Today I’ve got a question that is for those people that have been working so hard, working on the craft. They love to act and they have done so much for themselves.
“How the heck do I get people to notice me how I get going to get to these TV show roles, these commercials, the stuff that I can be out there and be seen? I can actually get my career moving, growing, and I have paying stuff. How can I get to the good stuff, how do we get people to notice me?”
Well it’s a big question. It’s the biggest question everybody has because right now, the problem that you have is that you are auditioning for student films or independent films that are pretty much done by students. No budget stuff, working for free, and its very hard or pretty much not possible to get an agent that needs to make money to keep the lights on their office to be interested when you don’t have any paying work yet.
But once you start getting the paying work, then you’re going to have agents interested. That’s the good news. But still right now you’re at the point where you’ve done a lot of free work and you are thinking, “I just need to get to this next level”.
How do you do it? Well let’s look at this.
Who is making the decisions for what actors get hired?
Well, there are actually several people.
There’s the producer, there’s the director, and then there’s the executives which could be the ad agency [if it’s commercial], the network executives, [if it’s a TV show]. It could just be the producer and the director if it’s a feature film and maybe an investor but probably not.
More than likely it’s the director and the producer too.
Mostly the director.
Those are the decision-makers.
Then there are these people called the casting directors, who you know very well. They’re the ones that are working for the producer and the director. What their job is to go out there and bring in all the people that they feel are experienced, that can do the job that match the role and bring these people through so that the producer and the director have the opportunity to see their work.
They also bring them in to see if that person might match the role that they have in mind and they’ve got… remember they are casting up to thirty or forty roles in a couple a days so they’re just like going green. They’re just like so tired they are seeing person after person after person.
Anyway it’s the producer and the director that are making the decisions. The casting director is the one that’s bringing them in and saying here are some people that you may want to see. Then you’re in the audition and then they choose one person for each role.
Since it’s the producer and the director that are making the decision, don’t you think that if there was any relationship that you may want to focus on, it would be those people?
They’re the decision makers.
I would always go straight for the decision makers.
You know it’s kind of a novel idea but that’s what I would do, I mean that’s what I’ve always done my whole life.
What you want to do is you should get on set, meet and work with these people, and when you’re working it’s like the easiest time in the world to get to know them cause they’re all right there.
You are all working on a common project and you just have little fun little conversations “Ohh do you like that coffee? Oh my gosh I actually brew my own coffee at home! It’s like I use this little pot and its like so delicious. Where do you buy your coffee?”
Believe it or not that kind of conversation is very common on the film set cause everybody loves coffee and we love to talk about it.
These are the kinds of conversations where you’re not saying “Ohh would you like to look at my headshot?”
You are having conversations about stuff that interest them. Just little ones. And that’s how you get noticed!
Isn’t that crazy?
That’s how you get noticed! So for next time, they are like “Ohh I like that person!”.
Then the next day “Hey John how are you doing, hey Katie, how is it going”?
Then you might have another little conversation. So after a couple of times on set when you’ve been seeing them then you get to know them, “hey so what are you doing this weekend? I actually got together with my acting group and we did some monologues together, everybody practiced their monologue.” They’ll usually interject something like, “Oh that’s cool!”
Then it’s a perfect time to say “hey would you like to see my headshot”? And they are like “yeah sure”.
Then you show it to them.
See, it doesn’t this just seem like normal kind of conversation, doesn’t this just make sense?
If you want to become known, you just need to go out into the environments where the people are, that you want to know you. You have to go into those environments and you just have to meet them.
This is why I love the Friends in Film Method so much because you get on those sets!
I am not talking about once every three months, which may be the way it is now. I’m talking like every week on a new set, with new groups of people.
That’s when you have a career. When you’re paid to be there, when you’re helping out with production [which is not a scary thing] and nothing that you can’t handle.
I know that you can because it’s as easy as anything! You just have to have a good attitude.
Anyway, I hope that helped to give you some insight.
Take away some the mystery out of this thing because it’s not that hard. It’s really all right in front of you and all you have to do is kinda just get that right confidence in your head and go out and get it.
Of course the Friends in film program is like the fastest way straight into those film sets.
If that’s what turns you on then make sure you really watch us closely and try to join us the next time the mentorship program opens.
But until then what you want to do is sign up for the Career on Fire Free 10 day training. 10 whole days! This is a long training where myself and some of the Friends in Film founding members help guide you, get you further in the business and in your knowledge than you ever had before… for free!
We are all in film sets so we do this over 10 days; in between shots, at night time in between our shoots, we do it and we take care of a big group of people and actually teach them over 10 days.
It’s amazing I’ve never heard of anything like this, nobody does anything like this and it’s free.
The reason why we do it is that it’s goodwill for one thing, we get people all over the country that know us, like us and now they are able to get a successful start that they never had before, which is awesome! Then some of those people end up saying “Oh you know what? I wanna work with that group of people over the next eight months and actually get into the business this way.”
Make sure that you sign up for the next Career on Fire Free Training. Make sure you come and really block out that ten days so you can get the most out. Then if you want to join the mentorship program after that, then maybe you do that, maybe not.
It’s fine either way! We’re just here to enjoy our lives, to give good service, and work with people that we just kinda jive with.
Anyway, make sure you sign up for the Career on Fire Free Training and I will talk to you soon!
