#actorsworking

So, the other day, I took a friend's daughter out to the shops to get a few bits for her 'make my school uniform look like I actually chose to wear it' accessories. The last time I saw this kid she was young enough that the word 'bum' made her laugh beyond reason, and now she shops in the same places as me. Terrifying. We were having a chat about what she wanted to be when she grew up (she's leaning towards novelist) and she mentioned that her mum told her I'm an actor. 'Are you famous?' she asked, 'Uhm, no, not really.' 'Well, have you been in anything I'd recognise?' 'Oh, well, do you know the band Apollo 440?' 'Are they like Little Mix?'  'Uh...not really' 'Then probably not.' 'I did a big play a while ago!' 'In London?' 'Well....it was more of an East Anglia sort of based tour. I do lots of voice work! You've probably heard lots of the radio ads I've done!' 'Do you earn lots of money?' 'Hahahahahahahahahaha.' 'Is that a no?' 'erm...' 'So you're not a successful one yet then?' 'Well, I am sort of. I've done a play for 4 months of this year, loads of voice work, including a job for a massive designer company, a fair few short films and music videos, a couple of adverts and I've earned a bit of cash. Better than a lot out there!' 'But you're still not rich or famous?' 'Wow...no, but I've only been out in the industry for a year and a half...And I get to do a job that I love! That is, when I'm not working in a job I hate to fund the job I love.....' 'So you have two jobs?' 'Well....yeah. I also work in a call centre so that I can afford to do acting' 'Oh. Do you do that less than you do acting?' 'Nooooo....probably a bit more....' 'and you don't like it?' 'No. Don't work in a callcentre kid, it's soul destroying' 'So why do you do it? Did you not get very good marks at school?' 'Well actually I have two degrees, and quite high grades in them too! I do it because it's very flexible, so I can call in and cancel whenever an audition comes up' 'So you do a job you hate so that you don't have to go to it? That seems silly' 'Sigh...you're actually right...' In summary Reader, I would say AVOID conversations with idealistic young kids. It will emotionally destroy you more than the worst reviewer would. Although, saying that, it made me realise that life is too short to work in a job that was turning my brain to sludge, so I threw in the towel at the call centre and found something more challenging, which pays more (and is just as flexible, if not more so!). And actually, it makes me feel a bit better about the fact that I don't always earn massive amounts from acting, because I still have something regular coming in, from a job I actually quite enjoy-which means I turn up to auditions not feeling too desperate, which has to be a good thing right? Let's hope! Ash x

You can reach Aislinn at the following:

Twitter: @aislinndeath

Her own awesome blog: http://ashactingup.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1

A Case of Speed Over Quality.

By KyriSaphiris

As any actor will know, most castings tend to be over in a flash. All the auditions I’ve attended in recent months have been over before you can say “Ross Kemp”. In my earlier days as an actor, I seem to remember auditions lasting longer, allowing time to repeat a scene two or three times and offer the casting panel an opportunity to see the portrayal of a character presented from alternative perspectives. This usually provided the foundation for a thorough audition process, a sense of satisfaction and, coupled with some time for questions and a chat at the end, an overall well rounded casting process. On the rare occasions when the audition lasted less time than it takes for me to open a bottle of beer I’d feel cheated and empty. I’d leave the audition thinking that I wasn’t what they were looking for and it would always turn out that I was right.

  But this has now become the norm. Maybe it’s something to do with the triple dip recession or whatever stage of economic decline we’re in at the moment; maybe production companies and casting directors can’t afford to book a casting studio for too long; maybe they’re in a rush to go to the pub. Or maybe it’s something else and maybe I actually know what it is.

  At the end of a recent casting session I discovered, through means I shall keep to myself for fear of being hunted down by someone with a nasty dog, that more than fifty (I know the exact figure but won’t disclose it for fear of … yes, nasty dog), that’s right, more than fifty actors were being seen for this one very small part with three lines of script. Let’s just do the mathematical calculations (“the math”, if you’re American): anyone good at ratios? It’s more than 50:1 which means you have a probability of securing the role at a figure of less than 2.0%. The whole casting process that day can be described as being sucked in and spewed right back out, like a chunk of donner meat that you suddenly realise tastes more like burnt rubber than seasoned, charcoal grilled lamb (because you forgot to get pissed first). It’s in and out without shaking it all about. It’s casting by numbers. It’s missing something vital.

