Tips for Getting Your Movie Career Launched
Hollywood helps those who help themselves! In you want to get your movie career fast tracked then here are three common sense tips to help you on your way. 1. Borrow the Boy Scout's Motto: Be Prepared. Once you start the ball rolling you never know when you're going to get a casting call. When that call comes there isn't going to be any time to get all of the basics covered so get them out of the way right now. Get your portfolio in order. Have plenty of copies of your PROFESSIONALLY done publicity photo's on hand. Have all of your stage and screen credits listed even if it's only summer stock and school performances. List any special skills you have, such as dancing, juggling, yodelling, foreign languages, anything which might catch a casting director's eye. List any union memberships such as SAG, AEA or AFTRA. Build a web site that contains everything that's included in your portfolio and make sure that there is contact information available. If you have an agent then list the agent's contact information instead of yours. If you stink at building web sites then pay a pro to do it for you. Hire a copywriter as well if you have no writing talent. Register your name, if possible, and make that your domain name. 2. Stay Connected Join local theater groups, read the trades looking for casting calls, hang out where other actors hang out so you can stay on top of the local gossip and happenings. Sometimes you can pick up a valuable tip or hear about a film crew that's coming to do some local shooting. I know a girl who landed an extra role in Robert Dinero's 'Meet the Parents' by "accidentally" showing up at the train station in Oyster Bay, NY where a scene was being shot. She picked up that juicy tip at an actor's workshop she attended. 3. Make your own luck The harder and smarter that you work the luckier you get. Remember my friend from 'Meet the Parents'? What's the chances that she'd have that screen credit if she didn't go out of her way to "get lucky". If you live in Podunk, and no one ever films in Podunk, then move somewhere where they do film. If your state or city has an agency that works with movie companies to help scout locations and strip away red tape, call them and see if they have a mailing list or any other way of finding out IN ADVANCE when a film crew will be shooting. SHOW UP on shooting days. Don't make a pest of yourself but be "noticeable". Hey, you might just get noticed. If you have enough advanced notice then find out who the casting director is and fire off a copy of your portfolio. Sure, it's likely to get "filed" but you never know when yours will show up and be the right thing at the right time. If you look like someone famous then make that work for you. Now, I don't mean that you kind of resemble Julia Roberts if only you lost 60 pounds, got a cut and dye, and had your teeth capped. But if people come up to you in restaurants and ask for your autograph then you could have an instant ticket to the movies! Get a recent publicity photo of Ms. Roberts and take it to the hair salon. Have your stylist cut, style and color your hair to exactly match the style and color in the photo. Then make your way to the local boutique and buy something to wear which matches as closely as possible what Ms. Roberts is wearing in the photo and then get a professional photographer to shoot you in the exact same pose. Now, take the real photo of Julia and your own and fire it off to her agent, your agent, any agent you can find. Send it to casting directors, heck, send it to the local and national newspapers. Write a letter asking: Can you tell which one is the real Julia Roberts? Might not work for you; but I'll tell you this -- It doesn't have any chance of working at all if you don't at least try it. The road to Hollywood can be long an never ending, or it could be the next exit on your journey through this world. The fun thing is: You never know! For more info: http://www.TalentInternet.com About The Author Bas de Baar is editor of www.TalentInternet.com, a site with everything about movie and modeling auditions. For more info: http://www.TalentInternet.com.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
5 Steps to a New Job
The economy is picking up, budgets are new, positions are open and companies are hiring. Now is the time to rev up your job search efforts. Use these tips to dramatically improve your results.
Wanted: A Diva for the Job of a Lifetime!
"When I was a child, I always thought the world was mine, A stomping ground for me, full of opportunities. I always had this attitude that I was going to go out into the world and do all the things I wanted to do." ?Madonna
Online Resume Tips and Secrets
I manage a website for corporate flight attendants that features resumes prominently listed on the first page of the site. Unlike some careers, corporate flight attendants must promote themselves overtly in order to find work especially if they are contractors. Since adding this feature two years ago, I have learned that an online copy must be arranged differently than that of a hard copy primarily for security reasons. Let's review some of the 'best practices' you need to accomplish in order to successfully and safely promote yourself online.
How to Know if You Are in the Right Career
Ever wonder if you are in the right career? If you are like most people you have. Did you know that 80% of people are currently misemployed? They are either underemployed, not happy with their current position or not fairly compensated for their skill and/or function set. If so many people are misemployed, why do they stay in their current situation? Why do they not take the necessary steps to move into something that will be fulfilling and something they can look forward to doing every day - a situation they can truly be proud of?
Three Tips for Successful Networking
I generally shy away from using the word "networking" when it comes to our business. As professional "headhunters", we are constantly practicing and performing the art of networking in our daily operations. Many only consider the subject of networking when they are either seeking a new job or seeking new business opportunities. From our perspective, networking should be a daily event in your life. Networking is the art of building relationships that create benefit for yourself. Here are three tips to becoming a top notch "networker".
