Feeling Down About Acting 3 Ways to Improve your Career When Work is Slow

Are you feeling down about acting? Well, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you 3 ways to improve your career when work is slow. So when you watch till the end of this video, you're going to have 3 really important things that you want to do to really get your career moving again. Okay, let's get going. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel and the Actor Career Center. And what I'm going to be doing here, like in all my videos, I'm going to be sharing information with you to help improve your career, to move it forward, or to help you get started in the industry. Look, I've been very fortunate. I've been, been able to make a living in this crazy industry for 36+ years. I've booked almost 1,300 jobs so far, and I love sharing information from my experience with you and other people in the industry to help you have a better career. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, click the notification bell, and also if you like the video, give it a thumbs up, and that way you can help let other people know the value of the video. So in this particular video. There's a lot of information, only 3 topics, but there's a lot of information. And there's so much that I am actually going to have to be using my little cue card where I've got a little cheat sheet where I wrote down a lot of things. If you stick around to the end, I'm going to be sharing a link with you. It's a great bonus. It's a free gift to you that will be really helpful. And I'll explain it to you towards the end of the video. So, uh, there are 3 things you want to do when work is slow. And let me just tell you, this happens to everybody, even well-known actors. They hit time periods when work is slow. But especially for people like you and me, look, there are always time periods where there's just not much activity. So here's step number 1. Make sure that your information is great, your materials are great. So like, for instance, for your headshot, you've got to make sure it's an effective headshot because all of these things, if you don't have them in place and they're not really, really strong, that can make it really hard to have more activity happening. So your headshot needs to be an effective one. And look, I do entire workshops just on headshots, but the short version, you got to make sure it shows your personality. Make sure you don't have things that are distracting either in the background, in your wardrobe. Um, you know, don't have accessories that are going to grab people's attention away from looking at you and make sure that when people look at your headshot, They see in your eyes how they're going to cast you. Your resume— you know, there, there is no one exact way to create an acting resume that industry professionals expect to see, but there definitely are things that you always want to do and never want to do on an acting resume. Like, for instance, I'll just give you a couple quick examples. Also, I do an entire workshop just on this. I do a lot of mentoring with people and help them with all of these materials as well. You, you never want to put anything that has to do with modeling on your resume. This is an acting resume, so just have it geared towards acting. Something— and you might have seen this video that I've done before— I like having a headshot on my actual resume, you know, just so as people look at the headshot, flip it over, look at my resume, they can continue to see my face. Maybe it's a different one that shows a different type of personality. I like to have 3 columns of information. So if it's a TV show, I'll have the name of the show, name of the character, the importance of the character— is it a star, co-star, you know, guest star— and then either the network that it ran on or maybe the name of the director. But you just want to make sure it's easily read. People can skim it easily. And let me just tell you, if, if you don't have a lot of credits to put in there, sometimes your special skills can be invaluable. And sometimes you want to think outside the box. So maybe, you know, putting martial arts in there. If you play an instrument, if you speak a foreign language, if you drive a stick shift, if you have a passport, You know, these are things that will help a casting director make up his or her mind as to know whether you should be brought in for this particular role. Now here's something not everybody does. I still have them. I like having business cards. I find that to be really helpful. So if I am anywhere, I'm in the airport, I happen to bump into somebody and we're talking about the industry, they are an industry professional, I can hand them a business card. And who knows, you might be in a supermarket and you're standing in line and you hear somebody talking about the business, and as it turns out, they're an agent, they're a manager, they're a casting director, they're from an ad agency. You can hand them a business card. So anyhow, I like having business cards. While things are slow for you, also, you know, this is a good time. To read books about the industry. My book, How to Become a Successful Actor or Model, really helpful. It's really helped a lot of people in the industry. But there are lots of really good books out there. Continue to take classes. I do private mentoring, and, and, you know, maybe that's something that would be better for you, working with somebody one-on-one than taking a class. But while things are slow, that's the time to gear up. You know, it's kind of like, and I've read this about some major companies, when things are slow, that's when they actually spend a lot more on advertising because they know that's the time period where to really hit the market with their information and that helps get them busy again. So number one, Make sure you've got the right materials and that they are effective ones. Okay, let me take a look at my little cheat sheet here. Okay, this is something that I do regularly, and not everybody does it, but I'm going to share it with you because it's been really, really helpful to me. Stay in touch with the industry professionals who you have had contact with. So I have a spreadsheet and I have, I don't know, like 1,200 names in there. Certainly I'm not reaching out to 1,200 people at one time, but it's, it's a combination of agents. I have some producers, I have some directors, I have managers, just people who I don't necessarily work with, but sometimes I just want to stay in touch with them. You know, if I met them somewhere just to let them know I'm still around. You just never