Finding Confidence

Everything that you are working toward should make you a stronger and more confident actor. It is important to understand who you are as a person, an actor, a company and the product your company markets. I believe the actor’s product is not his/her look, voice, or uniqueness of personality. For me the actor’s product is the use of life energy to radiate and activate talents to Talent. I believe your product is the ability to penetrate an audience’s life energy and bring them a feeling of peace. I believe it is the power to take reach out to the life energy of the audience and, for the time you are given with them, give them a respite from their internal dialogue of survival. You can do this if you understand the power and control of your product. I have discussed how this power is enhanced by knowing how to follow the process of taking talents to Talent. That ability to acquire knowledge and through physical repetition of that knowledge convert it to muscle memory. This physiological process that I have discussed in detail in earlier blogs is your path to finding success and happiness in this or any life effort.

If you understand the value of knowing how the two businesses within the acting profession can be used by the aspiring actor you will gain an enormous advantage over your competition. This understanding will make your career path clearer and stronger. It will build a greater confidence. And for me, confidence resides with the spirit and, confidence comes from knowledge having been taken to a talent.

The Sound of Confidence

Confidence is not an idea. Once found it is a place that you go that overrides your fears and anxieties. When work on going to that place of confidence you are in control of who you are and what you can expect to achieve. Confidence is solid and therefore when you are in it your whole body takes on the power of being in charge of your destiny.

Many years ago I was helping Madeleine Lee Gilford with casting in New York City for a major California based television producer. Madeline had worked as an actress, a Broadway producer, a teacher and a major casting director. I was fortunate enough to become her protege when I first came to New York to seek my place in the entertainment business. She had asked me to rent an audition hall for this new television show. I found what I thought was a great deal at a convenient location. It was a newly remodeled space and the price seemed just right. When I called to say I had found an audition hall she asked for details. When I described it to her she told me not to take it, it was unacceptable. She told me she should have given me more detail as to what she wanted. She needed a space with wooden floors and at least 15 feet from the door to her desk. When I asked why this was so important she told me something I realized to be of monumental importance to casting, auditioning and life. She told me that she would know if someone was going to be considered for a role by listening to the sound of their footsteps as they approached her desk. That sound indicated the degree of confidence the actor possessed and the determination of their expectations.

I later defined this place of confidence as working as your highest level of physical and emotional control. I defined this physical position as working from your strongest position of knowledge and power to date. I called it being at one’s peak energy performance level.

Peak Energy Performance Level

I want you to be aware of your personal peak energy performance level. I want you to be aware of how you feel when you know that you are in control of what you are doing at any given time and release doubts about those things you yet do not know. That knowledge will come but you must activate what you do know to physical power and know what that physical placement feels like. Being able work from your peak energy performance level to date allows you to always be making that physical place continue to gain strength. To do this you must control your knowledge through physical focus and awareness of that current place of being. When you have the ability to recognize your peak energy performance level to date you control your thoughts and how those thoughts are free from unwanted doubt. Peak energy performance level manifest itself as confidence and can be felt by others in your presence. This physical position allows you to be able to use your five senses inclusively with others rather than exclusively which causes your internal dialogue to often override the power of the now. The physiological change that is activated by going to your peak energy performance level is how you engage and enhance the power that registers as confidence. You have taken a character to have created who is defined as confident by giving the character that feeling that comes from being at a peak energy performance level. It is similar to that place I call basemax which is activated each time you take your body to the physical and mental level of control you have achieved for any talent that you have chosen to develop for your company as well as your life. Those talents are varied and as diverse or common as needed by your desire to succeed. It is therefore most important that you are aware what your personal peak energy performance level feels like to you. I am not talking about what you are thinking when you are at your peak energy performance level but rather what you feel like. You feel taller, stronger, more alive because you are not burdened by thoughts of wanting to be at your best but have achieved an understanding of what it feels like to be at you best which allows you to experience the power of the now. Each time you go to your peak energy performance level it becomes stronger. Just as your base maximum energy becomes stronger each time you take a talent to Talent.

