auditions – Page 16 – Answers for Actors

E-mail vs. Land Mail Casting Submissions | Answers for Actors

A troubling trend…

Talent agents Lynne Jebens (Senior Legit Agent, The Krasny Office), Ken Melamed (Agency Owner / Partner, Bret Adams, Ltd), Diane Riley (Senior Legit Agent, Harden-Curtis & Associates) and colleague casting director Michael Cassara (Michael Cassara Casting, CSA) have have confirmed a harmful, new, career trend by actors that I first suspected occurring circa 2009. The feedback is devastating for actors who may unknowingly be one of the too many actors leading themselves into obscurity. The industry insiders offer actors career saving insight on how to reverse this trend and gain higher visibility.

A troubling trend…

Talent agents Lynne Jebens (Senior Legit Agent, The Krasny Office), Ken Melamed (Agency Owner / Partner, Bret Adams, Ltd), Diane Riley (Senior Legit Agent, Harden-Curtis & Associates) and colleague casting director Michael Cassara (Michael Cassara Casting, CSA) have confirmed a harmful, new, career trend by actors I first suspected circa 2009. Actors may unknowingly be leading themselves into obscurity.

What have actors done (or not done) to do themselves in? Many actors have abandoned a vital marketing technique and what’s worse; they haven’t adequately replaced the promotion ploy with an equally effective tool for achieving notice, audition appointments, and/or talent representation.

What’s missing from modern actor marketing?

Mail. Land mail precisely. If you believe actor e-mails to talent agents, and casting personnel have filled the gap you’re woefully mistaken. As our industry insiders will soon attest, actor e-mails are either going unread via a single dump-click, or aren’t being received.

Diane Riley’s land mail in-box is becoming a postal desert.

“There are less headshot/resumes than in the past. Probably a 75% decline. I used to receive 20 a day, now I get 3-5. Also, no one sends demo reels anymore. Mostly [actors send] listings for actor websites. I rarely look at the actor websites.”

Ken Melamed has noticed a sharp decline in actors’ mail but not just via the postal system.

“There is definitely less mail coming in over all,” Melamed states. “Much less from the post office, and not really that much via e-mail.”

Lynne Jebens has noticed actors providing less marketing via land mail as well.

But talent agents are not the only purveyors of talent discovering marginally less missives daily in their hard copy in-box. Michael Cassara, a popular casting director, has noticed like Paul Russell Casting, less actor marketing via land mail.

“Our mail volume is probably 80% less than it was in 2006. I always look at everything that comes in the mail.”

Between land mail and e-mail where is Cassara’s attention most focused?

“I do actually give more attention to mail that lands on my desk than to electronic communication.”

Cassara’s comment highlights the pivotal failure of actors relying solely on e-mail—e-mails are much easier to ignore or dismiss than hard copy mail.

In marketing my book ACTING: Make It Your Business to actors, I receive a higher return rate on my advertising dollar when I land mail large postcards heralding the Penguin Random House read. When I send individual e-mails prior, to those same actors, my sale’s meters across various platforms barely budge. Why? My postcard, with a personalized message to each recipient, gets priority attention in the actor’s vacant brick-n-mortar mail box. No other way can I (or you to casting and talent representation personnel) get better undivided attention so cheaply! Whereas an e-mail is one of too many inquiries lost in a cramped in-ebox.

I asked all of our industry insiders the following:

Are actors finding other methods of outreach, other than hard copy mail, to make you aware of them? And if so, what are they doing, and is it more or less effective than land mail?

Riley reflected overall sentiment. “I think that people are e-mailing me more, but, I rarely look at unsolicited e-mails. They usually go to my spam, and then I delete them if I don’t recognize the name.”

Jebens also gets e-mails in lieu of hard copy mail but says, “I don’t accept e-mail submissions because you can’t trust that it isn’t someone trying to send out a virus. I don’t open anything that I don’t know [who it’s coming from].”

Jebens strongly recommends contacting an agent first via hard mail. She also notes that actors are going to seminars like Access to Agents to meet agents, “I think [places like that] have made a huge difference. Why mail if you can meet?”

Melamed reiterated that he occasionally gets e-mails but that the best way to reach him is via land mail.

“I have always maintained a policy to open up all mail and give each picture and resume and letter equal billing.”

All the industry insiders stressed that they open and review all land mail addressed to them which was sent by actors.

When Cassara was asked if actors are finding effective methods of replacing marketing outreach beyond land mail he replied that, “Actors try many tactics—some are effective and some are not. The level to which something is successful/effective also varies a good deal based upon the individual casting director and his or her preferences.

“My website has a public e-mail address where we’ll receive anywhere between 10 and 1000 e-mails a day, depending on how many projects we are working on at one time. So we will absolutely review e-mails sent to us, but as hypocritical as it might be to acknowledge this—at the present time—hard-copy mailings tend to capture my attention a bit longer and a bit more focusedly.”

Paul Russell Casting has noticed that many actors no longer self-submit themselves via land mail for specific casting! Actors are foolishly relying solely on electronic submissions via mass-market audition sites. But there is a major flaw in that passivity.

