This past Sunday, there was a picnic at Griffith Park for the writers of Ms In The Biz. Even though it was my only day off and I had a bunch of errands to run, I didn’t want to miss this. I’m trying to be more social in life (it’s easy to be a hermit outside of work when I’m working so many days a week), and this was a perfect opportunity for me to get out and enjoy the outside and great company.
This picnic was held at the same area as the Blognic, so I knew where I was going (which is nice is a huge park). It was pretty hot outside, but we had a nice shady spot in the grass so it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be.
I didn’t take a ton of pictures because all of us were having such a nice chat about lots of random subjects, but I did get a picture of me with Ms In The Biz founder, Helenna.
Please excuse my giant hair. With it being so hot, I’m trying to not use any heat tools in my hair. Not only is it damaging, but I feel no need to make my house hotter than it already is.
Some people brought their lunches with them (as we were instructed to do in the invite), but for me, it was too hot to eat. So I brought a giant bottle of ice water and some pita chips to share with the other ladies.
After being there a few hours, sadly I had to leave. I knew that I had a lot of errands to get done before my work week started and I didn’t want to be up all night trying to get it all done.
Thank you Helenna for organizing the picnic! I had a blast and it was the perfect thing for me to do on my day off!
I’ll end this post with this random photo that I took at the picnic while I was showing one of the other girls my camera. I love when I take a candid photo and it comes out looking so cool. And I feel like this picture really represents the vibe of Ms In The Biz. We are women in the entertainment industry trying to help each other out and having fun while doing it.
I’ve been a member of SAG-AFTRA for over a year now. I originally joined AFTRA prior to the merger vote, and now I’m a member of the merged unions.
And besides having better work opportunities, better pay, and protection on set (something I could have used in the past), there are lots of other things that are out there for union actors.
First of all, there are free casting director workshops through the SAG Foundation. A big controversial thing in the acting world are casting director workshops that you pay for. I don’t want to start a debate on here, but my belief is that you should not pay to audition for a casting director. You wouldn’t pay to have a job interview in a day job, so why would you do it for an acting job? If you don’t understand what paid casting director workshops are and want to know more about them, I suggest watching this video.
Another great thing through the union that actors can take advantage of is the SAG-AFTRA Film Society. You have to pay for the membership and you can only apply in the spring for the upcoming year. But there are free screenings for Film Society members about twice a month (I’ve already gone to “The Great Gatsby” and “Star Trek Into Darkness” and will be going to “Man of Steel” tomorrow). Plus, you get this awesome membership card!
Another membership within the union that you can join is the SAG-AFTRA Conservatory. I’ll admit that I haven’t taken advantage of being a member of the conservatory this past year. I need to get better about that. However they do have a big weekend event coming up next month and I’m planning on signing up for at least 4 classes.
Also, as many people who belong to other unions know, there are discounts available to union members. This page lists just some of what you can take advantage of as a member of SAG-AFTRA. I personally use the IMDBPro discount. And a lot of my friends use the ATT discount (my cell service is Verizon and there isn’t a SAG-AFTRA discount for them).
If you are a union actor, hopefully I’ve given you some new ideas of how to take advantage of your membership. And if you aren’t a union actor, maybe I’ve made you think about joining. Either way, I have to say that for me, becoming a union actor was one of the best things that I’ve done for my career. And whether or not you are a union actor, if you have any questions, you should give SAG-AFTRA a call. They are so wonderfully helpful and really want to make sure that all actors are taken care of.
Posted onJune 27, 2013|Comments Off on Playing With Color (or Helping A Friend Go Purple)
On Sunday, I went over to my friend Emily’s house. She is leaving on a 2 1/2 week trip out of the country with her brother. She’s an actress as well, so we both share the frustration of not being able to change our look too often (when you change your look, you have to get new headshots that look like the new you).
Since she will be out of the country (and not auditioning) for a few weeks, Emily decided that now was the time to do something crazy with her hair (she’ll go back to her usual style when she gets home). And Emily wanted to go purple with her hair, and I was the first on in line to help her dye it!
Here is Emily’s before picture (she’s wearing a trash bag that we used as a cape to keep her as clean as possible.
Since we were dealing with hair dye, I wanted to be protected too. So I put my hair back (no purple hair for me), and put on some gloves. I totally felt like a mad scientist.
