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   6-2-11

   David H. Lawrence XVII says:

   Answer: Paid acting jobs are the Holy Grail of your acting career. With preparation, persistence and skill, you can follow several different, and eventually effective, avenues to getting paid acting jobs.
   

   
   

   Acting is unlike most careers in that, as our friend Kevin E. West of The Actors’ Network often says, you can simply declare yourself a professional actor – you don’t need to actually have secured paying work, you just have to be working towards it. So many people fall short of that goal of paid acting work that it becomes discouraging. It doesn’t have to be. This article will give you the processes that most actors use to get paid acting work, while maintaining their personal mental health.

   Make note that these individual processes don’t always bear fruit for everyone – there are far too many actors in the field and far fewer acting jobs for which they can be cast. Although it’s rarely a snap to start working for money shortly after starting your acting career, there are several ways you can approach the process with clarity and focus.

   Agent/manager submissions. The most common path to a working actor getting paid acting jobs. The agent or manager sees a breakdown for a particular part, and submits you (and, anyone else in their stable that fits the part) to the casting office for an audition. The casting office schedules you, and you go in for a pre-read audition. If you’re successful in the pre-read, you get called back, and you re-audition for the decision makers (producers, writers, director etc.) – and if you’re chosen, you book the part. The variations on this theme are many, but that’s the general process.

   
   

   Drop-offs and cold calls. Although some casting offices discourage this, and the opportunity to drop off headshots and make cold calls to casting offices located on studio lots is difficult, it’s not impossible. The act of dropping by a casting office unannounced terrifies some actors. Going with a fellow actor might be helpful, as there may be strength in numbers. Remember to be brief and professional – and to ask for the sale. Bring your headshot and resume, and be well aware of the projects the casting office working on, and what part you think you’re right for – and tell them that when you drop off your headshot/resume. Then, thank them and leave. Don’t make a pest of yourself, just a strong professional presence.

   Online casting sites. Sites like Actor’s Access, Now Casting, LA Casting and others augment the main source of paid acting jobs, Breakdown Express. These sites can have non-paying acting jobs as well, so pay attention to the breakdown for the status of the project and the role, as well as the union status of the project. Each of these sites cost from zero to $20 per month or so to be a member and pursue the jobs they list, and you can maintain a profile on each to submit electronically. Keep your BS meter on high if you range to other sites beyond these, such as Craigslist – scams abound on these non-industry related sites.

   Casting workshops. These classes, where casting directors not only give you an clear inside look at how they work, how their offices function and how they find new talent, are an excellent path to paid acting work – if you’re ready to do that work. Don’t take casting workshops to early in your career. Wait until you’re supremely confident in your acting abilities, you’ve been to acting classes and your successfully mounting scene after scene, and you’re getting feedback from your acting coaches and acting teachers that your skill level is high enough to present to the gatekeepers to paid work, network TV and studio film casting directors.

   Networking. Simply maintaining relationships with other acting professionals and production personnel, like directors, writers, editors, and even makeup and wardrobe people can lead to referrals and paid acting jobs. Joining organizations that specialize in networking functions like industry breakfasts, speaking events, free classes and the like are great opportunities to introduce your self to people that may be in a position to recommend you for paid acting work.

   
   

   Internships and project volunteering. Film festivals, charity benefits, movie premieres and the like all need volunteers to make them run smoothly – and some of these opportunities even pay a small amount. Casting offices, writing teams, agents and managers all make use of interns to help run their offices. The opportunities to be in the right place at the right time for an audition or casting increases greatly when you are present and helping propel the organization you’re volunteering for forward.

   Past work. I’ve interned in casting offices where I’ve watched casting directors go through the actors available on Breakdown Services, but only after they’ve gone to their “go-to pile,” a group of actors fitting the type they’re looking for and with whom they’ve successfully worked in the past. It’s so much easier for them to assemble an audition pool from actors they already know they can trust on the set than from a secondary group of actors with whom they have no experience.

   Fellow working actors. When you join a networking group, a cast, a project, a guild a union, even a support group where you meet other actors, you never know what projects they are working on for which you might end up being a perfect fit. And remember, it’s not about running around the room with headshots and resumes in hand asking for any potential work – it’s about being in the right place to accept the opportunity and take advantage of it when the acting job presents itself.

   This is by no means an exhaustive list – I’ve gotten bookings because of things as random as the barista at the coffee shop I was in not recognizing me from my work, but simply asking if I was an actor – and then introducing me to his aunt, the executive producer of a film that needed someone of my type. Moments like that are among the reasons acting is such a magical industry.

   What’s your answer to this acting question? Let me know in the comments below.

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