Portland Actor.Com http://portlandactor.com Oregon’s Official Resource Guide to Portland Acting and Film Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:47:11 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 Tools 4 Actors-Workshop Seattle-Howard Meltzer http://portlandactor.com/?p=1212 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1212#comments Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:47:11 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1212 Disney’s Howard Meltzer Workshop in Seattle, Sept. 18, 19 — SAVE $45!

Howard Meltzer, the award-winning Hollywood-based casting director for The Disney Channel’s “Hannah Montana”, is coming to Seattle this month. His workshop will be offered three times over the course of a weekend, September 18-19, 2010. The workshop is 3 hours and includes one-on-one direction with each child and a short Q&A for kids and parents. Classes are limited to 24 students per class, and are open to ages 9 to 19 at any acting level.


Dates/Times to Choose From: September 18 @ 2:00 PM, September 19 @ 10:00 AM, September 19 @ 2:00 PM
Location: W Hotel, Seattle
Price: $295*
Registration Info: thecastingworkshops.com

*Save $45 with promo code “Lana”! Before registering, enter the promo code “Lana” to reduce your registration fee to $250. (Promo code is not case sensitive.)

Disclaimer: You agree that you understand that this is a Seminar and NOT an audition. There is NO guarantee of employment. There will be NO REFUNDS after payment made. Please read full disclaimer on registration page before registering.

Posted by Ranielle at 12:38 PM
]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1212 0 The Film Actor’s Handbook-Jesse Vint http://portlandactor.com/?p=1209 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1209#comments Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:47:35 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1209

The Film Actor’s Handbook

(excerpt)

Locating and utilizing an individual’s hotbuttons is a big part of an actor’s homework. These hotbuttons are very personal, and no instructor should intrude on an actor’s privacy by asking him what they represent, but here’s a suggestion on how to find a couple.

Ask yourself:
1. What is the best phone call that I could get?
2. What is the worst phone call that I could get?
In most cases the answers that you give are your reasons for getting out of bed in the morning. These answers define what’s important to you; they are in many ways the engine that drives you throughout your day. To incorporate these things into your work as an actor is your job. That is what you get paid for.
Just as these things are the engine that drives you through your day, these same things will be the engine that drives you through a script — that gives you the force that you need when you go toe to toe with a strong personality, or when fighting for a cause.
A movie is not everyday life — it’s a two hour compression of highly intense experiences. That’s why it’s mandatory that an actor know himself and how to internalize.

]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1209 0 Male Actor late 40′s 50′s Short Film (Vancouver/PDX) http://portlandactor.com/?p=1207 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1207#comments Thu, 26 Aug 2010 02:47:14 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1207 Casting my 4th short film. I am the writer and director. My site is at www.hollieolson.com
I DO finish my films in a timely manner and all of my cast and crew from my other films have received their nicely packaged DVD as well as data cd with a QT file of the movie for ease of use for a demo reel. Everyone also has their IMDb credit which this film will have as well.
My most recent short can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfMet3cyZNs THE SALON – a comedy slice of life. It was accepted and shown at The Columbia Gorge International Film Festival and is in consideration at two other film festivals. Other than shooting it — I have a great DP and other crew for sound, gaffer ect.. – I don’t have to rely on anyone as I do all my own editing, music score ect ect…. so it will get done.
Ok now that I hopefully have sold that I am not a flake>>>
Casting:
This is a short dramatic film needing a rich father role to a college girl. This is a Principal role.
Blue eyes – light brown/blonde hair – I am wanting a resemblance to the lead actress college student role. Play age 40′s-50′s – complex role requires good acting skill — (he’s kind of an ass but has reasons to be)
Two scenes are in the can -tentatively set for the father scenes to be shot in Vancouver on Sept 6th which is Labor Day.
You can see a little about the film on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/The-Grade-short-film/118133558236330?ref=ts I just posted some set photos and some screen shots of the actual film. Take a look and see if you feel you’d be a good fit as actress Shannon Teem’s dad.

