Category Archives: Business

Business and Marketing for Actors.

When to Get New Headshots

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Hey All,

I just got the edited versions of my new headshots. I’m digging the black background. We’ll see if they’re successful. With their introduction, I’m sharing my thoughts on when to get new headshots. As always, grain of salt people. Opinions will vary. Listen to your agent/manager/mom if they disagree.

1. Your Headshots Don’t Look Like You

Angela MorrisFor those who have been following me on the social media front, you know that I wrote a screenplay and that Less Than 30 goes into production this month (WHAT!?). I’m also a producer on the film, and I sat in/was the reader for the auditions. Thus, I know first hand that directors do NOT like it when you don’t look like your headshot. This is not to say that a headshot shouldn’t be a great picture of YOU, but if you’re going to look glamorous in it, you better be prepared to do that makeup for every.single.audition. Alternatively, and my favorite solution, have different headshots for your “types.” For example, in theatre I am often cast as either a cold, sexual b*tch  or the innocent (go figure) and in film I’ve mostly been playing girls next door (from manic pixie to troubled). Can you tell which one’s marketed which way? (If you can’t, tell me. Something’s getting lost in translation and I need to know).

Angela Morris2. You Hate Your Headshots

I don’t know why we do it, but a headshot we formerly loved now makes our toes curl with hate. Why do my eyes look like that?! What am I doing with my mouth!? Do I look drunkie!? Etc. If you don’t love it, you’re going to dread sending it out, so save yourself some angst at the starting gate and pony up for ones you do love.

 

 

3. You’re Rebranding

Do you want to move from “Tough Guy” to “Leading Man?” Jax Teller aside, these are very different looks and your headshot should reflect the new direction. When making a brand switch, do your research. Pinterest has some great boards devoted to actors, as well as, headshots. Look at the people whose career you hope to emulate and gather your inspiration.

Angela Morris

 

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A Couple of Redesigns

Hey All,

A little while back I decided that I absolutely hated the way that my website looked. So, I redesigned it. I also cleaned up the code. It was, to put it mildly, a hot mess.

Click here to see my new website. Tell me what you all think.

I am much happier with the way it looks. Unfortunately I’m having some issues with the CSS of my photo album. The last two pictures take the viewer back to the beginning of the slide show. I don’t know how to fix it, but I’m researching solutions.

And, as hopefully you noticed, I’ve updated the look of this blog. I wanted something more minimalist and (can you sense a theme?) cleaner.

There are also going to be some content changes that accompany this new look. I’m getting more and more into filmmaking, so I will also be sharing resources along those lines. In short, I’m expanding beyond an entirely acting based focus. So LOOK OUT WORLD.

 

RE: Networking

This is going to be a rather brief post, I’m picking up my bestie from the airport. I’m going to play tourist for the first time since I’ve been here, so I’ll share what we did on Monday. I imagine it’s going to be full of museums and food.

I’ve mentioned the Chicago Filmmakers networking event a few times, but I have some exciting news. The day before yesterday, I shot some test footage for a director I met there. I’m going to be involved in a cool project because I was trying to be proactive about meeting people in the industry.

At the event, he described what he did. I was genuinely interested and asked for his email so I could check out his work. We exchanged emails, and I followed up the next day, as I was instructed by said bestie. I watched his stuff, liked it, and told him so. He asked for for my demo reel (I don’t have one), so I sent him an audition video I put together for an agent submission. He liked it and Tuesday I was testing.

I’m not sure how often this happens, but not bad for the first time out.

Thus, get out there, be proactive!

The New Age: Transmedia Artists

Via The Underground Multiplex

RE: the networking thing I was stressing out over, it was mostly fun. I’m still not great at it, but I was definitely not the disaster that I imagined.

Part of the event, hosted by Chicago Filmmakers, included a TED style talk by LEW OJEDA and JOSEPH R. LEWIS of The Underground Multiplex. The entire presentation was great, but what really resonated with me were their thoughts on being a transmedia artist. Basically, the game has changed. No one is merely a Director, merely a DP, merely a Producer in the era of digital entertainment. If you’re going to be successful you have to wear all of the hats and you need to look good in them. No one has the luxury of specializing anymore.  Content creation is king and you must learn to rule.

During the question and answer portion of the talk, someone asked how actors might apply this idea to their work. Lewis said (paraphrasing) that when someone says the word actor, he sees someone who is not in control of their own career. He sees someone waiting for the next job to come around. In order to take charge of the uncertain career of an actor you have to–you guessed it– create. Write yourself a role you’ve always wanted to play and get it out there. 

In other news, I’ve been cast in a Columbia student film. It’s horror, and I’ve been promised that there will be “Carrie amounts of fake blood.”

Networking for Introverts

Shy Maiden by Michael Drummond

This past weekend was spent researching agencies I would like to work with, stuffing envelopes, and going out for lunch with a friend. Today, I walked to the post office to mail off my submissions, did general housekeeping, updated my paperwork, and worked on my monologues for an audition tomorrow.