It’s been a while since I’ve dyed anyone’s hair (I used to do my own in middle and high school and I helped a friend once just after college), but I had a lot of fun. The purple dye was much thicker than other hair dyes that I’ve seen, so we weren’t too messy. Because Emily has so much hair, we used two bottles of dye. And after coating all of her hair, we put a shower cap on to protect it (and protect the dye from staining anything in her house).
I know that I got some on her forehead, but that’s nothing compared to what I did to her back.
Thank goodness for the trash bag/cape, but I got a ton of dye on her neck. I apologized a ton on Sunday for that, but I think that any non-professional probably would have had the same problem.
While we waiting for the dye to set, we chatted and caught up. Emily and I both have crazy work schedules, so it’s hard for us to find time to hang out. Plus, I wanted to hear all about the trip she was going on.
30 minutes later, Emily washed out the dye. She doesn’t typically blow dry her hair, so I didn’t get to see the finished look when I left on Sunday. Her hair looked a lot darker than normal, but it’s tough to tell when it’s wet.
On Monday, Emily sent me this picture.
Her hair looks pretty different from her before picture. You can see the purple, but it’s not as purple as I thought it would be.
Overall, it was a fun beauty adventure to have on my day off. It’s not everyday that I help a friend dye their hair such a fun color (and I get to play mad scientist!).
I had an audition for a tv movie yesterday. Everything in the audition room happened the way it should happen. I said my lines, I got a smile from the casting director, and I left the room quickly. However when I was leaving the audition, I did almost get trapped in the hallway (there were two doors between the audition room and waiting area and when I closed one door it was so dark I couldn’t find the handle for the other door). I have no idea if I booked this job, but to me, it’s more important to impress the casting director so that they want me to come back again then to book every job I audition for.
But overall, this was a typical audition. But those few seconds of being stuck between the doors made me think of some of my bad auditions, and I figured I’d share some of them so you can all enjoy some of my not-so-graceful moments.
One of my absolute worst auditions ever happened when I was auditioning for a job in a theme park. We were all held outside the audition room and were only taken in one at a time. I probably had waited about an hour or two before it was my turn. I walked into the room, and right in front of the boss’s table, I fell banana peel style on the ground (and by banana peel style I mean I flew up into the air and landed hard on the ground). After trying to recover, we all noticed that there was a huge puddle of water on the floor. Someone who auditioned before me must have spilled it and I was the lucky one to walk right into it. After the audition, I was taken to the first-aid at the park to have my toes taped because they were looking pretty bad. I didn’t need first-aid, but I’m sure that they did it for their protection. I didn’t get that job.
I also remember an audition years ago for an employee training video for the fitness industry. In the audition notice, it was written in bold and in all caps that ALL ACTORS MUST READ THE SCRIPT EXACTLY AS WRITTEN. NO IMPROVISATION ALLOWED. I took this very seriously so I worked very hard at getting all the lines exactly as they were on the paper. I was partnered up with another actor in the audition and we got started. I read my lines as written but the other actor was making everything up as he went. I still said my next lines as written even though it made absolutely no sense. I wish that I had the courage to have asked the casting directors if I could try that scene again (hopefully with a new scene partner), but I didn’t.
Another audition for a commercial was a little crazy. I don’t remember what type of commercial it was, but I remember that the premise was that the character I was auditioning for was caught in bed with another character by my character’s husband. In the audition notice, they asked us to wear skimpy clothing to help imply a state of undress. I wore a tank top and shorts (with a sweatshirt to wear over the outfit when I was walking to and from my car). Once in the audition room, the guy I was paired with stripped down to a speedo. It was pretty funny, but I wish the other actor had given me a heads up.
The final story to leave you with today was another commercial audition. All I had to do in the audition was climb into a duffel bag and zip myself inside. I might not be the skinniest girl out there, but I am pretty flexible (I can do the splits and bend down and touch my toes with little effort). So in the room, I got in the bag and got it zipped up. The only problem came when I was trying to get out of the bag. I got a little tripped up in the bag and straps and had to get out of the bag while sitting and pulling it off of my feet.