Would like to book from acting reels rather than auditions – so if you have links to previous acting gigs that is much preferred although if not please still submit a head shot and resume and link to your IMDb if you have one. Like most of us indy filmmakers there is no pay. But I’m not getting paid either and funding what I do have to pay for out of my own pocket. So in short you will receive Credit, Copy, IMDb and food. If interested please reply – if you are looking for paid jobs I’m sorry and can understand why you will not submit for this role.

Thank you for reading !

]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1207 0 The Kill Hole http://portlandactor.com/?p=1205 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1205#comments Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:51:33 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1205
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Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Principal Photography Begins!

Principal photography on The Kill Hole begins today, at 11:30 am.
Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 7:01 AM 0 comments

Thursday, June 17, 2010

On Killing

While writing this script, I read a number of books on the subject of war and the experience of the combat soldier. Far and away, one of the most fascinating was this one above called “On Killing,” by Lt. Col. Dave Grossmann.
The main premise that Grossmann examines is what military researchers have repeatedly found upon examining and reconstructing their own battles and firefights up through the Second World War: %85-%90 of soldiers in a firefight aim high. That is, they miss on purpose. The implication is that humans have an intrinsic aversion to killing one another. After World War Two, the military concluded that they needed to change their training to, in effect, override that wiring to make their soldiers more effective. The first war where this new training – which emphasized shooting and killing as an automatic reflex, along with the severe dehumanizing of the enemy – was Vietnam, and this war was also where we started seeing war atrocities take place in numbers where they hadn’t before. What’s more, as we all know, is that we started seeing serious psychological trauma in vets that we had not seen in prior wars (though to be sure, this is not to say it wasn’t there). Much of what was happening with Vietnam vets was an inability to reconcile that intrinsic aversion with the training they had gone through and their actions while in combat (a highly unpopular war, the draft and the nature of our involvement there also played significantly). Today, we see much of the same symptoms in soldiers returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan – a high (and severely underreported) suicide rate; alcoholism, drug abuse, domestic violence and even homicides.
It is bad enough that those who serve are asked to set aside their humanity for the greater good; it’s worse that there is such an inadequate support system for them once they return and have to deal with that in the real world. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the experience of the combat soldier in general, and the nature of violence and its effects on human behavior in particular.

Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 5:11 PM 1 comments

Monday, June 7, 2010

“Conversations”

This is a short film I finished last year called “Conversations,” which I mentioned in a previous post. It stars Jaylen Sansom and Moti Margolin, features an original hip-hop track from my boys Taze Hull and Eric Rauh as well as a track from Aceyalone (used with permission).
Necessary disclaimer: I still owe myself a proper sound mix.
Note: watching it in full screen gives you the proper aspect ratio.
Enjoy.

Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 4:14 PM 0 comments

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Thoughts on Filmmaking

The most rewarding directing experience I’ve had was in making my last short film, “Conversations” (which I’ll post here shortly). I was coming off of another short that I’d also written and directed with a good amount of frustration with some of my crew, the egos, the self-interest, the power-tripping that so often accompanies the filmmaking process. The required politicking only ends up taking away from what’s on the screen, and in the end I felt I had a flawed piece (though mostly for reasons that were of my own making).

For “Conversations,” I wanted to do something different, and in that case this meant doing everything behind the camera, from acting as producer to cinematographer to editor, as well as directing. This comes with its share of headaches for sure, but it allowed for a real freedom. A freedom to actually make the film, not just negotiate money and personalities, which is what so much of this process is. It bought me time. Time to spend an entire day shooting with only one actor. To dig deep into the character. To try out different things. To improvise. To think. To ultimately transcend the written material and discover, really, the film in the process of shooting it. In the end, I got the film in the can for something like five hundred dollars. To me, that’s a point of pride, as I was very pleased with the end result, but this is not a feasible way to make almost any other film.

