Running a production is tough stuff and can feel incredibly overwhelming, so I wanted to share my experience with you guys! I kept a production blog for my newest piece, Classic Alice, and tweaked it a little bit to make sure the experience was educational for anyone out there thinking about working a production. Post! Jan 2014. We wrapped! After two days of shooting, we had 33 pages of material ‘in the can’ and we passed everything off to our editor. Things were quiet for a little while as she assembled all our footage and started to compile things for…
Author: Kate Hackett
Kate Hackett
Kate Hackett is an up and coming actress in Los Angeles, California, known for a quick wit and an ability to dig deep emotionally. She has been acting since she was four years old, all the way back in Maryland. She grew up doing musicals (she sings!) and other straight plays, but made the transition to film when she attended Boston University for college. Kate has worked on many independent films and commercials and has produced, edited, and written her own content. She is fully trained in the Stanislavski and Meisner techniques and has both studied and performed at UCB, Upright Citizen's Brigade, in Los Angeles and with Jackson's Onus, an awesome improv troupe. Kate loves dramatic acting, but is equally versed in comedy.
Running a production is tough stuff and can feel incredibly overwhelming, so I wanted to share my experience with you guys! I kept a production blog for my newest piece,Classic Alice, and tweaked it a little bit to make sure the experience was educational for anyone out there thinking about working a production. The Shoot! Jan 2014. This was it! Our shoot days had arrived in early Jan. and we set out to make being on set fun and profitable for everyone. We shot the first book at my house (oi) entirely; Andrew’s set was in one corner of my…
Running a production is tough stuff and can feel incredibly overwhelming, so I wanted to share my experience with you guys! I kept a production blog for my newest piece,Classic Alice, and tweaked it a little bit to make sure the experience was educational for anyone out there thinking about working a production. Writing & Preproduction… December 2013. I discussed writing a little bit last time, but obviously the writing process is more detailed than “I sat down and wrote things”, so I wanted to share that with you. I’ve attached (some) of my handwritten outlines to give you an…
Running a production is tough stuff and can feel incredibly overwhelming, so I wanted to share my experience with you guys! I kept a production blog for my newest piece,Classic Alice, and tweaked it a little bit to make sure the experience was educational for anyone out there thinking about working a production. Writing… Early Nov. 2013. A friend of mine called to ask me if I would like to set up a meeting with his partner to develop a show aimed for YouTube audiences about (and encouraging) reading. We met at a coffee shop and threw some ideas around.…
I recently drove a friend of mine home from the airport (REAL FRIENDSHIP) and he and I opted not to sit in silence the entire way. We chatted about the business, but there came a point when both of us expressed a kind of revulsion for talking about nothing BUT the business. And it’s true – if you are so myopic that the only thing you know is your little niche, your little ‘passion’, you’re going to get lost in a sea of other boring people who cannot carry on a conversation about anything other than “The Business”. Actors are…
Hey guys! I spent my Thanksgiving break writing thirty pages of a new series — which is a lot and it took two good-sized days. As I was writing, I had a few struggles and a few breakthroughs and I wanted to share with you how I powered through to get the season written. I actually initially sat down to write a completely different show. I have a handful of ideas floating around with little snippets written of each. So when I parked myself in front of my computer on Friday, I wanted to bust out a sort of coming-of-age…
People talk about knowing your “type” and your “brand” so often in this town. But what if you’re all: WTF does that even MEAN? Calm down, I’ll explain. It is what it sounds like — type is basically what you can play, what your general ‘you’ is or can be. It’s not going to be far from your natural self because, let’s face it, YOU are the easiest thing for you to play. …Which means it’s incredibly important for you to be honest about who you are and what’s going on inside of you. Still confused? Let’s do a typing…
Casting Director workshops are a very hot-button issue in Los Angeles. I’m not writing this article to discuss the good or the bad of them, but to kind of walk you through a CD workshop so you know what happens in them. You can make your own choice whether you feel they’re worth the money or not! So first, you find a place close to home and relatively comfortable. A quick Google of “Casting Director Workshops” and your zip code will pop up all kinds of places — New York, L.A., wherever you are… if there’s casting, you’ll see workshops!…
Fact: acting is a consuming job. Double fact: you. need. a break. You cannot possibly hope to ever play a real person if you’re not a real person yourself. I know how much it feels like you should always be working. You’re tied to your email all week, pitching yourself and hoping you get an audition or two. Or maybe you’re scheduling lunch meetings back to back. Or you HAVE to get to the gym. Whatever it is — if it even remotely connects to your career (acting, producing, anything), you are still ‘on’. I cannot stress this enough: do…
It is going to happen. You are going to either leave your representation or find your representation leaving you — either way, it’s a reality of this business and it’s going to happen. I think the number one most important piece of advice in this business is to just be professional. You need to respond to people on time, do your homework and prepare, show up on time, and exit promptly. You can build a relationship and still be polite, which is exactly what you’re going to do with your managers and agents. You have to like each other or…
My mom is always right. “That guy is a jerk”. Correct. “Take physics before you graduate high school.” Yup. “Go to college.” And how. Most of the time, I do an alright job of listening to my mom (and my dad! they’re both great) but sometimes there are things that slip through the cracks. One of these things, for a very long time, was writing. And just as often as my mother is right, I wonder why I didn’t listen to her sooner. When she told me I was a good writer, I kind of blew it off. “It’s the…