know when something might come up and they might refer me to somebody else. Maybe it's a casting director who I will get back in touch with, people at advertising agencies— I'm going to talk about them in just, just a second— photographers for commercial modeling work. There are a lot of industry people who, especially when things are slow, This is the perfect time to send them a very short email. Just a couple of tips with doing that. Number one, do not add an attachment to your email, especially unless they are really good friends with you. People are scared to open up attachments today. There could be viruses and stuff. So one thing that you can do is make sure that you either have your headshot in the signature of your email or just have it embedded there someplace in the email so that way they can see you. They might not remember your face. They might remember your name, maybe or maybe not. But here's the deal. Don't just do a template of one email and just send it out to a bunch of people. You want to try to personalize it. Yeah, sometimes there might be some of the same information, If there was a movie you just did, if there was a TV show, if there was a class you just took, if you did some theater, whatever it is, let them know about it. And this is a way— look, you don't want to send an email saying, hey, I just want to let you know everything is really dead right now. Hey, is there anything happening? That's not what you want to do. You want to present yourself as somebody who is successful. It doesn't make any difference whether you're hitting some stumbling blocks right now. Things are slow. Hey, just wanted to let you know, I just did this TV commercial for this company and hey, just keep me in mind for future projects. Something really short, sweet. Make sure there's contact information in there so people can easily know how to get back in touch with you. Now, if you are working, With— and by the way, just on a little bit of a side note, I'm telling you, it's not just a coincidence when I've done that and all of a sudden somebody might call me out of the blue who I hadn't spoken with for quite some time. And I'm sure it's just because I jogged their memory and I just kind of reminded them that I'm still around. Now, if you have an agent, a great thing to do is contact your agent And see if you can set up a time to talk with the agent. You know, I don't know if you're going into your agent's office, if they even are going into their own offices today. Maybe it's just a phone call, whatever it is, some way that you can communicate with your agent. And here's the trick. You don't want to contact the agent and say, look, I've been with you for 6 months. I haven't heard anything. Things are just dead. You're not doing it. Look, that's not a good approach with agents. What you want to do, and this is what I've done, is— as a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you because this just happened to me, so I know that this thing really works well. Got in touch with the agent, and actually I had booked a great job, a couple jobs, really good jobs, but it was about 4 months ago, and I really just haven't heard of anything happening from this one particular agent. So here's the trick. Contact the agent. And I sent an email first and I said, hey, I just wanted to ask you, is there anything I can do to try to help get more auditions? I don't say I'm not getting any bookings from you because the agents can't get you a job. They can submit you for a job, and then if the casting director thinks that you are right for it, they can call you in to audition. But just always remember, agents can't get you the booking. So what I like to do is instead of putting the agent into a corner and essentially almost like inferring that they're not doing their job, you're not getting any, I do something very different. I just wanted to find out, is there anything I can be doing to try to help get more work? And then hear what they have to say. Maybe they'll say, you know, I've been submitting you a lot and nothing has been going on. Casting directors haven't requested you. Maybe they'll say there just hasn't been anything in your particular category that's come up recently. Maybe they said, hey, you know what? Maybe we need to take a look at your headshots and resumes again. Maybe they're just not strong. Maybe they're not effective. So I just did this with this one particular agent, and 2 days ago I get an audition for a television series after not hearing from the agent for months and months. So it's really, really important to do that. Let me see what else. So yeah, so if you can meet them, don't— I wouldn't try to do this via email. That's a tough way to do it. So the third thing that you can do, and I'm going to be listing and sharing a bunch of links both here, but I'll try to make them clickable links. in the description so you can have access to them. So search for auditions on your own. Look, sometimes people will say, look, I've got an agent, you know, that's the agent's job is to get me auditions. Okay, well, it's true. I mean, it is. That is the agent's job. I mean, they do other things too. They help negotiate, they get information for you, all that kind of stuff. But Even though I've been doing this a long time, I still like to be proactive. I don't like to just sit and wait for things to happen. And once again, I know that when I am in that marketing mode and I am pushing and exploring, things seem to happen. So let me take a look and see my list here. So one of the things you can do is Go to your state's film commission website, and I will leave a link. I believe I have this. It's a link, it's a national link for film commissions all across the country, which is really cool. And go to your state's film commission website and see, are there any projects being cast right now? Maybe they just need extra work. But you know what? I've always found that work gets work. So even— and once again, if you are okay with doing extra work— I know some actors who aren't, and that's fine, you know, whatever is good for you— but if that's something that would be of interest to you, it can kind of get you back in there, and then you can start networking with some of the other actors there, and then things, you know, can happen that way. Okay, also, why don't you start contacting some advertising agencies? Now, this will take a little detective work on your end. But the 2 people at ad agencies that actors and models should contact: art directors and creative directors. The creative director is the person who comes up with the concept. Let's say if it's a TV