Being a commercially represented actor

Commercial Agents: Being A Represented Actor

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Many new actors are not really clear about what it takes to have a good working relationship with their commercial agent. It is very beneficial to understand what is expected. So here are the responsibilities and expectations as it pertains to most commercial representation.

Upon signing with your commercial agent, there will be tasks for you do:
• If your agent doesn’t love your photos, he/she will expect you to shoot new pictures.
• You might be expected to redo your resume.
• If you have not taken a commercial or Improvisation workshop they may strongly suggest you take one or both to do better auditions.
• You will be told to sign up for one or two of the casting websites.
These actions must be completed before submitting new clients for auditions.

Once you start auditioning, your agent(s) have lots more expectations.

Clients must:
• Have a cell phone with voicemail
• Have appropriate wardrobe for the types of roles they will be auditioning for.
• Keep agents supplied with current pictures and resumes
• Update their profiles on the casting networks with new photos and resume’ changes.
• Always return agents calls within a few hours to confirm auditions
• With a few hours notice, be available for auditions
• Show up for auditions
• Book out with the agency if going out of town or for any reason are unavailable.
• Be on time for auditions.
• Let the agency know if you make or plan to make any changes to your physicality (i.e. large weight gains or loses, braces, hair color or major style changes, etc,).

Signing with representation doesn’t guarantee that you will always be with that agency. After a year, agents often drop clients if: they don’t get a good percentage of callbacks or booking; are not available for auditions or bookings; if they miss confirmed auditions; act unprofessionally at auditions; or are a problem client.

RELATIONSHIP WITH YOUR AGENT
Most actors want to create a relationship with their agent(s) but are not sure if they should visit, call, send emails and if so, how often. Your relationship at least for the first year or two is just business. If you are going to visit, call or email, have a business purpose, i.e. to show video of acting work, to select new pictures, get direction on which workshops to take, invite them to a show you are in or to watch a TV program you are on, report any major changes that affect your availability or physicality, etc. Agents are busy working for you and their other clients. They don’t really have the time to hold your hand or hang out with you. If you do have a valid reason then making contact once every six or eight weeks is appropriate for many commercial agents. If you have been with your agent for at least a year and you have booked a few jobs through them, then inviting them out to lunch or giving them a small gift for the holidays would be amenable to most.

LEAVING YOUR AGENCY
If you are unhappy with your commercial agency because you are not getting out on many auditions, the auditions you get don’t feel like a fit, your agent is always unavailable for conversation, – first, try to talk with your agent before you make a move to leave. And only if your issues are not addressed should you drop the agent (only after you have interest from a new one).

To get more info about how to have the best relationship with your agent(s), check out my FREE video BEING A REPRESENTED ACTOR at mastertalentteachers.com in which three top Los Angeles agents talk about what they expect from thier clients.

If you missed the first two articles in this Commercial Agent series, you will find them and the accompanying videos in the archive on my COMMERCIAL page at mastertalentteachers.com.

There is a lot involved in learning to do your best at commercial auditions. For additional insights and tips, check out my book Hit The Ground Running @ www.hitthegroundrunningbook.com and for more information on Commercial Acting Classes: http://carolynebarry.com/workshops/commercial/

Holly Powell Audition Technique

Walking Into The Audition Room

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By: Holly Powell

They call your name. The viewers are looking at you when you walk in the door to see if you are at all right for the part. First impressions are everything. If you walk in nervous or seem unprepared we can spot it a mile away and don’t want to take the 3 minutes to read you. If you do feel nervous or unprepared out in the audition lobby, I want you to think of something you do in your life that makes you feel confident. Are you great at singing, cooking, playing tennis? Watch how your body adjusts: your shoulders go back, your chest moves from caved-in to centered…and then walk into the room. Your body language has sent the “confidence” signal to your brain so that you now actually start to feel confident! So as your body “fakes confidence”, your thoughts become confident…”Fake It Till You Make It”!

You must treat walking into the audition room like the moment before you walk onstage from the wings when doing a play. You must be in your “zone” or your “bubble”, with the mental focus of an athlete. As you enter the audition room you need to be in a hybrid state: a focused actor ready to go, looking the Casting Director, Director or Producers in the eye and say “Hello”. Just by saying “Hi”, we get a taste of your personality. The “Hi” can let us know that you will show up on time to the set, know your lines, be courteous to your fellow actors and not complain about the size of your trailer. Or not!

