Acting: How to Create Opportunities

Here are a few ideas on maximizing any acting opportunities that might come your way, or creating the opportunities in the first place.

HAVING AN AGENT

An agent can get your face seen in places that you alone could not. This increases the likelihood of you getting work. The more swings you make, the more balls you hit! But there are many acting opportunities to be found without an agent. Though nearly all Film, TV, Broadway and Off Broadway productions will exclusively use agent submissions, you can still find work without an agent. Community and Dinner Theatre, student and some indie films will take unrepresented actors.

The more experience and skills you have the more likely it is that an agent will take you on. An agent makes money when you work, so they will be keen to sign you up if you can show what an asset you will be to them. There is nothing wrong with sending a resume and headshot (more on those later), but it's essential that you send follow-up cards letting the agent know where and when you will be working, so they can see for themselves what a good actor you are.

RESUMES

Resumes help, they help in getting an agent but once you have one, your agent will use it to get you auditions. There are some rules for resumes, here are are the major ones.

Keep it to one page (8.5 x 11), if its more than one page the pages might get separated and details lost.

Make it neat. People have been known to get around the above restriction by using a small font size, its a judgment call but if the type is too small it will be hard to read.

The headshot should be recent, but use a photograph that shows you at your absolute best.

Make sure that all your contact information is correct, its also an idea to set up an email address specifically for your acting correspondence, this may stop you deleting essential emails.

The biggest tip for resumes is: DON'T LIE! We have all exaggerated something on an application form at some time, but you should be very careful about what you say you can do on your resume. Future opportunities could be endangered if you lie and you will look foolish if you've put motorcycle riding down as a skill and on your first day on set you have to admit you did it just to get the part.

LOCAL COMMERCIALS

The majority of acting opportunities are focused around the major cities like New York and L.A. But other opportunities crop up all over the country, some of which I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The most lucrative can be commercials for local car dealerships, restaurants and large local stores. These are usually produced by local agencies who will normally use local talent because it's easier and cheaper than flying in someone from L.A. The director will still only hire actors with the relevant skill and look, but you can improve your opportunities if you have a diverse or "ethnically ambiguous" look, i.e. if you can pass for more than one type of race.

These are just some of the ways you can improve your chances of getting an acting part.