commercial, they will come up with the concept of the TV spot, and then the art director is the one who actually puts it together so people can see what it looks like. They'll create a storyboard, which is a little description of what's taking place there. And what you can do is, once again, just send either a hard copy letter along— make sure that your, uh, your headshot is in the letter— or maybe you can send an actual headshot resume. If you have a composite sheet and trying to get commercial modeling work, you can send a hard copy through the mail. Certainly get the names of the art directors and the creative directors You could try an email, see what happens. You know, a lot of times today's time period, if people don't recognize the email, they just delete it. But that's something you can try. But send it to them and send them a really short cover letter. You can let them know something you've just done. If you are working with an agent, tell them that you can be booked through that agent. And even though you're doing the work, but if you have an agent, I'm telling you, it's in your best interest to still send the job through your agent. Number one, they will appreciate it. And this is assuming you don't have an exclusive contract where you have to legally. But even if it's not, they're going to know what to charge for the project. They will appreciate you doing that, and they will probably get you paid more than what you would have been able to negotiate with because you might not know what is a proper fee for billboards running throughout your state. But anyhow, so send things out to art and creative directors, and I will list an association for advertising agencies, and then you can go state by state. Look, there are millions of other ad agencies who are not part of this one particular association, but at least it's a place to start. Or you can try doing a Google search. Try to find some commercial photographers in your area. Once again, If you're interested in doing commercial modeling work. As an actor, I can tell you I love doing commercial modeling work. I use the same acting skills that I would for any kind of acting on-camera project, except I don't have lines to memorize. But you get paid really well for it, and it's enjoyable for me. And I've done hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of commercial modeling jobs. So I will send— or send— I will— Send you a link. place a link for an organization of photographers. And once again, some of these people won't be right for you, some of them might be right for you, and you can also just do some searches on your own. There is another great contact. It's called Women in Film and Video. It's wifv.org. But once again, I'll leave the link for you. And you don't have to be a woman. I've been a member. I'm not currently a member, but I, I had been for many, many, many years. Great organization. They have offices around the country, and they have networking sessions where you can, you know, meet other people in the industry, and then they'll have a guest speaker. At least in, in the one that I was involved with, that's what they did. It's a great way, once again, just to get out there, network, meet other people If it's a proper thing to do and you can ask to bring a headshot and resume and hand it to people. So anyhow, it's just a great, great organization. Facebook groups. There are lots of Facebook groups out there and some of them will list jobs that are happening or auditions that are happening for you. So just do some research. When I create my quick tip videos. I place them on, I don't know, maybe 30 different Facebook groups that all deal with acting, a couple with modeling, but it's mostly acting oriented. And so you might be able to find some really good information about auditions or jobs by doing some research there. The last one are student films. Don't dismiss doing a student film. I've done, let's see, one, maybe two student films in my life, and they were good experiences for me, especially if you're first getting started. It will give you— once again, assuming you get cast, you know, just because, you know, it's a student film doesn't mean they're accepting everybody, and you'll have to most likely have to audition for it. You know, it can be a great way to get some On-set experience working in front of a camera, you know, being shot. Look, the film might look horrible and you might not be able to use any of it, but it also might look really good and you can start using that as part of your reel. And you can also add that to your resume. You don't have to say student film, but the name of the film, your character, the importance of the character, and then the name of the director. And the other thing too is you never know where that student is going to end up. Maybe they're doing a student film right now, and who knows, maybe it's going to end up in some film festivals and things are going to start hopping, and the director is going to now start doing some feature films or big independent films. They worked with you, they liked what you did. A lot of actors have gotten started that way. And so just contact some local colleges, universities, community colleges, see if they have film classes, and then go online and see what the classes are about. Are they— is it history of American film? Well, that stuff doesn't make any difference. But if it's a course where they actually have to shoot something for the class, then you can reach out to the instructor and say, look, I'd like to send in a headshot and resume. I'd like to be considered to audition for some student films. And that can be incredible. The bonus, and I did promise you this, and you can see it, I believe it's on this corner, in the upper, upper corner here. And this is a video where I help give you information on creating an acting resume that industry professionals expect to see. I will also place that in the description area here. Very last thing is, look, if you have any suggestions on what people can do to help get more activity in one's acting career, please share the information below so we can all learn from each other. That's the whole point of having this channel, is actors helping each other. So once again, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget to subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up. And I'm giving you permission, please share this with everybody that you know, help other actors, put it on your social media platforms, send it out as emails and spread the word. And let's have this great community of people helping each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.