Los Angeles Acting blog by David August

SAG Board Approves Merger Package with AFTRA

2012-01-27T22:20:00.000-08:00

The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today voted overwhelmingly to approve and recommend a plan to merge with AFTRA.

Should the AFTRA board approve the merger package as well, a referendum will be sent out for a vote by members of both unions in the coming weeks. The proposed name for the new union is SAG-AFTRA.

Approved: 87.1% - 12.9%

(from sag.org).

Postage Rates Increased

2012-01-23T22:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the US Postal Service raised prices for mailing things, including first class mail, which is what most actors use when sending dead-tree (paper) versions of their headshots and postcards.

Details can be read on their site and they have a postcard rate calculator, but I suggest using forever stamps. Most headshots will need 2. That way you never need to worry about the prices changing (and you save the difference every time they increase prices).

SAG and AFTRA must merge

2012-01-23T11:45:00.000-08:00

SAG and AFTRA must merge. United we stand divided we fall. Call the merged union "Screen Television and Radio" actors: STAR. More on why the unions should merge here.

How to Join SAG

2012-01-18T11:01:00.000-08:00

There are currently 2 main ways to join the Screen Actors Guild (SAG):

Obtaining 3 SAG vouchers (pay stubs) for background work (extra work)
work as a speaking actor on a SAG project, as a principle

An actor may join after getting 3 vouchers when the actor chooses. If an actor works as a principle actor they may then join, but might not need to immediately.

The Taft-Hartley Act, a federal law, is the reason one may work a union job their first time without joining. For the next 30 days after that first day of work an actor may work on any SAG shoot without having to join. On day 31 or after, if the actor wishes to work another day on SAG shoot, the actor must join. There have been rumored exceptions to this in practice, but that is how the rules are written.

An actor may work non-union shoots at any time before they join the union. All of the above is the same for AFTRA, simply substitute "AFTRA" for "SAG." As with all things, this may change, so patience and investigation may be needed for your situation.

SAG & AFTRA Reach Agreement on Merger Recommendation to National Boards

2012-01-17T10:51:00.000-08:00

The AFTRA and SAG Group for One Union (G1) met for nine days in Los Angeles to continue the process of creating a successor union to SAG and AFTRA. After productive discussions and reaching consensus, a Merger Package was approved by the G1 to send to the respective boards of AFTRA and SAG for approval. The SAG National Board of Directors will meet on Jan. 27 and 28 to review and vote on the package, which includes a Merger Agreement and Constitution. The AFTRA National Board of Directors will meet on Jan. 28 and, if needed, Jan. 29 to review and vote on the package.

Details of the proposed merger package will not be released prior to the AFTRA and SAG board meetings

(from sag.org). Please read why the unions must merge for the benefit of all actors and producers.

What Makes Films Satisfying

2012-01-14T04:15:00.000-08:00

...the five essential elements of well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning and accomplishment...

She [Lindsay Doran] broke down their [films'] emotional components, isolated the elements of mood elevation and tested her findings against those of market researchers. She concluded: Positive movies do not necessarily have happy endings; their characters' personal relationships trump personal achievements.

People not only use movies and music as soma to feel good, they use it to open themselves to others. It may follow that watching narratives about positive relationships in a darkened room alongside others is elevating.

the accomplishment the audience values most is not when the heroine saves the day or the hero defeats his opponent...the accomplishment the audience values most is resilience

(from The New York Times).

Workshops Are Costly

2012-01-10T14:57:00.000-08:00

A friend posted online ...after spending $1,200 on 23 casting director workshops in 10 months... they have been called in for a student film. A $1,200 short film self-produced and done well may advance things more than this. Workshops can work, but are exceedingly capital intensive compared to other methods. Yes, I know someone who spent $30,000 on workshops, and combined with other efforts did book a great recurring role, but I'm not sure the return on investment made them break even until a few years residuals came in.

