Hello! I am so excited to be blogging for Ms. In The Biz. Since this is my first post I would like to share a little about myself. I have been in LA for 3 years, pursuing acting full time for the last 2 years. I moved here from Philadelphia with my husband and our amazing dog Dax. Its already been such a crazy journey and I know there is so much more on the the route I have decided to take.
I was having a difficult time deciding how to format my posts, what to talk about, how to make my thoughts a cohesive unit. As this is the beginning of an amazing new site, I wanted to create something that had a cohesive beginning, middle and end to it. So I poured over that for a while, and came to the conclusion that I have no idea how to make that happen. So what you will be reading when you visit my link will be changing, fluid. I am going to be sharing my experiences as an actress and a person with you guys. If there’s one thing my close friends know about me it’s that I am always 100% honest with my feelings and thoughts. I won’t usually volunteer them, but when asked you know you will be getting my honest truth. This will be an exercise in simply sharing. I am bringing this up because I want you to know I will be sharing openly and candidly with you as I would with a friend. There is too much secrecy and non disclosure in this business, and I want to do my part to demystify (at least my experiences) for you guys the readers, so that you can feel like you are really getting a better handle on the way things can work in the biz. As I said I have only been here a short time, so my experience is limited, but it is growing every day by leaps and bounds, and I do have a lot of insight already to share… that being said…
Let’s start at the beginning.
So… you know that favorite saying in Hollywood: “It’s not a sprint its a marathon”. Well when I first heard that I said to myself, well of course, who would want to run as fast as they possibly can and pass out? This coming from someone who wouldn’t be caught dead running (I am an avid hater of exercise). I repeated this to myself whenever I felt things in my career were moving slowly, but I would still constantly get discouraged. I was getting discouraged because I was just saying words to myself that had absolutely no meaning. You know when you say something and you understand the words or the definition but they hold no higher meaning, no real truth or deep understanding. Do any of you have a word for that? I have been searching… if you do please leave it in the comments. Anyway I was saying it but I hadn’t really internalized it, I hadn’t meant it at all. And one day out of nowhere, it hit me. It just did, I got it. Now, unfortunately, I cannot share how I ‘got it’ cause I have no idea at all. It just sunk in and I finally knew what everyone was saying. I share this story because I know so many people struggle with these things, and they do eventually click.
At the same time that I heard the above saying, I also heard that it was going to be very hard to get any actual information from anyone on how to ‘make things happen’, how to get auditions or escalate my career, because everyone’s journey was totally different. I didn’t really grasp that one either. I was an actor back home in my tiny market in Philadelphia, but that was just so totally different. I can’t get into it now, that’s for another post. But coming here was a totally different deal all together. Before I moved I read every blog, column, and book I could get my hands on (list of links below) to try to arm myself with some knowledge of this bizarre world before I settled here. I think I did a damn good job, but still, I felt like I knew nothing when I started going out on auditions, submitting on the self submission sites, and trying to drum up business for myself, much less the attempt at good solid representation. I have tried so many routes to gather information on how other people are doing things, how they got their agent, how they post card, or what their newsletter practices are, who and how and when and where they target their social media… the list goes on and on. But in the end my path is taking it’s own course, just as I was told it would.
In the coming months I will document things that happen in my life, good auditions and bad, good meetings and bad, good days and bad, and share those experiences with you. Maybe we can start a dialogue and you can all come back here and share your experiences with me so we can all get a better grip on what’s happening out there in our business. Looking forward to talking to you all soon. Thanks for reading.
Links:
Play Bills Vs. Paying Bills
http://www.playbillsvspayingbills.com/
Laurie Records: Commercical Actors Should Never
http://castingnetworks.com/newsletter/newshome/newshome.htm#featured/feature3/201305
Virtual Channel Network
http://virtualchannelnetwork.com/
Secret Agent Man
http://www.backstage.com/advice-for-actors/secret-agent-man/
Brains Of Minerva
http://www.brainsofminerva.com/