auditions – Page 8 – Answers for Actors

The traditional actor’s reel is dead.

The term ‘actor’s reel’ soon will rest aside the, “Fax me your résumé’s” crypt. Talent agents, managers and their clients no longer share with casting a 3.5-minute historical compilation of an actor’s on-camera work. Doing so is akin to a lumbersexual parading skinny jeans at a Chick-fil-A. Très passé gauche.

An actor’s modern digital media doesn’t rely on old rules. Length? Roll back your counter. There’s a new running time for efficient, and industry-acceptable length. Fancy editing? Oh. My. Gawd. So 80s MTV. Modern actor digital media requires a new and simplistic format that directly targets specific casting.

And then there’s media real estate. Actors are being overlooked if they haven’t staked prime media real estate. The free—to nearly free—properties with the best digital curb appeal that attracts more industry views to an actor’s on-camera landscape. If you’re thinking YouTube; please rewind to 2009. Actors need to be looking to Vimeo, Actors Access or better the digital content platforms that representation utilizes to submit clients to casting: Active Pitch.

So what is the modern actor’s reel? It’s not a reel, nor should it be termed such just as a recorded sitcom should no longer be archaically termed ‘videotaped.’ The digital revolution has dramatically changed both live and recorded auditions. Reels are now segmented. Reduced to targeting projects specifically. Yes, some talent representation review an actor’s traditional reel when considering talent. But when that talent becomes a new client the reel is sliced and diced as if a filet on Top Chef. And when the talent is unrepresented the actor in relation to casting is no longer burdened by:

Reel length

Contrasting content

Dynamic editing

An actor’s digital media representing skill and work history is much simpler thanks in part to modern attention spans being compacted in the age of where 140 characters abbreviates content. And secondly, by the ease of sharing content online without need of a disc drive or the more ancient and bulky VHS player.

To further support, navigate and bring actors into the modern actor reel movement that casting and representation expect and utilize: I’m sharing the expectations for both digital and live on-camera auditions that I provide to MFA & BFA acting programs. A new master class for actors with or without screen history. A panel of film, TV, commercial and theatrical casting directors, and agents join me.

Yes, this is a post out of the norm for Answers for Actors. (And to be quite honest an uncomfortable posting by its author.) The posts here are generally of a prescriptive narrative. General advisories in text here for an actor’s digital media will not fully serve the individual. My sharing the casting clips utilized by actors on Prime Time TV, and the effectiveness of such may only be done privately in a class setting. Comparing an actor’s digital media to that of peers can only be done in a class setting. A blog post limits my ability to further advise beyond general umbrella statements.

Whether or not you’re available for the master class know that for your digital media representation to be effective to casting should:

-Target specific projects utilizing your media history that reflects the casting project targeted

– Showcase media that has production values (lighting, camera work, the work of peers) that you want to best represent you

– Have media real estate beyond public outlets that often distract the viewer from your media (i.e. YouTube is not an actor’s prime media real estate)

Master Class Curriculum:

WEEK 1: Mastering Your Media Real Estate to be Effective & Competitive (Having a reel is not necessary for participation.)

WEEK 2: Analysis of Actors’ Media Improvements

Plus…

Commanding the LIVE On-Camera Audition & Actor Branding – Getting the Job

WEEK 3: LIVE On-Camera Audition Technique & Branding Follow-up

Plus…

Final Analysis of Media Prior to Presentation to the Entertainment Industry Panel

WEEK 4: Panel Feedback

Lead instructor and guest advisers’ participation does not connote offers of employment or representation to class participants. These classes are for educational purposes only and will not secure or provide opportunity for employment in the field or representation by an agent.

For details on the panel and the on-camera master class visit: http://paulrussell.net/AMIYB_MasterClass.html

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Paul Russell’s career as a casting director, director, acting teacher and former actor has spanned nearly 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 universities including Yale, Elon and Wright State University. 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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What was the most recent occasion in which you pocketed condoms to an audition? 2% of actors responding to a poll on what actors need for a comfortable audition are Trojan-toting warriors hoping to spear a part. What part, remains questionable. Breath spray and/or mints are often associated with the condom response.

Excluding an actor’s headshot and audition material actors participating in the survey were asked to list in order of importance what they bring to auditions to comfort and help them succeed for what is often remarked as the most awkward of job interviews. Some “Must-haves” items submitted are eyebrow raising. But the #1 auditioning actor “must-have” is one you may unknowingly carry into an audition studio as a priority.

Water: the #1 “Must-have” for auditions according to the actor’s polled. In personal bottles or commercially branded, actors overwhelmingly responded with the need for hydration at an audition. Hydration reduces stress as is routinely documented in studies. Dehydration raises stress levels.

“Studies have shown that being just half a liter dehydrated can increase your cortisol levels,” says Amanda Carlson, RD in an interview on WebMD. Carlson is director of performance nutrition at Athletes’ Performance, a trainer of world-class athletes.

“Cortisol is one of those stress hormones,” Carlson continues. “Staying in a good hydrated status can keep your stress levels down. When you don’t give your body the fluids it needs, you’re putting stress on it, and it’s going to respond to that.” Sufferers of clinical depression are often instructed to maintain hydration as part of their therapy to mental wellness.

A prevailing thematic response of the polled actors placed mental comfort, and calming distractions as a priority at auditions. Music, books, and personal journals were the dominate distractions actors bring to auditions. If a fully prepared actor insists, while waiting for their escort into an audition studio, on constant visualization of what is to come minutes before the audition itself; stress levels increase. Confidence begins prior to arrival. The prepared actor reduces the nagging importance of each audition by having a comforting distraction such as a book or music. Importance of advancement is to be for an actor’s overall career; not each audition within the career.

Other items of comfort polled for an actor at an audition include objects most actors may not consider relevant to personal success. But for a number of actors unusual is the norm. Among the eyebrow raising “Must-have” items are:

“Clean underwear” (Underwear was quite popular including the response, “My lucky underwear.”)

“My statement lipstick” (“Maybe it’s Maybelline” does not an actress make.)

“I wear special socks for luck”

“Playbill from the first musical I was in”

“Constant texts from my girlfriend” (Codependency vibrating in your pocket.)

“My fake front tooth”

Excluding periodontal necessities luck and spirituality is key to comfort for a number of the responding actors. Whether found in a believed-to-be lucky heirloom, energizing crystals and/or minerals, physical distance from fellow actors, or as one actor responded, “Open heart and clear mind as much as possible” all items physical or psychological are each borne by faith and hope. Objects themselves like the dozen crystals and minerals lining the shelf over my desk are not the deliverers of fortune. The bearers’ belief is what comforts and motivates.

What items of comfort for success each actor brings to auditions is unique in that the actor has an individual reasoning for being accompanied by the object or thought of faith. While Actor A and B may both tote bottled water to an audition Actor A may do so because buying bottled water is beyond their budget.
Actor B does so for the necessity of hydration and comfort.

Bring to each audition what is most important to your comfort and success. Your peers may provide you laundry lists of audition “Must-haves.” Those lists contain only what is important to their comfort, not yours.

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!