When I talk about walking into the room with the mental focus of an athlete, I don’t mean that you should walk into the room in character. DON’T WALK INTO THE ROOM IN CHARACTER! There have been a few actors in my classes who have been told to walk into the room in character, and in doing so had disastrous results…or maybe confusing results. One walked in, in character, and the role was for a drug addict. Her Agent was called by the Casting Director and said that the actress was really on drugs. One actor auditioned for “an asshole bad guy” and walked into the room in character. After the audition was over, he continued to chat with the Casting Director in character…and of
course, the Casting Director thought he was a jerk and didn’t want him any where near the set. If the Casting Director or Producer or Director chat with you, they are trying to get to know YOU. Not who the character is. Your audition will show them who the character is.

So, walk into the audition room with confidence…a focused, prepared actor ready to go who has made specific choices. Just by saying “Hi” the viewers will get a taste of your personality. And the good news is, you are only in the audition room for 3 minutes! And, “You Can Do Anything For 3 Minutes”. (The title of Holly’s upcoming book on “Auditioning”).

How to Become a TV Host - Part 4

How to Become a TV Host – Part 4

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In Part 1 of How To Become A Host we reviewed what it takes, the (3) T Core Values it takes to become a host.
-Think, Talk and Teach-

In Part 2 I broke it down to (3) Key Areas of connection every host needs to understand. TV Hosting is a Mind Mouth and Body Connection.

Part 3 continues with the importance of a “Mental Workout”.

Here is the final piece, Part 4: Read more

Carolyne Barry Commercials

Acting Workshops vs. Scene Study Classes

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by: Carolyne Barry

When you are ready to start training realize their are numerous techniques to choose from (i.e. Sanford Meisner, Method (Strasberg), Stanislavski, Chekhov, Uta Hagen, or Stella Adler.) Find the one that is right for you.

After researching all the various techniques and auditing different teachers then choose the training discipline you feel is the best fit for you.  Next choose if want to take acting class or scene study.

Often actors think that Scene Study is the way to study acting. Yet, Acting technique classes for many actors is often a better way to build a strong foundation. I used to think that Scene Classes were the same as acting technique classes but have learned the difference and the value.

“Scene study” primarily involves individual scenes or monologues from a play or film, which are assigned to the student actors. The instructor directs and teaches his/her approach using scripts as the vehicle. He/she might have some warm-ups or exercises, but their major focus is the scene work.

Whereas “acting classes” offer a step-by-step process utilizing specific techniques and exercises before scenes are assigned.  Once scenes are introduced to the students, the teacher continues to add more challenging techniques.

Essentially, it is like the difference between a “house-building” class and a carpentry class. One has the instructor t oversee the construction of the project, advising the students everything that needs to be done, helping direct him/her to build a particular house before moving on to the next one. Whereas in a carpentry class, the instructor teaches each student how to master every tool, thus making him a master carpenter first, then he is empowered to go off to work.

The actor who has no clear set of “tools” is more dependent on his scene study teacher, Whereas, a good acting technique teacher teaches the tools to be a great actor then applies them to scripts. (AND there teachers who do both.) For the most part,  a scene study class may initially make students feel good about their scene work, but in truth they will learn more about their scene than they do about themselves as artists. 

How to Become a TV Host – Part 3

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In Part 1 of How To Become a TV Host we reviewed what it takes, the (3) T Core Values it takes to become a host.
-Think, Talk and Teach-

In Part 2 I broke it down to (3) Key Areas of connection every host needs to understand. TV Hosting is a Mind Mouth and Body Connection.

Here is Part 3: Read more

Diane Christiansen Kids & Teens

Hidden Factors of Relaxation for the Actor

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By: Diane Christiansen

When practicing your Relaxation Exercises, including identifying tension in the muscles and breathing deeply into the lower stomach and exhaling through the mouth very slowly, the actor may find unusually strong feelings welling up within. Tension may re-manifest itself throughout the body even after a deep relaxation is used, and especially in the neck and throat, resulting in a “choked” sensation in the vocal chords. The actor is encouraged at this point to help release the tension by vocalizing a long, sustained “ahhhhh” sound, or a short, staccato “HAH!” to help release both the tension and the emotion.

