Aaron Marcus got hired to narrate a corporate film at the Defense Intelligence Agency and had to get a secret clearance. The process involved background checks, interviews, and paperwork. He shares how this type of work pays well for voice actors and on-camera narrators.
Hey, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how a great acting job led to an unexpected secret clearance. It was pretty wild. And in the bonus video, I'm going to be sharing with you how I stay sane in this crazy world of acting. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. You might not be familiar with these kinds of films, But they're really— they can be really interesting. And I actually, years ago, not so much now, I used to almost be able to make a living just from doing them. They're called— there are 3 different names, it's all the same thing: industrial films, educational films, corporate films. And they can run the gamut. If you are in a, you know, a big box store and they are selling, I don't know, mops, you might see a video Of somebody demonstrating how these mops work. That is— it's an educational film. It could be for a phone service and they are teaching their employees how to lay cables under the ocean. Actually, I've done that. Or it could be for government agencies. And I've done tons of things for the Navy and the CIA and TSA and just— All different kinds of branches of the government. As a matter of fact, hey, I was flown to, I think it's called Great Lakes in the Chicago area to do an educational film teaching people how to repair diesel engines. Now, I don't know anything about diesel engines, but I'm really good at reading a teleprompter and using an ear prompter. I was flown down to Florida. It was a suicide film for a military branch, and it was really— it was incredible. So here's what happened. I got hired to do a job for the DIA. I never heard of the DIA. It's big though. I just wasn't familiar with it. The Defense Intelligence Agency. And they— I'm assuming they're in the same place. It's Bowling— the Bowling— oh, what is it? The Pentagon. I think it's just called Bowling. It's a base in the Washington, D.C. area. And in order for me to do the job— and I didn't know this initially— but in order for me to do the job, I had to get a secret clearance. Now I'm thinking, wow, what do they have in this information, in this film, that I have to get a clearance for? Look, I know I have some friends who who have top secret clearances. And of course, they're not talking about what they do on the job. This was a low-level secret clearance. And I got the script, and actually even before I got the script, it was crazy getting this secret clearance. Now, it didn't cost me anything. Normally those things cost thousands of dollars. To get. I had to fill out, I don't know, it was like 15, 20 pages, a lot of documentation. Where did your parents come from? Were they US citizens? College, they wanted to know friends from college. Now, for me, it was a little bit tough because I was actually a music major in college. I studied classical guitar. I really didn't hang out with people. I was sitting in practice rooms for 6 hours a day. And I was honest. I just said, I don't have any friends from college and anybody that I'm in touch with. Not that I didn't have any friends there, but nobody that I stayed in touch with. But they were going to do background checks. They wanted neighbors. They wanted to know about money situations. They even had to meet me and question me in a public place. I'll never forget. We went to a Barnes Noble, in a bookstore, and this guy's asking me very personal questions, and it had to be in a public place. Get the script and I'm reading it and I'm thinking, why, why do I need a secret clearance for this? There's really nothing in there that felt secretive to me. But this is what I learned. The reason why I needed a secret clearance is because we shot the video at the DIA. And it— that was very interesting too. It took about 20 minutes Just to get inside the building. There were so many things that had to be done. Look, fortunately, they're very careful. And apparently, if you're not familiar with the DIA, which I wasn't, there are people who do intelligence from around the world who will come to the bowling base. Actually, that was the word I was looking for before, base, to share information. With the US government. And even going to the bathroom, I had to be escorted to the bathroom. I couldn't just go there. I couldn't walk down the halls by myself. So here's what I learned. The reason why I had to get a secret clearance, not because of the information, but because I was going to be in the building and I might overhear something. And they just wanted to make sure that I wasn't a spy for another country or I wasn't going to sell stuff. So anyhow, it was really an incredible experience. And, you know, you might want to check out, you know, doing industrial films, corporate films, educational films locally, because there is work out there. And especially if you are the on-camera narrator and you're the one who's just reading off the prompter, you get paid a lot. At least for union actors, you get paid, get paid a lot of money for an 8-hour day. So anyhow, I wanted to share that with you. If you've had any experience either with getting a secret clearance or you've done some kind of industrial film that you found interesting, please share it here on the channel so that way we can learn from you. If you haven't subscribed yet, don't forget, click the subscription button, the subscribe button, the notification bell so that you always know when a new video has been uploaded, and share, share the link with fellow actors. I did promise I was going to share a bonus video with you. You can just look right up here. How I stay sane in the crazy world of acting. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
