Into The Great Postal Void

Those of you who are regular readers of this blog may remember me talking about something I call Phase II. Phase II has two parts....first a mailing of headshots, resume, and a short cover letter to talent agencies, and secondly, doing the same with casting directors.

Part one of phase two had the result of my signing for commercial representation with a very well respected LA agency. I am still seeking theatrical (film & TV) representation.

Now for part two....yesterday I sent out mailers, again with headshot, resume, and a short cover letter to twenty-one casting directors who are currently casting films. The same organization that puts out the Casting Directors Guide every two months, also has a web version which is far more up to date. Since the Casting Directors Guide costs $13 every two months and the on-line version costs $5 per month, signing up for the online version was pretty much a no brainer, as it is less expensive and updated weekly instead of every two months.

What will be the result of those twenty-one mailers to casting directors? In truth, I have no idea, as this is virgin territory for me. As the title of this blog entry says, these mailers went into the great postal void. Maybe I will get no responses, or maybe I will get three or four responses. Still, for an unknown actor, it is market or perish in LA, so sending mailers to casting directors is a must. Also sending mailers to casting directors is somewhat of an on-going process, as in a week or two I will do the research to find out what new productions are casting and send mailers to those casting directors. A week or two later I will do the same, and so on. By the way, these mailers went (and will go in the future) only to theatrical casting directors, as the very nice lady who is my agent with my commercial agency informed me in a recent phone conversation, that commercial casting directors rarely, if ever, even bother to look at mailers sent to them from actors.

There have been a few developments in union status desirability in the LA market, particularly on the television side. It is still quite desirable for an actor to first become SAG eligible, and then at the proper time join SAG. However, because of the recent uncertainty as to what the SAG membership was going to do about a new contract (and the length of time this deliberation went on) many national TV shows have switched from being SAG affiliated to being aligned with AFTRA. This has several ramifications for actors, casting directors, producers, etc. AFTRA has no eligibility or waiting period. To join AFTRA you simply visit their office, tell them you want to join, pay the fees, and presto!, you are a member of AFTRA.

The Taft-Hartley law says that within 31 days after you do your first AFTRA job you must join AFTRA, or as I said in the paragraph above, prior to doing your first AFTRA sanctioned job you may join any time you wish.

Now, one correction to something I said in an earlier blog entry about contacting talent agencies. I said some require you to drop off your headshot and resume in person. That was in error. Although a very few will still allow you to drop by and leave these items in person, none that I have found require you to do so. The mail is still the method of choice for contacting most talent agencies, with some accepting electronic submissions.

Tomorrow I have a private lesson with my downtown Hollywood acting coach. It's always an intense one hour workout with him, and one that I look forward to and enjoy a great deal. Whether it goes well (which some have), doesn't go well (which others have) or is somewhere in between, I always leave my lesson feeling I am a better actor than I was when I arrived.

The same holds true with lessons from my Hollywood Hills acting coach, and that is, of course, why I continue to take private lessons from both gentlemen.

We'll talk again, soon......................