Posts Tagged ‘acting’

Auditioning Tips

{ May 28, 2008 @ 12:50 am } · { Acting articles }
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from the actors bone auditioning advice page

Below are some books which I have found to be of great value in learning about the auditioning process.

But before you jump to the books written by some old time pro’s, here’s some advice that you won’t find in the books. It’s what I do before auditions… for those of you that’re interested…

Okay, you’ve sent your headshot and resume in… you did like we recommended on The Actor’s Hour page. You get the call… they don’t tell you a damn thing ‘cept where to be, when to be there and what part you’re reading for. Sides are everywhere they say. Everywhere? What does that mean? Basically it means ShowFax… you’ll find your sides at ShowFax. If it’s a professional project, you’ll find your sides there. All you need is credit card and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Of course they’ll fax your sides to you too… hence the name ShowFax. You can purchase sides page by page… but that’ll get too expensive if you follow the advice I give in the next paragraph. Sign up for the “all you can eat… I mean download” per year package.
Okay, you’re a yearly member… good. Now what? You download your sides, right? Yes… but you also download every other character’s sides in that project. Chances are, you’ll get about 50-75% of the project’s script right there. Now you’ve got way more information about the role than you’d get from just your sides. Read every page. Get the feel of the project. See who your role is in relation to other characters.
Next… get as many names of the production people as you can… director, writer, producer… right down to costume designer and prop master. Then go to The Internet Movie Database and see what you can dig up on them. You’ll probably see that a few of them have worked together before… doesn’t that tell you something? If they like you, you’ll work with them again too. You’ll also learn what kind of projects they’ve done before. You’ll get the flavor of their work. You’ll also be able to schmooze a little better when you can rattle off a little of their history if the subject arises. People are impressed when you know about them… afterall what’s every Hollywood type’s favorite subject? Themselves!
After the Internet Movie Database, you go to Yahoo or another general type search engine and see what else you can find. Use the names of the crew and the project title as keywords. Glean what you can. There may be hundreds of links or only a few. Spend enough time to get a good feel for what you’re getting into.

Actors – Suggestions for winning over an agent

{ May 28, 2008 @ 12:45 am } · { Acting articles }
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The following is from a site called the actors bone, it looks like a pretty old site that is no longer getting updated, but still has some good advice

Brad Blaisdell offers the following words of wisdom:

Before you write the letter. Is your headshot great? What’s on your resume? Is is clear, clean and professional? This is much more important than what your letter says.

VERY IMPORTANT! Do you know who the agencies are in this town? Have you chosen this particular agent for a reason? Before you mail to them, know who they are and who they rep. Get the client list. Find out who they are. Agents have egos too. Big ones if they’re any good. You need to be specific. Honest. Real. To the point… NO BULLSHIT!. Clear and respectful and most important… SHORT.
Introduce yourself simply. Dear Mr/Ms, My name is ________.
Then let them know you know who they are and that this is not a mass mailing. Something that lets them know you know them… “their work.”
THE RISK. Tell them in one or two sentences something true that peeks their curiosity. For example, if I was Paul Molinaro, I’d write something like … “I went to Medical School to become a part time doctor and a full time actor. Acting is my passion, please come see me in Welcome Home Soldier.” I would call him/her 3 days later and offer to pick him/her up and bring them home after the show… or hire a limo… or whatever it took to get them there.
Now that’s a risk… but if you want results, you have to take big risks. You have to believe in yourself if you are ever going to get them to believe in you. If they shine you on or are rude … great, you learned something about who they are and they’re not who you want … now you can move on. Be bold not crazy!
The truth is the letter isn’t important, if you’re gonna follow the way other people tell you what it should be. You gotta make it up. You gotta care that much. You gotta risk your own ego to wake people up.
Don’t be crazy or nuts. Lots of wannabe actors are totally crazy and nothing will most likely work for them. You have to figure out a way to show confidence with class… And if you don’t really believe in yourself … you can’t fake it. You gotta find that first.

