What to wear? What to wear? - Casual Dress

As with the headshot industry, what one wears to an audition is another changing landscape an actor strolls upon and should be a question revisited frequently. But, for our purposes today (August 27th, 2009) we'll focus on what's appropriate now.

I received a few calls this week for on-camera, commercial auditions. The character description - as per usual - was vague, vague, vague. What's more, the dress for said characters was noted as "casual". Oh, vague-ty! How I hate thee!! So, of course, being a bit of a fashion victim, a few of the many questions that popped into my head were these:

- Casual as in what I wear to hang around my house?

- Casual as in, what I'd wear on a third date (that's a little joke for UCB students who studied with Gill Ozeri) - whatever that means?

- Casual as in what I might wear to casual-day at work if I worked in a corporate environment?

- Casual as in the Gap or J Crew?

- Casual as in boring??

Read more:  What To Wear? What To Wear? - Casual Dress | The NYC Actor

Book out!

For those of you who don't yet know, "booking out" is when you alert your agent of an upcoming conflict in your schedule that would inhibit you from going out for an audition, etc.

For example, I am shooting a film in Memphis at the end of September. This will take me out of commission for roughly a week as far as auditioning is concerned. So it is important that when it gets closer to the date, I let ALL my representation and other ongoing industry employers (eg: producers/directors who hire me consistently) know that I will not be here.

Read more:  Book Out! | The NYC Actor

VO Agents Won't Sign Foreigners

I was just given some fascinating information about representation as a foreign voiceover artist.

I currently freelance with a few different agencies in the city and after booking a number of "big" spots was curious why no one was signing me. Then, thanks to the insight and wisdom of my new voiceover coach, Peter Rofé, I learned something that I've never heard before:

Voiceover agents won't sign foreigners!

Why? As a foreign VO artist I am considered "specialty" talent and due to the rarity of available work in this field most agencies will refrain from entering into a contractual relationship with me - avoiding the contention that will undoubtedly arise when there aren't any jobs to send me on and I start harassing them about their "obligation" to me, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah.

Pretty straight forward, I suppose.

Read more:  VO Agents Won't Sign Foreigners | The NYC Actor

VoiceOver Home/Portable Studio

I've been making a modest living in voiceovers for the past two years. And recently I have been getting more and more requests to get my home studio together. As someone who travels frequently and who has nearly lost a couple of bookings by being out of town, I thought it would be wise to make sure I could take my home booth on the road, too. But, considering I'm not exactly making house-buying money yet, I can't quite afford the industry standard equipment. So, with the aid of a fantastic book "Voice for Hire" by Randy Thomas and Peter Rofé and some solid, online research I have come up with a low-budget option that is so far proving to be quite effective.

Read more:  Voiceover Home/Portable Booth | The NYC Actor