If alignment is defined as the act of adjusting parts so they work relative to one another, being in alignment to book means that everything required for your success as an actor is working together to help you achieve your goals. In this article, I'll discuss internal and external factors that influence your ability to book consistently. Whether you're a young actor or a veteran, considering how these elements apply to you will show you where you need to focus. Small shifts can reap great rewards.
Raise Your Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is the confidence in your ability to think and make choices. It's the confirmed belief in your right to be successful and happy, in being worthy and deserving. Understanding the connection between your level of self-esteem and your capacity to achieve success as an actor is critical.
In this business it's impossible to thrive if you're in an adversarial position with yourself. Through ups and downs, you must maintain confidence and trust in your ability. When people with high self-esteem suffer setbacks, they're apt to recover more quickly than those with low self-esteem. Looking to yourself for validation instead of relying on others will keep you strong and capable. You alone determine your worth and the value of your contribution.
In Nathaniel Branden's book The Six Pillars of Self-Esteem, he explores the importance of self-esteem in various aspects of personal achievement. He prescribes living consciously and purposefully, practicing self-acceptance, self-responsibility, self-assertiveness, and personal integrity. When your self-esteem is high, you have a constant supply of inspiration and motivation: You're confident that you can handle the challenges of this business.
Become Proactive
Being proactive means taking action and being responsible for those things over which you have influence, both supporting and increasing your self-esteem. In a reactive state, you empower things you have no influence over and often feel frustrated, fatigued, and powerless. To shift to a proactive state involves three actions:
1) Raising your energy level so you have the strength to overcome any frustrated feelings, which tend to put you in a state of resistance.
2) Bringing awareness to your goals after you define them and taking a realistic view of where you are relative to achieving them. List your concerns (money, getting an agent, etc.) to see how you're spending most of your time, thoughts, and energy. Determine which concerns you have influence over and which you don't. Decide what actions will help you attain your goals and bring order to your life.
3) Making a contract with yourself and committing to doing whatever it takes to be successful. When you take control of your life and career, you come from a place of power.
Be Consistent, Follow Through
Without consistency and follow-through, you neither see the effects of your actions nor have an accurate assessment of what's working for you and what isn't. Whereas being proactive defines your intentions, being consistent and following through is the constant attention you give to achieving your goals.
Look at projects or efforts you may have started but not finished. Think about the contract you made with yourself to be proactive. To fully honor that contract, you must be vigilant with your word, finish what you start, and take the matter of your integrity seriously.
When you stay consistent, you reinforce your commitment to yourself and your goals.
Know the Business
Knowledge is power. If you expand your knowledge of the business and act on it -- discovering what's expected of you by agents, managers, casting directors, etc., and what you can expect of them -- the business of booking will no longer be a mystery.
Talk to friends and acquaintances in the business. Find a mentor -- someone who is knowledgeable, who understands your goals and can guide you. Network with actors via support groups and online forums. Attend industry events. Explore internships at casting or production companies.
When you know the business, you can formulate an effective plan of action -- one that includes the right tools and enables you to best market yourself.
Project Both Type and Quality
Type and quality are related parts of what you project. They're reflected in what people see, hear, and watch you do, and both should be easily recognizable from your headshot.
Your type is who you are physically -- aspects that will remind people (CDs, directors, etc.) of a particular stereotype. Without saying a word, you may remind people of a cop, a mom, a retail clerk. Figuring out your type isn't difficult, but accepting it can be. Your quality, meanwhile, is the unique behavior you apply to your type. This comes from within and is your manifested essence -- flirtatious, warm, arrogant. Your type and quality together are what make you a warm mom or an arrogant businessperson.
You must define your type and quality as specifically as possible. Resolve any conflicts between how you view yourself and how the industry views you. Then get headshots with the sole intention of conveying your type and quality.
When you're clear about what you project, you tell the business who you are and where you fit in.
Lift Your Skill Level
Your ability to make and execute choices determines your level of skill. This means having the capacity to look at material, understand it, and take action to create a personal interpretation. You have to do this unhesitatingly and in a relaxed, credible, dynamic way, resulting in a fluid mind-body connection. To get there, however, you need sufficient consciousness about your skill level. When you're out of alignment, you might be in a state of denial or grandiosity, prone to rejecting professional criticism or blaming your lack of results on external factors.
Do you feel confident breaking down sides or copy? Are your choices always well-executed? Are your audition skills truly sharp? Do you take and follow direction well? Answering these questions will help bring a higher level of consciousness to your level of skill.