After practicing this exercise faithfully every day for fifteen minutes to a half hour, the actor develops a “sixth sense” for identifying tension in his body, and this new awareness is especially useful on camera or on stage, where, when the actor feels tension for one reason or another, he simply “identifies where it is, and releases it”.

This relaxation exercise, when mastered, helps the actor identify the tension as it becomes apparent, then release the tension in a manner invisible to the audience. This unwanted tension must be released, or it will block the pure expression of the actor’s instrument.

But learning to properly relax is only a part of the benefit of the Relaxation Exercise. While the actor is learning to relax by identifying tension in individual muscles, he is also learning to develop and strengthen the powers of concentration needed to create the life of the person, animal or “thing” he is representing in the story the author has invented. Remember, to be concentrated, you must be properly relaxed, and to be properly relaxed you must be concentrated.

The extreme degree of concentration the actor applies to identifying tension in the body and mind during the Relaxation Exercise will make the exercise itself very tedious. Human beings don’t seem to enjoy concentrating for extended periods of time unless the object of their attention has some immediate gratification for them.
But the actor, not unlike the painter, the musician or the physician, must find a way to practice the more mundane elements of the art in ways that are stimulating, exciting and fun.

Dancers - How to Get an Agent, Part 1

Professional Dance Training: Dance Agents, Part 1

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“It’s gotten really competitive since the onslaught of the So You Think You Can Dancers,” said Tim O’Brien, dance agent and President of Clear Talent Group, of the current reality facing professional dancers in Los Angeles. When Master Dance Teacher Joe Tremaine recently sat down with Tim, and Shelli Margheritis of McDonald Selznick & Associates, two of the city’s top dance agencies, each of them opened up on what else dancers need to know when seeking representation and what the agents expect of them.


MAKING THE MOVE TO A LARGE MARKET

Agents recognize that making the move to Los Angeles or any large market, is a tough decision. They also admit that sometimes the only way for you to realize if it’s the right decision for you, is for you to make that move. If you plan to take that step, be prepared. Understand that this industry comes with a lot of rejection. It can be a lot of fun and it can be a great career, but it’s definitely not easy. Then, once you’re in that city, be sure to take class and get a feel for the flavor in that particular city, as each market has a different vibe.

MOVING TO L.A. / GETTING REPRESENTATION

Once you make the move, especially to Los Angeles, you will want to seek representation. Having an agent helps you hear about the best jobs, gets you in for agency auditions and helps protect you once you have booked the job. Each agency has their own guidelines for finding talent and receiving submissions from prospective talent. Some hold their auditions once or twice each year, you can find out the dates of those auditions by contacting them directly. Most talent agencies also accept submissions either electronically through e-mail or in hard copy format, but the role of digital media cannot be ignored. Due to the demands on each agent’s time, they usually prefer receiving links to performance reels posted to online sites such as YouTube, as this allows them to quickly review the dancers look and technique and efficiently share that link with the other agents in their office.

WHAT AGENTS LOOK FOR

Contrary to popular belief, agents have a wide range of what they seek in a dancer they want to represent, but a great look and that indescribable “it” factor always top the list. Remember that each and every project has different requirements, whether it be a niche forte or good, well-rounded dancers, and the agents goal is to fill those roles. They do warn however, to be on top of your game, especially if you are specialized. For instance, if you’re a b-boy, you better be the best b-boy and know all your tricks. They also stress the importance of technique. The more technique you have the farther your dance career will take you.\

AGENT’S JOB / YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES

An agent’s job is to represent talent and help guide their career. They do this by helping you choose the right headshots, helping craft your resume, getting your electronic breakdowns posted and prepping you for castings, which they then submit for projects that are being produced. Next steps include securing the audition, following up on the call back, finalizing the compensation negotiations for the dancer and the follow through for the rest of that production. In the meantime, they are already preparing you for the next project that will help progress your career. Shelli and Tim both stress that good communication is the biggest factor in having a successful relationship with your agent. It is your responsibility to keep them updated on your availability, the choreographers you have worked with, what your dream jobs are, etc., so they can pitch you for those projects and know that you will be available when they do. Always remember, you are your product, and your product is only as strong as the re-investment you make in it. Your agent is there to sell that product and the better they know your product, the better their rate of success.