Agents have enough actors already. They don’t want anymore actors… UNTIL… somebody knocks them out! Excites them. You might be the best actor in the world…(we all are in our own minds) but unless an agent believes you are gonna walk into an audition they get for you and GET THE JOB… your P/R and cover letter are in the trash.
How do you do that? I don’t know. I’ve done it. I’m no where near the best looking guy. I never went to medical school … BUT this is my life … I got nothing to lose. Be BOLD.

How to handle a cold reading explained

{ March 30, 2008 @ 12:51 am } · { Acting articles, Acting scripts }
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Cold readings are part of the job and always expect one when looking for acting work. Do not expect to be given 24 hours to prepare to read for a job. Many times when you show up at the acting audition, a script will be handed to you to read without having time to study, practice or memorize it.

That is the point of a cold read, they want to see how you handle the script and your performance without prior preparation.  Seasoned actors know very well how to handle a cold read so read on and get some acting advice for a script cold read.

In this article we’re going to discuss the very difficult art of cold reading a script you have never seen for a part. Not as easy as you think.

In regular theater an actor may prepare a monologue that he has spent many hours memorizing, for a part that he will also perform at every audition. He’s spent a lot of time on this and has perfected his art and delivery. When going for an audition he is quite comfortable with his prepared lines. However, in a film or commercial audition the actor is expected to perform a script given to him that he has never seen before. This is when the art of cold reading is very important and can be a life saver.

The technical definition of cold reading is the auditioning for a part with a script in hand, one the actor has never seen. The profession says that the actor is supposed to be given the script at least 24 hours before the audition but all too often this just doesn’t happen. This is why cold reading is so important to actors who work in film or commercials.

So, how do you learn to cold read? Brute force. Pick up a script, read the first line, commit it to memory and then say the line without looking at the script. You’ve just done your first cold reading. At first you may only be able to memorize a few words at a time, but with a little practice you’ll soon be memorizing several lines at a time. Being an actor is kind of like being an athlete. The more you work at it the better you’ll get. After you feel comfortable doing cold reading by yourself try it with another actor. This is when it gets fun.

When you’re at your audition it’s very tempting to try to sneak a peak at your next line while the other actor is doing his lines. Don’t do this. How you listen to your fellow actor is just as important as speaking your lines. Wait until it’s time for you to respond and then look at your next line. Memorize as much of your line as you can in a few seconds. Then make eye contact with your partner and say your next line.

If you’ve got more to memorize than you can with just a glance, repeat the process until you have the line memorized. But keep your face out of your script. Never read your lines while looking at your script. This is a sure way to blow the audition. Make sure you stay in character while reading your lines.

When you’re actually at your audition even if you don’t get the script until you get there, try to read the script in its entirety at once and remember as much of it as you can. This way you’ll at least have some idea what the scene is about, who the characters are and how the conversation should go. If you have more time try to memorize the first and last lines. This will give you a strong start and finish, which is what the person auditioning you will remember the most.

When holding your script, hold with your left hand if right handed and at chest level. Never have your head buried in the script. Don’t wave the script around like it is a prop. Make believe it is just a natural extension of your body. The less attention you draw to the script itself the better.

A cold reading goes much slower and feels a lot more awkward than a normal reading. This is normal and there is no need to worry about it. The casting director knows this is the first time you’ve seen the script. He is more interested in what kind of personality you have as the character.

Sadly, you may be the greatest actor in the world, but without being able to cold read well you aren’t going to get many parts as you’ll never get past the first audition. So include cold reading in your training. You’ll find you’ll get more parts because of it.

Magnetic people, what makes them so

{ March 26, 2008 @ 2:05 am } · { Articles }
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So what does make people so magnetic and charming? hell, I don’t know, but the author of this article seems to have a clue, read on…

Have you ever found yourself so engulfed in a man or woman to the point where you are totally convinced that the two of you have a “divine” connection because they have a special way of making you feel “warm and fuzzy” inside or feel very special?. May be it’s your boss, the pastor at your local church, the cute girl next door or a perfect stranger you just met. The eyes, hug or a hand shake did the trick; but there was just something about the person that made your libido sit up and howl.

