Aaron Marcus, a veteran actor with 30 years and 1,200+ booked jobs, shares how he landed an ABC pilot in Atlanta. He walks through the audition odds, the tight shooting schedule, and how a supportive director and writer willing to tweak the script made the set work. First in a series on booking pilots.
Hi, my name is Aaron Marcus, and if you are not familiar with my work, I've been a full-time actor and a commercial model for over 30 years. So far, I've booked over 1,200 jobs. The latest thing that I worked on was I got cast in a pilot that was shot in Atlanta. It's a pilot for ABC. And so I am going to be creating a few acting quick tips for you about working on a pilot. It was, it was just a great experience. And so this will be the very first in a series of quick tips about, about the pilot. So as you can imagine, I mean, I signed an NDA, non-disclosure agreement, can't really give you details about it. Tell you it's a pilot for ABC. Hopefully it will get picked up in the beginning of May. But So this will be the very first in the series. So let me just share some basic information with you. So I got a chance to audition for the pilot, which just in itself is phenomenal. I mean, those things, just getting a chance to audition for anything, is something I don't take for granted. I've interviewed enough casting directors to know, and these numbers aren't specific, but it's They're fairly accurate, where for every individual role that the casting director submits or actually sends out, the casting director might get anywhere from 500 to 1,500 headshot submissions and resumes. Out of those numbers, typically they might see around 30 people for the audition. In my situation, there were 3 people who were being considered. out of that initial group. There was someone who auditioned in LA, and the LA casting director submitted their number one choice. The New York casting director submitted their number one choice, and the Atlanta casting director submitted their number one choice. Out of those 3, I got it. And so you just, you never know. It just so happens I was giving some workshops in South Africa at the time and got an email from my agent saying, hey, you booked the you book the pilot, which it's really, it's pretty cool. So, but this, but that holds true for any kind of job. So let me just tell you, just getting an audition means that you have had success. That means some, some things that you have done are really working. Your headshot works, your resume works. So anyhow, you should feel wonderful about that. The other thing that I just wanted to mention in this very first video about working on this pilot is, you know, sometimes this business can be so frustrating and you book something, you're being considered for something, but you have something, which is a nice problem, but you've got something else already going on and you can't do it. It just so happened this one worked out so perfectly. I was doing workshops in South Africa, came back on a Saturday. I was giving a workshop in Pensacola, Florida on the following Saturday. And when I found out I booked the job, it just so happens the wardrobe fitting was on the Wednesday before the Pensacola workshop. They were shooting Thursday and Friday in Atlanta, at least for my scenes. And it was just perfect. So after flying back from South Africa the following Tuesday, Went down to Atlanta, did the wardrobe fitting Wednesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday worked, and then Friday night I headed down to Pensacola, did the work— did the workshop. So it was just an incredible experience. I had an opportunity to work with some phenomenal actors. And the one other thing I'll mention before I wind up this quick tip video, I always find that the feel of the set starts from the top and works its way down. If you have a director who is just not very nice, it filters down and the first assistant director can be kind of nasty. It filters down to the PAs, the production assistants. They can be kind of nasty. Which unfortunately, you know, like sometimes that happens and you learn that sometimes you have to work with people you don't necessarily like or want to work with, but that's just reality. For this particular project, oh my goodness, the, the director, she was just wonderful. She just created such a warm, friendly, open kind of atmosphere. The writer executive producer was there. And he was very free just to give out ideas. He changed things around for my character, which I really liked. I thought he had some really good ideas. And made some last-minute adjustments, changed some of the dialogue around, and it was really smart. It was really good. So I just wanted to say it was an amazing experience. And I'll create some other quick tips for you about working on a pilot so that, you know, hopefully you're going to learn more about this. I just also want to mention, if you haven't subscribed to this channel yet, Make sure you click the subscription button, click the notification button. That way, every time I upload a new video, you'll get a notice about it. And the very last thing too, if you can, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time. I hire people to help me with all this. Love to get a donation. Just, you know, if you are finding this helpful, that would be wonderful so that you can contribute to keeping— this Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel up and running. You can just use the link below, go straight to my PayPal address, and doesn't matter how much it is, whether it's $1, $5, $20, whatever you feel like you can afford would be wonderful. So anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
