Aaron Marcus outlines eight ways to act while working full-time: take night shifts, find flexible jobs, use Stage32 to connect with indie filmmakers, audition for community theater, join WIFV, approach college film departments, attend Meetup groups, or find independent filmmaker collectives. He stresses being honest with agents about your availability.
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Does your full-time job prevent you and stop you from doing something you really love— acting? Well, if so, watch this video. I'm going to be sharing with you 7 great ideas that will hopefully allow you to start acting again and keep your full-time job. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel, my Actor Career Center, Where basically I share the information that I've learned from being a full-time actor for over 36 years, nearly 1,300 jobs. And I help people who are just thinking about getting started in the industry, don't really know what to do, as well as helping those who've been working for a while and want to take their career to the next level. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, Click the bell, the notification button, so you always know when I upload a new video. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. It's always very helpful. I try to upload at least 2 videos a month, just depending on my schedule. So be on the lookout for the next one pretty soon. Okay, so there are 7 different ways that you can Try to find acting jobs even if you have a full-time job. So number one, if you happen to be in a position where you have a job that allows you to do night shift work, I know some nurses and I've spoken with some doctors, not that many doctors, but I know of a few who do emergency medicine and basically they take the night shift and I think it's 11 to 7, 11 PM to 7 AM. Which frees them up for acting jobs or commercial print work for the following day. That's number one. Number 2, if you happen to have a job that has flexible hours— I know some government workers and people who work for other companies where they really don't care when you get the work done, just as long as you get it done. So if somebody needs to take off You know, a number of hours one day, either to go to an audition or maybe take half a day, a full day off because you have a job, you can make up that time. And that's another great way of trying to, you know, keep your full-time job and also get some acting work. And by the way, on a little bit of a side note, look, most of the people I know don't do what I do. Most people I know don't have a— they're not pursuing acting on a full-time basis. It's hard, and I'm not trying I'm not trying to discourage anybody. I'm just being realistic. Whenever you're self-employed, there's no guaranteed income, and depending on where you live, there might not be that much work available to sustain making a living for yourself or if you have a family. So I'm not trying to encourage people to give up a good-paying job just to pursue acting on a full-time basis. Hey, if you can make that happen, That's wonderful, but I think there are ways, and I know that there are ways that you can do both. Number 3, there is a great website and it's called Stage 32. And by the way, I will list all of the websites that I'm mentioning. You'll see it in the video, but I also will have it in the description for you to look at as well. Stage 32 is a free website that you can go to. There are tons and tons and tons of different types of members in the industry. There are screenwriters, there are editors, there are photographers, there are actors, there are filmmakers, there are producers. So this could be a great place to, to check out. And just so you know that a lot of times for smaller independent films, quite often they're shot on weekends, they're shot in the evenings because they know that people have full-time jobs. So this would be a great way for you to start making connections with people in your area who are shooting films. And look, if you have a full-time job, you're not trying to rely on making a bunch of money as an actor because you already have money coming in. So some of these might be paying jobs, some of them might not be, but you know, even if they're not, this will give you a chance to work on a film, to build up your resume, to get more on-camera experience. And If things look good, you can start building up your acting reel as well. Okay, tip number 4, theater. You know, check out your local theater scene. There might be openings for you to start auditioning. And once again, for most non-professional theaters, they're not rehearsing during the day. They're rehearsing evenings, they're rehearsing weekends, and that's typically when the shows will take Okay, let's go to number 5. There's a really great organization and it's called Women in Film and Video, wifv.org. But once again, I'll list it for you. Just so you know, you do not have to be a woman to be a member. I was a member for many, many, many years. They have memberships all around the world, you know, many different countries. And what's really great about this organization is that at least the ones that I went to, and you'll have to check out the ones in your area or the one in your area, if there is one in your area, to see if they have meetings, local in-person meetings, which is what I used to attend. And what was really cool is before they would bring in a guest speaker for the evening, they would have an hour where people— you could just network, you can mingle with other people, and you can meet a writer, you know, you can meet a producer, you can meet filmmakers and other actors as well, you know, who hopefully will share with you information about other projects that are coming to town. So definitely check out that organization. Number 6, this is really cool as well. I would take a look online and find any local colleges, universities, or community colleges in your area and go online and go to the film department if they have one. I'm assuming most places would. And then look at the courses. If it's a course in the— which would probably be under the arts department Look, if you find a History of American Film, don't spend your time there. But if you find a class where the students have to shoot films, shorts for the class, you want to speak to the instructor. And you can send an email if you have a headshot. If you have a resume, you can do that as well, send that along and just say you're really interested in learning more about some of the films that the students are producing. And look, there might be an opportunity if you're very young, if you are older, middle-aged, it doesn't make any difference. The students might not have somebody in their class that they can hire or that they can cast for their project. And even if they can, hey, if they like your look and they like your experience, then sure, why wouldn't they ask you to come in and read? So learning about student films would be really great. Another way, and this would be number 7, there's a really good organization or company. It's all free. It's called meetup.com, and there are chapters once again all around the world. And what's really cool about this is that you can do a search in your area And maybe there are meetup groups for filmmakers, for writers, things like that. Check it out. Sometimes they might get together at a local restaurant or a library and meet with these people. And because once again, chances are they're going to be shooting during time periods where people can continue to work at their full-time job and also get a chance to act. And you know what, I just thought of another one, and I will leave the link below. But there are places that you can go to to learn more about independent filmmakers, and you can check, check it out and see if there are any in your particular area. So this is number 8. I was planning on just telling you about 7, but this one just popped up in my head. So Now there are 8 different places that you can go, things that you can test out and you can try that will allow you to keep your full-time job and do some acting as well. And, you know, one other thing too is, look, agents certainly want you to always be available. I get it. If I were an agent, I'd want all my talent available. I don't want to submit somebody for a project And then have them always tell me, you know what, I can't do it because I've got a full-time job. But maybe, maybe you can try talking to an agent and say, look, I do have a full-time job, so I really can't take that much time off. But, you know, if you do submit me for something, or I can do, you know, an easy audition, sometimes I can take a day off to do a job. You know, maybe you have a certain amount of vacation days built into your job. So don't think that you— it's impossible to find an agent to work with just because you aren't all that flexible. But if they're— once again, if you do have a job where every once in a while you can take a day off and do a job, check it out. And just be honest with your agent up front so that you don't run into problems if they are constantly asking you about auditions and jobs and you're always saying no. So anyhow, those are 8 different ways that you can try to find jobs, even if you have a full-time job. And don't forget, if you haven't done this yet, subscribe, click the bell notification button. If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up. And the very last thing, look, this channel is meant to be a place Where actors and models can congregate, can learn from each other, share information. So please help me build this place so we have a nice family of people really truly trying to help each other. Share this link with all of your friends on your social media platforms. And, you know, this way, instead of feeling competitive with other people, Let's help each other. To me, that's a nice way to do things. Anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.
