We have found 19,295 posts across 4 actor forums:
LA Actors Seeking Agents, I have a treat for you by boogercube • last post Jan 29th
Hi everyone, I love this thread and all of you. I wanted to share this amazing resource I stumbled upon a year ago. It lists all of the top 150 talent agencies in LA, and how to submit to them..IF YOU DARE. It's also a good thing to look at if you're unfamiliar with how to land an agent, or if you're thinking of moving to LA to pursue acting soon. xx [https://organizedactor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/150-Top-Talent-Agencies-in-Los-Angeles-2017.pdf](https://organizedactor.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/150-Top-Talent-Agencies-in-Los-Angeles-2017.pdf)
Helpful Websites for New, Experienced and Veteran Actors by MissAndreaDraper • last post Jan 28th
As an actor we are always working and trying to improve. I decided to start this thread in my free time because I love to go through Backstage community and look for helpful tips and treats to help me improve my craft. Nothing can replace training but learning how to...
Question about drama school by Putang1nam0 • last post Jan 28th
Currently I’m a freshman at San Francisco State University and I’m a drama major. I’ve always planned on pursuing an acting career, and I really want to study the craft right now. I’m just wondering if staying at SFSU is the right choice. I came here (I’m from LA), for a variety of reasons, not primarily acting, but lately I’ve been wanting to make it my main focus. Does anyone know if SFSU’s drama department is one that will really be worthwhile for me as an actor 4 years from now? Is there another Cal State school that has a highly acclaimed drama department (I don’t want to go out of state, and I’m not a good enough student to get into any UC’s)? Or if I really want to take a career as an actor seriously, is an acting conservatory the best thing to do?
What do you think of Talent Managers for Actors Facebook group? by xijalu • last post Jan 28th
I'm in that group, and lately it doesn't seem to be for me. I just see arguments spark up quickly for no reason and the moderators are pretty fickle... I only lurk but it makes me kinda afraid to comment lol ​ Also, I think I might leave because it's just a bunch of self-promotion and it's easy to get lost in the 45,000+ people there. Luckily, there are some people it does benefit, so that's nice. What do you guys think?
can somebody be a big time manager and not be listed as such on IMDB? by positivevibes87 • last post Jan 28th
they have a large body of work of high profile a list projects in various capacities that are listed on imdb, they are just not labeled as a manager or have clients listed. is it possible since they operate at a high level that they fly under the radar in terms of being known for managing actors? this person strikes me as being "cool" and savvy enough to navigate in a clever way, i'm new to this situation so I'm trying to learn as much as I can about what is possible without having to directly ask. i just want to be knowledgeable and prepared for a potential conversation about that. Like, would a normal 10-15% rate apply in a situation like that? or would the % be negotiated lower since theres more $ involved and this person might be involved in other aspects of certain projects like casting or producing? is there a "normal" when things overlap?
How do I respond when someone asks for a reel and I don’t have one? by justsomethrowawayacc • last post Jan 28th
Being a relatively new actor, I don’t have a lot of footage that would really qualify for a reel. I’ve done one local commercial, (that didn’t have me “acting” per say. It was one of those “real people off the street” type shoots) a short film, and two voiceovers. I do have a demo of one of my VO’s but I’m assuming someone who directs and casts for films wouldn’t be interested in that. Basically, I don’t feel like I have enough footage for a reel. If I really tried, I could maybe scrounge around 20 seconds of footage? And that’s being generous and really milking my two on screen sources. How do I respond if someone asks for a reel in my situation?
Canadian ACTRA members: Can you act in your own self-produced and written short film? by Prodime • last post Jan 28th
Hello Everyone! Basically what the question says. I've been getting a lot of mixed information and ACTRA doesn't necessarily make this easily available. Essentially, someone I know has written a short film and wants to produce it. They are an ACTRA member, but wish to make it non-union with non-union actors - but give himself the lead role. Is this possible? Allowed? Thanks in advance!