So there are some highlights of some of the crazy auditions that I’ve been on. Most of the crazy stories happened years ago, before I knew how to stand up for myself (and before I had union protection). There are so many more stories that I could tell, and I know that there will be more stories to share that happen in the future. But I wanted to give you all a glimpse inside my sometimes crazy life.
Posted onJune 20, 2013|Comments Off on My Love Letter To The Actors’ Network (or Sorry Kevin, I Couldn’t Keep It Under 500 Words)
Today, The Actors’ Network will be closing their studio doors. TAN (as we members like to call it) has been around since 1991, and I’ve been a member since 2006. Kevin E. West, president and founder of TAN, asked the members to share a favorite story of something that happened at TAN to put on their blog. It was requested that our posts not be more than 500 words. I wanted to share some things, but couldn’t keep it under the word limit, so I’m putting it all out here.
I first heard about TAN in 2004. I was at Loyola Marymount University in my first semester of my senior year (I finished early so this was during the spring semester). I took a theater class called Performance Training 4 (I believe it now is called Career Development). This class was taught by a manager and his goal for the class was to prepare us for the real world of acting. So he took us all around town so we could meet casting directors, agents, managers, photographers, and actor organizations. TAN was one of the places that we went to, and I remember being very impressed by it from the first moment. However, after I graduated, I tried to have a “real” job. It wasn’t until I was laid off in 2006 that I decided to pursue my dream for real. And one of the first places I went to was TAN. I became a member in October 2006.
One of the first things I attended at TAN ended up changing my life. This is a long story, so sorry in advance.
It was in November or December of 2006. An editor from Backstage West was doing a focus group at TAN. Initially, I wasn’t going to go, but Kevin sent out an email asking for more people to attend. Since I wasn’t busy that day, I went. While in the focus group, a few of us suggested that they follow around actors that are trying to make it so they can share their stories with everyone else. While we loved reading about actors who are successful, they weren’t relatable. And the editors decided to follow me and four other actors around for a year and write monthly updates on what we had accomplished.
That’s me in the blue on the front of the cover looking super short (and much thinner). I wasn’t paid for the articles I wrote, however I did get a free subscription to the magazine. And in August of 2007, I saw an ad for Halloween Horror Nights auditions in one of those Backstage Wests. I went to the audition, booked it, and had an amazing time. I met some truly amazing people including one guy named Todd. He mentioned he had a great agent and that I should submit myself for representation. I did, and got a meeting. I brought my articles from the past year to that meeting, and based on those (and a great referral from my friend Todd), that agent decided to represent me. And I’m still with that agent (and super happy with her and the team that she has created).
I know it’s a long path, but if I never joined TAN, I wouldn’t have been in that focus group, I wouldn’t have been featured in Backstage West, I wouldn’t have seen the ad for Halloween Horror Nights, never would have met Todd, and I doubt that I would have met my agent or would have been offered representation. This is all due to TAN.
I’ve also met so many amazing people at TAN. Some of my best friends are people who I’ve met in various lectures there. I’ve also met some amazing casting directors there. And I know for a fact that there is one casting director who cast me because of seeing me at TAN and at least two casting directors who have brought me in for auditions because of TAN.
And over the past 7 years, there have been times where I questioned if I was doing the right thing. I felt like I was right in my heart, but sometimes my head liked to disagree. And all I had to do was go to TAN and hear some great motivation from Kevin or one of the amazing guests and I felt like I could take on the world.
Outside of TAN, I have to say that Kevin has been a wonderful supporter of me. He made a quick appearance in the twitter documentary that I produced. He also was a guest on InsideActing Podcast (I’m the production coordinator for the podcast). He has always cheered for me for my victories. And yesterday, when I went to say goodbye to the studio, he told me how much he enjoyed that I did 5Ks. I had no idea that he knew, but again, I love the support.
I’m sad that something that has been such an amazing part of my life is closing. It won’t be gone forever as the membership is now going to be 100% online with webinars, but I will miss going to the studio, seeing my friends, and leaving with amazing information.
So, thank you Kevin for creating such an incredible place. I’m so happy for you that you are going to be able to focus more on your acting career. After running TAN for 22 years, you deserve it! I hope you know how much TAN has meant to me. I know that I haven’t attended events lately as much as I would have liked (hazards of having an evening thrival job), but I still use information that I got from you from 2006. I know that I would not be the actress that I am today without TAN. It has taught me, motivated me, and made me a businesswoman instead of only an artist. I will forever be grateful for everything that you have done for me.