You can practice clarity of your peak energy performance level every time you walk down the street. Place yourself in that feeling of power and control and then let it go. When you let it go you will find that your internal dialogue becomes louder and more judgmental. When you return to that peak energy performance level what you will not notice is the internal dialogue getting in the way of your experiencing the now. You will however become of aware that you are noticed. You exist to those whose life energies you pass by in the now. By becoming aware of you peak energy performance level you can empower your life and your career efforts. This physical place and your control of going there is your “best you”, physically and mentally, as you approach each effort and strive to live in the now. It is the now that holds the success of your destiny. Every moment that is lived with thoughts of the past of fears of the future keep you from the power of the now.

Defining the Two Businesses

Your primary desire as an aspiring actor is to become successful. You expect to become a story teller using characters that have dialogue to define their place in the story. You expect to be a member of the acting unions as that is required in order to be considered a professional actor. You expect to be represented by a strong legitimate agent. You expect your income to come primarily from acting. You expect to be covered by your union insurance and to make your yearly pension contribution. You expect to live a comfortable lifestyle and to fulfill your financial responsibilities to you and your family. In order to get to the place you wish to be as an actor you must accept certain truths. The primary truth is where you are today as a player in this business we call show business. You need to set the path based on where you are now. That will require your acquiring the knowledge needed to present yourself in a way that gives those who will hire you the confidence that you are worth their taking a chance on you. After all, someone has to take a chance on you in the professional world. Every actor found that first time had to happen. Therefore you must make sure that you do not move more quickly that your personal business knowledge and talents support. That is why, based on your position within the hiring word of storytelling, you want to be free to get as much knowledge as possible without drawing attention to yourself. That is the power of the story moving business. Often you may find that it is easier to maneuver in the story moving world of extras and background where words are not used to tell the story. Those who participate are character types that set the flavor and reality of the story telling character’s now so the audience can quickly get a clear understanding of the story telling character’s world in order to clarify and support the genre and medium of the story being told.

The Union Card

How do you get a union card? What you can do to get your cards as quickly as you can based on your companies readiness to pursue those acting jobs. You may want to seek work in the story moving business as you prepare your company for the knowledge you will need in order to work within the storytelling business. There are many talents you can learn while working in the story moving business. You can be on the set and see what the storytellers are doing and learn to recognize those who appear to be doing it well and those who do not. There are three rules for the actor that he must never break. They are to know your lines, show up on time and don’t cause trouble. These each require a talent to do them well. As a story mover you can see why these rules are so important and why you want to make sure your company understands them and practices them on a level of talent that garners your company with the reputation of being someone the business wants to hire. If your acting company needs to learn certain aspects of the business then seeking story moving jobs is basically learning at someone else’s expense. Classes that you may take are designed to improve your abilities as a storyteller. However, there are situations that get in the way of those skills holding focus. Those situations usually are based on fears that might come from expectations not fully realized needed by the story teller on a production set. Many of these learning experiences can be achieved while working lower level story telling roles consisting of characters with dialogue within three or fewer scenes. If you are doing story moving jobs you might discover how many actors given these opening story telling jobs tend to blow them by not following the three basic rules. You do not want to find that your lack of knowledge doing these opening roles or even your first larger speaking roles causes you to justify your ignorance with drawing focus to yourself in the most unwanted ways. Trust me, spending a certain amount of time as a story mover will teach you about the true needs of the story telling actor without finding that actor being you. In that case, getting a union card at this time might not be in your best interest. However, if you feel that your acting skills are in order and you are prepared to do what is necessary to get professional work at a higher pay scale then a union card is the next step. When you have a union card and do story moving jobs you are positioned better to move toward story telling roles than you were doing story moving jobs without a union card. If you follow this story moving knowledge based approach you may find that when your company knows it is now ready to make the next step toward moving up the ladder to storytelling roles finding a way to get your union card will be a much easier. As you move from story moving to storytelling acting roles know that you can not go backwards. Move when you know you are ready and not before.

You expect the big seven areas of your life to support as well as be supported by your acting jobs. Any process leading to this would indicate the road to success.

Product Abilities

I have spoken in detail about the need for clarity your product abilities, your product placement and your product competitiveness. Therefore you want the talents that your company has achieved to be functional regardless of unexpected situations. And you can be sure that the majority of situations that you experience as a story mover or a storyteller will result in unexpected situations. Once you are ready to start you path to employment as an actor you must be prepared to know where the jobs are to be found. This is true regardless of that path first going to story mover or not.

