Acting Tips: Your acting career doesn't hang on a headshot

I don't often just repost an email, but David Patrick Green of HackHollywood.com, has a particularly wise piece of advice this week that I'd like to share. For actors, dealing with career anxiety comes with the territory (Here is a very funny spin on that at Buzzfeed).  We are frequently told to keep ready headshots, business cards, a change of clothes, etc. and to be prepared to jump on a set at a moment's notice.

When we don't, this is typical: One anxious actor wrote to Green that he'd "made a mistake last night. A personal manager of one of the biggest A-listers asked if I had a headshot and resume on me so he could have it for possible future opportunities. I did not have one on me!!! I usually do, but I did not last night. Mistake, yes. Career ending mistake, no, but possible missed opportunity."

Here's how Green responded: "I actually think the fact you didn't have your headshot on you is a good thing. First, anything is good if you know how to make it good, but in this particular case it illustrates a couple of things. First, it illustrates how actors generally have a desperate mentality....like because you didn't have a particular item at a particular time that it's going to make any real difference in your life and that there aren't a million opportunities always presenting themselves over and over if we simply put ourselves out there. You are putting yourself out there so that is the main thing.

"But we actors need to get ourselves out of the mindset that if you don't have a headshot with you it means something. I think the opposite is true. If you think you need a headshot with you all the time, it means you are terrified that you are not enough on your own. A headshot is a representation of you for people who either don't know you or who do know you and now know you for a particular part. Some guy at a party is neither of these. He has met you so he doesn't need a pic to know what you look like. He took interest in you so he has something in mind for you.

"Does that end because you aren't a walking office with pen and paper and headshots and demo reels on you? Not at all. It's almost comical to think it would make any difference at all in your life. He liked you, not your picture, so all you do is follow up with him. To think he will do anything with your headshot anyway after one meeting is fairly optimistic. Most of these people throw around favors like they throw around cocktail napkins. It's only in the follow up that you will see if he is serious.

"What people are interested in (or not) is you. Everything is about relationships, not pictures, so focus on getting to know him and him getting to know you. That is what will stick. Take him to lunch, help him move, play tennis, babysit his kids, whatever, but forget the headshots. That is a weak surrogate for developing a relationship, but it's a great out for people like that to end a conversation and feel good about themselves at the same time. Oh, you should give me your headshot...I will pass it around...whatever...see you later...If he says pop into the office next week, now you're talking.

"You don't need anything at a party except yourself. If someone takes an interest in you, it's just the beginning, not the end. If you don't have a pic, it's actually better because it forces you to have meeting number two to drop it off and you can see on Monday if they are serious or just a serious flake, which most are.

"You want to really see what you're made of? Don't even have headshots at all. Force yourself to live and die on your relationships and your name. Your agent can submit pictures, but they're pretty worthless with people who don't know you unless you have great credits, and then it's your credits, not your pictures that are getting you called in.

"Go headshotless for a month and see what happens. You will be amazed at the stares you get if you said 'I don't have headshots. I only work with people I know...'"

"Hacking is about doing things the right way and the right way is rarely the way everyone else does things. All those silly rules of thumb, like always carry a change of clothes and always have your headshots, are for people who think opportunities appear and disappear based on clothing and pictures, and that's simply not true. Anyone who won't hire you because of those things isn't worth working with anyway, because they don't know what to focus on, which is your work and your work ethic, not your picture and the fact that you have a lab coat in the trunk.

"You got me fired up because I know you are smart and you will see the light here. Stand on your own two feet. You aren't your headshot. You are either great or you are not great, but what you have on your person does not change that. Someone is interested in you. Great, let's talk. If they ask for your picture, they don't want to talk and by giving it to them, you are basically handing them all your power by saying, 'OK here it is. I hope you can help me,' when in fact your mentality should be, 'Let's meet and I can tell you how I can help you!"

You know, that is very smart advice.

#CapSouth wraps Season 1

Taped the Season 1 finale of CapSouth, the web series about the antics of Congressional staff, i.e. those who really run Washington. Since yours truly plays their nemesis, Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright, and we taped in a popular DC pub, it required me to essentially be "in-character" through the four hours it took to shoot my scenes. Whew!  Pretty tiring.

