypsies….we move around A LOT) — as well as each project’s current production status. And because this business moves fast, updates to CastingAbout are published to the site continuously each work day, in real time, so actors who visit the site are always presented with the latest, most up-to-the-minute information available. With features to search and research projects, print custom mailing labels, and enter private, date stamped notes. And no, I don’t get a kickback for touting their services!!
That said, I know lots of casting directors who barely look at your postcards and just dump them in the trash. You should take this into account and weigh out the benefits before repeatedly sending postcard after postcard to all the casting offices in town.
I’d love to hear from you! Let me know if sending postcards words for you (or if it’s a waste of time and money). Share your experiences!
Do you have any questions for me? Feel free to ask them here!
Want more tips and general thoughts on life? Be sure to bookmark my blog and follow me here!
 
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
 
Glad you’re here!
Marci

7 RULES TO LIVE BY WHEN MAKING YOUR DEMO REEL

By Marci Liroff

When I first started teaching actors about the business and how they can empower themselves, it was common to see demo reels that ran between 5-10 minutes long! Now it’s more common to see 30/60/90 second reels.

My, how times have changed! I imagine the next time I write about this topic it’ll have changed again. Can’t wait to see what’s next!
1. Here’s the skinny. Get your footage uploaded electronically so it can be easily viewed. Edit a demo reel which has clips from all your work woven together. Here’s the key and it’s one of the biggest mistakes I see actors make with their demo reels: Front-load your reel with your strongest footage. By ‘strongest’ I mean the footage that features YOU. If you’re in a scene with Will Smith but it’s really his scene and it barely features you, you’re gonna look like a background player and aren’t going to impress anyone. In fact, you’re going to get lost in that footage. Don’t use scenes where the other person is out-shining you in the scene.  You want the viewer to be riveted to YOU. Yes, I’m very impressed that you actually got cast in a scene opposite Will Smith – that is actually a big deal – but if you come off looking like an extra in the scene, I’m not gonna be so impressed. Unfortunately, when I play demos for producers/directors/and executives – they mostly have the attention span of a gnat – and will only watch the first few moments, unless you’ve really caught their attention – so make your opening great. Don’t go on and on in those photo montages with music in the background in your opening. If you’re going to do that, I suggest it be no longer than 7 seconds. Or better yet, do that montage at the end. Get to a great scene in the opening where you’re speaking. I’ve seen so many demos where I can’t even tell who I’m supposed to be watching because there are so many actors in the scene.
2. It’s quality, not quantity. At the very least, make sure it is of broadcast quality in both picture and sound. Don’t put poor quality footage on your reel – it only makes you look bad…really bad! With so many actors self-producing content these days for their reels, remember it has to look just as good as the footage we’re seeing on television and in the theaters. If the quality is “less than” it reflects on you. Have someone with an objective eye (not a family member or good friend) go through your reel to help you edit. Be discerning. Imagine you’re the buyer. You don’t need to put something on your reel just because you were in it. It’s got to be great footage. If it doesn’t show you in the best of light – don’t use it.  If it looks homemade (like so much of the self-produced content I see) don’t use it! I’d rather see no footage than bad footage. You can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube!
 
3. Use your best footage first and your newest footage at the top of the reel.  I suggest you do not go too far back into your repertoire – if you’re pushing 50, the scene when you were 20 will only confuse people and sorry honey, you’re not that guy anymore!
4. When you’re editing a demo reel, I suggest you do a separate comedy reel and a separate drama reel. If I’m casting a comedy, I want to view and show just your comedy footage and vice-versa. If we want to see your range, we can always view the other reel, but I find that most of the filmmakers I work with want to see *just* your comedy footage if we’re doing a comedy and don’t want to wade through all the drama footage on your reel.
I also really appreciate it when the clips are labeled at the top of the clip so that I know what show/movie this clip is from.
5. Some people are doing clips instead of demos. These are very useful as well. Each clip is it’s own self-contained clip that runs about 30-60 seconds. This way there’s a large variety of clips to choose from and I can pick and choose what I want to see (and send to my team). This seems to be the norm these days.
 