  So now we (probably) know. The reason so many castings seem so abrupt is because those that arrange them arrange to see a huge number of artists. This in turn does not allow sufficient time for the casting to incorporate the scene being acted multiple times to portray a variation that might be useful for the casting panel to see. Neither does it give the actor time to adjust and show adequately, if at all, their skill and potential for the role. When you act a part, you have already learnt the lines, worked on the character, done your research, analysed the socio-psychological dimension of the part, the scene, the story and rehearsed. Now obviously you’re not going to do all that in an audition. Obviously! But you do need a few minutes to gain some understanding of the character and the part, to practice it with two or three takes whilst guided by the panel as to what they want and therefore to do justice to the audition for everyone’s benefit.

  So here is my plea: casting directors, please don’t just get everyone in to audition for your part! Take a bit more time to look at the résumés and/ or photos and videos and draw up an informed shortlist of those actors that you believe possess the potential suitability for your project. Less people to audition, who have been carefully selected, means more time for each audition, which in turn means a better quality and mutually more fulfilling audition process!

  If, next time I go to a casting, I find again that there are fifty-five actors being seen for that one role I am just going to walk out on principle! Whoops, did I say fifty-five?

Find Kyri here:

Kyri's Page Profile: https://www.thepageuk.com/index.php/actorhome_cv/cv/826

Kyris Blog: http://www.acting-blog.filmactor.co.uk/

His website: http://www.filmactor.co.uk/

Readers, acting is a funny old thing. You spend blooming ages stressing out about how none of the auditions you're going for are working out (not that they were good auditions anyway, just ones with mad loons with no money to pay you and dreadful scripts involving mime and ribbons to symbolize death). You bite your fingers to the quick trying to work out if it's your showreel (Oh how you wished you had a few accents in there), your headshots (do they make you look too pageant queeney?) or just your utter lack of talent (they must have made a terrible mistake accepting you into drama school!) and then all of a sudden....BOOM. Awesome audition. Brilliant job. Hope springing anew, agents offering you contracts, directors asking if over equity rates is too little, scripts coming out of your ears. So much so that now you don't have time to eat at normal hours (just entire packs of jaffa cakes at 3am), your free time is spent invoicing people (usually wrongly, so that you get emails back going 'erm...I'm sorry....I owe you HOW much? Why?' from your mum's accountant) and desperately learning lines and trying to work out if it's ok to say no to stripping in auditions (about which there may be another blog quite soon). I have experienced just this sort of chaos ever since I left drama school last year. If you're not worrying that you might never get an audition ever again then you're tripping up over your own stacked-like-american-style-pancakes appointments. It puts one in a tizzy that can only be cured by lots of buttercream topped cupcakes and diet coke by the gallon (I don't do tea. Irish gran practically overdosed me on cups of Barry's tea as a tiddler). I came off a very exciting and lovely tour in early June, and since then I've had no luck at all. Film auditions that started off excitingly then led to the character I auditioned for being cut from the screenplay. Or shooting dates that I couldn't make because of the wedding of one of my oldest friends. An agency that kept me hopeful for nearly two months before finally telling me they wanted to see me on stage in London before taking me on. I was just starting to think about chucking it all in and becoming a zookeeper when all of a sudden, without warning, a voice job came up. A well paid voice job. A well paid voice job that turned out to be really high profile, for a massive client. And then at the recording, the chap running the session was so impressed that he invited me to join his voice agency on the spot. Meaning if all goes well, I'll now have not one, but two brilliant voice agents. In the meantime, a callback came in for a short film that is paying so ridiculously well I'm actually considering getting my kit off for it. That well. And a friend asked if I needed an acting agent, because their agent had stumbled across my showreel and loved it. If acting were food, right now I'd have diabetes. Pretty mad considering last week I was starving. Fingers crossed my thespian 'diet' will even out soon! Ash x

You can reach Aislinn at the following:

Twitter: @aislinndeath

Her own awesome blog: http://ashactingup.blogspot.co.uk/?m=1