Subject: Hey Ed...we're trying....
Date: Fri, 06 Feb 1998 21:48:44 -0800
From: The Actorsite 
Organization: The actorsite at http://www.actorsite.com
Newsgroups: alt.acting
References: 1 , 2 , 3


I wasn't implying that you weren't an active part of the acting
community.

Most "CREATIVE" film acting work is done when the actor and director and
writer and producer all are on the same wave length and make a story
that is compelling.  Most of those type of projects at the entry level
don't pay and if they do pay it's not much. I have been a part of many
of those projects and am continuing to support the film community as
much as possible. There is no director alive today who didn't beg actors
to act in his/her first film for free(or cheap for those directors who
were stars before they directed their first feature)



In television, most of the "day-player" roles are cast straight to
producers by actors that the Casting Director already knows, whether
they met them at a workshop, saw them in a play, or auditioned them for
a role at an earlier date. The agent submissions are only for the
"hard-to-cast" types, and, once in a while, for the Casting Director to
put the word out for suggestions from agents on actors they have seen
before.

An actor who sits and waits for their agent to call is not going to be
working very much. They have to be out there doing CD workshops(I know
you hate these, but it helps your career in many ways, both the
educational experience of learning how the CD thinks, and the practice
under pressure in a nurturing environment), doing plays in Hollywood
(near the CD offices), doing stand-up in Hollywood (near the CD
offices), and, in general, finding "face" time with the Casting
Directors.

In the office where I have my "day" job, I work arranging general
appointments and interviews with producers, studios, networks, and
casting offices for my clients, which works in sync  with the actors own
career activities. In fact, this week, one of the clients we work with
is meeting with the producers of "Sister, Sister" and "Smart Guy" to
discuss developing a new series around them.  No,it's not a day player
gig.

 The reality is, an actor can't sit and wait for something to happen. IF
you aren't acting, you are wasting valuable time. So an actor must be
acting every day in a scene study workshop, an improv workshop, a CD
workshop, a play, a student film, an indy film, or just with a group of
friends, in order to stay sharp. This is on top offinding  opportunities
to meet with the most Casting offices possible, whether through CD
workshops or agent arranged meetings.

I don't know where you got the idea that I was pushing
Cybercasting...I'm not. The internet is just another tool that delivers
pictures to CD offices, and I don't know of that many who use it
regularly, and, better yet, I don't know of anybody who can really make
it work right yet. When I come into their offices, they make me sit down
at the computer to show them something. CD's are not that internet
friendly. Most just talk about how they are going to use it someday. The
fact is I download sides from both Castnet and Sides Express on a daily
basis. And the office I work in gets the breakdowns form the internet.

On the actorsite we list the casting notices for free. If you own stock
in Backstage and want the actor to buy a copy a week, that's OK its a
good magazine...buy more stock(They charge $6.00 per month for their
website, ours if free). Actors can get much more information from our
site, and, thanks to Gary Marsh,  we repost the information from the
Actor Access site to our forum as a public service and because of that
and the fact that up and coming producers are not intimidated by the
internet,  we get probably 15 to 20 castings per week not seen in
Backstage.  They have their listings and we have ours. Many of ours are
for hard-to-cast roles from the regular breakdowns that would never ever
be seen in those magazines.

The internet has proven to be a powerful tool to deliver information
and  we deliver that information for free.

You seem to be the all-knowing expert on the alt.acting site and I
respect your opinions most of the time whether I agree with you or not.
The reality in Hollywood is far different than you portray and the
stakes are high here. I'm sure when you commute that the cost of the
trip makes you "bleed" a little each time. That shows you are in the
game.  Actors in Hollywood work  "waiter" jobs and they need valuable
information that they can use. We try to provide that and we seem to be
succeeding.

For those of you out there to who wish to visit the actorsite, it is
free, and it won't help your career, but it will give you some valuable
information. If you perform a lead in a student film, you then have a
"reel" to show which will get you into the bigger film offices. If you
are too good to do that, maybe you are too good for Hollywood.

Make Movies.

J