Actor Marketing: Send Postcards!

In this era of digital marketing and social media, why send paper postcards you may well ask.  Here's why: A photo postcard puts your name and face in front of casting agents repeatedly, keeps them up to date on what kinds of projects you're booking, and is more likely to be successful than other kinds of contact.

Send in an 8" by 10" glossy and a resume and it goes on the "Intern pile" for filing.  Send an email and it gets lost among correspondence more important to agency business and may be deleted without being opened. Telephone? (NO PHONE CALLS!!!)

A postcard is brought in and put with the casting agent's personal mail. The agent will read it when time permits and they're not distracted by other business (during coffee breaks, for example). If you're tracking the agent's projects, a postcard gives you an opportunity to make a positive personal comment and build a relationship.

Not all casting agents like receiving postcards, but most do and especially veterans in the business do.  It's their job to know who's out there and who's booking what.

My standard postcard is my headshot with my name and union status. On the back (which I design myself) I list where I'm based and where to find agent contact information (never put direct contact information on the card.)  I get them through Vista Print at $20 for 50 (4"x6" cards on matte recycled paper) and they look as good as some I'd purchased from a specialty printing site that cost twice as much. (Note that larger cards require extra postage.)

Postcards got me on the radar at several casting agencies after more than a year of updating "profiles" on their respective websites had produced no results.  So don't forget to include  postcards in your marketing campaign. It's old school but it works. 

Finding Story Ideas for Film

About 3,500 films are made each year, not all of them great obviously. Is it my imagination or were more great movies really made back in the 1930s and 1940s, during Hollywood's Golden Age?  Certainly they had a system down for identifying plots that appealed to the public and maybe that made all the difference.

I just finished Thomas Schatz’ book The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era, which was a fascinating read.  Schatz says that in any given year in the early 1930s, MGM staff readers alone filed reports on more than 1,000 novels and original scripts, 500 short stories, 1,500 plays, and 1,300 works in foreign languages...all in the pursuit of stories the studio could turn into hit movies.  One assumes a similar output was seen at all of the other major studios as well.

At MGM they followed “The Ten Commandments for Studio Readers” laid down by head of production Irving Thalberg, and most of it sounds like good advice for struggling filmmakers, even today. Looking for a film idea? Consider this:

1. Your most important duty is to find great ideas. You’ll find them buried under tons of mediocre suggestions.

2. Read at least two newspapers daily.  Photoplays (scripts) sell best when they’re based on timely topics.

3. Analyze all material on the basis of the players who are working for us.

4. Remember, you are dealing with a pictorial (visual) medium.

5. Make a close notation of all books you see the public reading.

6. See at least two full-length motion pictures each week, one by this company, one from a competitor.

7. Everything else is secondary in your work to the finding of a strong dramatic situation, an interesting clash between the principal characters.

8. Prove your ability to recognize creative material by writing and submitting to us stories of your own.

9. Be proficient in one language besides your own. The competition for good stories is so keen that the supply written in English was long ago insufficient.

10. Above all, train yourself to recognize sincerity in a story. Talking pictures, particularly, have made the public very sensitive to false notes in plots.

Treated to a Wisconsin Supper Club.

Just back from shooting my role as the Grandmother in "The Book of Birdie." Wonderful cast and crew. It's going to be a terrific film. Plus, Saturday night, British actress Suzan Crowley and I were treated to a delightful evening at the Hob Nob Supper Club in Racine. What an experience!

Wisconsin has some 350 supper clubs, many of which began as roadhouses during Prohibition and then continued as establishments "outside the city limits" that serve alcohol. Public TV even did a special on them.

Hob Nob has these amazing white diamond-upholstered booths that look like a setting for the Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin "Rat Pack." Food was amazing and a pianist added to the atmosphere by playing the theme song from Billy Wilder's "The Apartment," which I've never heard played except in the film. Felt like I'd gone to Heaven. Many thanks to our hosts. It was such fun.

