Actors Access Demo Reel Upload Grace Period

Part i and Part two accept been making the rounds (and if you haven't read them, you should!) and have even caught the attention of Breakdown Services themselves.

Jenna Laissez passer, the Manager of Media Communications, wanted me to contact her immediately, and so I did.

"...am I in trouble...?" I wrote her.

Not at all! She was so impressed (::blush::) with my basic Actors Admission actor tutorial, that she wanted to requite me a tour of the company! Although I was pretty sure it would just be a five minute tour of cubicles and computers, I was wrong.

In that location is a TON of things that Breakdowns does to make sure that You lot are seen and acting. Almost 100 people make upwards Breakdowns, and they want YOU to book work.

I have not been paid or compensated past Breakdown Services, Actors Access, or their affiliates. This is only skilful stuff to know!

And then, on with the show!

Created in 2003, there are 380,000 subscribers on Actors Access, 180,000 in California lonely. That's a lot of people, no? They all use the site to submit themselves and volume work. You lot can use it if yous're in San Francisco, Hawaii, Florida, Toronto, Vancouver, Chicago, even Colorado and Utah (no i might be putting casting notices up there, merely if they are, you lot can submit if you're in that marketplace!) In fact,

95% of all goggle box and film are cast through Breakdowns and Actors Admission.

With all these actors trying to get seen and trying to get auditions, the skillful people working at Breakdowns and Actors Access have come upwardly with a variety of things to get the difficult working and hard researching Struggling actors and actresses the upper hand. You seriously desire to get in on Kabookit, Casting Near, @ActorsAccess and Reels.

Kabookit
Brian Shook at Actors Access wants to help spread the discussion when you are part of that booking 95%. He's in accuse of KaBookIt (a "play" on Kabuki [come across what I did there? double en"pun"dre!" Ah! I'1000 However PUNNING!]).  KaBookIt has been running for a few weeks, and was get-go introduced to the regional agencies just is slowly gaining momentum in the major markets. Basically, your agent submits your contempo booking to KaBookIt with the name of the prove, the role, and who cast y'all, and KaBookIt creates an entry proclaiming it with your name hyperlinked to your Breakdowns profile.

Aye, big bargain, you say. So what?

Well, they email that list to casting directors! And when CDs read the list and you're Kabooking stuff, they see your name. Proceed Kabooking, they encounter your proper name once again. In the near future, when they're casting something, and they come up across your name, Kapow! They might just bring you lot in due to the name recognition. Cool, right!?

Casting About
Then in that location's Casting Virtually. Now, I have seen a few memos hither and at that place on AA from them, with the names of a few Casting Directors and what they're currently casting, but I never really understood what the website was all near. Now I exercise!

Blair Hickey and Brian Wold have partnered up with Breakdowns to basically create your own interactive and up to date Rolodex of casting directors. You become a member for $39.99/year or $ix.95/month (if you lot're more on the auditioning for tv/film regularly and hustling with postcards, etc type of role player, this is a great thing to have.) you get a list of all the Casting Directors, what they're  casting, what type of show, whether that show is currently casting, on hiatus, canceled, etc, who their Associate is, and who their Banana is. (They practise this for the Los Angeles AND New York City market!)

Click on the Casting Manager'due south proper name and you tin can see everything and anything they take ever cast, always. Click on the show and you become a logline! You go an official website where you can run into full episodes! Casting About lists whether it's a half hour comedy, one hour drama, etc, and you can know its status so that if you're sending postcards with your acting updates, you're non wasting a card and postage on a show that'southward on vacation.

As if that wasn't all astonishing enough, they even have a Notes department, featuring such valuable info equally where it shoots and if "Sam" is a daughter, etc. Even better than that, you tin can WRITE YOUR Ain NOTES! Auditioned for a pilot with bang-up feedback? You can notate it! Met a CD  at a workshop? You tin can notate information technology! Follow a cd on Twitter? You can notate that too! And they're all fourth dimension stamped! And like I said, Blair and Brian slave away all day updating everything, five days a week.

Want to send a bunch of postcards to people? Click a push, and you can print labels!!! And they'll requite you lot three different layout options!!!

Yous can search CDs and see what they're working on. You can see what they've done.

Casting About is literally like having your own personal assistant do all your homework for you. At $40/year, that'south a pretty sweet deal.