Feeling Envious by ElliotIsRami • last post Jan 28th
Hi fellow artists. I guess it’s in the title. I’m feeling envious of another artist and in my studies we’ve been told it’s our individual path and artistic journey. I get that. But it’s also opportunity, the image the creator tries to display, and many more factors that get you where you want to be. I guess I’m hoping for similar stories of others putting their eggs all in the acting basket. I’m content with working as an actor and never getting into the union or never getting casted as lead. Still is not as fun seeing peers do so much better (having paid dues or not). Any other sour pusses out there can lend some encouragement?
Any clips anyone can direct me to for actors portraying a high off of drugs? by SuperStalin64 • last post Jan 28th
I auditioned for a role in where my character was to be high on cocaine in a few scenes and I feel like I didn't capture the energy right at all. Any help would be great!
How some actors book a role of netflix or big tv show as debut? by mixednuts24 • last post Jan 28th
I read many articles says you should do many indie/student short films and make a decent reel to sign with an agent and book a big tv/movie lead role. But some actors I see on netflix booked their role as their debut. How were they able to access to the audition without having small role experiences? Or they did some which are not registered on IMDb? or they signed with their agent without having film experiences but just got discovered?
Am I too tall to be an actor ? by leonbuxus • last post Jan 28th
Silly question but I just need to know . I’m 6’5 / 197 cm .
How to get "Stand-In" work? by HelloGuest • last post Jan 28th
Hello, I am not sure where else to submit this question. I recently started working with Central Casting Los Angeles (I know we all have our opinion on doing BG work), but my ultimate goal is to become a professional Stand-In. I started in November and I got my first Union voucher this January doing a "photo-double" shoot through Central Casting. My main question is; how can I look for Stand-In work on my own? My only experience is the photo-double I did and I attended a Central Casting 'class' on how to be a stand-in. I understand my experience is limited so far, but I was wondering if there are any tips to help me expedite the process. BG work is ok, but the way we are treated is not stellar. I am very professional, on time, and respectful but I feel the 'general BG' often gives us a bad rep. I can see and feel how BG is just treated as "human props that eat", but enough about that. Any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Edit: I should add I do not foresee wanting to become a principal actor within the near future so getting contracted for a series or for weeks/months at time is not a problem for me.
Why is Marlon Brando considered a great (if not the greatest), actor of all time? by SupremeMathematics • last post Jan 27th
And why did people not like him?
[M20/] I got an extra role in an orgy scene of a big budget movie. What should I expect? by brought2ubycarlssr • last post Jan 27th
I've only done 1 extra role a week ago for another movie. The same casting company called me for an orgy scene for a pretty big movie. I have no idea what to expect. I'd prefer to be paired up with a female for obvious reasons. Do I concentrate on not to get hard? Or do I concentrate on getting hard as to not to insult the actress? Either way, getting hard while a whole production team with a telescope up my ass sounds hard. Anyone with past experiences? Thanks a lot.
My whole life I’ve been told I have a great voice, how do I get into voice acting? by IreaditOnReddit08 • last post Jan 27th
I worked a drive through in college and had people tell me I have a great voice, I honed it through a failed little rap “career”, after working jobs I really hate I want to get into something I enjoy and feel like voice acting could be it. I have a pretty good home studio to record, hoping someone could please point me in the right direction to become a voice actor. Many thanks in advance.