The best way to discover where jobs are to be found is to separate the acting business into its three primary areas. Those are film, television and theatre. Clarify which of these areas your company and its talents are best prepared to compete, as of today, and work accordingly to find the buyers. You should know the various levels of financial expectations as you move on your path toward financial success as an actor. You should know that each medium of the business has variations of rules and responsibilities. Your awareness and application of these rules and responsibilities is important to your growth and development. Remember, you will be paid according to how much the producer believes your contribution has on the return on his investment. These expected returns are calculated by the size of the role, previous roles of note and industry reputation.

The three rules all areas of the business share are know your lines, show up on time and don’t cause trouble. These rules never change. There are far to many actors who find themselves in the enviable position of having reach a level of storytelling roles who do not follow these three rules. Ironically the business will tolerate the breaking of these rules by some of these performers until the value of the actor at the box office is overridden by his disruptive and costly behavior on the set.

Common Denominators of Successful Actors

The common denominator of all successful actors is the awareness of the players within their working areas. You may find yourself not understanding the value of knowing this information and how that information increases the odds of your success. If you don’t understand the value of knowing who the players are on the teams you wish to join, you are going to have a hard time getting into a situation that will bring the game into your reality. You might even discover that there were times that those players important to your growth had already passed through your circle but because you didn’t know who they were you were unable to recognize a possible opportunity.

Networking to Coincidence

It is difficult to network if you don’t have the knowledge base in order to play the networking game. Every aspect of your business that you do not explore is one less opportunity to create a circumstance that can lead to a coincidence. You want to activate circumstances so that coincidences can happen. This can help guide you to your desired destiny. Coincidence is that circumstance that happens just when you were thinking about it on some level. A coincidence can only happen if there have been thoughts and circumstances that make their appearance seem coincidental.

I know I have made my position clear about the power of coincidence. Coincidence can indicate to you the effectiveness of your efforts. After a while you will realize that a coincidence is a clue to where your efforts are taking you. Once you understand this you realize they are not coincidences anymore. They are just expected occurrences of a regular work day for your effort to be a successful actor and to have a successful life. Events will happen that will create different levels of coincidences. Those events, if recognized, will lead you to the next level of your success. Never allow yourself the complacency that negates creating new opportunities that will allow for new coincidences. Just the name coincidence implies the uniqueness of its value. Co is in addition or along with an incident. Be sure to take the coincidences of your life seriously. Not only those leading to good fortune but those leading to bad fortune as well. Allow them the power to infiltrate your awareness. It is an ability that you should strive for and understand as quickly as possible. Remember, is not the event around a coincidence but the happenstance of a coincidence that is important.

There is only one thing you need to do when a coincidence, large or small, comes to you. Take a moment to be grateful and follow the feeling of being grateful by looking at something beautiful around you. It could be the sky. It could be the friend standing in front of you. It could be the trees or the flowers or the grass. It could be anything around you. The awareness of the beauty lets the universe know that it is appreciated for its efforts. The awareness of the beauty and the feeling of gratitude allow the universal flow of energy to continue and allow a higher frequency of energy to come your way. This knowledge of awareness can serve you well.

Often in this career field actors reach a certain level of success or accomplishment and then fall short of ever re-creating the success or being able to achieve it again. This can happen when coincidence is ignored and beauty has not been acknowledged. This is a common problem. Knowing how to avoid this should be learned as soon as possible.

Anticipation

There will be times when the roles are not coming for you. Knowing that this is a circular based circumstance you should also know that you need to be prepared for it, both financially and emotionally. If you do not, you may fall into the same situations as so many performers before you. When they have reached the cycle they see it as a reflection of their value and ability and it stops them. This will eventually lead to fear and desperation and cause the length of the cycle to be extended.

Know how to deal with this by being prepared to be sustained financially and creatively. Enjoy being with yourself. Enjoy the time you spend working toward your career goals. Enjoy that time you spend working toward your life goals. Be your own best friend and let your internal conversation with yourself be between you and your mind. Otherwise you will spend a great deal of your time wishing you were somewhere else and not finding the enjoyment of your own efforts. Do not let that happen. If it is happening make sure you make peace with you. Give yourself the power to keep going, even when your thoughts lead you to believe that you are overwhelmed. You are not overwhelmed. You might be under organized but you are not overwhelmed. To change this you must accept your ability to know how to live in the now. Don’t forget, the now is where your growth resides.

