Aaron Marcus shares three ways actors can stay busy when work dries up: keep your agent updated with new headshots and classes instead of complaining, mail hard-copy headshots directly to ad agencies' art and creative directors, and contact commercial photographers about modeling gigs that pay 20% commission for non-union work.
Hey, is acting work dead for you? Here are 3 proven tips that work, and if you watch this to the end, I've got a great bonus video for you. Don't waste your time and money. Ask these 8 questions before hiring a photographer. 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. As you can see, I'm not in my home office where I normally shoot these. I'm actually on the road doing workshops in South Carolina right now. Look, everybody hits time periods where work is dead. I've been doing this for 41 years now, and there are stretches where sometimes I used to know there are certain time periods where Work just isn't happening. Typically after November until maybe mid-January, things were generally slow. But I tell you, with streaming services today, there really isn't any specific time period where like pilots are shot. Yeah, still it's, you know, February, April through April, but they're shot year-round. A lot of advertising, TV commercials, everything was Already shot for, you know, the holidays, New Year's, Super Bowl. That was all already done by the end of November. So I normally knew that things were slow then. Now, honestly, it's unpredictable for me. So what I have learned to do is be proactive. So the very first thing is, if you do have an agent, something that I highly recommend, and this also has been very helpful to me, Get in touch with your agent. Now, don't make the mistake that a lot of actors make. They'll contact their agent and say, work is dead, you know, I'm not hearing from you at all, what's going on here? Are you, you know, forgetting about— don't do any of that stuff. Don't start blaming your agent. Look, your agent wants you to work. Your agent wants to send you auditions. So what you want to do is kind of come in sideways. Hey, just wanted to let you know I just finished putting together a headshot. Wanted to let you know I started taking an acting class. Just something to say to your agent to keep your presence in their mind. But you don't want to start blaming the agent or anything like that. So reach out to your agent, tell them about something, and hopefully that will help them remember you so that when things do start happening, they will be submitting you. Another thing that you can do— and once again, I like to be proactive, never like to just sit around and wait for other people to get things going for me— you can contact advertising agencies directly. And the few people that you want to contact: the art director and the creative director. Sometimes they are the ones who are responsible for finding the model, you know, the actor for a commercial modeling job, for the radio spots, or for the TV commercials. I mean, certainly sometimes they will go through a casting director or they'll go through agents, but be proactive. Get out there. They might, you know, when you send them your headshot and resume, or if you have a composite sheet, which is It's kind of like the headshot for commercial models, but instead of having one photo and a resume, you'll have a number of different photos. They might say, hey, I've got a commercial coming up, you're perfect for it, you know, here's the information. Or they might request you through the casting director. Just so you know, the creative director, who is the one who comes up with the concept for the ad campaign, and the art director is the one who comes up with the specific ideas of what it's going to look like. So reach out to both of them. Go to, you know, do a search for advertising agencies in your area. Find out who the art and creative directors are. And, you know, either you can send them an email, but I think it's better to send a hard copy of your headshot, resume, and a short cover letter. That way, you know, they're going to open it up. A lot of people don't open unsolicited emails today. Something else actually, and the third thing, but before I tell you that, hey, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification bell so you are always notified when I upload a new video. If you like it, give it a thumbs up because that's actually very helpful, and share this link with fellow actors. And by the way, if you have any ideas for ways of marketing yourself, promoting yourself, getting work on your own, helping get things going if work is slow, please share it on the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel in the description section so that way we can learn from you. The 3rd way, reach out to some commercial photographers. As an actor, I love doing commercial modeling work. I just submitted— it was a ghostie that I had, and I think— I never think I'm going to book a job, but whoever does book it is probably going to make at least $7,000 or $8,000 from this commercial modeling job. It's incredible. So I love doing commercial modeling work. And by the way, normally you don't get paid that much or anywhere near that much, but sometimes you do. You just never know. So find some commercial photographers in your area. And once again, I would suggest sending a hard copy, short cover letter, headshot, resume. If you have a composite sheet, certainly send it to them. If you're working with an agent, have your agent's information on your resume. Have your agent— you can say you can contact me through my agent and have them send it through your agent. Yes, you will be paying a percentage to your agent. If it's a commercial modeling job, typically it's 20%. If you are non-union and it's an acting job, it's going to be 20%. If you are in the union, then as of today, you're only allowed to pay your agent a 10% commission fee on union acting jobs. But it's always best to send things through your agent. They'll make sure that you're getting paid the proper amount. They will help make sure you get paid, and also they'll make sure it's a legitimate job. So I wanted to share those 3 tips with you that have been very helpful to me. I did promise a video, a bonus video. Just look up here, click on it, and it saves time and money. Make sure you ask these 8 essential questions to photographers before hiring them. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
