It is very easy for industry professionals and those actors lucky enough to be in work to advise others to constantly develop new skills/hone existing skills, to observe filming processes whenever possible, add material to their portfolio, and network, network, network. But trying to do all these things while job offers are non-existent, finances are low, and anxiety is sky-high requires not just super-human will and persistence, but the ability to juggle job-hunting, your budget and your increasing sense of panic with this eternal quest for self-improvement. Working against, it seems, all other odds, keeping your desire and belief that you will eventually be a successful working actor alive is more a matter of controlling the ever-increasing worry and doubt than the will to persist.
For example, if it is proving almost impossible to quash the idea that you may never work, it becomes very difficult to spend your precious job-hunting time and rapidly decreasing funds on taking yet more classes when still you might not look right for the part, and still you look like all the other 20-something year olds on an agent's books, and still you won't have had enough work to get any work...
But if you will decide to be an actor, you must find the will and means to persist. As many of my ex-drama school tutors would say, there comes a point where I must stop "being in my head so much", "just do it", and "live in the moment". So off I went to London this weekend to try my best to repress my anxieties and "live in the moment" at the Actor Expo.
This proved to be a mixture of disappointment, followed by pleasant surprise, mixed with networking that would make any conscientious actor cringe.
For example, if it is proving almost impossible to quash the idea that you may never work, it becomes very difficult to spend your precious job-hunting time and rapidly decreasing funds on taking yet more classes when still you might not look right for the part, and still you look like all the other 20-something year olds on an agent's books, and still you won't have had enough work to get any work...
But if you will decide to be an actor, you must find the will and means to persist. As many of my ex-drama school tutors would say, there comes a point where I must stop "being in my head so much", "just do it", and "live in the moment". So off I went to London this weekend to try my best to repress my anxieties and "live in the moment" at the Actor Expo.
This proved to be a mixture of disappointment, followed by pleasant surprise, mixed with networking that would make any conscientious actor cringe.
The idea was fantastic: a careers/networking day for actors and others
in the acting industry.
I had images in my mind of professional actors milling around the networking cafe, with maybe the odd agent or casting director popping in for a chat; spectacular performances on the stage which really inspired those watching to better themselves as performers; and classes and seminars ran by professionals, for professionals.
The reality was slightly different.
The majority of those who attended seemed to be aspiring to go to drama school - I met very few actors while I was there, and the so called "networking cafe" was really just a cafe. I saw just two performances on stage, both of which were amateur and neither of which we could hear, as performers were unable to project and were fighting to be heard over the noise of the hall; instead of inspiring me to better myself as an actor, these performances merely inspired me to leave.
The one class I did attend was actually fantastic (this is where the pleasant surprise came in!), and lived up to half of my imagined image - a class run by professionals, for... well, everyone really. Nick Hardcastle who ran the Screen Test session with the London Academy of Media Film and TV was extremely patient and pleasant to work with, and as an actor himself was able to give concise notes that focused on your character's task and the choices you had made as an actor.
Many of the less experienced participants constantly referred to emotions they were trying to play, and it was a relief to observe that instead of acknowledging this, Nick simply encouraged them to focus on their task and their choices. I had attended this class as I am always looking to gain more experience in front of a camera, but after some of the more obvious advice that was being offered in the exhibition hall, I was pleasantly surprised by the notes on both acting and camera technique that were given in this class.
I wouldn't like to refer to the cringe-worthy networking that took place next in too much detail as it seems unfair to the actor who probably did not have enough experience to realise that it was inappropriate (of course, it could have just been an extreme lack of common sense).
However, when a professional refuses to take your CV, it is probably not a good idea to pursue the idea that he thought you were "rubbish" and to persist in trying to push your CV on him. Upon refusal, a polite "ok, it was nice to meet you" would suffice.
All in all, the Actor Expo was an absolutely fantastic event for young, aspiring actors but of little help to those who had just graduated and were seeking to further their contacts or perhaps seeking more advanced tuition (many of the courses advertised were targeted at "beginners"). However, I hope this event continues each year and as its popularity grows, perhaps more and more industry professionals will begin to attend. Hopefully, if the event continues to be a success, a similar event will be set up in the North which will provide northern actors with details of performance classes, makeup/photography/design services, northern agencies and new/fringe theatre, etc, as there was no escaping the fact that this event was designed for London-based actors.
Or perhaps it is simply the week to discriminate against northern actors, as Emmerdale axes nearly a third of its extras. Is there another truth behind why this has happened? Surely the only excuse cannot be that they want less background artists in order to make the village more "authentic". Am I the only person who concentrates on the main characters in soap operas, rather than tallying up the amount of new actors in the background? And in fact, if there are people out there who pay that much attention to the background artists... aren't they going to want to know a little more about the mass suicide? Or the new cult taking over the country that caused a significant portion of the village to suddenly and spontaneously migrate to the Highlands? And are we never to see the temporary occupants of the B & B enjoying their dinner in The Woolpack?