When you're secure in your skill level, you walk into auditions with confidence.
Expand Your Creativity
Creativity is using your imagination to develop new and original ideas -- and channeling them into dynamic and interesting forms. If you fail to attend to your creativity, you're laying the groundwork for boredom and frustration, which lead to repetitive actions and stagnant work, thus pulling you out of alignment.
To get in alignment, you must expand your creativity -- feeding your imagination with experiences and observations. Try writing, painting, sculpting, dancing, traveling, visiting galleries, attending cultural events, or playing music.
When you expand your creativity, you fortify your artistic voice, allowing you to stand out with a more unique, imaginative interpretation of whatever material you are working with.
Conclusion
These seven elements are interrelated, but more important, they're interdependent. One positive shift can create many positive results. Consider being proactive and sending out your headshot. If it doesn't accurately portray who you are, you won't be called in for the right roles, and you probably won't book, affecting your self-esteem and causing you to lose your drive to be proactive. It's a domino effect, up or down.
Alignment is also a question of power. It's not about doing everything but about finding the right things to do and doing them. Developing and maintaining each element will create a flow of opportunity and the confidence of being prepared, increasing your likelihood of booking as well as giving you more control over your life and career.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
The Actor's Influence: Level of Skill
No matter what your level of skill, it takes dedication, determination, hard work, and consistency to maintain the tools needed to be successful as an actor. Without the tools, called upon on demand, an actor will have difficulty competing in this marketplace. Auditions become more about luck than about being ready to showcase your talent based on what is being asked of you by a casting director or director.
Of all the things that an actor has influence over, his skill is the most obvious, the most essential to booking, and often, the most overlooked. The performing arts, acting more specifically, is the only craft where a person must prove himself worthy by giving an example of what the finished product will look like – right on the spot. No one expects a carpenter who’s coming to give you an estimate on a project to show up with all his tools and the blueprints he received the night before and build a finished piece on demand to see if he’s right for the job. That would be ridiculous, but an actor must do this each time he auditions for a role. The actor must not only understand the blueprints, but also uniquely interpret them. Then, through the use of his instrument, reveal this information in an interesting and dynamic way. That takes skill, a skill that must be developed, maintained and always growing.
What Determines Your Level of Skill?
There are two basic components that determine one’s level of skill: (1) Making choices (mental); and (2) Executing those choices (physical/emotional).
Making choices: Making choices is the ability to look at the material, understand the material and then decide what credible actions will bring about your personal interpretation of this information. Making choices is more than interpreting lines; it’s understanding human behavior and seeing it in dramatic form. It’s developing a unique way to look at things.
Executing choices: This means taking action in a relaxed, credible and dynamic way. Executing choices is putting your emotional and physical choices into action without hesitation, resulting in a fluid mind-body connection.
The Need for Consciousness
Without bringing a sufficient amount of consciousness to your level of skill, an actor is forced to live in a state of denial or grandiosity. To me, this is a dangerous place to be because the actor’s view of reality is skewed. He is constantly put in a place to either deny any professional criticism or forced to blame his lack of results on the business or others.
When we’re unconscious about our level of skill, we not only risk the loss of time and opportunities, but more importantly, the loss of self-esteem. Without a clear evaluation about our level of skill, we’re bound to go on each audition with neither true confidence nor the skills to execute what’s being asked of us. The result is not booking, which leads to frustration and often times, a feeling of helplessness. In the end, one’s self-esteem gets damaged.
Bringing Consciousness to Your Level of Skill
In order to bring a sufficient amount of consciousness to your level of skill, you have to be honest with yourself. Take a moment to think – do you feel confident:
Breaking down sides, copy, a script or a play?
Bringing your own interpretation of the material into the audition?
That you have your own interpretation of the material?
Moving information that you’ve gotten from the material into action?
Executing your choices?
Taking and following directions?
Be honest and answer those questions to the best of your ability. Then ask yourself:
Do your auditions run hot and cold?
Is the feedback you get from professionals generally more positive than negative?
Are you booking the roles you really want?
Do you make interesting choices and execute them on demand?
If the answer to any of the above questions is “no,” then those are the areas in which you need to bring more consciousness.
Misconceptions, Reasons and Beliefs for Not Maintaining Your Level of Skill
If having a professional level of skill is so necessary, why doesn’t every actor do whatever is necessary to achieve it? Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why they don’t.
“I just don’t have the money.”
I understand that continuing your training and polishing your craft takes money.