Also note the friend who paid to go to a workshop with a casting director who knew them. When the casting director saw them they said to the actor you're a good actor, you don't have to pay to get seen. Workshops can "work," but are a very expensive (capital intensive) way to pursue things. As with all things in our careers, caveat actor.

Finding Auditions During Pilot Season Without an Agent

2012-01-09T22:45:00.001-08:00

This is a big topic and could cover more than one post. A friend asked about this, so I thought I'd share my preliminary ideas. Please leave a comment with yours.

Marketing directly to casting and producers is possible, but without a rep may lack the element of having someone casting trusts recommending you, and compensation for that lack is not always easy. Keep in mind also that Pilot Season is not as formal or big as it was in years past; many pilots shoot year round.

All that said, ideal methods without a rep often include things like being in a project that gets acclaim at acclaimed festivals (think Sundance and Cannes) in the weeks/months leading up to pilot season. Recent career developments can provide some marketing momentum and good footage that people may encounter organically or be open to viewing. Again, these can serve in part as the social proof that having a good rep would.

Knowing what casting problems one solves (who you are as an actor to the marketplace, not necessarily who you actually are as a human being or who you want to be as an actor), and finding a way to helpfully pitch for those moments is useful. Again, hard to cut through the noise of many many other people (reps, actors and others) vying for the casting director and producers' attention.

Knowing what the role breakdown for this season may look like it impossible before pilots get ordered and such, but last year's pilot season role breakdown can give some insight.

I posted before a partial list of where one may look for auditions oneself.

Warner Brothers May Be Silly About Rentals

2012-01-07T15:12:00.000-08:00

There are murmurs that the deal mentioned is not actually how the deal was made, but some of the issues remain relevant. As I've mentioned before, various times, the audience wants to watch what they want, when they want, where they want, and entertainment businesses can either let them do it with the business' cooperation and help, or let pirates fill the demand and be left financially out of it.

Warner Bros. just revamped deals with Redbox, Blockbuster and Netflix effectively doubling the wait time for them to get new releases. What it really means is, they're making you wait longer and trying to force you to buy discs earlier, it sounds underhanded to me at a time when they just seemed to be seeing the light of the modern era. Personally, I'll just boycott new disc purchasing.

I mean seriously, the overall effect is probably going to be heightened piracy. Someone will buy the Blu-Ray, rip it and off it will go round the world. Those who were tired of waiting 28 days are certainly going to be far from pleased with having to wait 56 days and so, will turn to piracy. Maybe this is their ploy and then they can say "See we NEED SOPA!" (which we don't, that bill is horrible, just go read it)

(from ReelSEO). There is recent precedent of piracy increasing when releasing is delayed.

Entertainment Distribution and Storefronts Are Merging

2012-01-04T11:00:00.000-08:00

The middleman is under attack on all fronts, whether its in video, music/audio and e-books. As devices like TVs become connected, as books become e-readers and tablets, and music is now digital, the storefront is fast-becoming the entire distribution chain.

independent content creators stand to gain the most through massive reductions in the cost of recording equipment and editing software, as well as the greater availability of streaming video service on connected devices. They gain new distribution opportunities for their content and greater possibility for monetization

(from gigaom).

Is Reality TV Union Work

2012-01-03T16:15:00.000-08:00

It can be union, it depends on the reality show. Some reality TV shows are covered under an AFTRA contract, some are not. Geography of the shoot is not really a factor, the contract the producers have signed or offer is. When a reality show is AFTRA, it is covered under the TV contract they just negotiated, that doesn't keep up with inflation.

For example, "Survivor" is an AFTRA show, as is "American Idol" though I don't think contestants are covered by an AFTRA contract unless and until they advance to something beyond the initial auditions. Many of the cable reality shows are not covered under AFTRA. It is not clear if a union actor appearing as themselves on a show that purports to be unscripted is crossing the union line by "working" on a non-union reality show. Please share your take in a comment.

I have heard a rumor that "According to a recent Sag-Aftra meeting in Boston it was determined that a union actor playing themselves in a reality series is NOT a violation of Rule 1" and therefore not prohibited.