Enlightenment as a Guide

All philosophies of achievement deal with the same principles. They deal with that internal switch that must be turned on allowing your personal ability to manifest. You do not want skepticism and the negative influences of old beliefs to stop you from that magical experience of enlightenment.

Enlightenment is that powerful ability to connect your life energy to the endless energy flow of the universe in the now. You do not want the limitations of the physical world to hinder your quest for fulfillment through the power of the mind in the now. Pump yourself up to be ready to separate and clarify the path that you need to take to become a successful actor. Know how it feels when you are “on” and be able to re-create that feeling at any moment. Create a relationship with yourself as you go out to pursue this information. Allow yourself a right to the knowledge. Create a relationship with yourself that gives you comfort and support. Give yourself permission to be whatever you are willing to work to be. And know that it will happen when you live in the now. To live in the now and be able to accept what it has to offer you must keep returning to your peak energy performance level to remove your internal dialogue of frustration and fear and replace those thoughts with the joy and wonder of not judging but being.

The Progress Chart for Story Moving Jobs

There is a mind set by some that suggests there are only so many jobs out there and only so many opportunities. Perhaps but the number of jobs may be far greater than you ever imagined. Therefore it is important to know how to set your business up to know where they are and who the players are in each. I have created a progress chart that will allow you to first know where all the jobs are and secondly to be able to see where your company to see the progress it is making as it works or chooses to bypass a given opportunity.

The Progress Chart is set up to indicate the levels of production and the mediums of opportunity in each of those levels and mediums. These levels are based on budget. The higher the production level the greater the production budget. Each production level becomes more difficult to penetrate as a story teller as the ability to pay more experienced or tested talent is affordable. This is why the actor wants to be able to understand the levels of production in the three mediums of the acting business.

I have broken down each medium of film, television and stage into A (high) B (middle) and C (low) production levels. Note: when looking for story moving jobs avoid the C level as that is the level that you want to be working on to guide your path to storytelling jobs. Those are the acting jobs with lines and positions of play (everyman, antagonist, bird).

Each of the production levels has its own group of participants that you need to know. Your story moving company wants to place on your progress chart each of these production companies so you can learn the players; the producer, directors and major casting circumstances. While pursuing story moving jobs for your progress chart you must know that these jobs are hired by a completely different set of participants than storytelling jobs. You must know the names and practices of these hiring folk. Many people call them casting for extra roles but they in fact are just providing background needed to bring the story (based on medium) to life. You must get on these hirers lists. You must make every effort to keep up with the changing needs and expectations. And don’t forget if you are a member of the unions you will be dealt with differently. There are reasons your company has decided to do story moving work. I hope you learn what you need to know quickly and your tenure is brief in the story moving business.

It should be noted that there are many actors whose companies are quite happy in the story moving arena. I know many who work often as union members in these story moving situations are hired as regulars in the background of scripted series shows. This is fine if this is going to provide your company and the other areas of your life happiness and well being. Most actor’s companies are working their way up the production level ladder. You want to know who’s moving up and who’s where they want to be. This knowledge will affect your efforts later. You want to surround yourself with like thinking associates.

Progress Chart Job Offerings

Television has sitcoms, scripted dramatic series, scripted comedy series, soap operas, movies of the week, dramatizations and the reality show. These elements have opportunities for both the story moving and the storytelling market. As the production level of the television market becomes lower, so does the size of the market place and the budget. The lower the budget and market place the easier it becomes to be hired and begin working your way up the storytelling ladder. Creating your own progress chart helps you separate the different production levels and the different players in those levels.

As I have stated the one sure common denominator for successful actors is to know the players. You want to help the law of attraction bring those you want to know into your vibration and frequency. If you create a progress chart will become aware of the vast number of opportunities available and who to pursue. As a story mover you want to focus toward the higher production levels. You want to learn from the best.

Story Moving Opportunities

The opportunities for getting hired as a story moving actor on an A or B level production set should be built into your understanding of story moving A and B production level opportunities. And don’t forget your opportunities for storytelling roles are in the C or low B level production categories.