Maybe the truth is that ITV are being forced to let some of their extras go due to the drastic effect the current state of the economy has had on the company, but they are not announcing this for fear of their shares dropping dramatically and consequently going out of business. (I must stress this is all speculation, ITV probably are not suffering horribly in the present climate and I understand little about the economy. I'm an actor.)
I had images in my mind of professional actors milling around the networking cafe, with maybe the odd agent or casting director popping in for a chat; spectacular performances on the stage which really inspired those watching to better themselves as performers; and classes and seminars ran by professionals, for professionals.
The reality was slightly different.
The majority of those who attended seemed to be aspiring to go to drama school - I met very few actors while I was there, and the so called "networking cafe" was really just a cafe. I saw just two performances on stage, both of which were amateur and neither of which we could hear, as performers were unable to project and were fighting to be heard over the noise of the hall; instead of inspiring me to better myself as an actor, these performances merely inspired me to leave.
The one class I did attend was actually fantastic (this is where the pleasant surprise came in!), and lived up to half of my imagined image - a class run by professionals, for... well, everyone really. Nick Hardcastle who ran the Screen Test session with the London Academy of Media Film and TV was extremely patient and pleasant to work with, and as an actor himself was able to give concise notes that focused on your character's task and the choices you had made as an actor.
Many of the less experienced participants constantly referred to emotions they were trying to play, and it was a relief to observe that instead of acknowledging this, Nick simply encouraged them to focus on their task and their choices. I had attended this class as I am always looking to gain more experience in front of a camera, but after some of the more obvious advice that was being offered in the exhibition hall, I was pleasantly surprised by the notes on both acting and camera technique that were given in this class.
I wouldn't like to refer to the cringe-worthy networking that took place next in too much detail as it seems unfair to the actor who probably did not have enough experience to realise that it was inappropriate (of course, it could have just been an extreme lack of common sense).
However, when a professional refuses to take your CV, it is probably not a good idea to pursue the idea that he thought you were "rubbish" and to persist in trying to push your CV on him. Upon refusal, a polite "ok, it was nice to meet you" would suffice.
All in all, the Actor Expo was an absolutely fantastic event for young, aspiring actors but of little help to those who had just graduated and were seeking to further their contacts or perhaps seeking more advanced tuition (many of the courses advertised were targeted at "beginners"). However, I hope this event continues each year and as its popularity grows, perhaps more and more industry professionals will begin to attend. Hopefully, if the event continues to be a success, a similar event will be set up in the North which will provide northern actors with details of performance classes, makeup/photography/design services, northern agencies and new/fringe theatre, etc, as there was no escaping the fact that this event was designed for London-based actors.
Or perhaps it is simply the week to discriminate against northern actors, as Emmerdale axes nearly a third of its extras. Is there another truth behind why this has happened? Surely the only excuse cannot be that they want less background artists in order to make the village more "authentic". Am I the only person who concentrates on the main characters in soap operas, rather than tallying up the amount of new actors in the background? And in fact, if there are people out there who pay that much attention to the background artists... aren't they going to want to know a little more about the mass suicide? Or the new cult taking over the country that caused a significant portion of the village to suddenly and spontaneously migrate to the Highlands? And are we never to see the temporary occupants of the B & B enjoying their dinner in The Woolpack?
Maybe the truth is that ITV are being forced to let some of their extras go due to the drastic effect the current state of the economy has had on the company, but they are not announcing this for fear of their shares dropping dramatically and consequently going out of business. (I must stress this is all speculation, ITV probably are not suffering horribly in the present climate and I understand little about the economy. I'm an actor.)
Everything's so London-centric. Cannot be bothered with it. It is not the centre of the universe, and it's not the centre of showbiz, as much as people would have you think. You see people of all ethnicities on the tv, but of all regions? Of all native UK-isle accents? Nope. I say, leave 'em to it, and try rejuvenate industries further north. If a programme could do for Glasgow BBC what Doctor Who did for Cardiff, that would be a great start. Manchester's got a great hub of tv production already, but there can always be more of course. And Byker Grove should never have gone away. Where's the North East now? Ah, yes, the dire dryness of Waterloo Road.
I don't understand why it's so hard to have relevant programming from each regional area, that represents that area, and originates from there, in talent and production.
The organisers of the Actor Expo did say they were hoping to take it north if the one in London proved popular enough.