Filmmaking is not efficient. You can’t sneeze on set without creating work for ten other people. And you can’t create work for anyone without considering day rates, food, lodging, and transportation. Whereas before you had a high-school friend holding the boom mic, suddenly you’re involving a crew, who has to be looked after. A step above that you involve the nuts-and-bolts of filmmaking, the production team, who look out for the bottom line and make sure you don’t get sued. Then all of a sudden you’re into contracts, and minimums, dealing with agents who count percentage points at night to get to sleep. You essentially create a bureaucracy around the art form, and it’s easy for the art to get lost in it. To be sure, it’s a necessary bureaucracy, sometimes a beautiful bureaucracy, but it’s often too big, and innefficient, like that elusive big government that Republicans keep insisting is there.

In the end though, the true art to this process is not writing a great script, or getting a good performance or having excellent cinematography, though all these elements are of course vital. The art of filmmaking is managing to make art at all, in spite of all these things, these decidedly un-artistic elements that necessarily go into it and support it. It’s being the mix of politician, entertainer, businessman, diplomat, poet and, certainly, dictator that directing requires while remaining a good human being at the end of the day. It’s making something pure, genuine and beautiful inside of a chaotic, political and highly-artificial environment.
If you can pull it off, it’s one of the most thrilling things you can do.

Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 11:10 AM 0 comments

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Casting

It was the day that our casting director, Adrienne Stern, emailed us an enormous list of actors and their photos for the two lead roles that I my mind finally settled into the fact that I was actually making this film. For so much of a film’s life, it exists as an abstraction, as a great story that was just floating around my mind. It’s like harboring a baby in the womb – minus the accompanying physical changes and pains. But then the labor pains kick in and you realize that something’s actually going to come out! And it does, slowly.
I am in New York now, for the next few weeks, to cast the lead roles for the film, before heading back to Portland to begin prep. I begin meeting actors next week, and already, just choosing names from the list, I am like a kid in a candy store with a sugar high, looking at actors whose work I admire and contemplating actually getting to work with them. Tomorrow I also begin working with my D.P. Eric Billmann to start planning out the film. These are the fun parts of filmmaking, when the story starts to come alive. When it becomes real. When it stops existing only in my head. This is magic.
Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 10:53 AM 0 comments

New and Improved!

When I first started this blog last winter, I was ending a quasi-hiatus from the film industry, after spending a few years in Northern California and elsewhere, making short films, editing them, and writing The Kill Hole. At the end of this time, all I had was this script, and the awareness that I could do nothing else until I got my first feature made. I had written Kill Hole to take place in Portland, OR, my hometown, and in January of this year, I moved back there for this sole reason, to make my film. I figured that, since I had no job, no money, and no plan beyond that (no Plan B, a life philosophy I’ll expand on later) I should go to a place that was cheap, familiar and where I had lots of old friends I could call in favors on. I figured that, if need be, I would go back to driving a cab at night while I was seeking out financing from friends, families and whoever else would listen. This sounded like hell, but worse would be not trying. We do what we must. I wrote The Kill Hole within the confines of a film I could shoot for next to nothing, because, at that point in my life (that is, some time around my thirtieth birthday last year), all I knew about anything was that if I didn’t make my first feature I would die. Not literally, maybe, but then, maybe so. Who knows?
Well, strange things happen when you don’t have a Plan B; when you have transcended determination to the point that the goal becomes inevitable: things just… happen.
My old and good friend Jonny Gillette, whom I met while we were both freelance production assistants in New York years ago, was working for a production company, Alternate Ending Studios, that was just starting to put together a slate of feature films for this year and were looking for projects. I had told him of my plans, and he asked to check out the script. He liked the project a lot, took it to the company as its producer and, a couple trips out to the East Coast later we were greenlit to shoot this summer. A dream come true. On top of that, I’ve spent the last two months in New Jersey, working with the company in their marketing and distribution efforts for their first feature, The Briefcase, and now work for them full time. They are doing some very interesting things with regards to their business model and I’m happy as hell to be a part of it.
Definitely beats driving cab again.
And so, while I originally set out to write this blog as a way to document what I anticipated to be a very hellish effort to finance and produce this film on my own, I’m now rebranding it as a blog to talk about the process, the politics, and anything else that seems interesting to me that day, which is often something related to new business models for the independent film industry.
Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 10:22 AM 2 comments

