acting help?

Question

okay so i went to a professional acting school for a year about 12 monthes ago but stopped going because i thought i would never get any jobs or an agent. i wanted to do movies/television.it's been a year and i keep thinking i have made a mistake i love creating characters and different expressions.does anyone have any ideas on how to get into the buisness on my own. i really want to do it i'm just scared i won't get enough money to support myself. oh by the way i'm almost 17

Answer 1

People invest much more than a year in their career. Many, many people invest years before they secure an agent. If your heart is in acting, you will always bounce back into it - even if you decide once, or twice or more that you've made a mistake, as you wrote.

It is great that you've made the point that you love creating characters and expressing yourself through them. If acting for the sake of acting is your focus, your head is in the right place. You'll also need to learn about the business side of being an actor.

Be patient. Be positive. Take classes. Work hard. Learn from watching and listening to others. Audition whenever you can. Read books on acting and about actors and about filmmaking and the stage.

Be "in the moment." Good advice for any actor. :) Don't count the days, the weeks, the months. Prepare yourself for the opportunity that is bound to materialize if you are trained and ready to go when the moment is right.

Never operate from fear. Fear keeps you down. Fear is an excuse for not doing things.

Be smart about your finances. Look for a career that will help pay for your acting habit. And look for a "day job" that makes you feel good about yourself. Doing something that helps others in some way is the best advice I can give you. I know some wonderful actors who are doing other jobs. One actor friend is a school Physical Education coach. He just did a nice commercial. Two other fine actor friends are servers at restaurants. They are actors who work in restaurants. They are not waiters who just say they are actors. There's a difference.

College is important, in case that isn't on your list of "to dos." You can always start with your general education units, while you formulate a strong plan for your future.

Anyway, take away the fear factor and think about what you really want to do with your life.

Answer 2

First, since you're under age you need to have the full support of your parents. Most people get a lot of rejection and it's not to have a soft place to land when that happens. Just know that it's part of the journey and if you keep at it with a smile on your face, you will get there.

Also, it's not the school's job to get you an agent or a job, that responsibility still lies with you. If you want to find a legitimate agent to represent you for commercials, TV & film go to Sag.org. Use the dropdown menu on the right labeled 'resources' and choose 'agent information'. On the next screen, on the left choose 'Find a SAG franchised agent' and follow the directions. You can look up agents all over the US, but there are higher concentrations where the work is (Los Angeles, NY, IL, FL, GA etc.)

Then you can send them your headshot, resume, and a cover letter stating that you are seeking representation and wait to see if they call you in for an interview.

Once you have an agent, they will get you the auditions, but until then you shoul stay as active as you can. You can check out actorsaccess.com. You can also see if your state has a film alliance. Sometimes they post audition information for projects filming locally. For theatre, you can go to backstage.com or http://www.actorsequity.org/castingcall/... If you find the audition on the Equity site, you still may be able to go, as long as their not taking appointments from equity actor's only :-) On backstage.com you have to pay to get all of the info, but the initial search is free and you may be able to see enough info to find out the rest on your own without paying. Get into any project that you can to stay working.

Good luck!

Answer 3

How can I get started acting?

Hi there,

This is a question I get almost daily on my website....how to get started acting. In fact it is a question that I have seen young actors have over the last three years and it is one that inspired me in a big way to create two resources that I will tell you about in a minute.

It's important to know what it really means to be a working actor. Maybe you already know. I don't have much information about you other than what you wrote.

Here are some of the issues that actors face before they even get close to working:

http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/start_an_acting_career.html

There are certainly more of these issues, but this is the reality. I certainly don't want to rain on your parade, but rather to help you understand that you need in my opinion four things that will help you get started so that one day you will have a good chance of getting work as an actor.

Knowing that many, many, many young actors and even older ones have the same issues and hearing about them over and over again, and knowing that I had the same issues not long ago, I decided to create a resource for this same group of people. It’s my recently published book: Acting Career Start-Up: Four Key Factors For Success and it can be found on amazon.com and barnesandnobles.com. It takes you through four critical and crucial steps that I consistently see actors overlook and skip, because they’re too impatient and want to jump in right away instead of first creating the base. To find out more about what those four key factors are, I have created a whole page around it with an audio file for you to listen to:
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/start_acting_career.html

I say all this to let you know, something that you already know which is that there will be a lot of things to do before you get there. You will need clarity about what it is you really want in your life and in your acting career, motivation, determination, thick skin, a method of planning, business skills and you will need to see how real, working actors put these things into practice.

While you’re here at the site, have a look around and go take the actor quiz. I twill help you realize some things you know and things that you don’t but should know with regard to your acting career. http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/actor_quiz.html

After all this, you need to study, study, study. I would advise you to get information about the different acting techniques and methods that there are and then choose one. Here is some other information in the following links that can help you in choosing classes and schools and to learn more about the different techniques there are:
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/acting_classes.html
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/acting_books.html

One last thing. Be aware of all the other types of acting possibilities there are:
Film, television, theater are the obvious ones. There is also hosting, industrials, commercials, commercial print, student films, independent films, spokesperson. They can help you to bridge the gap on your way to becoming the actor you really want to become.

I hope this gives you some insight and I hope to have made you think.

Best of luck!

Tony
http://www.actingcareerstartup.com/start_acting_career.html

Answer 4

Look I'm 16 yrs. old and live in OKC! We have NO type of film productions here locally. I love acting and one thing I can say is Acting is it's own school. You know as you pay for college you pay for acting. When getting into this business your boud to spend a few hundred dollars! I'm sure you learned something about acting in the classes but I must tell you, in order to develop as an actor you must see to experience as much of life as possible and try to apply and adopt to your character. I see a lot on stage when I act with others that they never change who they are, they remain themselves. As an actress you must change your way of thinking, motive, and expressions to see fit your character. And all I can say is this is my dream and my passion and not to brag but I'm damn good at it! So if acting is what you love doing then go out there and pursue your dreams!

Answer 5

Cheak out the actors union and go to a city that has a lot of union actors. And don't quit your day job, break a leg.

Answer 6

send your pic to some casting agents -
always learn a skill to survive -
best of luck!