And I’m putting in the request again, Kevin, that we need to have the Holiday party still (or some other annual TAN gathering). That way, I’ll know that I will at least get to see you once a year.
Having a day job when you are trying to be have a career as a creative person is pretty typical. Most of my creative friends have had at least one job outside of their desired career to pay the bills. While some actors are pretty secretive about what they do, I’m pretty open myself.
There’s no shame in having another job while you are trying to follow your dreams. But at your job, it can be shameful to try to also follow your dreams.
I’m lucky that at my day job, it’s expected that people in my position are pursuing other careers. Most of the telesales team are actors, but there are also writers and costume designers.
But I haven’t always been this lucky. At my last day job, my first boss was very understanding about my life. If I had to go to an audition, I could make up the hours within the same pay period. That was it. But when I got a new boss, she started to ask for unreasonable things such as 2 weeks notice of when I needed time off for an audition. Most of my auditions are the day after my agent submits me, so there’s no way to normally give more than a day or two’s notice.
At my old job, I almost had to be secretive about my acting. That’s not what I want to do at my day job. I’m there to work, but I don’t have to make that job my forever job.
For some of my friends who aren’t creatives and don’t understand the idea of a day job, I explain it this way. For most people, a job and a career are the same thing. For my brother, for example, being a resident at the hospital he works at is working on his career as a doctor. But for me, my job and career are two separate things (at least for now). My job is whatever I’m currently doing to pay the bills, but my career is always acting. I currently spend 40 hours a week at my job, and probably an additional 10-20 hours on my career (when I get back into class that number will be higher).
It’s a tough life that we live as creatives, but honestly to me it’s completely worth it. Every time I get to perform, whether it’s at an audition, class, or booked job; I feel that I’m doing exactly what I should be doing. And yes, I wish that I could survive on just acting, but I’m also realistic. I have rent, bills, my credit card, and life to pay for. Sometimes you have to just suck it up at work a job you don’t love. You just have to keep in mind that it is a temporary situation and one day, you can look back at your time working days jobs as just a memory.
For those of you that don’t know what the upfronts are, it’s the time that the tv networks reveal their fall tv schedules to advertisers (and the public). This is when you know what new tv shows will be on the air in the fall and what old shows will have another season.
Sometimes, the new tv shows or old tv show renewals are announced earlier, but everything is revealed at the upfronts. All the networks will be revealing their schedules next week (here’s a schedule and guide to the networks).
Why does this matter to me? Because this is when my preparation for my fall tv research begins!
I’ve previously talked about how I watch everything on tv to know what shows might be good ones for me to target. Normally, I start doing my tv research then. The only thing I did after the upfronts was send the casting directors of the new tv shows a quick congratulations note.
But this year, I’ve decided to do things a bit different.
There are a bunch of websites with information on the new tv shows (I like TVLine for the summary and IMDb for the production information). I’m going to start my notes right away. I can figure out who the casting directors are for the new shows and which ones I have a relationship with (good information for my agents to know). I can get most of my notes done early so when the tv shows premier in the fall, I can focus on watching the shows and understanding the tone and plot points.
Also, once the networks announce the new tv shows, they typically release a 3-5 minute trailer with highlights of the show. I’m going to take notes on those so I have something in case I get an audition for a show before it premieres (it’s happened before).
I think these are all positive steps forward that I’m making with my acting career. It might seem a bit overkill when I don’t get a ton of auditions compared to some of my friends (which I don’t mind since most of my auditions are for series regulars or guest stars), but when I do get that chance with that audition, I want to go into the room the best and most prepared that I can be!
On Monday, after hearing about what happened in Boston, a lot of people I know wanted to spend time with their family. None of my family is very local (I couldn’t drive down to San Diego after working an 8 hour day and then needing to work the next day), so spending time with them wasn’t an option.
Fortunately, that night was the LA Actors Tweetup. I think I’ve mentioned the tweetup before, but it pretty much is just a fun group that gets together every month or so. Yes, most of us are actors and are on twitter, but everyone is welcome.