Ted Hope

The entire way that I thought about filmmaking changed when I first started reading Ted Hope’s blog a couple years ago. He is a well of inspiration and information for anyone trying to navigate the world of film production and distribution, and even for those peripherally interested in it. This is an interview with him from Press/Pause/Play, a film about the changing ways we produce, consume and distribute creative works.

Posted by My name is Mischa S. Webley at 10:19 AM 0 comments

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]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1205 0 OMPA-Oregon’s Got Talent http://portlandactor.com/?p=1203 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1203#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:55:10 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1203

header_film.jpg

___ SEPTEMBER  EVENT _____________________

Oregon’s Got Talent
Friday, Sept 17th
7pm reception
9pm after-party
Actors (showing up before 8pm), plus SAG, AFTRA and OMPA members: no charge
$15 all other guests
Indent Studios
1535 SE 9th Ave, Portland

OMPA hosts another blow-out party at Indent Studios, which isn’t even technically open for business yet, but already making things happen in Oregon.

This meeting celebrates the contribution of actors to Oregon’s production community, and offers an education session about the value of the OMPA in supporting the acting community, and vice versa.

Drinks are free from 7pm to 8pm, followed by an OMPA presentation for actors. Those showing up by 8pm get in for free.  Starting at 9pm, it’s an after-party, free for OMPA members, and members of SAG and AFTRA.

At 9pm we take a group photo.  Be there for that!

RSVP

Are you planning to attend?
Yes
No
Are you an actor?
Actor
Crew
Both
Other
How many in your party?
1
2
3
4
5+
Your party’s name? (Or, your Party Name) *

]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1203 0 Ben Farmer in Twelfth Night -Last night! http://portlandactor.com/?p=1201 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1201#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:06:47 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1201

Professional live theatre for residents of Washington County and beyond! Hillsboro’s only professional theatre, presenting classics, adaptations and fresh new looks at the world’s greatest dramas and comedies. Come and see an amazing show… again… for the first time.

2010/11 SEASON!

The Glass Menagerie Poster
Sept 22 – Oct 10, 2010 – info

Trial of Eb Scrooge
Dec 8 – 23, 2010 – info

Macbeth
Mar 9 – 27, 2011 – info

Irma Vep
May 11 – 29, 2011 – info

Get your Season Passes Now for best seat selection – Online, or call 503-345-9590.

Follow Us…

Facebook

On Facebook

YouTube On YouTube
Picasa

Picasa Photos
Blogger

On our Blog!
Yelp

Yelp

Show PicTwelfth Night

by William Shakespeare
adapted and directed by Scott Palmer

The Oregonian Raves!
“Must see show… The fine, professional cast shines. delightful… clever, engaging production… inventive, intelligent take on the play. There’s not a weak link in the ensemble.” – Holly Johnson, The Oregonian
Read more audience buzz!

Plays through Aug 14, Thu-Sat eves at 7pm

Due to generous sponsor support…
All standard tickets just $10 each!

at the The Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza, DowntownHillsboro, OR (between 1st and 2nd on Main Street).

Poster

Click to purchase show tickets
or call our box office at 503-345-9590.

As is the norm for Bag&Baggage, this summer’s production of Twelfth Night will be unlike anything you have ever seen! Adapted and directed by Artistic Director Scott Palmer, Bag&Baggage has relocatedthe action in time and place, to the height of the roaring twenties…think Shakespeare meets The Great Gatsby…and willtransformthe Tom Hughes Civic Center Plaza into an East Coast garden party that even F Scott himself would be proud of! In addition, the script has been trimmed and adapted to include some of the original source material Shakespeare used when writing his play, including the Italian comedy Gli Ingannatori (The Cheats), the short story “Of Apollonius and Silla” by Barnabe Rich (which, in turn, was inspired by a story by Matteo Bandello!).

