Lidia Ryan: An Actor's Journey.

Getting Better and Getting Busy

Monday, March 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant Shoot on Friday was a trip!  Everyone did a great job, I was totally grossed out pretending to be in a delivery room.  I was so not cut out to be in the medical field.  There was a little bit of miss-communication during the shoot, somehow I never got sent to hair and makeup so I did it myself while waiting on set, and almost lost my lines because the show is very losely scripted and everything is pretty much figured out on set.  Luckily I spoke up and still got to call the anesthesiologist to the room.  My call time was 7:45am and I was wrapped at 11:45am.  A short and sweet day.  Perhaps I will be called back to that show?  I heard it’s common for actors to be called back.

Today I mailed the remaining 33 agent submissions and finished researching casting directors so I can start my casting director mailings and drops as soon as my postcards arrive.

Last night I took a cold reading class at Reelpros from actor/teacher Peter Holden.  I had a few AHA moments, it was great.  He’s a great teacher.  A few things I have to keep in mind when doing my next cold reading workshop;

• Keep it simple, one intention in the scene, working from moment to moment
• It’s about the other person, not you, their lines matter more – listen to them and you will know what to say.  Keep the connection with the other person, everything is in the eyes.
• Prepare line by line.  What does each line and word mean to you?  What’s going on beneath the line?
• Environment – where are you and what would be proper behavior in this environment? Create it.

Tonight I have a workshop at TVI studios, with Arly Day of Bacharach O’Neil Casting.  I need to take a nap after work before I go.  I had a hard time falling asleep last night. ZZzzzzzzzz

Something gave! (Insert whicked triumphant laughter here)

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

It is the size of one's will which determines success.

I received a call from my agent last night that Morman Boling casting wanted me to do a different part for a different nurse shooting this Friday for the Discover Channel Show “I Didn’t know I Was Pregnant.”  You know, those crazy stories where a woman didn’t know she was pregnant and suddenly goes into labor, etc.  Wild!  I potentially have 3 new imbd credits this year.  The other two included the “Get a Clue” web series and “Shelby’s Vlog.”  I hope they make it.  I was quite frankly freaking out that the gap in work meant it was over for me or something.  Haha.  I am focusing on creating and maintaining this momentum from now until forever.  I have ordered postcards and business cards from Vista Print.  They are due to arrive in two weeks,  a quicker method of shipment would have cost an arm and a leg, oh well.  I’m going to create a list of casting directors to mail news of the booking to.  Especially ones I’ve booked with before and haven’t seen in a while.  Some commercial casting directors wouldn’t be a bad idea either.  Lots of work to do.  Good.

Something’s Gotta Give

Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

The third set of agent submissions went out yesterday. 2 more to go. That will be a total of 100 agent submissions. Then I have to tackle the managers. The goal is to get a good agent right off the bat so i will not need a manager for right now. So far I’ve received one inquiry from an agent whether I have any commercials presently running, and and invitation to audition for 2 others. I passed on one because a Google search revealed some controversial information about the agent(s). I say agent(s), because the really controversial agency broke up, and the controversial agents each started up their own separate agencies. I’m not even going there, I’ve dealt with that before and with any red flags popping up at this point I am staying far and clear away. I’m going to the Brogan Agency next Wednesday to do a monologue and reading. I haven’t been able to find much information on them on the internet, they are fairly new. I will go there with my eyes and ears open. I’m not signing with anyone should any red flags go up. Some of those red flags include the majority of their clients going out on auditions only once or twice a month, too many clients or too many clients in my category, insistence on new pictures and certain classes, etc. I do need to find a monologue now. I did one I really liked about 1.5 years ago for a short film audition, so I’m hoping I can find a copy of it somewhere. Otherwise, I’m going to have to scour the script of every xfiles episode ever shot. Doh! I got my headshots back from the guy affiliated with my ex manager finally. I’m also working on designing a business card and postcard on Vistaprint. I will put the order in by the end of the day tomorrow. I’m going to the Antelope Valley Poppy Fields this weekend for a hike. I’m looking forward to that.