In addition to that audition, I’m attending a networking event with industry folk tomorrow evening. I’m rather nervous about the prospect. Despite my passion for acting, I’m an introvert. I’d rather sit at home reading a book or tormenting my cat with a laser pointer than go out. I’m not good at the bar scene and have never been to a networking event. So, I enlisted the help of my best friend, who happens to be a master at events like these. (I tried to talk her into starting her own blog or becoming a career coach or something, but she declined.)

Some of her tips and my action plan for tomorrow evening:

1. Know what you want to get out of attending the event. (Super important. Don’t go in there without knowing why you’re there).

2. Confidence is key. Fake it if you must.

3. Scan the room immediately, look for people that suit your purpose for attending the event.

4. Spot an interesting person? Go up and introduce yourself. (Just like that, good heavens).

5. Small talk. (Yikes)

6. Exchange information.

7. Repeat.

8. Follow-up.

Her plan was much more detailed and eloquent, but I’ll save that for when I’ve finally convinced her to start a blog helping those like me.

Thoughts on Marketing Your Brand Across Social Media

I did not major in marketing. I didn’t even minor in business. However, I still wanted to share my thoughts on a cohesive aesthetic across online mediums. (Blogger, youtube, and actor website).

Actors, much as we may resist thinking of ourselves this way, are a product in a self-owned small business. I want my product to have a specific look that can be easily identified. I’m trying to brand myself across different media. The way that I’m accomplishing this goal is pretty basic; consistency in colors and images.

My biggest tie in across mediums is the color scheme. I chose blues and whites. I chose blue because it makes my eyes pop. Seriously, that’s the reason I chose that scheme.

I also have my profile picture consistent across most mediums. Further, I designed my logo and used it on both my website and my youtube channel. I deliberately didn’t use the logo on this blog because I didn’t think it was appropriate. Self-promotion is an added plus of having this blog. However, its content is not centered on me. It’s about the business, process, etc. of acting and the city of Chicago.

Here are some screen captures of various online presences:

Website Screen-capture
Blog Screen Capture
Youtube Screen-capture

A note on my twitter:
If you’ve visited my Twitter you’ll notice that the only thing that it has in common with the other mediums is my profile picture. Other than that, it’s a crazy colorful comic book type tiled background. I love it. It’s quirky, it’s eye catching, and it’s me. Is it bad that it isn’t consistent with the other mediums? I don’t know. Does my concern for cohesiveness outweigh how much I like its look? No.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on consistency across mediums. Does it matter? Am I completely full of it? Etc.

Resources: How to Design and Code an Actor Website

I read the columns on Backstage rather regularly. One such piece, by Taryn Southern, gives a list of ten online tools that an actor should be using. You can read that article by clicking here. Unsurprisingly, one of those was a website. The author warns, in another article, that you shouldn’t do this solo if you don’t have any web skills. Well…there’s no time like the present and you can learn anything on the internet.

If you’re on this blog because you’re interested in acting, let me tell you that frugality is going to be essential. With that in mind, I’ve put in lots and lots of hours of sweat equity into this most recent project. Namely, I’ve been mocking up an actor website in Photoshop Elements 5 and then painstakingly coding it in pure HTML and CSS. (Caveat: For the contact form I used php in addition to HTML and CSS).

I’ve never done this. Ever. The closest I’ve come to coding was copying and pasting the embed code from youtube into blogger. This is a completely different animal. But, as I mentioned above, you can learn almost anything on the internet.

When I’ve got my site up and running I’ll share that. For now, here’s a screen capture of the site running locally on Chrome. I ended up really liking how it turned out. Hopefully, everything will go well when I upload it to a server. I’ll probably do another post on how I chose my web host and the process of changing it over so that it will run online.

After the picture, you’ll find some of the resources I used. I pulled from all over the internet, and I know I’m leaving things out, but I hope it will help get you started.

My self-designed and coded Actor Website
Most basic: I used Notepad ++’s online demo to code the entire thing.
The resources I kept going back to were: Lifehacker;  CSS-tricks; and W3Schools.

Photoshop Mockup (I used Elements version 5 and it still worked, you’re just going to have more work-arounds if you’re using an older form of photoshop.)
CSS-tricks

Where to code
Notepad ++ Demo

Basic HTML
Lifehacker
CSS-tricks (a video about converting your mockup to both HTML and CSS)

Basic CSS
Lifehacker

Putting it together
Lifehacker

Embedding Video in HTML
HTML Goodies

Downloading PDF HTML Code (for resumes)
Whirlpool Forum

Creating a Contact Form (I’m not sure if mine works yet because it needs to be tested online)
Tangled in Design

These are the basics to get you started. If you think of something specific that you want to do, just google it. There are lots of resources out there that will get your design from photoshop to the internet.

One note: Don’t forget to test your site across browsers. Mine worked perfectly in Chrome, almost perfectly in IE, and not at all in Firefox and Safari. The issue was relative path vs. absolute path in the HTML. Chrome and IE recognized my absolute paths but the others didn’t. I sent out a cry for help via Facebook and one of my friends solved the problem for me. Thus, don’t be afraid to ask for help!