CLICK HER
]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1201 0 The Portland 48 Hour Film Project (Oregon) http://portlandactor.com/?p=1199 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1199#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 22:02:23 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1199

The Portland 48 Hour Film Project (Oregon)

Exhausted Portland Teams Submit Films

Filmmaking teams from throughout the Portland area successfully completed a weekend of filmmaking. Films were due on August 8th, and the last few minutes before the deadline saw filmmakers, operating on little sleep and lots of adrenaline, rushing to get their films in on time.

All of the films that were submitted on Sunday night will screen on the dates below. Come see what Portland area filmmakers can do!

Filmmaker Blog

Want to hear about the Portland 48HFP from the filmmakers themselves? Then check out the Portland 48HFP Filmmaker Blog, where Portland 48HFP participants tell us stories of their wild weekend of filmmaking.

Events

Premiere Screenings

Date: August 11 (Groups A & B) & August 12 (Groups C & D)
Time: 7:00 and 9:30
Place: The Hollywood Theatre, 4122 Northeast Sandy Boulevard, Portland, OR 97212
Tickets: $7 (Purchase them here…)
Notes: The 48 Hour Film Project returns to the Hollywood for its 7th BIG year!! Come on out and celebrate our birthday with us.

Portland 48HFP Links

Elements

Character: Pete or Pam Peterson, Artist
Prop: pistachio nuts
Line of Dialogue: “I have a surprise for you.”

Our Sponsors

Screening Groups

Group A
Screening on Wednesday, August 11th, at 7:00 PM

An Hour Ago, Maurice Cardwell
Critical End!, Sheri Peterson
Effen Puppets!, Devin VanDomelin
Full Brain Films, Greg Kerr
In the Red Films, Michelle Vincig
Khaaan!, Brian Harris
Limbo Films, Gary Nolton
Nomads, Liars & Thieves, Jim Keenan
Opera Cinema Strike Force, Katie Taylor
Pronoia, Mark OLeal
Random Consistency, Tim Briare
Red Jackalope, Jeff Brooks
Staring Beyond the Sun, Brad Smithart
Tiny Mini Films, Michelle D Williams

Group B
Screening on Wednesday, August 11th, at 9:30 PM

BOKEH, Kevin Forrest
Cheezy Flicks, Tyler Benjamin
Dead Not Dancing, Maria Bianchi
Green Glass Productions, Brandon Reed
KOKU, Daniel Combes
Meaty Films, Jonathon Wiggins
Overcast Productions, Daniel Elkayam
PDX Film Frogs, Brendan A. Jenks & Phil Davis
Ratatoskr, Alison Clifford
Sfinks Films, Dane & Callie Vandewiele & Vandewiele
S.P.O.R.K., Larry Curl
Team Great Fish, Chad DeHart
TEAMCORE, Dan Scott
Vertica, Ian Stout

Group C
Screening on Thursday, August 12th, at 7:00 PM

7#$, Michael Felix
Dream a New Reality, Ryan Lane
George Mucus and Steven Spewberg, Dylan Sylwester
GOOD DOG PRODUCTIONS, Melody Ashford
I Am Not The Enemy Productions, Dustin Stratton
Kajika Productions, Rachel Ungar
LangLow Pictures, Ian Langenhuysen
Monsieur Soeur, Michael Entler
Pixel Prose, Aaron Cohen
Rain Country Creative, Patrick Rochel
Restrained Productions, Dustin Preuitt
Splat! Films, Devon Lyon
Studio 47, Nathan Coltrane
Take 2, Patty McKay