If you are working within the story moving business you need to make a progress chart for it separate to your storytelling progress chart. To make your own progress chart place a heading for each of the mediums available for the actor for the story moving business. They include work extra, bit or focused extra, one line, under five lines and multiple scenes recurring as same character without lines. The categories on the progress chart are theatre, film and television. Your story moving progress chart for theatre would include off-off Broadway, small legitimate union/non-union theaters, community theatre and college guest artist theatres, and local markets. Under film in the C category are cable access, the minor independent studios, the independent film maker, local industrial film companies and local level advertising production companies. Under television in the C category are cable access video production companies, local independent digital beta production companies and smaller industrials video and commercial production companies. These are the major areas of employment for the C level. You want to start your knowledge by knowing at least one buyer/producer/company to fill each of the blank spaces under each of the sub-categories for the C market. Remember, as the budgets get smaller the ability to buy the best becomes less and less feasible. The C category productions need you.
Break your chart into A and B levels of production. Make sure you know what is being shot in town based on the medium. Make sure you know who casts the story moving jobs for each of the mediums. This information is written on your progress chart. Mark each circumstance on the progress chart that you have worked. This will show you your progress as an aspiring actor and also be used as an opportunity chart.

Storytelling Opportunities

The Storytelling Business is where you want to be. You want to be one of the actors who use words and character development to tell a story regardless of the category of medium or production.

The C category on your story telling progress chart is your most direct path to storytelling roles. The C level would be the minors in all areas.

On your progress chart you want to know what positions you have played at each level of production in the world of storytelling. These storytelling jobs include being in more than one scene with lines, sidekick to support character without lines, side kick support to supporting character with lines, major supporting character who plays story telling responsibility to one of the three major position of play (everyman, antagonist, bird), lead character (male or female), lead antagonist character (male or female), story changing character for everyman (bird).

Knowing the Difference

As the levels get higher the budgets get bigger and more proven actor’s can be hired. It is the C level that offers the greatest ability for growth of your product, confidence, and ability. Having separated the story moving from the storytelling business opportunities I hope you will realize that they have different buyers and different expectation from you. Your ability to take advantage of the story moving circumstances will allow you more opportunities by awareness and self effort to move into storytelling jobs.

Expanding your Progress Charts

The A, B, and C levels can also be subdivided further into high A, middle A, low A, high B, middle B, etc. If you fill out your progress chart with only one company per job area you’ll soon discover the number of job opportunities available to you.

If you break the A category into 3 sub-levels, the B category into 3 sub-levels and the C category into 3 sub-levels you’ll find that with three job areas per sub level you have 9 companies or circumstances for employment in the A levels in stage, 9 companies for the B level in stage, and 9 opportunities in companies for the C level in stage. That is 27 job circumstances under the category of stage with listing only one company under each category.

Film would be another 27 circumstances. Television would be another 27 circumstances. That would be a total of 81 circumstances for story moving job opportunities.

Once you do the same thing in the B category and C category you will have another 162circumstances listing only one production company for each category and sub-category. As you know in some areas of the business there may be as many as 200 companies per category. You want to know who they are. You want to know where they are. There are industry books that come out monthly listing all of them. Seek out this information for your company. Make the power of circumstance and the law of attraction be in your control.

These are the major areas of employment for A level production companies. You want to start your efforts by learning who one buyer/producer/company are so that you can fill in blank spaces for each of the sub-categories for the A market. The A level are your major players. They would include Broadway producers, major film studios etc. Under theatre now list the B category: Bus and Truck Tours, Dinner Theatres, and LORT theaters.

Under theatre in the A category write on your progress charat the headings: Broadway, off Broadway, regional theater, national tours. Under film in the A category write on your progress chart theatrical release, video release, movies of the week, industrial/commercials. Under television in the A category on your progress chart write soap operas, sitcoms, scripted series, dramatizations, and industrial/commercial.

The B level production companies have lesser budgets and therefore pay accordingly. Some are union and some are not. Under film in the B category write on your progress chart cable networks, the major independent studios, industrial film companies and medium level advertising production companies. Under television in the B category list the cable production companies, independent digital beta production companies and smaller industrials, video and commercial production companies. These are the major areas of employment for the B level. You want to be able to learn at least one producer and production company to fill each of the blank spaces under each of the sub-categories for the B market.

Your progress chart is something you must create for your company and deal with its uniqueness and abilities. Make your production chart and find out what work your acting company has done to date. The more areas of the business you can mark as having worked the clearer you will be of your companies progress.

Have a great day and know…
I wish you well.
Russ