Some actors get further along in their careers and develop a Pain In The Ass factor. Some actors bring their POA factor to this business from the get-go and have to be humbled before learning how their behavior might prevent folks from wanting to work with them. I hope you have a POA factor of 0. Continue reading
Recently, as there seems to be almost every week, another conglomerate gets into the game of monetizing or investing in the ability and future reality of content creation. So now Amazon, not so long ago, dumped a bunch of money into the commitment of 6 Comedy Pilot orders. And while this is GREAT news in so many ways it is also causing quite a bit Continue reading
Yes, phobia, that weird thing that we have in our language that is listed as such: pho·bi·a (pho·bi·as), strong fear or dislike; an irrational or very powerful fear and dislike of something such as spiders or confined spaces (a phobia about traveling in elevators). Since the day I FOUNDED what became, The Actors’ Network, it was and always has Continue reading
Do it again! Do it again. Again, again and again. Allow me to remind you that Coca-Cola is the most successful soft drink in the world, and they don’t change their logo every 2 years, 5 years or 10 years and what they do is still advertise. They advertise everywhere, all the time, so as to ensure that repetition and reminding the consumer, keeps them on top. Continue reading
Now that we’re all getting ready to have a fantastic 2013 (aka The Most Kick-Ass Year Yet!), let’s take a look at such an easily preventable “biggest mistake in voice over”: the crappy home studio. Continue reading
Focusing Only on The Craft (and Not The Hustle)
Part 5 addresses the flipside of the Hustle Vs. Craft balancing act: the Perpetual Class-Taker.
Focusing Only On The Hustle (aka Ignoring the Craft)
Spark up the interwebs, and you’ll see some pretty active voice over talent online. They are blogging, tweeting, giving advice, connecting with one another, starting groups on facebook, and posting ad nauseum to online message boards. Most of these folks have some very sound advice to offer talent who have questions, and for that I am extremely appreciative. These mensches have taken the time to demystify the business of voice over (herein I shall call the “hustle”). Side benefit for these social media mavens is that they’ve built a wonderful platform for themselves as voice over experts. Continue reading
Breaking news…the world’s gone digital and it includes you! To in part quote Francis Ford Coppola, “…digital technology will allow 200 million people to tell their story…but unfortunately we’ll have 200 million bad stories.” Now, that is not a direct quote, but it is the basic point of that quote by Mr. Coppola over a decade ago. The point, for me, about that is that it is true. Some of those stories will be non-union, web series, ULB films, studio films, true indie films, bad TV shows, student films, and shorts. But at the end of the day, the possibility of all those films having some kind of audience, is indeed possible. Continue reading
Are you busy? Is your planner full? Your class schedule, your job, your life to-do list, your personal life, your social life, all the social media outlets you’re trying to juggle…and just breathing. You busy? I bet you are, I bet you feel commonly tired, that you might be going around in circles, that you get to the end of each week and you KNOW you’ve been busy yet you’re really not sure if anything has changed. If you think that this “feels” about right… Continue reading
From the first time I ever attended an acting class, stepped on stage either as an actor/comic/improv artist, read a script or got hired…I would float…just a bit. Over time, and often even before any of this we actors/performers/artists …DREAM. Dreaming to inspire yourself, dreaming to set the bar high, dreaming to give yourself a place to go and vision your future is outstanding. But if you’re just dreaming to avoid reality then… Continue reading