Group D
Screening on Thursday, August 12th, at 9:30 PM

Cinema Queso, Rob Campbell
Fetus in Fetu Productions, Nate Celnik
Hubris Films, Sean Davis
Infinity Point Studio, Edward Omelina
Knight Crew, Keith Bell
Man vs. Film Productions, Erich Demerath
Monmouth Film Collective, Shaun Huston
Quixotic, Patrick Hughey
Red I Productions, Alex Fulmor
The Rejects, Mathew Worley
Rodney DangerFilms, Michael Parisien
So Wrong Productions, Josh Sonnenburg
Two Toddlers, Gretchen Treser
Wagging Tale Productions, Jane Turville

]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1199 0 Casting Call-Reality TV Show Host http://portlandactor.com/?p=1197 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1197#comments Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:12:36 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1197 Casting Call – Reality TV Show Host – Certified Family Counselor
posted: August 11, 2010, 01:55 PM
Reply: click here

Are you an outgoing, intriguing, well spoken, individual with a resilient demeanor?

Are you a Certified Counselor who has worked with blended families in crisis? Are you socially active in your community?

And do you think you have what it takes to be the perfect TV Host for a brand new, very real, very pertinent National Reality Show?

If you can answer YES to these questions, you just might be the Host we are looking for.

Criteria: We are looking for someone who is ready to take on the challenges of not only doing their job as a counselor, but someone who is also able to do it while on camera, with the ability to draw the ‘reality of the situation’ out of the family members.

Note: Any on camera, journalistic work is a plus, but not required.

The Next Step: Providing you are qualified and have given us your Headshot/Photo, Resume or Bio, as well as Demo Reels/Links, we will be asking you to audition for us in person on August 17th between 12pm and 4pm; but not yet… your first challenge is to get our attention – please respond and tell us, in no less than 1 paragraphs, WHY you are a great choice as Host for our show!! INCLUDE ALL OF YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION!

Consider this your introduction to us and one of the few assignments you will get that does not require you to create a video. Good Luck!

Date: Tuesday August 17th, 2010
Time Slots: Between 12p – 4p
Location: Downtown Portland

Salary/Wage: Wage Negotiated – fully paid
Education: Family counseling/Psychology/journalism
Status: Full-time
Shift: Days

• Location: Portland, OR
]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1197 0 Tools 4 Actors-Is Acting the Business for You? http://portlandactor.com/?p=1187 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1187#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:25:32 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1187 Is Acting the Business for You?

Over the past several weeks, you’ve learned what the life of a professional actor really entails.  You learned that acting comprises a small part of what an actor must actually do on a daily basis, and that the profession is only one part glamour and nine parts hard work.
You found out that many of the qualities needed by a professional actor resemble those of an entrepreneur.  You discovered, in fact, that embarking on an acting career really means starting a small business, with all of the responsibilities and discipline that involves.  But you also saw that it is possible to pursue on-camera work on a more casual basis–as a supplement to your career in another field or as a creative outlet–and still live a fulfilling life.
You completed a self-evaluation to establish which approach to the industry best suits you, and which areas you may need to work on if you are determined to make acting your primary source of income.
Finally, you recognized that in order to translate your acting dreams into reality, you must first set goals and tackle them daily.  A goal, you discovered, must be specific, written, and include a time frame.  To reach your long-term goals, you learned that it is necessary to set more manageable yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals, and strive to accomplish each in their given time frames.
In upcoming issues, you’ll get an inside look at the film, television, and commercial industries, and learn how you fit into the picture.  But we won’t stop there.  I will also offer you some very important advice on how to recognize scams and avoid them.
Before moving on, I’d like to share some valuable resources with you that will supplement some of the things we’ve covered over the past few weeks:
A description of the working conditions, salaries, training and employment outlook of the acting profession.  From the Occupational Outlook Handbook, published by the United States Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics.
UK-based site published by the National Association for Managers of Student Services in Colleges.  Numerous links to online assessment tests, as well as other useful information on career counseling, learning styles, and educational guidance.
A good resource for articles and advice on goal setting and goal achievement.  Includes a free online Time Manager calendar to track appointments, tasks, and contacts.  Also features a goal achievement bulletin board and Quote of the Day email service.
Click Thought for the Day to read motivating quotes by the person many consider the founding father of goal achievement, Napoleon Hill.
That’s it for now!
See you soon and break a leg,
Lana
]]> http://portlandactor.com/?feed=rss2&p=1187 0 Tools 4 Actors-Setting Goals http://portlandactor.com/?p=1185 http://portlandactor.com/?p=1185#comments Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:24:31 +0000 admin http://portlandactor.com/?p=1185 Setting Goals

