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.

Ep 1 Best Buy Audition

Ep 2 Primitive Mom

I’m pushing myself to action this year like no other year, and letting things happen. I’m not dwelling on failures or hopes that I get the booking calls. I’m just letting go, releasing myself to receive without all the mental nonsense that can go along with it. The last 2 weeks, the beginning of 2011 have been quite nuts, 3 auditions per day a few times per week.

Yesterday really tested my new resolve. I had a print audition scheduled for 3:30pm in East LA and a regional Burger King Commercial audition at 3:47pm in the middle of Hollywood proper. I got to work at 7am and left a message for my agent to see if there was a time window I could go to the Print Audition so I wasn’t late to the Burger King Audition. She called back at about 1pm and told me to just go the print audition at 2:45pm and if I’m not seen by 3:20pm to run to the 2nd audition. That meant leaving work even earlier and getting stuff done in my inbox at a superhuman precise speed. Just Breathe!!! I left work at 2:30pm and got to the Photography Studio in about 20 minutes and luckily the line was very short. A few snapshots later and a couple compliments about having “good bones” I was on my way to Hollywood. I found a sweet parking spot right on Hollywood Blvd. I ran into the Casting Studio with my bag and then to the bathroom to change into my female mathematician outfit. That went just fine. Sweet, then I had 1.5 hours left until my acting class in Miracle Mile. After changing back into my jeans I walked up the stairs to the front lobby of the Casting Studio, my phone beeped. Message from my agent. I have to admit right now I get butterflies every time she calls because there have been a few callbacks and I’m really looking forward to working. The message says Digital Dogs wants to see me at their casting studios about 20 minutes ago for an Arby’s National Commercial, part of female naturalist. Yes talk about a last minute audition, when they wanted to see you 20 minutes ago! I do not have the right outfit, fuck it. Breathe. She said the auditions are going until 5pm, it is now 4:34pm. No problem, I rush to my car and patiently wait to make right turns to get back onto Sunset Blvd while pedestrians take their sweet time crossing the street even when the light is turning yellow. Deep Breaths. This 3rd audition is a win because I basically stalk Digital Dogs Casting and submit myself over and over. They cast sweet projects, but definitely have their “favorites” that they call in over and over again. I’m working on getting into that circle, all the circles of casting that can make a career/living. That went well also, I was happy with my improv’d line about a tortoise doing the Hustle – Yeah long story. I skipped dinner and went to class, did a scene where I was giving birth, got home and passed out at 9:52pm. Up again at 5:30am. Today is a breather, and I’m actually contributing to my blog. Wish I could just have some device that reads my mind and journals for me. Haha! Thanks!

I think it’s almost fully functional again, it’s still being tweaked. Well, I’ve been on all kinds of lovely auditions in the last 3 months. It’s so far a 7 month dry streak. Yes, yes everyone’s career ebbs and flows. Those ebbs, I’m still struggling to deal with them. Then someone named OSHO said “Don’t seek, don’t search, don’t ask, don’t knock, don’t demand–relax. If you relax it comes. If you relax it is there.” Yeah, easy for the type B personalities maybe. This is a little bit hard, especially after 7 months of relaxing. Can I at least get excited? The latest event that jogs my memory is a callback last week for Ashley Furniture HomeStore. The Director said I was cute but I did not book it. At least I’m cute gosh darn it. My acting classes are fabulous, I’m looking forward to that this evening.

Yesterday was by all means a test of patience and commitment. I passed. I am grateful for the auditions I do get and the casting directors that continue to call me in again and again. I cannot lie and say I’m not tired of some of the low paying cattle call auditions that I go on sometimes. Yesterday was one of those days. I know that work begets work and I will continue to be patient and committed with every opportunity that I get. It’s just that I truly look forward to the next level when I am not going on those types of auditions any more. The first audition was a breeze compared to the second one. The second project was over a 2 hour wait and I swear the casting director called in half the acting population in Los Angeles. The air conditioning in the waiting room was not working, and it was close to 100 degrees outside. There were about 15 seats occupied and 30 others standing in the waiting room. I don’t know what this says about the quality of projects or if the Client requested to see so many people, but it definately takes it’s toll on the actor. I’m tempted to tell my agent “please don’t send me to any more of of ______’s casting sessions.” Is that wrong of me? I’m just not sure that the overcrowded and disorganized calls ever turn into quality projects. To me it’s a “red flag.” I just want to yell out “Hey, do you know what you are doing?” This has been the consistent experience for this particular casting office. I cannot make an accurate judgement call here. All I know it was so draining and unconducive to being a creative artist. There is an internal struggle here, between feeling like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel and also not wanting to lose out on opportunities that may lead to bigger and better projects. Nobody said it was going to be easy. I love what I do, however the days I’m treated with disrespect, like cattle I just gotta call out “bullshit.” I’m not desperate for your job, I’m about building a career and need to know when to say when. Thank god most auditions I go on are more on the ball. That’s all for my rant. Thank you.

