debor009

In this era of digital marketing and social media, why send paper postcards you may well ask.  Here's why: A photo postcard puts your name and face in front of casting agents repeatedly, keeps them up to date on what kinds of projects you're booking, and is more likely to be successful than other kinds of contact. Send in an 8" by 10" glossy and a resume and it goes on the "Intern pile" for filing.  Send an email and it gets lost among correspondence more important to agency business and may be deleted without being opened. Telephone? (NO PHONE CALLS!!!) A postcard is brought in and put with the casting agent's personal mail. The agent will read it when time permits and they're not distracted by other business (during coffee breaks, for example). If you're tracking the agent's projects, a postcard gives you an opportunity to make a positive personal comment and build a relationship. Not all casting agents like receiving postcards, but most do...

I attended a SAG workshop a couple of weeks ago where a recent arrival from New York City was adamant that an actor’s Klout number was now checked by every casting person in NY and Los Angeles and that it was entering into the decision to hire. I queried my agent about this and she said her talent in LA talked about it a lot. They told her it is a number that tells how well you are doing in the acting business. Famous actors have a large number;  new talent much, much smaller. Actors have to work their way up the ladder, they said - work hard, get great roles - to increase their numbers. The SAG actress who insisted it was a big deal said she had 2,500 Twitter followers and a 28 Klout number, which she said was pretty good. Well I decided to run a test using my Twitter account, because I had until then seldom tweeted anything and had only 4 followers. I started out with an 11 Klout number and within a week had manipulated it up to 31, simply by replying to tweets from large ...

Aha! I no sooner post on networking than theatrical producer John Essay publishes a column in Backstage that underscores what I said. Here's the money quote: "You need to be available for discovery. A buried treasure is hard to discover unless you know to look in the general vicinity it is located. Make yourself available. Go to plays, movies, and industry parties. Taking classes will allow you to be seen by others who may be helpful to you on your way to success." Mr. Essay doesn't give it all away (be wants to guide people to his website  after all). You'll find more detail in my post below.  Still, it's nice to see someone make the same point. Stand out in the crowd By the way, I went to a workshop last night presented by a famous acting coach. Of the 60 or so actors in the audience, only three were wearing what I would call a signature look. Everyone else was dressed in dark colors and jeans, and half of them (men and women) were wearing similar dark-fra...