The decor looks like a movie set.  I love the upholstery.

Our table was here in the bar, which looks out onto Lake Michigan.

Filming The Book of Birdie for London-based Melancholy Star

As the New Year begins I am inundated with new film projects and feeling happy and fortunate. This week I'm heading out to Wisconsin to film my scenes for "The Book of Birdie," a feature-length psychological thriller from the London-based production and special effects house Melancholy Star. Wonderful locations. Terrific cast, including British actress Suzan Crowley.

In Praise of Indian Cinema

Actors not only love performing in film but we love watching and studying them. In fact, many of us develop an almost encyclopedic knowledge of classic films and the technique of directors, cinematographers, and our fellow performers. Fortunately for me my husband is also a cinephile and each week, as our schedules permit, we view one or two films in theaters and stream several more.

Recently we stumbled into a couple of Indian films that really impressed us. I say "stumbled" because the first - Bajrangi Bhaijaan - was posted at the theater with only its Hindi title; no poster, no screen shots, no plot summary. We took a chance on it because we 'd been impressed by such actors as Irrfan Khan and his story-driven films The Namesake and The Lunchbox. (Also, we rather like the energetic dancing and singing so characteristic of the Bollywood films coming out of Mumbai.)

Bajrangi Bhaijaan, with Indian mega-star Salman Khan, turned out to be one of the best films we'd seen in years. It's about a mute little girl from Pakistan who gets separated from her mother in India, and the man who takes it upon himself to find out where she's from and take her home, all of which is complicated by the political tensions between the two countries. We laughed, we cried, we were on the edge of our seats for 2 hours and 45 minutes (yes, Indian films run long, but you don't notice). It's a terrific film and the little girl is wonderfully appealing. Big stars take a risk in appearing with scene-stealing children, but here Khan holds his own in a role that shows his human side, and the kid really sells it.

Child actress Harshaali Malhotra with Salman Khan

Having had such a good experience with this film, we took a chance on another - Baahubali - the first of a two-part saga on the order of Lord of the Rings. It was epic and riveting, and its star - Prabhas - the kind of muscle-man who is also sexy.

Indian cinema has come into its own and with better promotion could crossover to a general American audience. The production values are extremely good; in fact, we loved these two so much we saw them twice in the theater and plan to purchase them on disk as soon as they're available.

So, we've become fans. We recognize many of the stars (even though most seem to be named "Khan.")

Salman Khan has a new film coming out in U.S. theaters in mid-November - Prem Ratan Dhan Payo.  We can hardly wait.

Witches, The Play

This past summer I had the pleasure of appearing in "Witches," a fantasy comedy by talented actor/playwright Scott Courlander for the Capital Fringe Festival. Fringe Festivals present a wonderful opportunity to premier new works with minimalist staging, and each summer more than a hundred plays and other kinds of performances, involving more than 500 actors and entertainers, get a sneak preview here in the nation's capital.

It is worth noting that  Hugh Laurie, Emma Thompson, and Stephen Fry got their start in 1981 in just such a festival - albeit a somewhat larger one, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival - and the rest is history.

"Witches," a play about a sleepy princess found in an enchanted wood and awakened by three witches with hilarious results, is one of many Courlander has produced through his company, Red Knight Productions. It was not only great fun to do (I earned "Favorite Performance" honors from DC Metro Theater Arts for my portrayal of the witch Beatrice) but I'm hoping it will go on to full staging and great success (in which case, I can boast that I appeared in the premier).

Here I am with actor Stephen Mead, who played The Jester.

Dresses I Love

I remember, years ago, reading an article where a woman said she had found this dress that, when she wore it to a special event, the crowd literally parted in awe. One day I will find such a dress. Certainly before I attend the Oscars!

These are from Indian designer Manish Malhotra, all hand embroidered. Gorgeous.

Manish Malhotra, 2015 Couture Collection

Manish Malhotra, 2015 Couture Collection