That something my dear is what is known as sexual aura or sexual presence.

Some people have it oozing from every pore of their skin while the rest of us spend thousands of dollars in speed seduction seminars or hours and hours surfing the internet for the next sociological study to tell us how to be magnetic to the opposite sex.

Whether instinctively or through practice these people have developed a particular way of BE -ing present, which among other things, is an ingredient of their erotic presence. We are attracted to the way the person experiences him or herself, or at least how we perceive they experience the world around them, and feel sorely tempted to initiate first contact with them even knowing the consequences.

But what REALLY makes these people so magnetic? What is their SECRET?

Simple. They present themselves to others with no other intention than to be fully seen – not to impress, not to influence or deceive but be open and let their sexual Being-ness be seen. Any size or shape, magnetic people simply show and everything just “happens”.

Many of us however have constrained ourselves in the way we experience ourselves sexually. Whether it is in how we live in our body – we restrict our movement and become really rigid and inflexible in those parts of our body that we associate with the sexual or sex or limiting sexual attitudes and beliefs scripted through custom and habit.

When with the opposite sex and trying to attract one, we select sides of ourselves to present that we think are favourable. In most instances, our language and actions are equally selected to correspond or match the side of us we’re trying to present. We chose a side to present because we feel that one side of ourselves is stronger or more acceptable to the other person, but mostly we chose based on an insecurity that we are hiding: long suppressed feelings of vulnerability resulting from the countless negative messages about sex and sexual pleasure that we were fed with in our childhood or emotional and sexual wounds from sexual abuse and unhealthy early modes of sexual and erotic transference and learning. We consider these parts of ourselves to be defective, inadequate or bad, and we hide them, hoping like a child, that no one will see.

We fear that if we let others see these parts of us, they will see these shamed, insecure, vulnerable and hurt parts of ourselves and they too will find us defective or unattractive. Because we don’t accept and embrace all our innermost feelings, thoughts and intimate interpersonal issues, including our sexual desires and urges, or even are aware of them, we don’t believe that the other person will accept them either. This in turn forces our intimate connections to remain emotionally shallow and physically superficial. These separate parts of us that we are trying to hide are what sends us out to seek affirmation and refutation of our own sense of self through all sorts of self-sabotaging techniques that do no favour or good to the person we are trying to seduce.

Don’t think that you can “hide” behind pick-up lines and seduction scripts and expect to look into a mirror and see “sexiness”, not to mention expect others to see it. Your ego can stand tall and pretend that you are some kind of idealized version of yourself but often those you try to be intimate with sense those hidden parts of you and respond in different ways.

Even if you are able to “fool” someone with a “sexy” outfit, “sexy” moves, pick up lines and techniques or even “good” communication skills, at some point in your life together you are bound to “slip up” or simply just get tired of “acting” scripts. When this happens an inner switch flips inside of the other person which creates an invisible barrier and even though that process and the barrier are invisible, they are still very real and very obvious – the attractiveness and magnetism just isn’t there anymore!

Sometimes, if they have parts of themselves they are trying to hide too, they’ll join in the cover up. You will get a few hits from equally insecure men and women, but after a while you’ll feel as empty and worthless as before because the deeper parts of you will cry out or more than a romp in the sack with a really insecure man or woman!

To become an empowered attractive and magnetic man or woman, you have to allow yourself to be vulnerable. You have to open to the deeper parts of yourself. You have to practice presenting yourself with no other intention than to be fully seen – not to impress, not to influence or deceive but be open and let your sexual Being-ness be seen.

It’s only by allowing ourselves to be fully known by another that we allow ourselves to be fully loved.
About the Author: Christine Akiteng is an internationally renowned Sexual Confidence/Dating Coach and author of e-Books: The Art Of Seducing Out Of Fullness, Breaking A Bad Relationships Pattern, and Playing Hard-To-Get The Love Way.

Duet acting scripts? can’t find one? write your own

{ March 21, 2008 @ 6:40 pm } · { Acting scripts }
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A do it yourself script… hmmm? This article does contain plenty of for example paragraphs.

