Let me tell you what happened on the shoot on Monday.
Between shots, I talked to the Director.
We talked about his fiancé, how they met , where they had traveled to. We talked about projects that she has coming up (she’s a cinematographer by the way). We talked about projects that he has coming up. We also talked about how he got started and what he’s been doing for the last 10 years.
We talked about where they have the best coffee only a block away and how they make it with a special vacuum thingee.
I joked about how he gave his earphones to an actor as a prop. Then, he gave his phone to an actor as a prop. I said, “Next you’re going to give your shirt to an actor to wear.”
And the next actor that came in, he gave his shirt to because the actor was wearing something that had a logo on it and we can’t show logos.
So basically, we connected in a real way and we had great conversations all day long.
On the other stage, there was another Director.
I met him in the morning, but he was on another stage, so I didn’t see him much.
But, when I was introduced to him, we were joking about whether he was that A unit director or the B Unit
Director.
Later in the day, I heard him telling the other Director he was driving to Palm Springs after the shoot to visit his mother.
I asked him about if he had been to Cheeky’s, my favorite restaurant in Palm Springs.
I told him about the bacon flights (all these different flavors of bacon) and that they make breakfasts from what is fresh at the market.
We talked about what it was like to grow up in Palm Springs and now to see it through the eyes of an adult . We talked about how fun it is to go to a resort hang out in the pool and drink vodka tonics.
We even talked about some of the clothing optional resorts. Apparently there’s a few of those in Palm Springs!
So this is some good conversation, wouldn’t you agree?
I have no doubt that I’m going to work with these guys again and again.
This was just one day with two directors and one producer I’d never met before.
At the end of the day, the producer said she was going to refer me to all her friends in San Francisco. When you meet someone on a well paid shoot, you know that’s how they roll, and all their connections are going to be good too.
People hang with like-level people.
Anyway, can you see that really what your career boils down to is people saying, “We’ve got to get Janet! Call her!”
That’s what it boils down to, isn’t that funny?
It’s not so much how good you are or what you know. It boils down to whether they had fun with you on that day. If they remember you and want you on the next shoot.
When you have hundreds of people that want you on their shoots, you are going to work for the rest of your life… as much as you want!
And you’ll be able to take as many vacations as you want and you’ll be able to have so much money that you can buy $1 million house in Los Angeles very easily. You can have BMWer or whatever car you want. You can take your parents to Portugal and Norway and anywhere else that you want to take them!
See, all the colleges and acting coaches tell you you need to become super good at acting, and then you’ll be successful.
But there’s a lot of excellent actors out there… who aren’t working as much as they’d like.
Yes, you do need to take classes and you do need to be good. But you just need to be good enough!
You just need to be good enough that you do a good job in the audition and on set.
OK, that’s a given. Be good at it.
But what will give you the success you’re after?
I say it is the “get it factor” , where you know the drill, you know the people, you know what’s going on and you just do your thing.
If you know what I’m talking about then you got enough experience where you sort of “get it”.
But if that sounds really weird to you, that’s ok, just hang with me and it’ll all make sense to you!
See this game is about… knowing how to play this game very well.
You got to be good at acting but that’s just the basic requirement.
The secret that propels you to the top is having the basic requirement covered and then adding on top of that:
1. Understanding the film industry and how it works
2. Making close relationships and
3. Having great conversations on set every week. with people who make things happen
That’s it you guys! It’s as simple as that!
It truly is… the secret sauce!
If you do this, you will be in demand next month and for the rest of your career. THIS is going to give you that lifestyle that you want.
All you have to do is get involved and have good conversations on set!
You do those two things and learn how to do it well and you won’t have to worry.