In other news, I’m taking new pictures with David Muller in a couple weeks. I intend the new pictures to increase the quality of auditions, so I don’t have to bitch about stuff like I did in the paragraph above. Onward!

Yesterday was one of those great days when you can say “when it rains it pours.” It was not only a busy day at work but I had a call back and 2 auditions. The callback was for Tele2 a Swedish telecommunications company commercial that is filming in Sweden at the end of August (Danielle Eskinazi Casting). I also went in for a “Confidential” commercial (Alyson Horn Casting) and an ESPN promo audition (Francene Selkirk/Shooting From the Hip Casting). My main focus right now is for acting profits to grow exponentially, that my main source of abundant income is acting.

I’m also very excited about my trip to Serbia at the end of July and 1st half of August. I get to see and spend time with mom, dad, and lots of other relatives. I’ll be doing a couple of short side trips, Greece and Slovenia. I’m also keeping in my vision a visit to Sweden as well, for the Tele2 commercial shoot. Wink, wink.

Here’s the latest Project.  I thought a lot of the funny stuff was chopped because they had to fit in all the tags and coupon info. Oh Well. Cheers!

It’s March now and I’ve booked something each month so far this year, yeah I know March is only the 3rd month, but I intend to work each month this year.  Yeah I’m aiming high baby!  This is a record for me, a true breakthrough and I’m very happy about it.  When an actor finally makes a big jump in their booking ratio, it feels wonderful.  It is the Year of the Tiger(Chinese Astrology), after all. My goal is to work consistently enough to have the financial stability in order to not need a “day job.”   Thinking of that day makes me drool a little bit on my keyboard.  Yesterday I had a voice over audition for Sealy Posturpedic Mattresses.  That was interesting and a first because I had to record the audition myself, edit it and e-mail my agent a MP3 to forward to the Sealy People.  That just goes to show how important it is for a Voice Over artist to have their own recording equipment at home.  I really wish the Minnesota State Lottery Commercial I auditioned for a couple of months ago would have chosen to cast like that, it would have saved at least a dozen actors tons of driving to the Audition,  1st and 2nd call backs.  I calculated that I drove close to 100 miles for those three times they called me in to hear my voice but not cast me.   Hey, can’t you tell whose voice you like after the first time?  But what do I know? Thanks for calling me in!  Wink, wink.  There’s something to be said about GREEN casting.  I hope it catches on.   Luckily, my boyfriend has SoundForge and a good MIC that he lets me use.  Thanks, baby.

Currently I’m reading “What’s Holding You Back” by Sam Horn.  I’m on page 74.  So far it’s all about having the courage and confidence to get out there and do what you want and develop the communication and social skills to meet people that can make a difference.  Networking, right… something I do not feel like I am very successful at.  I’ll keep reading the book and tell you if I’ve had any breakthroughs.  I do think it’s a great book though, even if you think nothing is holding you back, you might be surprised that there might be something that actually is.  What people have a hard time understanding is it’s not what’s going on around you that’s at fault, it’s the thoughts inside your head that are nothing but patterns of synapses firing, keeping you down.  “You” keeping you down. Yeah, I love that shit.  You can change your choice of actions, and different actions can lead to different results.  Pay close attention to what Pablo Picasso said, he wasn’t joking – “Action is the foundational key to all success.”  You can’t sit there waiting for something to happen to you.  You have to DO to BE and to HAVE.  Yeah that idea is primarily from Landmark Education.  I will not go into that, you have Google to do your own investigating.

Well, I’m ready for a juicy National Commercial Audition,  a Pilot/Episodic Co-Star and a Feature Film Audition.  Knock Knock!!!