Productions Shooting in LA Increased in 2011

2012-01-03T14:57:00.000-08:00

On-location shooting in Los Angeles and other local jurisdictions grew 4.2% year-over-year in 2011, permit coordinator FilmL.A.

On the feature side, LA production increased 5.7% compared with 2010, with projects that qualified for the tax credit accounting for 11.5% of that total. Big shoots like Warner Bros' The Dark Knight Rises and Oliver Stone’s Savages also helped the region overcome a 26.4% drop in fourth-quarter production days. Commercials shoots, meanwhile, were up 4.4% to a record 7,079 days

(from deadline).

Broadway Theatre Goer Demographics Shifted

2012-01-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

...the average Main Stem theatergoer was white, wealthy, well educated and female. Last season, in fact, the Broadway showgoer was whiter than ever: Caucasians accounted for more than 82% of the season's 12.5 million theatergoers vs. 76% of the 11.9 million attendees in 2009-10...

...average age downticked from 45 to 44...10% decline in tickets sales to international tourists...

(from Variety). There was also a 10% decline in

Weinstein Company Producing Stage Musical

2012-01-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

The Weinstein Company, heavyweight producers in Hollywood, is moving ahead with development of its first stage musical, "Finding Neverland," after staged readings of the script and score in London last week that executives deemed a success

(from The New York Times).

No Matter What

2011-12-21T09:05:00.000-08:00

An extension of "The Show Must Go On" is that while all actors act, professional actors act no matter what. No matter what else is going on in the actor's life or in the world, the actor is expected, like any other job, to do their job. This can mean that even if you've had a bad day, even lost a loved one or something else terrible and tragic, the job is to act anyway. I'm not saying it will be pleasant, or even possible to give the focus and performance one would like to, but by and large an actor is charged with doing the job well even in less than ideal circumstances.

Hopefully future sudden losses, wars or other extremes may not make it into your career, or mine, but no matter what, we live one life only. Without being too dramatic: if something was worth doing on your last day alive, than it is worth doing today. If the project you are performing in or auditioning for is worth your time and attention, than it still is worth your time and attention on the worst day of your life.

You may be devastated and unable to work. That's ok. But the work is still worth doing, and if you can't do it due to extraordinary hardship or tragedy, it being left undone by you simply underscores the badness of the hardship or tragedy. We do what we can when we can, and being overwhelmed or hurt to the point of incapacity is understandable, sometimes unavoidable. Still great to soldier on, to entertain, create, collaborate even when the world is falling apart.

Acting is just as noble an undertaking as any other. One can even argue in some ways it may be more noble than many. The United States now spends more money on entertainment than it does on food. Our country has voted with their money and agrees: acting is worth doing no matter what.

Data Mining Shakespeare

2011-12-16T14:28:00.000-08:00

Folger Shakespeare Library director Michael Witmore is using 21st-century tools to analyze the Bard's work. When data-mining techniques borrowed from the sciences and business research were applied to classic Shakespearean plays, surprising discoveries were made

(from Fast Company via Brian Smith). I'm not sure all the conclusions mentioned are very useful: machines don't need to tell us what is funny and what is serious.

Wikipedia May Go Dark to Protest Piracy Law

2011-12-13T01:16:00.000-08:00

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales blogs that he is considering a blackout of pages on the popular site to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt says it [the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act] amounts to a license for corporate censorship

(from Deadline.com).

AFTRA Negotiates Network TV Contract

2011-12-09T23:04:00.000-08:00

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO... today announced that AFTRA members have reached a tentative agreement with the four major television broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) and other producers on terms for a successor agreement to the AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Network Television Broadcasting, aka, the "Front of the Book."

