I had a great time appearing in four web spots for LG’s new eXpo smartphone with Pico Projector. The web spots are a tie-in with James Cameron’s upcoming film, Avatar, his first feature since Titanic. The shoot lasted about two days for me and was shot a few weeks ago in a vacant office. I play an office guy named Larry who does a little CSI action with a fingerprint in the video entitled “Magic Fingers.” I make smaller appearances in the other three videos, “Cubicle to Pandora,” “The Lively Presentation,” and “Triathlon.” Everyone was great to work with on the shoot. I had a blast. Check out the videos here at http://www.lgexpo.com/. Click on “Project Avatar” and look toward the bottom of the page for four thumbnail images. Click on those to see each of the four videos. Explore the site for additional videos and more information on the LG eXpo and James Cameron’s Avatar.
I was thumbing through a book called Everyday Greatness: Inspiration for a Meaningful Life by Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People and other books on goal-setting, self-improvement, and leadership skills. In this book was an anecdote about how changing two words could change not only your perspective, but quite possibly your results. I want to talk about those two words and how changing them can help you improve your acting career and maybe even other areas of your life.
First, what are the two words? They are “if only” as in:
If only I had an agent.
If only I didn’t mess up my lines in that audition.
If only I got called in for the audition in the first place.
If only I had better headshots.
If only they were looking for my type.
If only there were more opportunities for me to be cast in something.
And on, and on, and on.
Ever catch yourself having one of these gripe sessions? Look, we’ve all had our woe-is-me moments. It’s understandable. Sometimes our acting careers and lives don’t always go the way we plan. It’s OK to vent a little. But it’s not OK to stay in this downward spiral of negativity. So how do we break the pattern?
Simple. Replace the two words “if only” with “next time.”
Is it really that easy? Well, you do have to do a little more work than that, but yes, essentially, it’s that easy. You also have to reframe what you put after those two words. Using the preceding list, I’ll give you some examples:
Next time I’ll look up acting jobs myself and submit myself for them.
Next time I’ll do a better job at preparing for the audition.
Next time I’ll increase my submission rate so I’ll get called in for an audition.
Next time I’ll find a great photographer and get great headshots.
Next time I’ll focus on getting the right auditions for my type.
Next time I’ll create my own opportunities by writing my own script and shooting my own movie with friends and other actors.
And on, and on, and on.
You can already see from these examples that “if only” shuts us down and limits us while “next time” opens doors, opens our minds, and creates opportunities. Give it a try and see if next time you get closer to what you want and further away from what you don’t. Oh, and it works on other things besides your acting career. Try it out on your current job, your finances, your relationships, etc. Feel free to share your success stories and positive results.
*This article was reposted here from my newsletter.
I threw some clips together of my commercial and industrial shoots. These were a lot of fun, especially the one for Seagate. Like I did with my actor reel, I cut out as much of the other actors as possible while trying to retain the flow and meaning of each clip. Enjoy.
Here’s a new cut of my actor demo reel. I’d been waiting to get some footage for this for a long time before recutting it. And there’s still some footage out there that I’m waiting on. If/when I get that footage, I’ll probaby cut a v2.1.
After scouring the web viewing other actors’ demos and after corresponding directly with a fairly well-known casting director for some advice, I’m pretty happy with how this turned out.
Here are several changes I made from the last time I cut my reel. If you’re an actor about to cut your demo for the first time, or if you’re like me and are about to recut an existing one, these are things you might consider doing with yours. As always, do what works for you, throw out the rest.
I eschewed the montage up front as well as my headshot stills at the end. Unless you don’t have a lot of footage on yourself, the montage simply eats up valuable time on your reel. In most cases, your reel shouldn’t be more than 3 minutes so I decided to make the most of every second and just start off with a strong scene. Stills of my headshot don’t add value to the reel - people want to see acting. You can always give or send them your headshots or point them to a website that displays them.
I got really cut-happy. I looked long and hard at the scenes I have and really whittled them down. The first scene is really part of a longer scene that clocks in at almost 2 minutes alone. It was a really strong scene that I wanted to keep in its entirety, but it was just too long. Instead, I was careful to cut it down keeping 3 important things in mind: a) keep the focus on me, b) keep up the intensity of the scene, and c) retain the meaning of the scene. The end result is tighter, still has the punchy parts of the longer scene, and the meaning still flows. Notice at the very beginning when my name fades in, the audio of the scene kicks in right before you see any actors. This served 2 purposes: a) that opening line “You lied to me…” grabs viewers, you want to know what’s going on - in fact, you want to SEE what’s going on - who’s lying to whom? and why?, and b) that line happens when the other actor is on screen. It gives me a chance to cut her out (sorry Yvonne, I love ya, but this is my reel - feel free to cut me out of yours) and fade in on me so that I’m the first face you see. I whittled other scenes down quite a bit, too, especially my scene opposite Ben Stein. Again, I have a really long scene with him but it’s just too long for a reel. I kept the parts that show humor and a little variety in my reactions.
Instead of fading in and out of scenes to create a smooth transition, I just let each scene cut into the next. Some of my scenes had natural fades in them that appear in this finished version. But I didn’t add any additional fades. It allowed me to utilize every precious second to show my scenes and ”gets on with it” faster. I’ve seen other actors’ reels do this and I like it.
I kept the F-bomb scene. I got some really good advice on this from a casting director. If you mainly get cast as the type of character who drops F-bombs, leave stuff like this in your reel. I mean don’t overdo it but it’s OK to have a scene or two with some profanity. However, if you normally end up doing Disney or Nickelodeon roles, well, you might not want to fuck around with the Big Mouse. Yea, you can tell what kind of roles I usually nab in the film world. Maybe it’s the shaved head and goatee.