Plugging and Chugging Along and Being Intentional

Thursday, March 19th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Audition at Mormon Boling casting yesterday was “fantastic.” That’s what she said. It shoots tomorrow. The cell phone is on. I ran into Jilly Slattery yesterday at the audition, she was going in for the same part. She just wrapped a movie her and Peter Berube made, and turns out they had an actress working on it that’s represented by my ruthless and fickle ex management agency. I still haven’t gotten my head shots returned. I’m close to the edge of losing my temper. Anyway, I like the coincidence that I ran into Jill, because I think she is pretty damn cool, and I think it was a sign I should go to their production group meeting this Sunday at Second City. I never know what kind of project I can find myself being a part of. I also sent a message to Matt Koval yesterday to see what was going on with Shelby’s Vlog. He said Fox picked up it up and is trying to figure out how to market it, so it should be airing in the next few months hopefully. That news came as a nice surprise and is a little bit exciting. This may have supposed to be some sort of secret, so pretend you didn’t read this. Excited just a little bit because I don’t like to count any chicks before they are hatched. Also, my second set of 20 Agent Submissions are going out today. Cover letters for the 3rd set are ready to go. Signed up for a cold reading class and 5 CD workshops. I’m attending 1 a week for the next several months. That’s as much as the pocket book can handle. It’s so expensive to run an acting career… and it’s so awesome I have a full time job to finance it.

Audition tomorrow, and some other goodies

Tuesday, March 17th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’m staying calm, strong and focused.   You have to keep springing back when you’re knocked down.  If you stay down, then what?  Full resignation?  Might as well cease to exist.  No thanks.  I’m going to keep failing if I have to if each time brings me closer to success.  Thomas Edison said something about that.  It’s really the only way to guarantee success.   But I have to admit there is a certain underlying sadness I feel right now that’s hard to shake off.  Maybe it’s just hormonal.

I have an audition at Morman Boling Casting tomorrow at 3pm, for another Discovery Channel Health show (self submission on Actors Access).  This is the second time for me in this office, so that’s a good sign.  It’s for a part of a Nurse.  As of now, there are no sides posted, even the show is primarily improv based, I hope I get to look at something before tomorrow.  I find comedic improv much easier than dramatic, probably because I don’t have a large vocabulary of medical terms.

I’ve finished 20 more cover letters to agents and will be mailing them off by the end of this week.  Some agents actually are accepting e-mailed submissions, which is a great money saving thing to actors.  Thank you, technologically plugged in agents!  I received a reply form the Michael Zanuck Agency yesterday asking if I have any commercials running right now.  I do not have any conflicts!  Almost everything I booked last year was from self submissions through Actors Access.

I signed up for Reel PROS yesterday.  Turns out they don’t do the stringent audition process anymore.  They let you do the workshops, but there is always an auditor present.  If you fall short on your cold reading you receive an e-mail after you accrue two “Red Flags.”  They said it would contain feedback and suggestions on how to improve your cold reading skills.  If you don’t fix the issues, and collect 4 “Red Flags,” you get kicked out of Reel Pros for 6 months so you can work on your cold reading performance issues.  After signing up I went to the calendar to schedule some workshops but everything is filled up through the end of the month and next month is not listed yet.   I’m on standby for about 4 workshops.  Hopefully somebody will cancel.  I did sign up to see Arly Day at Bacharach O’Neil Casting at TVI Studios in a couple weeks.

Picking myself up by the boot straps

Monday, March 16th, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Yes folks, it’s time once again for a picking up the pieces and regrouping/replanning/reinvigorating the acting career. No more feeling like a reject.  I will spare you the violin music.  In fact, I’d like to take that violin and smash it upside a few peoples heads, figuratively only of course.  Where there is a will, there is a way.  Let me say that 10,000 more times…  So, I went to TVI studios last week to do a cold reading for them so I can attend classes and casting director workshops there.   Easy breezy.  I have come to the conclusion I have to once again market myself directly to casting directors no matter what anyone says about them only calling in character actors.  I’ve been called in before for co-star roles and other direct to producer roles.  I went to my first one on Saturday morning, Kendra Castleberry of Donna Rosenstein Casting.  They cast the Ghost Whisperer, a new show that just aired called Castle, another pilot and MOWs.  I was given a scene from the Ghost Whisperer.  It was so enjoyable to work on a scence.  I felt comfortable and professional.  I learned that tv episodics are in hiatus in April, May and June.  That had somehow slipped my mind, therefore I am going to plan my postcard campaigns accordingly.   I also placed 20 agent submissions in the mail this morning and will do 20 per week until I’ve submitted to everyone worth submitting to.   I’m not so sure about managers right now.  My experience thus far hasn’t been so pleasant with the ones I’ve dealt, but I shouldn’t let that stop me.  Nope.  I’m going to focus on the agent(s) first.  Signing up for Margie Haber’s intermediate class is also a must this spring.  Let the ass kicking begin.

Questions to ask Agents and Managers, and red flags to watch for.