Duet acting scripts are difficult to find on the Internet. If you’ve done any poking around at all in search of one, you already know this. But there is an alternative. More important, it’s an alternative that will not only help hone your acting skills, but also aid you in understanding your characters even better.

The solution?

Write your own duet acting scripts.

I know. I know. Writing’s scary. But this doesn’t need to be a painful process or even a particularly difficult one. In fact, it can and should contribute to your inventory of acting skills by forcing you to become more in touch with and more observant of the world of characters already all around you. Especially those who might otherwise go unnoticed.

And that’s the key to writing your own duet acting scripts: observation. The better you are at observing, the easier the writing is going to be.

Ready to get started?

The easiest, most direct path to writing your own scripts is to start a swipe file. If you aren’t familiar with a swipe file, this is a term that’s often used in marketing and copywriting circles. A good copywriter will save ads, brochures, and mailers that he comes across so he can learn from them and refer back to them when he’s developing his own ad campaigns. Now, he doesn’t just copy this material and present it as his own. He simply draws upon it for inspiration and guidance.

This is what you should be doing, too. You won’t be looking at ads, of course, but you will be carefully observing the interactions of the people around you and recording your observations.

For example, you’re in the checkout lane at the store, picking up a few groceries, and the checker is chatting with the bagger. They’re talking about the date the checker went on the night before and how it was a dud. That’s a duet script.

For example, you take your dog into the veterinary office for his annual series of shots and there are two other dog owners in the waiting room. One has a dog with a broken leg that’s healing. The other has a puppy that’s tugging on the chain, full of energy, wanting to play with the healing dog. Gradually, you see the tension growing between the two dog owners until it suddenly spills over into a conversation about responsible dog ownership. That’s a duet script.

… continue reading this entry.

Acting technique visited

{ March 21, 2008 @ 6:29 pm } · { Acting articles }
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A popular Italian comedy, “Troupes of the commedia dell’arte was very popular throughout Europe in the early 1600s. They would work on makeshift stages and without scripts. These companies, which included women actor’s spread a new wave between the actor’s and audiences. Actor’s improvised their own words and comic actions using a basic plot and character types, which created theatrical creativity and would capture the interest of the audience as a whole group. This was so unlike the opera or literary theater, where the emphasis from the audience concentrated on a playwright’s speeches or individual. Scenic displays and literary concepts were not common, thus inspiring the art of acting.

Theatergoers in England by the beginning of the 17th century learned how to distinguish Hamlet by actor-manager, Thomas Betterton. This was accomplished by other productions of Shakespeare’s plays. Using different staging of familiar and classical plays sharpened spectator’s senses. Good acoustics were designed into theater halls to help performers to be heard differently and to have more subtle and natural reflections. Visual details of a performance were easily perceived and critiqued with the introduction of indoor stage lighting. Individual actor’s faces and hands were then displayed by the indoor stage lighting.

Charles Macklin and his student David Garrick became one of the first modern actors on the British stage in the 18th century. Commedia-like farces and pantomime was Charles Macklin’s background and why he was hired, based his character Shylock (a Jewish businessman in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”) on Jews in London. Lifelike details of movement and speech were added to written text. These details might not have been noticed 50 years earlier if not for the stage lighting, acoustic changes and other technologies.

Under better lighting conditions and more plausibility, David Garrick continued natural acting. Mimicry was brought to the stage through Garrick’s practices of imitating facial expressions of actual people. In his performance of Shakespeare’s King Lear, Garrick used a crazed neighbor to reenact the accidental killing of his infant daughter. Garrick never dropped his character during a performance and he would listen and react in character to all the dialogue around him. Because of this, he was very popular with theatergoers.

… continue reading this entry.

5 ways to spell terrible film

{ March 21, 2008 @ 6:26 pm } · { Film Reviews }
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Here is Mr, Bagley’s take on 5 ways to really spell terrible film or even more so an acting career disaster. When looking acting projects to stay well away from, this may offer some guidelines. No one ever wants to be associated with a film flop, especially, when everything including the acting is in question.