The tweetups starting back in 2010, and it was at a very weird point in my life. It was right after my friendship with my college best friend ended, and I kind of lost all my friends and social life when that happened. So I went to the tweetups very open to meeting new people and making new friends, and I’m so glad that I did! Some of my best friends now are people I’ve met through the tweetups!
So Monday, after my shift at work was over, I headed out to Busby’s East, where pretty much all the tweetups happen. I had a really great time that nights, and it was exactly what I needed after reading everything that was going on in Boston.
I got to see Gedaly, who I’m pretty sure I met through the tweetups (sometimes it’s hard to remember!), who gave me some great advice about this blog and my actor website.
He’s actually checking out the blog in this picture.
I also got a chance to catch up with Ben, who is one of the creators of the tweetup event.
I stayed as late as I could, but I had to get home so I could get up early enough the next day do get everything I done that I needed to do before my work shift started (I already miss unemployment!). But Ben promised to wear my name tag to promote my twitter account after I left.
This was exactly what I needed to do on Monday night. Good friends, good conversation, and a lot of fun.
And if any of you are in the LA area and want to come to the next tweetup, check out the website. The tweetups are about every 6 weeks and the next one will be on June 3rd. I hope to see some readers there then!
Since I started writing this blog, I’ve discovered a love for writing that I did not know that I had before. I almost always look forward to writing my posts on here (although I do get the occasional writer’s block). And I’ve decided to expand my blogging reach.
A few weeks ago, I saw that a friend of mine, Helenna, was starting a new online magazine written by women in the entertainment industry.
Of course I wanted to be a part of it!
So I’m excited to announce that I am going to be a contributing blogger for Ms. In The Biz! I will be writing about my adventures in LA as an actress and my day-to-day life trying to live my dream.
The blog will be launching soon (you can sign up on the website to get an email when it’s up), but this past weekend we had the LA contributor get together and Cinco in Westchester.
It was a really great little party. We all got one drink for free.
I had such a nice time connecting with old friends and meeting a bunch of new ones. I was so busy chatting that I only got a few pictures with friends.
The lovely Lizza, who is also in the same WIF mentoring circle as me (and loves the same books that I do!).
The awesome Carolina, who I chat with a bunch online, but we realized that night that it had been exactly one year to the day since the last time we saw each other in person (time totally flies by).
And the founder of Ms. In The Biz, Helenna!
I hope that at least some of you readers will sign up to check out the new blog. I’ll still be blogging on here every day like usual, but I’ll probably go into a bit more detail about what my life is like as an actress on Ms. In The Biz.
This past weekend, my friend Rayshell and I shot a scene that we created ourselves. We did this because we both wanted some footage for our demo reels.
Now, here’s some explanation for non-industry people. When you have a demo reel (which is a clip or series of clips of video of you acting), and you get submitted for a role (either by your agents or on your own), you have a slight advantage. All actors submitted who have a demo reel get to the top of the list. So it is seriously in your favor to have some video clip up there.
All my video footage has either been bad quality or from when I was skinner, so I needed to fix that.
I asked my friend Bryan, who was the director of the documentary I did, if he’d be willing to help Rayshell and I film our scene. We knew we needed good quality work, and Bryan would totally be able to do that.
So this past Saturday, Bryan and Rayshell came over to my house where we decided to shoot, and we got everything set up in my living room.
We ended up doing two scenes and the whole thing took about 90 minutes.
The first scene was with both Rayshell and I. We were discussing the ups and downs of online dating (it may or may not be all true stories). Since neither Rayshell nor I are the best writers, we ended up deciding to improv the scene. It might make it a bit harder to edit, but I think it was more realistic and funny that way.
Here’s a screenshot of that scene.
The second scene was just me being interviewed to camera about online dating. I figured that I could use the interview as the beginning and end of my clip and a short scene with me and Rayshell in the middle.
And another screenshot, of course.
I’ve watched the footage, and it looks beautiful. I need to sit down and do all the editing so far, but I know that this footage is totally useable and will really look great.
I’m glad I didn’t wait around for footage from projects I already did (that might not look as good) or wait around to be cast in something that would give me footage. I stopped sitting on my butt and took charge.
And if you are an actor and are putting together your demo reel, do your research. Make sure you are putting it together correctly and to highlight you in the best light. I highly recommend reading this blog post from casting director Marci Liroff.
Podcast Picnic (or A Perfect Sunday Afternoon)
