An informative evening, with witty contributions from commercial agent Mark Measures and excellent question referee Stuart K Robinson (acting coach). The evening was defined under the premise of telling us the hard truth, not just what we want to hear, so that we know what courses of action we have to take and the work we have to put in – in order to build a career and obtain top representation. If an agent tells you “we have too many of your type” they’re just not that into you. In today’s saturated and super competitive market there are fewer parts to go around. Most movie productions do not rely on breakdowns, offers are already out for most of the parts when the breakdowns come out. Episodics are a little bit more dependent on breakdowns. Doing commercials should never be poo pooed on. They can lead to getting a theatrical agent or more work. I raised my hand and tried to add that big time movie directors direct commercials sometimes. Not getting in front of them because you think you are too good for commercials is kind of silly. I was never called upon to add this tidbit of information. A lot of the actors weren’t listening and asked the same question over and over. Most gave off a vibe of shyness, insecurity and inability to project their voice in a medium sized room. One actor ranted on an on, whining about booking 4 out of 5 commercial auditions she’s been on but that she didn’t want to be the commercial queen and her agent wasn’t doing enough for her. A sense of being ungrateful and unrealistic sent a wave of cringes throughout the room.
The cold hard truth that Marni imparted in her preference for clients is the following 1) Be young, just out of college preferably with an MFA(very strongly preferred) from Yale or UCLA, etc. She mentioned her desire for young people throughout the evening, causing grimaces among the 30+ crowd which has at least 50% of the audience 2) If you are not from an Ivy league Arts program but still young, have a pitch. A pitch means a recent known/recognizable credit, “phenomenal” footage, scene, large youtube, twitter, or facebook following for your videos, awesome web series, etc along with kind of selling yourself with confidence and summarizing what you are about. Bottom line it needs to be “PHENOMENAL.” Then you have to get a referral from an existing client of theirs, a casting director or someone else influential. You can also work on convincing one of the assistants to take a look at your stuff. You can also invite assistants to your “Phenomenal” stand up routine at a renowned venue, or a high level UCB or Groundlings Sunday Company performance. UNSOLICITED MATERIAL is never accepted by the theatrical department and goes to Mark Measures in the commercial dept to sift through. 3) If you are over 30 especially if you are a woman, good fucking luck! You may implement any of the techniques under #2 and it may get you representation. It’s not that “late bloomers” don’t exist, but you have to bang on the door way harder and make your self stand out with “PHENOMENAL” examples of your work. Abram’s theatrical dept takes stars. They don’t take co-star actors or older folks without recent recognizable credits. Their formula is exact and the thinking box has almost impenetrable walls keeping possibilities from the outside coming in. Funny thing is, most of the biggest stars I know aren’t from MFA programs. But ok. That’s their world and I’m really grateful for my agent for working so hard for me.
Not your ordinary actor’s seminar. Gets down to the nitty gritty. I plan on attending more of these. You can follow Mark Measures @commeagent and Stuart K Robinson @stuartkcreative on Twitter for info on the next seminar time and place. I hope you’ve enjoyed this review and summary.