Anyway, check out these movie reviews of stuff no one even wants to hear of.

Here are five more movies you think would be really better than they are, unfortunately for the films, the scripts, the direction, and the actors, they are not.

Love Letters – 1 Star (Terrible)

Love Letters is a terrible, terrible, terrible film. One of the five worst films every made among those that give a pretense of actually being good while being awful, compared to those films you know are bad and do not disappoint.

This stupid story line has two adults reading letters they sent to each other over their entire life, sitting on tall furniture, gazing down as the past action unfolds.

Love Letters is beyond bad. It butchers a possibly good story line, has poor direction, poor production, poor acting, poor everything. There is not a redeeming quality in this piece of garbage, not even the opening, or credit lines.

The film does not even introduce itself, it takes 5 minutes to realize how bad the film really is; after 10 minutes I put Love Letters on fast forward, and it did not get any better in fast forward. Even the dialogue is bad to awful.

The only worse movie I can think of ever seeing is “Pat” (the androgynous character on Saturday Night Live), and that movie I expected to be terrible, and it was. The acting performances in Love Letters were absolutely juvenile, with no depth, no character development, and no delivery worth talking about. These were not 2nd and 3rd rate actors but 8th and 9th rate actors.

What a piece of nothing this turned out to be; I was beyond disappointed. I expected a decent attempt at a relationship movie and could not have been more let down.

Monster-in-Law – 1 Star (Terrible)

Monster-in-Law has a lower class girl (Jennifer Lopez) meeting a rich family doctor (Michael Vartan), and a future mother-in-law (Jane Fonda) who decides to drive away the bride, only to do herself in, discovering that the bride has as much backbone as she does.

This film is strictly entertainment and humor; there really is no story line as you know who is getting together at the end, and it will all work itself out when the comedy skits are over. I have seen Lopez do a better job in better films, such as Maid in Manhattan.

The Fast Runner – 1 Star (Terrible)

The Fast Runner, a foreign film in the Inuktitut language with English subtitles, is about Eskimo life and culture on the tundra in Alaska. I promise you this is not filmmakings’ crowning achievement. It may not even be Eskimo filmmakers’ crowning achievement; if it is, Eskimo filmmaking is in serious trouble.

The Fast Runner, also known by the title Atanarjuat, goes on and on for 172 minutes (call it 3 hours), which is about 1½ hours too long.

Myths and Logic of Shaolin Kung Fu – 1 Star (Terrible)

This film lets you know early on that the best Kung Fu fighting style-Shaolin-comes from the monks in China. The Myths and Logic of Shaolin Kung Fu is a sketchy, historical account of how the monks train and learn to simultaneously become a religious as well as a deadly fighting machine.

These future monks begin before age 10 and never really end a lifelong quest to become a master in this fighting style; dividing their time equally between spiritual development and physical prowess. You will be amazed at the physical skills of these boys before they are 10 years old.

Myra Breckenridge – 1 Star (Terrible)

This is Gore Vidal’s then (1970) controversial film about Myron Breckenridge, a man who goes to Europe for a sex change operation and comes back as Myra Breckenridge (played by Raquel Welch, who I did not like in the movie), a man-hating woman.

It is not clear in the movie if Myra still retains her male parts, not that it is important to the movie, because this film is garbage with no script flow, no message, no acting and an even worse presentation. Myra Breckenridge had a chance to deliver some information and a message about its theme, but failed miserably.

I cannot even begin to imagine what Gore must have been doing when he attempted to write this script. Film efforts like Vidal’s do not increase understanding, but encourage prejudice and ignorance about a controversial topic. This is one bad example of filmmaking, and deserves to die a slow death.

Copyright © 2006 Ed Bagley

Acting tips and tricks

{ March 21, 2008 @ 6:18 pm } · { Acting articles }
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An article by Morgan Hamilton about getting the most from your acting books.

For the last three years I have been reviewing books on acting for a drama weekly. However, I haven’t yet found a book on acting that compares to real acting experience. Now, I’m not saying that acting books are worthless because they have their place. These books contain an almost encyclopedic discussion of various acting methodologies and approaches. These books also can also provide useful contact information that might take a while to find on your own. Nevertheless, a book on acting cannot take the place of a good acting course.