Thursday, March 12th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

Questions
How many clients do you represent?
How many clients of my type and age range do you represent?
What type of roles do you see me playing?
What age range do you think I play?
How often are your clients going out on auditions and what is the general booking ratio?
Do you pitch your clients to casting directors?
Do you have relationships or work to develop relationships with casting directors, producers, and other influential showbusiness people? Do you meet with them face to face?
What do you expect from me as a client?
Do you develop a business plan with each client, on a case by case basis?
Do you have meetings scheduled with your clients every few months to discuss progress, create action plans, etc?

Red Flags
They call to talk about their own personal problems more than discussing plans to move your career along, give you advice, create goals, etc.
After being with them a few months, you discover that they are not familiar with your credits or the skills you have listed such as the languages you speak on the back of your resume.
They repeatedly submit you to roles that you told them you are not comfortable doing.
They have no patience.
They complain a lot, and do not communicate to resolve issues that would move things forward.
They complain about other actors they represent. This means they are probably bad mouthing you to their other clients.
They pretend to want to be your friend, but never actually follow through with any friend-like promises.

Yes, you will keep experiencing how fickle and ruthless this business can be, but that doesn’t matter.

Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments

After a slow month of February I received a call from my manager.  She went straight to the punch.  She dropped me as a client.  A couple months ago she had me invest in new pictures, because the feedback from the original set was that I was too young looking for the parts I was going out for.  I went and got the pictures.   $250 for the session, $175 for makeup, $298 for headshot reproductions and $195 for adding pictures to Actors Access and La Casting.  It took the management company about 3 weeks to get my proofs back.  I’ve had the new pictures up a month or two, and yesterday I get dropped.  Reason being or rather reasons given that I am not auditioning as much as I should and my agent hasn’t replied to her e-mails, and also that now I’m too old when the reason for getting new pictures was that I was too young.   She knew I started looking for a new agent about a month ago, and said she would submit to some of the agents she knew.  How many she knew I suspect was a very low number.  As she was dumping me, I asked “what was the general feedback from the agent submissions you did for me?”  “Uhhh… yeah… they were generally good but people are looking for actors who are about 18-22.”  Wow.  Last time I watched TV and went to the movies I saw actors of every age.  I have booked 3 projects in the 9 months she had me as a client, 1 paying, 2 non paying.  That wasn’t enough, if it isn’t as easy as submitting on breakdowns and having cash land on her lap you are not good enough.  There was no real managing, just a hope that things would pop for me really quick and she could ride the train.  If it only were so easy.

I posted this status on Facebook yesterday evening.

“Lidia was dropped like a sack of shit by her manager.”

then I get a  voice mail from her sayiing “You suck, for saying that on Facebook, you are not a sack of shit”  she also replied on Facbook:

“come on!! You are not a sack of shit! What the fuck?!! Now you make me feel like shit! I’m sorry I made you feel bad.”

and I replied

It’s my gut reaction and need to vent. I am only human and I know that you are too. I don’t want to make it seem like I am some kind of victim. I’m a willing participant in a ruthless and fickle yet highly rewarding business. The news today  came suddenly after I invested in new photos recently, which I honestly think weren’t given long enough to work. I’m also stuck in contradictions right now. The general feedback from my original set of head shots was that I was too young, and now I’m too old. What a quandry! I also know from experience that there are certain months of the year (seasons) that I seem to have the most auditions and bookings and other parts of the year where it seems dead. All of that is talk and meaningless now. Sometimes there seems to be some rhyme and reason to this business, but  for the most part the final outcomes really have no rhyme or reason. I have seen enough tv and movies to know that there are parts for me and even parts I could do better. I’ve seen plenty of crappy and well as great actors working who don’t have anything on me except timing and opportunity. I have a lot of people who believe in me and I refuse to let them down or myself. I think it’s ok for me to feel like a sack of shit if It’s a bridge to something constructive, like re-evaluating my business approach, and dealing with feelings of self doubt that are coming from the outside as well as from my own doing. I need and deserve the mourning process so I can move on and do something to move in the right direction. Perhaps I need to go back to doing CD workshops and build a resume that attracts more opportunities, I have done little to market myself in the past year. I know I’ve chosen a profession that may be the most emotionally painful. Actors are emotional creatures that constantly grow the more they experience life, which is ironic that so many good parts go to really young actors. Growth through pain and joy is the case with any kind of real artist. They have more to draw from as time goes by. I think this will make me a better actor because I’m finding that I want to be more expressed. I will become nothing but better and better. I am committed to that.

I don’t want to burn any bridges, but I insist on being fully self expressed from now on.

Regarding the pics, I would like a refund from Gary because I have to reformat my resume and I can print them for free at work. Thank you for handling this.

Sincerely,

Lidia