Not all PRC projects or those of colleague casting directors are posted publicly. Pilots, episodics, major studio films, and high-paying regional theater breakdowns are sometimes released to talent representation directly. In these instances, there rarely is an electronic submission process for the actor on high-revenue earning projects learned via the actor-grapevine. But…there will always be a brick-n-mortar mailing address for a casting director. Aggressive actors know this. Lazy actors take themselves out of the consideration game thinking they have no way to reach a casting office if an e-mail address is not present. At Paul Russell Casting the lack of actors self-submitting themselves to our projects has given rise to our being forced to see more agent submitted actors.

Are actors being shortsighted in not using land mail to make casting and talent representatives aware of their existence?

Jebens was the most candid in response.

“When there are so many people hacking and sending out viruses, I don’t understand actors thinking that we would open something from a stranger. So yes, they are very presumptuous to e-mail agents.”

Cassara is nearly equally adamant with candor.

“I run a paperless office… [but] I believe paper mail is the smartest tactic an actor can use to promote himself or herself and, by not sending hard-copy updates, actors are being a bit shortsighted.

“We’re all still figuring out the digital revolution and there are many tasks for which digital solutions are just not evolved enough (yet) compared to their “analog” predecessors. Sure, I can receive electronic submissions with ease but will I actually give each and every one of them the same attention I pay to paper submissions? Not usually.”

Riley responded that she, “Personally enjoys the part of my day that is opening the mail and looking at the pics/resumes. I would probably answer that it is smarter [for actors] to use land mail.”

Melamed displays his respected business acumen in his response.

“Part of the actor’s job is to market themselves; they have to build that cost into their infrastructure.”

So e-mail or land mail? Which is best for an actor to leverage in promoting their professional existence? Which benefits better visibility? What would our insiders prefer actors do in their outreach to them?

Riley prefers, “Shameless self-promotion. Send us materials; write when you have something to say. Focus on getting work for the sake of working and having a job, not so you can gain an agent.”

Jebens whose history in entertainment is vast knows there is no bull’s eye solution. “If I had the answer to that I could put it in a book and make a mint! I am always looking at the [land] mail and I am invited to many seminars. I do the best I can to pay attention to every place I go.”

Melamed remains succinct. “I still like hard mail.”

While your competition has forsaken land mail, empty in-boxes have become prime marketing real estate for your materials to be opened, reviewed and considered with little competition as distraction. Isn’t being one among one via land mail better than being one among thousands in an e-mail in-box list?

Get to know your post office again—while you continue digital outreach. Don’t ignore one for the other. You’ve two visibility options to leverage simultaneously. Your obscurity or visibility is created, determined, and managed by one individual: you.

My best,
Paul

Paul Russell’s On-Camera Master Class!

Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned thirty years. He has worked on projects for major film studios, television networks, and Broadway. Paul has taught the business of acting and audition technique at NYU and has spoken at over two-dozen universities including Yale, Elon, Wright State University and Rutgers. He is the author of ACTING: Make It Your Business – How to Avoid Mistakes and Achieve Success as a Working Actor. For more information, please visit www.PaulRussell.net.

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Casting Directors, Talent Agents, Directors & Actors

Love the Best-Selling Book for Actors
ACTING: Make It Your Business!

“Humorous and witty…

Actors everywhere who are trying to succeed in the business, young or old, on stage or on camera, anywhere in the world, take note:

This is your roadmap!”

— BERNARD TELSEY, casting director – CSA
(NBC’s Peter Pan – LIVE!, Into The Woods – The Movie, Wicked, Sex & The City)

“All the right questions asked and answered…
and with a generous portion of good humor.”

— SUZANNE RYAN, casting director, CSA
(Law & Order, Unforgettable)

“I love this book!

Paul’s book tells you what you don’t want to hear but really need to know

EVERY actor should read this book!”

— DIANE RILEY, Senior Legit Talent Agent
Harden-Curtis & Associates

“Paul’s book made me proud to be a part of this community we call ‘show!'”

— KAREN ZIEMBA, TONY & Drama Desk Award Winning Actress

“Paul Russell’s words are not only blunt & accurate they zero in on all the questions every actor wants to know but is afraid to ask!”

— KEN MELAMED, Talent Agency Partner
Bret Adams, Ltd.

“I had my Business of Acting, BFA Seniors, class do book reports on a variety of “business of acting” books and ACTING: Make It Your Business came out a clear winner—considered to be essential for their bookshelves!

— Dr. NINA LeNOIR,
Dept. Chair – Dept. of Thtr.
Chapman University

Get smarter on the business of acting from legendary Hollywood & Broadway actors and talent agents in a casting director Paul Russell’s Best-Selling Book ACTING:
Make It Your Business!

– Master Classes with Paul Russell
– A Casting Director’s Best-Selling Book for Actors

Pilot Season | Answers for Actors

Pilot season is here! Are you ready? Casting director and director Paul Russell has a candid conversation with an industry-insider who offers tips for actors seeking on-camera bookings. A must read to begin a prosperous new year in acting!

