Acting Tips
How to Find Casting Calls
Posting for casting calls portrays actors as amateurs and isn't a viable strategy. Instead, platforms like Actor’s Access, Backstage, Casting Networks and Facebook Groups are recommended for finding auditions. Networking and having professional links also save time while applying. The actor should be willing to do the legwork and sift through possibilities.
Film Making
Making Movies on Zero Budget is Not Something to Brag About
Nobody makes a film for zero dollars. The budget got paid by the cast and crew instead of the producer, and that's nothing to brag about.
Offshore
One Audition in Four Months
My agent told me there was a limit on how many auditions I could turn down. Three months later I've turned down four or five, done exactly one, and neither he nor my manager has dropped me. The auditions were never how I was getting work.
Acting Tips
What I Learned From My First Time Behind the Casting Table
After three years of auditioning for other people's projects, I finally produced my own short film and sat on the other side of the casting table. Here is what I learned watching auditions instead of giving them, the good and the bad.
Uncategorized
The Right Kind of Slow (My First Short Film Project)
We just finished production on my first short film. It was originally called Legacy, but we changed the title so it wouldn’t get lost in...
Acting Tips
You Can Buy Craft. You Cannot Buy a Booking.
An acting coach advertising that he will help you book more is selling an outcome he does not control. Credits do not make a good teacher, but a promise of bookings is a business claim and it needs business evidence. Here is what to ask before you pay, and what coaching can honestly give you.
Acting Tips
Pay or Play, Pay to Play, and Paying to Be in a Movie
The article clarifies the meanings of "pay for play," "pay or play," and "paying to be in a movie." It defines "pay or play" as a contractual guarantee for actors, while "pay to play" involves fees for casting access, often leading to fraud. Genuine investments require ownership, while mere payments yield no recourse.
Projects
My Next 12 Months Are Full
I am four weeks into a rotation offshore with no acting work until August, which has given me time to think about how I ended up with seven films booked through 2027. It all goes back to a bad shoot in a park in 2023 and a message from a DP.
Acting Tips
How to Network as an Actor Without Sounding Like You Want Something
I was at Film Bar Mondays a few months back. A guy walked up to a director I know, introduced himself, and asked to be...
Uncategorized
My First Offshore Rotation Back
After three and a half years away, I'm back working offshore in oil and gas. The money stress is gone and I have a reason to be out here now. Here's how the rotation fits around my acting and the films I'm funding.
Acting Tips
Nobody Owes You a Role
Hard work does not entitle anyone to a role. Here is why believing you are owed one hurts your work, and the mindset that makes you happier.