Anxiety is ruining my chances at an acting career. by silkk8 • last post Jan 27th
I've been anxious my whole life, but in my late teens/early twenties (college age) it got clinically bad. That, coupled with horrible chronic digestive problems and nausea, eventually made me quit college for a semester to get medicated and back on track. I took classes over the summer, and graduated on time with honors. I'm proud of that. My improvement motivated me to finally pursue my lifelong dream of being a professional actor. I got headshots, enrolled in (still ongoing) training, and improved a lot. I still had/have issues with anticipatory anxiety, but being out of the evaluation environment of class and actually working on set (and self taping most of my auditions) has helped greatly. Since this summer I've started booking roles in TV/film, nothing super major, but still professional credits. I signed with an agent near where I live and am starting to build a relationship with a new agent in PA/NYC. I made it my goal to get legit (better) representation in 2019. So I decided to attend an agent/CD workshop. I knew going in that this was no guarantee of anything, but I truly believed I had at least a shot of interesting one of the panelists. I picked a scene I loved, and I had it *down.* I tried not to psych myself out but my performance was not great. I wouldn't say I was the worst in my group, but certainly not the best, and my biggest feedback was that I lacked confidence which prevented me from connecting to the material (like I did while practicing). It's just so frustrating, because I know I was capable of impressing them, of connecting, of being confident. But I literally can't control how my body reacts to the prospect of being evaluated in front of a group. I take Xanax and everything, but it still comes through, sabotaging my performance. Two out of the 4 panelists noted on their feedback sheets that I wasn't ready to book, even after a year of training (and booking). Two said I could book at the lowest level. I'm just so mad because they only got to see one anxiety riddled performance from me, and basically wrote me off because of it. Which I totally understand! I'm not mad at them; I'm mad at myself. It makes me feel like I've made no progress at all, and will never get my foot in the door. I'm working on my anxiety but it will always be a part of me. Maybe acting won't be, then. ​ Sorry for the rant. TLDR: Anxiety is killing my confidence in the room, which is killing my chances at getting representation and booking. Meds only do so much.
PSA: Advice from casting (long read) by highrisedrifter • last post Jan 27th
As someone who has worked for a casting director for a couple of years and as a director currently casting a SAG-AFTRA paid feature film (and also i’m mainly a SAG-AFTRA actor with good TV/film credits), I have some advice for actors who use casting sites like Casting Networks, Actors Access and the others that exist. Some of you know me on here as I like to help fellow actors out. I’m first and foremost an actor but I consider we are all colleagues, not competitors. I’m mainly going to talk about Casting Networks as that’s the one we are using today to cast our feature. When you submit, we get a list of actors headshots. The one thing I have noticed is that there are two types of headshot, professional ones that make you look good, and ones that seem to be either cut from a project or badly shot on a phone. And whatever you do, don’t add comedy stickers over your photos. One guy had a Menorah covering something which I can only assume would be a copyright violation otherwise. The headshot looked silly, we laughed, and moved on to someone else. We are casting a number of roles for this feature and with over 100 submissions for some of the roles, we need a way to get rid of people immediately. The feature we are shooting is a drama, so we expect people to submit a headshot accordingly. We had a few ‘wacky and zany’ headshots chosen. Those people got ignored. Anyone with a bad headshot gets ignored too. Yes we may miss some great actors this way but we do need a way of slimming down the numbers. There is no excuse for you to have a bad headshot on a casting site. Next we look for a reel. If you don’t have a reel, we may look at your resume *if* the main headshot is a perfect fit. If you don’t have a reel though, the chances of bringing you in are slim, unless you have perfect credits and a perfect look. This only happens once or twice by role maximum. BUT, these roles are put into the secondary pile. If you don’t have a reel or a resume online, you get trashed. For god’s sake, add both! Now we would look at all the reels from the people we have left. At least the first minute, unless your reel is terrible from the start. One reel had eight seconds of black screen, followed by a superimposed name over more black for another seven seconds. It was 15 seconds into the reel before we even saw the actor for the first time. I‘m not kidding! The first time they opened their mouth was 30 seconds in. 30 seconds. If we have hundreds of reels to look at, you only HAVE 30 seconds to make an impression as we just don’t have time to look at all reels! That actor didn’t make the cut. So once we’ve marked the people as definite to bring in, we look at how many we have and if we have space, we look at the secondary pile again. If we don’t have space, we may have to cut the list down even further and that’s done by looking at the reel and the headshot exclusively. If both are a perfect fit, we bring you in. If one or the other is just a bit off, we may not bring you in, depending on time we have available. Put your best stuff right at the top of your reel. My acting reel for instance launches straight into my best dialogue in a dirty shot over another actors shoulder, with my name superimposed over the bottom of the frame. No black screen. No montage. And for god’s sake, no music with a copyright you don’t own! We want you to be brilliant and by not adding a reel or a resume, you don't look professional. You look like an amateur. But on the flip-side, we are looking for excuses NOT to bring you in, because time is limited and we simply can’t see everyone. Make sure your headshots look good, you have an updated reel, You’ve filled in the skills/training part of the site and your resume is up-to-date. If one of those is missing, you are hurting your chances of getting called in. If a few of those are missing you are wasting your time. And sorry, i’m not going to provide a link to the feature we are casting as we have all the subs we need for this and we’ve passed the cast date. I truly hope this information helps anyone unsure what to put on a casting site. Best of luck, and go out there and slay it!