Now that you’ve learned how to construct goals, let’s work on setting some.

When setting your goals, take a look at your long-term goals first and work backwards towards your short-term ones. For instance, if your five-year goal is to act in a nationally broadcast commercial, you should first set one-, two-, three-, and four-year goals that will bring you closer to achieving it. Imagine, for illustrational purposes, that your yearly goals are as follows:

Yearly Goals

Year 5: Act as a spokesperson in a nationally broadcast commercial.

Year 4: Act in a principal (speaking) role in a nationally broadcast commercial.

Year 3: Act as a spokesperson in a regionally broadcast commercial.

Year 2: Act in a principal role in one local and one regional commercial.

Year 1: Act in a principal role in a local commercial.

This may be an ambitious plan, depending on where you are in your training, but you can see how your five-year goal seems more feasible when it is broken down into smaller steps.

Quarterly Goals

After you have set your yearly goals, start setting quarterly goals, again working backwards. For example, Year 2 might look like this:

4th Quarter (October-December): Act in a principal role in a regionally broadcast commercial. Attend 10 commercial auditions.

3rd Quarter (July-September): Acquire a leading role in a local professional theatre and send invitations to all the commercial casting directors in the area. Attend 10 commercial auditions.

2nd Quarter (April-June): Network with other actors working in commercials to learn inside tips. Attend 10 commercial auditions. Act in a principal role in a locally broadcast commercial.

1st Quarter (January-March): Research all the regional commercials being filmed in the area and find out who is producing and casting them. Learn as much about each production company and casting director as possible, and send out new headshots and resumes.

Monthly Goals

Now you can divide a quarter into three months and set goals for each month. Example (Year 2, 1st Quarter):

3rd Month (Mar): Send headshots and resumes to all commercial casting directors in the area. Include cover letter listing the projects I’ve been up to lately. Arrange meetings with any casting directors or production company representatives willing to meet with me. Continue taking acting classes. Audition for professional theatres in the area.

2nd Month (Feb): Show images from my photo session to my agent and discuss which ones to use as headshots. Have prints made and update resume. Find out which production companies and casting directors in the area are working on regional commercials. Store all information and correspondence in database for future reference. Continue auditioning for professional theatres and taking classes.

1st Month (Jan): Research headshots of commercial actors and note what they have in common. Research photographers and choose three who take excellent photos. View their portfolios on their website.  Meet with each of them to view their portfolios and discuss my goal to market myself for national commercials. Find out what each one offers and whether he or she has experience shooting headshots for commercial actors. Choose one and schedule a photo session, making sure to incorporate the elements found in typical commercial headshots.

Weekly and Daily Goals

Once you have done this, you can and should break your goals down into smaller weekly and daily goals. A daily goal, for example, may consist of sending five letters to casting directors or researching theatre auditions at five local theatres.

__________

By evaluating your temperament and values, defining your approach to the industry, and pinpointing your short-, mid-, and long-term goals, you have accomplished something most actors never do: You have made it through the first hoop. Congratulations.

It seems so simple, yet how many aspiring actors have laid no clear path to reaching their acting goals? How many swear they want to be working actors, but are unwilling to do the work? How many refuse to take an honest inventory of themselves to discover how they might be happiest?

I see actors like these all the time. Many of them are miserable and can’t understand why no one has recognized their talent and whisked them off to stardom. What you have learned today will help you avoid their fate.

Talk soon and break a leg,

Lana

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