(from Deadline.com). Note that the 2% wage increase for each year amounts to a 1.5% pay cut per year since it does not keep up with the inflation rate in United States [which] was last reported at 3.5 percent in October of 2011 (inflation data from Trading Economics who got their data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Theaters Designate Seats for Twitter Users

2011-12-06T11:01:00.000-08:00

A tweet seat is a seat in a theater that has been approved by the theater for use by someone who would like to tweet a performance. Whip out your cellphone and start tweeting at a rock show and nobody will notice -- the rest of audience is probably shooting cellphone pictures anyway. But try that at the opera and you'll be glared at, unless you are in a tweet seat

(from Los Angeles Times).

Self-Doubt is Par

2011-11-23T10:43:00.000-08:00

I still have those voices, in your head "I'm no good" ...and I fight that.

-Gary Oldman

De-Commodify Yourself

2011-11-23T10:39:00.000-08:00

I've mentioned before the risks of actors being commoditized and the value of being indispensable. Here is a glimpse from Hugh MacLeod on how to de-commodify yourself: know who you are and what you uniquely do.

Whether you are selling wine or accounting services, you need to ask yourself: Why do you do what you do, and what makes your _________ different from the next guys'? Your customers have lots of choices, too many in fact, and unless you are giving them a real reason to do business with you that differentiates what you do in a meaningful way, you're toast.

Samuel French Launches Ebooks Today

2011-11-15T13:32:00.000-08:00

Samuel French has begun offering plays digitally today. Currently only supporting Apple's iBookstore, they plan also to be available on the Kindle, Nook and other readers soon. Digital scripts could make iPads, iPhones and other readers more common on stage during rehearsal. Dramatists Play Service, Music Theatre International and other publishers have not announced similar plans, but some of Dramatists Play Service's plays may already be available through the fairly obscure Google eBook Store.

Google Funded Entertainment Changing Paradigm

2011-11-15T08:49:00.000-08:00

So far the TV industry has done exactly the wrong thing. Instead of embracing change, it's fighting it. The problem is it's defending the indefensible. The TV model has gone rotten from all sides. On the content side, writers and producers hate dealing with bloated studios that have appointed themselves gatekeepers for what shows can be made. On the consumer side, nobody wants to pay $150 per month for 500 channels of stuff they don’t want, which is why more and more people are unplugging their cable subscriptions, and why an entire generation of young people have never bought into TV in the first place. From the business side, advertisers realize TV makes less sense than it once did and are moving away.

(from The Daily Beast).

Quit

2011-11-02T13:02:00.001-07:00

Quit what is sapping your energy and attention away from what you really want to be doing. We all have a limited amount of focus that we can give things. This is not a negative glass half empty thing, it's about using what you have well, marshaling resources.

If you've been working on project, but never seem to finish it, decide now whether or not you will finish it no matter what. A hard yes or no. If yes, then do it. If no, then abandon it utterly and abandon it right this instant.

Every molecule of attention that you spend on something you will not see through to the end is waste.

Bob Fraser, the accomplished actor, writer, producer and a dearly missed friend, father and husband, said in a seminar he taught:

Do not waste your time. It's all you've got, your entire wealth.

I have yet to imagine a way this is not true. All talents, money and other things evaporate in the face of time running out. So quit something now. Decide now, as you read this, what thing that you have been doing you will stop doing. Decide to stop doing it from this moment on. It can be a simple as unsubscribing to a magazine, or as effective as never smoking again. Use the extra time and attention on career, spending time with family, or simply as unstructured downtime (which is very important, but that's probably worth a separate post).

Seth Godin has written a book about when to quit called "The Dip", and it is available on Kindle and hardcover, and is a good, pretty quick read. Its basic thesis, and strong advice is: if you will quit at all, quit right now, if you will not, quit everything else that you can quit right now, and you'll get farther along with the thing/s you stay with for the long haul.

AFTRA Moves to Cover Music Videos

2011-10-20T13:44:00.000-07:00

More than 160 dancers and choreographers gathered Monday night in Los Angeles at the North Hollywood Performing Arts Center for a special event co-hosted by AFTRA and Dancers' Alliance to discuss plans to escalate a campaign to win a fair and first industry-wide agreement covering dancers and other performers who work in music videos

(from aftra.com). More on their organizing efforts for music videos on their site.