"Then what. I'one thousand not getting out much. I'1000 a Struggling Actress." Well, come on now. Yous demand to think out of the box. What type are yous? Are you a sexy 30s type? Do you look intelligent when you slip on a pair of glasses and a suit jacket? Then y'all'd make one hell of a lawyer! With Casting About'south filter features, yous tin find all the 1 60 minutes dramas and see which ones have "court" or "lawyer" in the logline and mail postcards to those CDs who you can tell are currently casting! Casting About makes information technology so easy for you!

@ActorsAccess
Follow AA on Twitter! Tell them what you recently booked off AA and they retweet it! Heck, the kind people running their Twitter business relationship read my last post and tweeted me congrats on my commercial booking. It'southward the small things, guys, seriously. Actors Access tweeting me congrats seriously made me feel like I had all of Breakdowns on my side.

They ALSO tweet interesting tidbits, acting related articles you should read, and if yous mention you're going out for an audience or important rep meeting, they'll tell you to break a leg! Seriously, how sugariness is that? You take ACTORS Admission rooting for y'all!

Reels
Eric Kuhr works hard at getting your reel uploaded as presently as he can. On an boilerplate day, thirty hardcopy reels are mailed in and 50-lx are emailed. He's seen his share of good and bad reels and has a few suggestions for how to make your reel even better:

1) Lose your title card! Casting wants to see you act immediately and they don't desire to waste material 15 seconds, 10 seconds, even 5 seconds watching what they already know - your name. Your video is fastened to your profile. Casting sees your name and your photos and your rep, so but lose information technology.

2) No montage. It'due south filler and it's still keeping casting from getting to run across you act. Lose it.

three) If you're going to put titles on your scene, like, "CSI:NY," brand sure it'south music video style where information technology'southward in the bottom corner and not distracting.

4) Outset your scenes off with Y'all. Sometimes this is difficult, but it must be washed. Permit'due south say you don't have, oh I don't know, really frikkin curly hair, and your scene partner is a girl who also kinda looks similar you. Commencement off with y'all then we know who we are supposed to exist watching.

v) A seven minute reel is likewise long. No ane is watching it. They say 1 minute reels are best. In fact, when you post or e-mail your reel to Eric, you can notate that you'd similar your reel to be "Clipped Out." They can go alee and accept your 7 infinitesimal reel and cutting it where your scenes terminate so that you can have five clips of your scenes instead of a seven minute reel. They don't EDIT, mind you, they just cutting your long reel into scenes. You tin't have them practice this if your video is already upward there, but yous Can ask for it when yous send in your new reel.

6) Practise whatever you lot can to keep from naming your reel "Demo Reel." Eric says it's boring. Yous tin really title your reels whatever you desire and even subtitle them. For instance, you could championship a reel "Seriocomedic" and the blazon of graphic symbol you lot play, like, "Neurotic Loner."

seven) Actors Access inverse it's reel price rules. It used to be $75 for the first infinitesimal, and $22 for every infinitesimal thereafter, but now information technology is But a flat fee of $22/minute. And the best part is, in that location'south a 10 second grace window. If your reel is a infinitesimal and 8 seconds, it's nonetheless going to exist only $22! Every bit Eric said, "We're not in the business of ripping people off." They're actually not.

8) Exercise not put clips of yous in plays on your AA profile. Incorrect market. And the footage of that is always taken by someone from the back row and so not but is the sound quality atrocious, so's the visual.

Not too shabby, right? If you want to learn more than most AA and what Casting sees, or if yous merely want to go to the Webinar and get the How to Use Information technology and Other Fun Facts seminar and spider web visual, follow @ActorsAccess and ask them when the next one is.

Isn't it astonishing how much they exercise for united states Struggling Actresses and Actors? I thought I knew everything there was about it, and I was wrong. It makes it seem the Struggle seem a little flake easier knowing there's most 100 people doing their darndest to aid usa succeed at our careers. Makes it a little less lonely too.

Now go say hi to @ActorsAccess and tell them I sent ya!

UPDATE!
In that location is now a Office 4!!

If you like this weblog post, please share it via Twitter or Facebook and assistance spread the word to your fellow struggling actors.  :)

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Source: http://thestrugglingactress.blogspot.com/2011/03/how-to-use-actors-access-effectively_29.html

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