The series has a fine cast though and it was a lot of fun. As I tweeted earlier today, I'm an introvert and a non-drinker (well, a rare drinker) and the scene involved me giving a nearly 5 minute speech to a big crowd in the pub announcing my intention to run for re-election - oh, and it had to be funny. I was feeling a little pressure.

Here I am with the principal cast.

(L to R) R. Michael Oliver, Kathryn Browning, Andrew Heaton, and Naomi Brockwell

  

Shona Auerbach is back!

My husband and I were up last night watching director Shona Auerbach's 2004 film Dear Frankie for about the 20th time. This is a brilliant and moving film, beautifully shot, and incredibly her first attempt at a feature, having made a slew of commercials and one short prior. (It is quite possibly the best role ever for Gerard Butler, who plays The Stranger.) Written by Andrea Gibb, produced by Caroline Wood, a lyrical score by Alex Heffes (composer on the just released Escape Plan), the film won raves at the Cannes International Film Festival, BAFTA and London Film Critics nominations, and a slew of film festival wins from Bulgaria to L.A.

I have searched the Web repeatedly over the years for word of her and any follow-on projects.  Nothing. I had this sinking feeling that something terrible had happened to this incredible talent, because she had seemingly vanished. Last night while watching Dear Frankie I got out my laptop and gave it another try. And there she was!  She has a website, which you can see here, and a new film Rudy that just finished shooting and has a Facebook page here.

I sent her an email, thinking it would take a week to get passed through her London film agent. Surprised to get a response back from the director herself within minutes. Extremely happy to see her back in the game. Can't wait to see Rudy in theatres. Wow!

Grabbing and sharing your actor clips

Technology is playing a larger and larger role in our lives as actors. Not only do we share our demo reels and send taped auditions via the Internet but we also – after we’ve gotten that coveted role – use the Internet to grab our performance clips off of the films and television shows in which we appear.

Uploading and Sharing Video

Taping an audition, as I’ll be doing later today for an HBO series, typically means shooting a big HD file and then creating a smaller size or different type of video file that can be uploaded to the Internet and then pulled down by your agent and the casting director.

Here are some low cost/no cost options for creating and sharing smaller files:

1. Try Mpeg Streamclip, which is a free program that you can learn about here and download here in versions for Mac and Windows and others. I use this and find it super easy to create smaller files of sufficient quality to share with agents and casting.

2. Open a free account at Vimeo.com or Wistia.com, where you can upload your video files to share and also create smaller file versions that can be downloaded by others.  I have a Vimeo channel and like the quality and versatility better than YouTube. Some casting directors will ask you to upload to YouTube, however, so it's good to have both.

3. If you edit on a Mac with Final Cut Pro X, as I do, you can use your compressor. Select the YouTube video settings, then change the size of the video to 50 percent before exporting.

4. Try a program called Handbrake. I haven’t tried this one, but it came highly recommended.  You can learn more about it here and download it here.  It's available for Mac and other platforms.

5. If you're using Mac OSX 10.8, you can create a smaller file with Quicktime. Just open your video and go to file/export. In the drop down menu in the bottom of the dialogue box choose "iPod Touch & iPhone 3GS" or "iPad/iPhone 4 & Apple TV."  This reportedly works great and is very fast.

Need to send a video file?  Try WeTransfer.com, which will send files up to 2 gigs for free, and larger files through a paid account. Better than DropBox.com, in my view. Very easy and fast.

Of course, for an actor the bigger issue is snagging performance clips for your reel.  Since I have some TV performances coming up, I put this question to my online actor group.

Getting Clips from Film and Television

When an actor is just starting out, the biggest problem can be getting clips from student films, which can sometimes involve chasing down the student’s professor and making a formal appeal. I never had to resort to that fortunately. All of my student filmmakers behaved like pros, posted the finished video, and sent me the download link.

Footage from feature films and television gets trickier unless you make friends with someone in production. To get performance clips from these, actor Michael Alban suggests using a program called Video Clone. You can download the trial version for free and capture up to 5 continuous minutes of streaming video to test it. If the clip you need is more than 5 minutes, you can pay for the full version to get longer clips. It’s easy to use and the footage looks decent, he says.  You can access it here.  I suggest doing a test run first to make sure you're getting the quality you want.