Help with training by badthrowaway77 • last post Jan 27th
So I just booked my first big credit at the last year. I made the episode and everything. It was literally the culmination of a ten year journey. I felt like I was on top of the world...There is no way the top agents in my city would say no to me now...and they did..4/5 said no, one said submit a tape and we will get back to you soon on our decision and that was weeks ago with no response. Now I'm looking to get back into classes, I completed a full miesner program and honestly, I felt it didn't make me a better actor, I don't know if I even took anything out of it. Other than personlization, but even when I'm "acting" or auditioning, that personalization isn't going through my head. What goes through my head is "be as real as possible" "less is more" and not forgetting my lines. Now I'm debating on what I should do next for 2019..I want to get with a better agent, I'm having trouble if I should continue with Miesner or maybe try a different method, like Shurtleff. I don't want to keep on throwing money at classes if they aren't working...There is a phrase - "I don't want to adult today" sometimes I don't want to be a human...
My first commercial is now airing! by PinkamenaDP • last post Jan 27th
I saw a commercial that has me in it for the first time!! Its been airing this week on the channels NBC and CBS and maybe ABC but I haven't caught it there yet. It's for a large Native American entity that has a massive presence locally and regionally. They have an independent film production company but I worked with the largest marketing company in our city for the filming and photography for this advertising effort. I don't really know much about the process but I do know their commercials are always high quality and very eye catching. It's a montage of many different pieces of footage with music and voice over. My footage was only a second but it's so exciting nonetheless! The family is all excited as well. I wondered what made them select the piece they selected for me. The day we filmed, they got a few different takes in this specific scene and each take was at least 30 seconds long. They were so excited the cameraman and director said "oh you're going to be on TV for sure." But they only picked 1 second of all that and I honestly think as awesome as that second is - it's clearly me, it's a side shot and there was better, more face-on filming done of me and I wonder why they didn't choose that. Not that I'm complaining, but I'm genuinely interested in the process of editing, and the who/what/why that determines what few precious seconds are ultimately chosen and used. Do the photographers or production people have a say in what gets used? Or if not, do they ever think "what the heck I got way better footage than that," or "I worked really hard setting that scene up and getting an exact result from the actor" etc etc when they see the final edit or do they even care at all? Do they get paid for their work being used on top of their wages to initially film or photograph? It was so much fun and I was worried they could choose not to use me in the advertising at all. But they did! It took about 10 weeks for the commercial to air. There's much more that I filmed in many different locations and environments so I'm excited for what might yet be produced! The best thing is that my parents were the first ones to catch an airing on prime time tv so it made them really happy! Eta: if there's better industry terms that I should use, please let me know! I'm not educated, trained or very experienced in this but I'd like to be!
Agent advice/feedback - TKO by Act0r • last post Jan 26th
Hi friends -- I have a meeting with Lynne Jebens at TKO this week. This is the result of a One on One session with her. I liked Lynne a lot in my initial audition with her, but am curious for advice around her/the office itself -- good agent/agency? Are...