Thursday, February 24, 2011

Helpful Hint of the Day

On creating a sound bite...

If someone asks what you do, get specific. Tell them who you are, and what you do in a vague, but exciting way! Be authoritative in your telling of what you do. Speak with skilled confidence. To do this you have to shift the view of yourself, and give more credit to self. See yourself the way other people see you (hopefully it is positive). You have to believe that you are interesting and dynamic enough to make people like you and what you have to say. Your sound bite should be about what you have to offer.

make sure it includes:
  1. Tell them your name and give them a unique take on what you do.
  2. Tell them something interesting about you. Talk about a personal tibit in your life that makes you feel natural
  3. List your recent activities and credits most proud of
  4. practice role playing

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

In The Mean Time, Between Time: My Life As In the Corporate World Consists of Bathroom Breaks.

REPOST: In The Mean Time, Between Time: My Life As In the Corporate World Consists of Bathroom Breaks.

I like to compare adapting to the corporate world, to an elephant living in a single family home as a pet. It just doesn't fit. I don't fit in the corporate world, because I am an artist, I think like an artist and I don't have the same sense of urgency that other corporate workers-women, have about their work. Corporate worker buffs enjoy waking up and putting on full makeup, and adorning themselves with jewelry on their ears, necks, wrists and fingers. Corporate buffs also really think through what they are going to wear to work. I imagine they wake up maybe 2-3 hours ahead of schedule to get ready for their day, shuffling through the 3 inch heels that would match perfectly with their navy executive business skirt suit. Then they carefully put their make up on and grab their coffees and head out the door. I admit to seeing a few sporadic corporate buffs, appearing rushed and who are wearing flip flops and making up their faces on the subway; 3 inch heels in tote. I wonder if their jobs are their first loves or are they in the mean time in between time.
Still, those few are nothing like me. I just don't care about what I look like when I am at a corporate job. In my case, while over sleeping, I pre-think of an outfit I will wear to my dreaded corporate job in between snoozes. I get up just in enough time to take a 2 minute shower, promising myself that I'd wash the other not-so-important parts of my body more carefully later when I am back at home and fully awake and energetic. I lotion only the important parts of my body which are the ones that will show; and this can vary from day-to-day depending on my pre-thought out outfit. I grab a pair of underwear not caring if they are appropriate for the outfit I have chosen or not, because it is just too early to think about that! Then I learn that the pre-thought outfit is wrinkled. This means that I grab what ever I can find that is thrown on the dresser or over the bed or over the sofa, because I was too beat after working hard the day before to hang them up-which of course means that I never get around to washing those other less-important body parts because I am too tired for that too.
Jewelry and make-up are not even on the agenda for the day, (though I always carry a make up kit with me and an audition shirt, in case my agent calls me for an audition). My hair is brushed into a pony tail while walking to my car. Once on the train, I look around and wonder where the other corporate buffs got their coffee from and how they managed the time to make a stop before work or how they allotted time in their schedules to make coffee at home, let alone find the mugs to put them in.
When I am in the office, all the women are chatting loudly and skipping around uprightly with an exuberance that I can't muster up until late afternoon. I turn on my computer and I have about twenty five emails, well written, with the proper salutations. It is just not like this for me. I get to work and immediately take a bathroom break; in the handicap bathroom (because it is a single stall and I can lock the doors). I sit on the toilet with my clothes on, prop my elbow on the bar that helps the handicap to balance themselves and I prop my head ever so... between my wrist and the tip of my fingers and I narc out for about 15-20 minutes, after I pray for forgiveness for having little concern for the handicap. I sleep about the length of time my computer is set to lock. I return to my desk and delete all of the emails that are of no importance, and flag all of the emails that I definitely have to respond to, with a reminder for me to answer them in an hour. Then I get up and head to the cafeteria to get breakfast and coffee. I return to my desk, eat my breakfast and browse my personal emails for any audition notices and all audition breakdowns.
After about an hour, my flagged messages are alerting me that I need to adhere to them in which, then I make a decision which ones need to be answered right then and which ones I can snooze on for another hour or two. Again, I don't care!!!! I do what I have to do to get by. i take another bathroom break. Afternoon comes and the coffee has settled and now I am awake. I do a once over my appearance and hate myself for looking like a complete idiot! I question how I could have forgotten that the black pants that I am wearing had an oatmeal spill on them from two days ago. I decide that I will make an effort to prepare myself for work that night so that I can look better at work, I promise myself that I'd wake a little earlier the next day so that I can at least curl my hair and look more presentable for work. Needless to say, I repeat the same cycle over again the next day, with very little variance.
It all comes down to the fact that I think it is stupid that all these people have to dress in 7 piece suits, only to stare at each other for 8 hours. Who in the hell made that rule! It irritates me to wake so early to do something; I absolutely hate doing and could careless about. I could careless about the email I receive that says, "WACIS 2.0 will be a platform life cycle upgrade of the existing WACIS 1.0/1.1 environment with Application Platform and specific enhancements." You should know after reading an email with a message equivalent to the one above, I am in need of a bathroom break-just so that I can be rested enough to process the meaning of it all.

What does this have to do with acting on cameras and the word, "cut" and auditions and "alpha 1, take 4, camera's rolling, and...Action!" Those words are music and melody to my ears they get me fired up. Those words make me walk upright with a sense of urgency. The thought of hearing those words each day gets me to talking loud and chipper in my upper voice register. And even if my call time is at 5 am in the morning, I can still come to work in my pajama's if I choose, because they have someone at my job that will dress me and do my hair an makeup and prepare my jewelry and make sure through the day that my lipstick is reapplied and my face is powdered. They will feed me and bring me coffee if I need it and walk me to my exact location when it is time to work!
Now that's life. This is how work should be. But that's not even the best part about work, the best part is, while I am waiting to work, if I choose to lie on a sofa and sleep because I am tired, I can. I can kick off the carefully chosen shoes I have on and prop my feet up, lean my head back and sleep-while at work-without getting fired and without hiding in the bathroom.

My advice to all: Spend time daily searching for a job that you love to do that you can get paid for. My advice is also to daydream about the perfect job so that you don't get trapped into doing something you hate. You should never give up dreaming. Like me, use sometime at your job, running your lines with the computer (acting as substitute for the other person in the scene). or take a bathroom break and do mirror exercises using your eyes as the eyes of the other person while reciting your lines or monologues. And definitely research online auditions that you can go on the next day or week. But DO NOT BECOME CONTENT, because this job is just a means to an end- the mean time, in between time.

Helpful Hint of the Day

On your next audition, try locking eyes with your reader for like 3 seconds before speaking. Especially if you have the first line. 1. The eyes are the window to the soul. The camera will love you. 2. It will slow you down and allow you to get a sense of the energy coming from the reader, and 3. You will control your read, not the reader! Pace and vitality....

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