Michael says an easy software program for pulling clips from non-streaming sources is Mozilla's Firefox browser with the Video Download Helper add-on. You can grab any file that's on Youtube and on most other sites. With VDH, you're grabbing the actual file since it's directly available to you, whereas with streaming video, you're making a copy. Find the Mozilla VDH link here.

Net Video Hunter, available here, was recommended by another Mac user, but reportedly would involve a second step through Mpeg Streamclip to get it to an editable version.

If anyone has gotten good results by getting their clips through other programs, please let me know.

CapSouth continues to gain media attention

#CapSouth, the new online political comedy about the antics of the Capitol Hill staff of yours truly (as Congresswoman Gracie Todd Englewright) continues to gather media accolades: the Washington Post, Washington Times, Morning Express, Politico (full page spread with photos), RollCall (twice), The Hill, and online at Cynopsis.com 7/9/13 and Comedy TV is Dead.  Creator Rob Raffety also got a radio interview with CBS radio affiliate WNEW here in DC and a write up in his hometown paper the West Virginia Gazette.  I think that has been more attention than even House of Cards got - at least from the inside-the-Beltway press.

"Gracie," by the way, is very media savvy.  She has her own Facebook page for responding to "constituents" and tweets at @HonorableGracie.  Episodes of CapSouth can be found online at YouTube, and I appear (so far) in episodes 2 and 5.  We'll see where this takes us.  Will it prove a hit or be too inside baseball for the rest of America?  Here's the latest episode.

The Atlantic gives the lowdown on awful blockbuster movies

Cinemas full of loud, dumb, crash-bang movies is why my husband and I are spending Saturday nights this summer staring at each other instead of gobbling up popcorn. The Atlantic just weighed in on why thoughtful film buffs can expect more of this schlock....it's all economics and a foreign market that has developed a taste for it. (The French loved Jerry Lewis films, remember?) See the full article here.

Let's hope that Netflix makes a ton of money with brilliant programming like House of Cards. (More please! And not just because I got a few lines.)

Acting Tips: Writing your Actor Bio

Actors often have trouble writing their actor's bio, which is probably why Playbill bios tend to be folksy/cutesy. We feel awkward and self-conscious, and it shows.

Gwyn Gilliss has an informative piece on the topic in Backstage this week (you can see the full article here) that gives useful guidelines that sound right on the money.  I will say that having been a professional writer I still managed to miss most of this, so my next task this morning is rewriting my bio.

Here's Gwyn's step-by-step advice:

Paragraph 1: Recent roles/Strongest credits. (Theater if you’re in New York and film/TV if you’re in L.A.) Try to use recognizable plays and roles, not just “showcases.” If you’re just starting out, you can include “representative” roles. Those parts from Shakespeare or Chekov done at school outweigh showcases of unknown writers Off-Off-Broadway.

Paragraph 2: Training. Don’t be afraid to name drop master teachers or prestigious drama schools, as well as directors you’ve studied with. If you’ve worked with “greats,” they will assume you will be great!

Paragraph 3: Recent work. (Switch what you included in paragraph one.) Include Indie films and appearances on primetime or daytime TV or include all major stage credits from Off-Off-Broadway to Broadway. Your credits tell them how to cast you and what roles you are consistently hired to play. Don’t include extra work—it's not considered a professional credit if you’re standing in the background.

Paragraph 4: Personal Life. Here, write about your interests, skills, travel, languages, or musical instruments—anything that makes you memorable. Elaborate don’t just list.

She also weighs in on style, advising actors to keep it short, avoid lists, give the "what" not the "why," and write in the third person and in inverted pyramid style that puts the most important information first.

Good stuff!

I would only add that somewhere in there - probably up near the top - you find a way to work in the three on-screen qualities that make you compelling as an actor.  For example, I'm often cast in power roles - judge, corporate executive, member of Congress - so my three qualities are "forceful, intelligent, pragmatic."  It can help in casting.

I would also advise that you downplay training as you build experience. Once you've gotten recognizably good roles, training becomes less and less important.