Acting books can help you to take your first steps into the world of acting. After that, it is all up to you. You can study all of the books on acting that you want, and try out every acting technique known to man on your own, but they are worthless if you can not use them to impress a director. Acting may require a lot of methodology, but the methodology is not the point. Acting is about figuring out what you want to do and finding ways to do it. Some professional actors know so many techniques that they write acting books on their own, but others know very little. Diving into the mind of the character to make him or her come alive is enough for them.

You should consider getting a few drama books instead of spending hard earned money that actors tend to have in such small quantities on acting books. Classic books of plays are an actor’s best friend. After all, theater is one of the original art forms. You can strengthen your acting by delving more deeply into theatrical arts. Even movie actors can attest to the benefit of reading drama books. In fact, many of the best movie actors started out with Shakespearean acting courses. Only a select few actually spend their time reading acting books.

Now, don’t get me wrong because I’m not trying to discourage you entirely. Go ahead and read acting books if you are inspired by reading them. Spending time with whatever inspires you to act is important and worthwhile. Just remember that the purpose of these acting books is inspiration and ideas. None of them will give you real acting experience, although they can be great sources. You will have to take acting courses, go to acting workshops, and hustle for jobs like the rest of the acting world if you want to gain valuable acting experience.
Morgan Hamilton offers expert advice and great tips

Advice about money for the fellow actor

{ March 9, 2008 @ 7:08 pm } · { Acting articles }
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I ran across this article just now and yes… here it is, there are some good points in here

I recently had an email from someone who had visited our website, liked what they had seen, but had a question about our methods and philosophy. The question was this:

“What about if I am an artist and I don’t want to change my profession and also I don’t want to have another job on the side? I want to keep my work and have great benefits from that.”

In other words: I don’t want to do anything apart from my acting career, and I want to get well paid for it. What do you think about that?

My immediate response was a mixture of amusement and irritation. Of course, for everyone pursuing an artistic career, what we all ideally want to do is get paid a ton of money for doing what we love (just make sure you have had your financial education before this happens – you don’t want to end up a morality tale!). If you are a dramatic actor, making $100,000 per episode for being in a high quality night-time drama is about as good as it gets. For a musician, platinum albums generating millions in residual payments is where it’s at. For a sculptor, having ones work on display in private collections and museums world-wide would bring home more than enough bacon for any number of New York apartments and trips to South America. But, assuming that it may be some time before we find ourselves in those enviable positions, what are we going to do about money?

And that, I think, is the problem with thinking along these lines. Sure, there are those, very few, people who are lucky or talented enough to walk out of their acing schools and into full time acting careers, or whatever other artistic endeavours you chose. But, for the rest of us, there will be a period (anywhere from a few months to several years), where we will have to do something else in order to make ends meet, while we wait for the income from our art to allow us to live in comfort.

“Have to”. Those are the operative words in that sentence. Not “want to” or “like to” but “have to”. There is a great line in “Gladiator”:

“Sometimes I do what I want to do. The rest of the time, I do what I have to”.

Now, do you have to have another job while you pursue your artistic career? Not necessarily; but unless you are either supported to willing to live on the streets, then it is something that you seriously need to consider alongside your artist development.

For the person who asked the question above, I would say this, finally: At Abundance Bound we have tools to help you work out exactly how much you need to earn in order to live . Having gotten that number, you can then find work, be it your own business or a regular job, that will provide that amount in the least time possible, leaving you free to pursue your art around it. If you can sell enough pieces or work enough days to not need anything else, then that is truly great for you, and the focus now becomes what to do with the money you are earning, so as to get the greatest benefit out of it (that is where financial education comes in)

But, for the rest of us, truly consider the options before you. Take control of your financial lives so that you can pursue your art free form the crushing weight of financial stress. Bite the bullet and handle things now, so that they do not get out of control later. And, above all, never stop focusing on your artistic success, because by doing that, all things are possible.