I added a scene from my own short film “Bite Me.” Hey, come on, who wouldn’t put a scene from their own movie on their reel? Isn’t that one of the many reasons we make our own films? It’s comedic to show that I can do that sort of thing but I’m still kind of the “straight man” (yea, no pun intended) so I’m not straying too far from type. But because it’s more over the top than say the Ben Stein clip, I placed it at the end.
Lastly, I killed the music bed. I had this techno-ish beat and crap going on in my earlier cut. Even though I got a kick out of it, not everyone has the same musical tastes as I do. In fact, I’m not really into techno anymore either, so tastes change - and bad taste kills. Don’t turn off your viewer with crappy music before he/she gets a chance to see you act. When in doubt, leave it out.
I hope this helps those of you getting your reels ready. If you have any questions or input, feel free to leave a comment. In the meantime, break some legs.
Several months ago, I posted my short film up on a site called Caachi. It was an online distributor of sorts that allowed filmmakers to post their movies and sell access to viewers. As a filmmaker I was able to set my own price per view of my film. For that price, viewers could also download a portable copy of the film to their computer or mobile device. I realized at the time that I was pretty much a no-name filmmaker (still am, by the way) but thought I’d give Caachi a shot. Nothing beats jumping in with both feet to see how something like Caachi works and to see if anyone would pay money to view my film.
After only a few months of my film being online, Caachi went out of business. They still have a page up at their domain name with a message saying they’ve shut down but are still exploring ways to make a viable business out of indie online movie distribution.
Well, I’m kind of over the idea of directly monetizing my short film unless I stumble upon a better way. (Indirect monetization might still be in the cards if enough eyeballs see it. Hey, you never know.) While I still love my film, and had a bunch of fun making it, I’ve moved on already. You know how it is. If you’ve ever created or made something, it’s like the greatest thing on earth when you’re in the middle of it. But after a while, you start to pick at it and soon find things you would’ve done better had you more time and money. You evolve and that project doesn’t quite speak to you in the same way it once did. At the same time, though, it serves as a historical marker of a place you once stood on your path of creative evolution.
Enough of this tedious blathering…I know you just want to view the damn thing to see if it’s any good. It definitely speaks to a niche market but most people who view it get the jokes. Enjoy. Oh and by the way, it’s free.
As many epic fails that appeared in this film, I still really enjoyed it. Go figure. Here’s my breakdown…
What I liked:
Plenty of Megan Fox.
The humor, mainly in the human scenes.
Various nods to Transformers: The Movie (the animated one from eons ago).
The transforming effects.
The action.
Julie White, Ramon Rodriguez, and John Turturro: hilarious.
Optimus Prime kicks some metal ass.
That writing in Shia LaBeouf’s broken hand didn’t appear forced.
Lots of Asian-American male actors as part of the U.S. military with at least a line or two. Let’s step it up and give them more to do and say in the sequel, please.
Just how much military support Bay actually has access to and enlists for this film. It’s pretty impressive.
What I didn’t like:
Mudflap and Skidz - Jar Jar Binks lives on. The gold tooth really threw it over the edge for me. Racial stereotypes aside, they were just stupid and unfunny, period.
That Jetfire hobbled around bent over with a cane, had an overgrown metal beard, and spoke with that lame accent. We get it, he’s old.
The female “Terminator”. I saw it coming but didn’t want to believe it. Kristanna Loken might as well have reprised her role.
The tired master-and-apprentice storyline and the overused line: “I’ve waited X-amount of years to exact my such-and-such revenge.” It’s Darth Sidious and Darth Maul all over again.
The Decepticon fetuses.
Major infodumping.
Blurry robot fight scenes. You can’t tell who’s doing what to whom.
Over the years, many people have asked me how to get started as an actor, how to get all the marketing stuff together that goes with being an actor, and just basic advice on the whole business of it. I enjoy helping people out whenever possible, so I’m always more than happy to share my experiences, insights, and tips. I’ve gotten so many similar questions that I finally compiled a resource for those just starting out and those who are merely curious about it and are on the fence about diving in.
It’s called 5 Tools Every Actor Must Have - How to Market Yourself While Saving Time, Money, and Avoiding Scams. You can find out more about it and purchase it at www.actortoolsrevealed.com. It’s a no-nonsense guide in the form of a PDF eBook that will help any beginner avoid wasting time with the “trial and error” approach to getting into the on-camera acting business by giving him/her no-nonsense tips, tricks, and information on gathering important marketing tools, including headshots, resumes, and beyond. I wish I had a guide like this when I was starting out. It would’ve saved me a lot of time, money, and frustration.
So, if you’re a beginner just getting started as an actor, or perhaps you’re a model who wants to transition into the field, please check out 5 Tools Every Actor Must Have - How to Market Yourself While Saving Time, Money, and Avoiding Scams at www.actortoolsrevealed.com. While there, be sure to sign up for the free newsletter and you’ll instantly get a PDF download of the Introduction to the eBook, a Coupon Code to www.PerformerTrack.com (great career management software for any kind of performer, not just actors), and you’ll soon be receiving a semi-regular newsletter that will have a bunch of other tips, tricks, and true stories not found in the eBook. The newsletter might even have some guest writers - likely fellow performers who can share their perspectives on it all. Stay tuned.
*To my Facebook “Notes” readers, you might see a duplicate post of this show up right below. I don’t know why but when Facebook imports my Wordpress blog, it likes to repeat itself. So, please forgive the messy double-post. Thanks.
