Actors Access announces new low budget and student film contract!

I've done so many student films. All to gain experience on sets and to build reel. However,

if you look at my film reel there is not a single student project on there. And it's not because they were bad or I was bad. It's because I never received a copy of my work.

Read more at the new, improved The NYC Actor website

Accents: Part 1

In general, most of us who take on the acting profession will find ourselves, one day, presented with the challenge of doing an accent.. or two.

One of my recommendations to you is to saturate your ears with the sound of the given accent. Watch movies, documentaries and TV shows with the dialect you are looking for. I would also make your search era-specific. I’ve heard of acting schools teaching young American actors the English dialect by showing them episodes of Upstairs/Downstairs. While a funny show, unless those students are preparing a play/film set in that specific time-period (and depending on if they can tell the different regionalisms apart) listening to U/D will render them with a very mish-mashy, old English dialect. Rather, students should be shown current day shows so that their accents can be up to date. In the same vein, there is an across-the-board “go-to” for American’s when it comes to the cockney accent - Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins. Again, while a fantastic movie, his accent is dreadful. It’d be far better to search for an authentic cockney accent rather than go to an American imitating it badly. This advice is not just for the US -> UK accent change. It applies to every accent you intend to do. The more you listen to it, the better you will be at mimicking it.

Continued: Accents: Part 1 | The NYC Actor

Ask Me!: A Moral Dilema?

What do you do if you get an audition/job for something you fundamentally disagree with? Morally speaking?
For example I once went out for a Malboro commercial. I didn't want to support the tobacco industry and didn't give my best performance in the callback because I didn't want to book it. The money would have been really good, but I just couldn't stomach the karma of it. Is that crazy?

Anonymous

Continued: Ask Me!: A Moral Dilema? | The NYC Actor

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Anecdotes on the job: They're listening!

I was recently doing a little background work. I had been placed on a street corner with another lady and we were standing in one spot take after take. I started to get a sore back about an hour (or lets say 5 takes) into the second to last scene of the 10-hour day. It was late, the sun was fading, people were beginning to get silly. I discovered that if I, in between takes, crouched down into a squat it relieved my aches. This was an unfortunate discovery on my part primarily because anything that can peak my scatological sense of humor.

Continued: Anecdotes on the job: They're Listening! | The NYC Actor

ASK Me!: Reviews?

Could you help me with my "Reviewer/Critic Theory?" I go by the 50% rule. Only 50% of both positive and negative reviews are honest. The other 50% are either trying to get on your good side at the ground floor or are trying to look good and get more hits on their website by making you look bad. Am I off base here? How should you treat your theater reviews?

lettersofdispleasure

For the answer: Ask Me! - Reviews? | The NYC Actor

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Resume

For the full article: The Actors Resume | The NYC Actor

Building the Perfect Website

These days an actor website is a MUST-HAVE. It's really important. Primarily because the industry that is not connected through your agent (if you have one) is online. There are so many casting websites that an actor should be linked up to and one thing you'll find you need is a link to a website.

There are many ways to do this and many of the casting websites out there offer you hosting and a page on their site. However you do it, if you have a website on your resume and/or business cards you are making it THAT much easier for a prospective employer to see your work - which'll make getting hired easier.

Read more: Building the Perfect Website | The NYC Actor

An Actors Toolkit

As an actor who wants to be taken seriously in the professional world (aka entertainment industry, y'all!!) there are a few things you should have handy. Here is a basic checklist if you're just starting out:

HEADSHOT

RESUME

WORKING PHONE WITH VOICEMAIL

EMAIL ADDRESS

WEBSITE

MONOLOGUES

REEL

AUDIO DEMO (IF DOING VOICEOVERS)

ACCOUNTS WITH ONLINE CASTING SERVICES

APPROPRIATE WARDROBE

POSTCARDS FOR SHOWS

PENS

BUSINESS CARDS

For a detailed breakdown and to read more: An Actors Toolkit | The NYC Actor

Hold your horses..

Don't celebrate until the check's in your hand and the spot's runnin'!

I don't know if you've seen Mad Men, but in an episode in Season 3 they illustrate this point brilliantly with the Patio commercial story-line. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-AgTnQok3RU

I cannot tell you the amount of jobs I have been hired or on-hold for that have fallen through. Just last week I was posing for the cover of The Wall Street Journal weekend edition and after an hour and a half of work the editors called the photographer and pulled the plug on the story...

Read more:  Hold Your Horses | The NYC Actor

Signing a SAG Ultra Low Budget Film Agreement

After all the auditions, the call-backs, the "holds", the stomach-churning excitement/nerves that lead up to booking a job comes the business of signing the contract. As with almost any other job in the world contracts have to be signed to ensure that all parties are on-board and will show up to see the project through to completion. This is true for the entertainment industry.

Yuck! I HATE this part.

Read more:  Signing a SAG Ultra Low Budget Film Agreement | The NYC Actor

From Angela's Ashes - some helpful insights (I hope!)

Hello there,

Welcome to a blog designed purely for actors. I am very green at this whole blog thing so firstly I really have to prepare you for the fact that I am not a writer by any stretch of the imagination. But I am passionate about sharing information with you, so I will do my best to be clear and concise.

As an actor living in New York, I have begun to work more and more on higher-paying jobs, and auditioning/meeting with some of the biggest hitters in the industry. What I have realized is that there is very little information out there to assist a conscientious actor in their quest to become a truly successful business person in the field. There are tonnes of books and websites on how to be a good artist, which is brilliant, but what happens when you find yourself on the front-lines, as it were, of this gigantic and new business world? How do you make the right steps? What are the right steps, even? What do I need to be prepared for? What does a professional actor need to have to get their foot in the right doors? How do I get, and keep a good agent? What type am I? How do I write a cover letter? What should my headshot/resume look like? And so on and so forth.

My goal here is to answer as many of those question as possible in the most straight-forward way I can so that you as an actor can glide into success with grace - rather than fumble around blindly hoping and praying that you don't screw up and piss off the wrong person or team of people, etc., etc.

By sharing with you my experiences as they happen, you'll be able to sift through the ashes of my successes and failures and hopefully find your self a couple of diamonds to help you on your way.

And, as I mention in my title's intro at the top of the page, this is not the Holy Grail, "be-all, end-all" of the industry. It's just one woman's guide. Hopefully, this can be a place where people will share their experiences; correct me when I'm wrong; offer alternate approaches; or just offer their opinions/agreements/disagreements in the comments sections.

Ultimately, Francis Bacon said it best: Knowledge is Power. So here is a little knowledge from me to you. I hope you enjoy! Good luck in your life as an actor!