Actors Getting Pilots

It’s Pilot Season!

Yes it’s that time of year when the entertainment industry is tossed into a tail spin as hundreds of pilots are sought and fought for (and no I’m not talking about the sometimes handsome navigators of cramped cockpits).

Pilots: Small screen’s answer to “Let’s see what sh*t sticks to the screen and succeeds.” An actor getting a pilot audition and then the project getting green-lighted for a ‘go’ is a herculean feat in itself. The actor and project getting broadcast and then possibly picked-up for more than several episodes has as slim a possibility for success as does Glenn Beck winning a Pulitzer Prize for Journalism. The average journeyman actor (with or without representation) getting cast in a pilot is about as possible as Honey Boo Boo playing Ophelia opposite Stewie Griffin’s Lear. But all is not totally impossible or improbable… but let us pray we never have to endure the tiara toddler tripping her tongue upon the Bard.

So how does the journeyman actor get the near-impossible pilot audition and subsequent series?

The Represented Actor:

Your agent submits you for a pilot and then you and your rep hope for the best.

Next!

The Unrepresented Actor:

You doggedly pursue an agent to represent you. Hope to get a meeting. Pray to be signed. Then patiently wait to be submitted on a pilot whereupon you hope for the best.

Next!

I can virtually hear angry actor voices grumbling, ‘Thanks Paul, you’re a lot of f-ing help.” Well, I never promised you a prose garden.

In a discussion I recently had with Jack Menashe, the former President of Independent Artists Agency who is also one of the four agents who gives candid actor career advice in ACTING: Make It Your Business, I asked Menashe for insightful measures for his clients and the non-represented actor to get into the Fort Knox of screen employ that is pilot season.

“Actors have to understand that getting an audition for a pilot is not going to happen because the actor has an agent or just a picture, resume and a smile,” Menashe began. “Casting directors who work on television pilots are extremely picky about who gets in because the casting director’s reputation is on the line with the producer.”

I pushed Menashe on then how best to get past the picky gate-keepers like myself.

“Two ways,” Menashe offered. “The unrepresented actor would do him or herself a huge service by going to paid auditions. But not the typical run-of-the-mill paid auditions. During pilot season they should be going to places that screen the actors first before those actors are allowed to meet with talent agents and casting directors who work on television projects. L.A. and New York are loaded with them. Years ago when I had first launched Independent Artists, I discovered a high caliber of talent had channeled into this resource.”

Signing those exceptional actors Menashe then prodded casting directors to seeing the newly minted clients for pilots. But he was not alone in his championing of actors. Menashe spoke of how a casting director assisted both him and an actor to getting quickly into pilot and film auditions.

“A casting director took me to a show that included an actor who she had seen the night prior at one of your seminars (Paul Russell’s Studies for Actors). He was incredible. I signed him and his first year with me he booked his first major supporting feature film role, his first television pilot, several low-budget features and theater gigs.”

Having struck success once, Menashe went back to the source of finding untapped talent.

“In the years to come, I would sign several actors through these venues,” Menashe continued, “all of whom have landed notable work in film, television and theater.”

But success is sometimes soured.

“Unfortunately some of the actors,” Menashe continued, “who are screened by the staff of these audition venues are far from what I and my colleagues are looking for either as talent or as business-people, or in many cases both.”

And oh how true that is. As I’ve witnessed in my own Access to Agents and similar seminars I attend actors can pay out precious paper repeatedly to acting studios but if the actors doesn’t have the talent to match their deep pockets there’s no way in hell they’ll move forward.

Menashe extolled another path to pilots. One not so much as immediate but none-the-less a route well traveled by others that brought lasting rewards: comedy clubs.

“If an actor has a great sense of humor,” Menashe suggested, “along with a unique comic perspective then he or she as an actor needs to get on stage at comedy clubs. Do the open mic nights. Push into the industry evenings. Casting directors for half-hour comedies mine comedy clubs. That’s how many unknown actors suddenly land a TV show.”

“You mean the actors that bum-fart Kansas or Lodi, New Jersey never heard of?” I added.

“Exactly,” Menashe responded. “It’s not the quickest route but it gets you in front of the major players of gate-keeping for TV.”

Represented or not, an actor should be heeding Menashe’s words by taking an active attack in seeking to book on-camera work for pilot season. One such avenue is to be an informed actor.

hollywoodreporter.com/topic/tv-pilots (A wonderful resource for what’s coming up, what studio is doing which pilot and possibly who is casting.)

If, as you began this read, were looking for a quick, sure-fire Rubik’s Cube simplistic solution to getting an audition for a pilot then you really don’t understand this business. If angered or frustrated by that statement you need reconsideration for your chosen profession. Nothing comes easily for anyone on either side of the audition table. If you have read the chapters on film and pilot auditions in ACTING: Make It Your Business; then you’re several steps ahead of those who haven’t picked up that tome dedicated to advancing an actor’s career.

My Best,
Paul

Casting Directors, Talent Agents, Directors & Actors

Love the Best-Selling Book for Actors
ACTING: Make It Your Business!