Create your own work

This will be short.

There is a catch 22 in Hollywood.

Basically, in order to work you need to be well known, and in order to be well known you need to work.

This is not 100% true, but it is true enough.

So here is my tip for the day:

Create your own projects.

I'm sure that you aren't the only actor that you know, so find someone from class, or your day job and shoot a scene once a month. Hell, make it a webseries and put it on Youtube.

Is it really that simple?

Well it can be.

Can you borrow a cheap camera? Does your computer have video editing software? Do you really have anything to lose?


SAG / AFTRA paperwork may slow you down if you are a member (although, I have heard rumor that you can't be penalized for performing in your own production without filing paperwork. But I don't know if that is true so check beforehand)

So can special effects and the like.

But if you think of it as practice, a chance to act once a month, with the option of publishing it if its good and the freedom to throw it away if it's bad; you will gain:

Reel footage
A knowledge of camera angles
An understanding about production and editing
And if you are lucky, perhaps a following.

So get out there and shoot something!

Edward