“I don’t feel motivated.”
Motivation is the core reason why you do what you do. Your reason for being an actor must be strong enough to motivate you to take action. Why have you chosen this profession? Does that reason move you to do what’s needed, even though you’re not feeling inspired? At your lowest times, will that reason lift you up and put you back in the game? You must be honest about why you’re taking on this particular challenge. You and only you are responsible to supply the motivation.
People become actors for many reasons. A majority of them are hoping to find acceptance and love. This is a never-ending struggle filled with inner conflict. We will discuss this further in my upcoming article, “Bringing Consciousness to Your Level of Self-Esteem.” But for now, you must be truthful with yourself and come to terms with your means of motivation.
“I just don’t feel like it.”
Whereas motivation is the reason for being an actor, inspiration is the feeling that compels you to do the things necessary to achieve your goal. You may be very conscious of the need to maintain your skill and growth, but your comfort level, desire to have fun or avoidance of hard work keeps you from doing what is necessary. Let’s face it - anything worthwhile takes work. This is a reality. The answer is simple, just do it, whether you feel like it or not. Don’t look for inspiration to move you into action. The truth is that once you take action, the inspiration will follow.
“I’ve studied enough!”
Some actors choose not to maintain their level of skill because they feel they’ve studied “enough.” They feel that they’ve put in their time, whether in college or with a professional teacher. They feel as though they have all the skills they need in order to compete in their market.
The problem is that unless we’re growing and challenging ourselves, we tend to lose the skills that we have. Think of a ball player who trains and tries out for a baseball team and doesn’t make the team that year. He plans on trying out again the following year, but while waiting, does nothing to keep his skills sharp. At best, he will be almost as good as he was last year, and at worst, his skills will have diminished, making it almost impossible for him to achieve his goal.
“I’m already booking jobs.”
Some actors that are booking jobs may feel that they have no need to continue honing their craft. But in reality, it may be that their level of skill is just enough to book a feature or co-star role. Although they aspire to better roles, their level of skill has, in fact, taken them as far as they can go.
“I’m already a professional.”
Some actors feel that by not studying or maintaining their level of skill they are, in fact, more professional. By discontinuing their growth and preparedness as an actor, they are announcing to their peers and the industry that they are now “professionals.” The sad truth is that their egos won’t allow them to see reality. These actors are caught up in other people’s perceptions of them – they’d rather be seen as a non-working professional than continue training and be viewed as someone who still needs to work on his craft. This is a dangerous mindset because in order to maintain a level of confidence, an actor needs validation from his work. Without that validation, the actor slowly begins to lose his self-confidence. As a result, his focus turns to ego validation and maintaining his fabricated image instead of keeping his sights on achieving his original goal.
Level of Skill Consciousness Exercise
Read the following partial sentences and complete them with 6-8 endings. Do this exercise quickly – don’t over think it. Although this exercise is simple, you may discover find some interesting things about yourself.
If money weren’t an issue, I would raise my level of skill by …
To overcome my money issues, I could …
The reason I chose to become an actor is …
I feel most inspired as an actor when …
It’s important for me to hone and maintain my level of skill because …
If I was to give my level of skill more focus, I would …
When I’m raising my level of skill, I feel …
Conclusion
Your level of skill is something that you have some influence and control over. To not take advantage of this control could cost you dearly. Try to find the joy in the growth and the love of what you do. When it comes to achieving our goals, if we’re not coming from a place of love, which drives our passion, then we’re coming from a place of fear, which creates uncertainty and conflict. It’s the uncertainty and fear in this profession that often keeps people stuck. The words we say are, “I want it”, but our actions say, “I’m not sure I can achieve it”. This sends mixed messages to the mind. So the mind says, “If it’s not a sure thing, why do I have to work so hard and sacrifice so much for something that may never happen?” Unless you really believe that you can attain your goals, it makes it almost impossible to fully commit. It’s like being in a relationship that you’re not sure you want or one that frightens you for some reason. Without full commitment, the odds of achieving your goal or making that relationship work are very slim.
Acting is a craft and must be treated with respect. It takes a lot of passion to be successful and only a little bit of fear or doubt to prevent it from manifesting. If we find our passion and commit to it, the reward is in the work – the acting itself. Finding the love for what you do will supply the motivation and the inspiration for you to achieve your goals.
There’s one consistent truth when it comes to creating success, whether you’re an actor, a writer or a director – all successful actors act, writers write and director direct.
In my next article, we’ll look at the actor’s influence over his creativity.
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