Build Your Career Decision By Decision
Do you dislike making decisions and avoid the challenge whenever you can?
We Rejected Your Résumé Today
Hi, I am Mr. Employer.
Tips on How to Write High Impact Letters of Recommendation
Congratulations. You've been asked to write a letter of
recommendation for an employee or colleague. This person values
your opinion of him or her, and you'd be glad to help them
advance. The problem is you're unsure of what to say or how to
say it! Here are four tips to keep in mind when preparing your
recommendation.
Doing What You Love
What do you want to be when you grow up? I'm sure you were asked this question at least once when you were a youngster. When asked the question, did you have an answer at the ready, or did you need a few minutes to think about it? We all had dreams of becoming something great, like a fireman, a teacher, or a rock star, just to name a few. Well, how did you do? Maybe you never aspired to be what you set out to be or said that you would become. But then again, things change. The older we get, our tastes change, our view of the world changes, even our goals change.
Seven Myths You Must Challenge Now To Begin Your Second Career Today
* Has it been awhile since you explored career options?
Your Self-Image in the Workplace
When communication breaks down in your office or factory and workers lack motivation, what are the roots of the problem?
Job Search: The End of the Line
There is an end to the job search tunnel!
Job Interviews -- The Real Reasons Why You Need to Follow Up
Effective follow-up after a job interview is often a key reason why someone gets a job, even though there are other equally qualified candidates. Many candidates treat follow up as an optional add-on to their job search. That's just not the case.
Resume Posting: Tips for Jobseekers
Recruiting firms, like most businesses today, must embrace technology in order to prosper. Part of modern recruiting is understanding the value and benefit of internet job boards. They give recruiters and HR professionals the ability to both publicize potential job opportunities and search through large databases of prospective candidates. In order to best serve our clients and maximize our time each day, we employ very bright people called "RA's", short for Research Assistants. RA's spend a considerable amount of time each day scouring the databases of high profile job boards for potential candidate sources. Most of the time their efforts pay off in the end by either leading us to a suitable candidate through direct contact or referrals to suitable candidates. For those considering posting their resume online, here are a few tips directly from the RA's:
Learn How to Throw a Boomerang
Actually, "the boomerang effect" is a relatively new trend of inviting back talented former employees into the fold.
TMI: The Resume Destroyer
"They say my résumé should be only one page long. Is that correct?"
How to Change Career Horses in Mid-Stream
You'll get wet but the reward just might be a more fulfilling ride!
What is Experience Anyway?
I learned in first grade that one plus one equals two. But, that's not the right equation when counting work experience. We often think we're building experience to help us get ahead. In reality, we're passing time. Ten years working like a cloned Bill Murray in Groundhog Day is not ten years worth of experience. Doing the same thing again and again yields an experience formula more like: ten times one equals one.
I used to equate years of work with years of experience. No more. I learned by making plenty of hiring and promotion mistakes in twenty years of management the two are not equal. Neither are years of work and performance. Doing something for five, ten or twenty years doesn't make you automatically five, ten or twenty years better than when you started. I've been cooking for thirty years but I remain a mediocre cook.
Two or three years involved with a business start-up or a new project might provide more growth and knowledge than ten years in a stable venue. And it might not. Gaining experience is more about you and your approach than anything else.
Recurring work events can be predictable, boring, and unchallenging ways of passing years at work if what you're doing is updating last year's memo, tweaking last year's budget, or fine-tuning last years goals without applying innovation, analysis or critical thinking. Retiring on the job is as prolific as spam and will get you as blocked as those unwanted emails.
I've found the difference between people who are winning at working and people who aren't, is the difference between passing another year at work and gaining another year of work experience. Those who build their experience build their futures. And, you can build experience without changing jobs.
Building experience is about the depth, diversity, challenges and learning you gain by offering the best of who you are at work. It's about seizing and creating opportunities. And it's about continual self-improvement and constant self-feedback.
You know you're gaining experience when you problem solve your own mistakes; learn to use knowledge building blocks to handle more complex issues; make contributions more valuable than the year before; acquire new skills by venturing outside a comfort zone; embrace new ideas or technologies; or recognize you don't know as much as you thought you did as you begin to see a bigger picture.
People who try new things, push the envelope, pitch ideas, offer innovative problem solving, take accountability, and never stop learning and making a difference, are people gaining experience and building their work future.
(c) 2004 Nan S. Russell. All rights reserved.
Resurrecting the Perfect Resume, Part Two
Are you in denial about the lifelessness of your resume? If you are reasonably qualified for the type of work you seek, yet your resume is consistently failing to win you interviews, then you need to face the reality that your beloved document is dead.
Interpersonal Skill Building -- Yank The Suckers & Weeds
According to the National Gardening Association, suckers are rapidly growing shoots rising from an underground root or stem, often to the detriment of the tree. They can be very irritating and annoying for they bear no flowers or fruit. Rather than cut them off, one way to get rid of them is to roughly yank the suckers off to remove the cells and tissues that cause re-growth.
|