6. I suggest you upload your demo reel/clips to your profile page on Actors Access for easy viewing along with your resumé and photos. There’s also a great site called Cast It Talent you can subscribe to and upload pic/resume and reel/clips to your profile page and send that package to anyone who requests it.
You should also upload your reel/clips to your IMDb profile page. If you have a website, then of course your demo reel/clips are going to live there as well. If you’re going to upload your reel to a site like YouTube or Vimeo, please make sure you have your contact info easily viewable – either on the video itself or in the description below. Hell, you could post it in both places! These days, a lot of Casting Directors and comedy talent scouts are combing the web for new faces. You can’t imagine how many times I stumble across an actor’s video online and there’s absolutely NO contact info! Don’t forget to include your website, twitter name, and Facebook Page (if you have one) – this helps to market yourself across many different social media platforms.
 
7. Make it easy for people. I really don’t like receiving large files to my email from ‘You Send It’ when I’m working on a project. I just don’t have the time to download these files – remember, it’s not just your video file, it’s literally hundreds of them. You want to make it really easy for people to view your reel. Send an easily clickable link.

To read a version of this article on BackStage.com click here!

 
Do you have any questions for me? Feel free to ask them here!
Want more tips and general thoughts on life? Be sure to bookmark my blog and follow me here!
 
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
 
Glad you’re here!
Marci

Inside The World Of A Casting Director – Part 3

By Marci Liroff

In Part 3 of this series I talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of being a casting director along with finding balance in your life. Good advice for all walks of life!

“What does a Casting Director actually do?” Well, I’m here to tell you all about it! Joy Wingard wrote to me from college saying she’s interested in being a casting director and wanted to know what really goes on in the world of casting.  Since I was crazy busy, I asked her to jot down a few questions and I’d answer them over the ensuing weeks.  She asked quite a few insightful questions that I wanted to share with you all. 

Q: What do you enjoy the most & the least about being a CD?

A: The most?  Getting a script and lovingly working with the filmmakers to put together a fantastic cast.  Finding someone new, or thinking of someone for a part that is totally outside the box and getting my team on board and hiring them.
Making the call to the agent/mgr and actor to say “you’ve got the part!” brings me such joy!
Another part I truly love is working with the actors. I love to help them create a great character and guiding them through the audition process.

Enjoy the least?  The politics.  There are way too many politics involved in my job. Enough said.

Also, it’s not my favorite thing to negotiate with a lawyer. In the old days (when I first started) I’d negotiate with the agent. Nowadays, the agent hands it off to the client’s lawyer and I’m spending days on end going back and forth with the lawyer. Seems to me that’s Business Affairs’ job.

Q:  I understand having passion for a job and loving it enough to embrace it wholeheartedly and spend most of your time doing it, but do you find that you’re able to have enough time away from the job to embrace a life outside of work?

A: Finding a balance between work and your “life” is key to any career.  For me, even when I’m not officially working, I keep my eyes peeled – I’m always ‘looking’ in a sense.  When I’m reading a magazine, the newspaper or online, I’m constantly clipping out (or bookmarking) articles about actors on the rise and adding them to my database.

But, you do have to know how to totally “unplug” and live your life or you will be just a shell of a person!  This holds true for an actor.  Whenever I meet an actor who feels burnt out or wants to walk away, I tell them to make sure to do something you love.  You need inspiration from somewhere right?  Go to the beach, a concert, kick up your heels and go dancing, paint, be with your kids, dogs, loved ones, cook, eat great food, meditate. How can you be an actor (or a great person) if you’re not living a full life?

Do you have any questions for me? Feel free to ask them here!

Want more tips and general thoughts on life? Be sure to bookmark my blog and follow me here!

 
We welcome your comments and suggestions.
 
Glad you’re here!
Marci
« 1 ... 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 »