Blog

The best place to find advice, analysis, and information on demo reel services Los Angeles, whether for actors, singers, dancers, journalists, or anyone else with an interest in promoting themselves.

Dance-tress Acting Up: Self Promotion

Good Morning, World!

Instagram

Congratulations Actor! You've taken your career into your own hands. You made your first project and it took a great deal of bravery and guts to jump into a whole new ball game. Ah, where do I start? I've never done this before? I don't have any behind the camera skills, but you spent countless hours of your own free time studying this new beast. The feeling of completing a new project is ugh-mazing. It feels like Christmas morning and you know the gift you've been begging for is under the tree just waiting to be opened. You can't wait to share your success with everyone. Your project is complete, now you're done, time to take a nap and go about the rest of your days. NOPE..here comes the fun part, promoting.

So, you share it with your friends and family. Maybe you post it on Facebook once or twice. But, the struggle is, not everybody gets online everyday, so perhaps those people will never see it. Or, so many other people have made posts within that hour, your project may get lost in the crowd. 

Let's remember the blog I posted a few weeks ago when I talked about how casting directors cast people who have a strong following. A low view count on a video means you are not getting seen, therefore, you're still not building a following. If you are just looking for new reel footage, or to practice a character, then great, but you will not be "discovered" by someone just randomly deciding to click on your video. 

Here's what I have been doing. Has it been working, yes, maybe, I think so, I don't know. I have linked my twitter and Facebook together so that I don't have to post on each site. I can post whatever I want to twitter and it will automatically post on Facebook. BAM, its that easy. I have also been scoping out people who may have an interest in my video and sharing it with them. For me, it's people who enjoy comedy, women film makers, actor friends/non friends, people who I have donated to their projects, people who have supported me, and to be honest, when someone I don't know randomly send me a direct message asking if I can vote for them in a contest, I reply with a "sure, can you retweet this video for me?" and then the favor has been returned. You know what else is kind of cool, because I have been posting so often friends who I haven't spoken to in years have seen my video, commented, and even helped me on my mission to reach X amount of followers by sharing it on their pages. Because of that, I have also been extended into their network of friends and gaining new followers. How cool is that? 

On the flip side, posting the same video every so often, many people can consider this spamming. They may even block you. So, I'm reaching out. What do you do to market yourself and your videos? How do you share it with like minded people and people who you believe would be a part of your audience? Help me, help you, GO!

Dance-tress Acting Up: #LikeaGirl

In honor, of this past weekend's Super Bowl, I am going to write this awesome blog, #LikeaGirl. During the highly anticipated commercial breaks, Always (don't freak out- tampon/pad brand) featured a commercial of what the stereotype of being a female is like, and how it became a "bad thing" to be a girl. By the end of the commercial, there was a young girl who shared her untarnished idea of how to run like a girl.  Her answer was "as fast as you can" as opposed to the frilly wimpy response that came from the teenagers and adults. She represented strength, power, and fearlessness and that's what being a female is all about. Males too. We just have to get the rest of the world on board. Women are often overlooked, not taken seriously, and underpaid. It's 2015, how does this still happen?

Fortunately for me, I was raised by a feminist. Now, lets talk about that. Since when did the word "feminist" become a negative term that is associated with man hating? Last time I checked, it stood for equality. My mother never told me that I shouldn't do something because "I was a girl". In fact, she encouraged me in sports and never once told me or my sister to stop climbing the trees because "only boys do that". We're all kids at one time, why do things change as we get older?
 
I was never taught to "play my role" and be a trophy wife. If that's what you want, then that's cool, but it's not for me. I don't need to look perfect every time I step out of the house. I don't need flashy name brand clothes to seek approval from my peers. Actually, I rarely ever match. Perhaps, I take this one a little bit too far sometimes. I don't need to hide when I want to stuff my face with a bag of cookies because it's not "lady like". Guys don't, and we all know cookies are delicious. When I need to be professional and get something done, I do it. And I do it well, just like every other successful person.
 

I never realized my gender struggled so much with opportunities until I moved to Los Angeles and began my career in entertainment. Turn on the TV, watch a commercial, look at the billboards, I guarantee you will see far more males dominating the TV than females. Open up a magazine, and I can assure you there are probably some awful pictures and gossip about an actress with a headline that reads something similar to this, "Fat, wrinkles, no make-up, oh my". Think of an actor, now try and think of a time when you saw his private areas on the screen. Now swap it, how many times have you seen a naked, semi nude, in lingerie or fully topless female on your TV? Eh? Got you thinking now, don't I? Trust me, there is nothing wrong with the human body, I love my body and being sexy, but there are a lot of other AMAZING qualities that we females possess. I know I would personally love to see more of it on TV.

Entertainment plays a big role in our society. I feel pretty confident that if there were stronger female roles portrayed all over our media, things would begin to start changing. It would take time, but people are inspired by what they see and hear. If you are constantly being told you can't do something, then you're probably going to start to believe it. If you only see women in roles as mistress', secretaries, one night stands, the "party girl" then what would inspire young girls to think they can one day be as successful as their male counterparts who are portrayed as lawyers, presidents and CEO's?

Check out these movie posters. Lots of opportunities there. Are you sensing my sarcasm? These are just a few examples, and I'm not saying that female opportunities don't exists, but we can still aim to do better and achieve more, for everybody.

CONGRATS to Always and Procter and Gamble for paying, probably millions, to have this #LikeaGirl campaign play during one of the biggest male dominated sports days in America. That's some smart, clever marketing right there. They KNOW people are sitting around waiting to watch these commercials. Good work, we have your attention now.

Hello, World!

Instagram

Dance-tress Acting Up: Twitter

Am I bugging you with all of these extra pictures and posts lately on social media? I sincerely apologize. It's very annoying, I agree, but it's something I, unfortunately, have to do. Now, I know what you're thinking, you don't "have" to do anything, but I do, here's why. Social media is a huge marketing tool, we all know this, but now casting breakdowns are starting to ask you how many followers you have and how many views and subscribers you have on your channels.

Yup, its true. As if it is not already hard enough to break into the industry, now I have to have "X" amount of followers on top of it? I wish this wasn't true, but that would be a lie. In fact, I was having this conversation the other day with an actress friend of mine, and she was telling me that she had just lost a role to someone who had more YouTube followers than her. To make matters worse, this person had NO prior acting experience. They had not spent countless hours studying the art, ridiculous amounts of money taking classes, updating reels and head shots,  they just had more YouTube followers? Are you kidding me? Not only is this offensive and frustrating, but this is simply lazy casting and filmmaking.

The reason for casting these people is simple, they come with a built in audience. If you cast them, chances of them posting the project on their page is very likely, there fore, chances of your project getting a buzz is much greater than casting just a "regular" actress. Ok, in a sense, I understand the reasoning, but come on! It's hard enough to get an audition, now this additional factor is just ridiculous. If said person is an actor who just happens to have a ton of viewers, than great, I'm a little more ok with this new concept. But someone with no previous desire to act, is just plain annoying. 

So, whats a girl to do? Play the game of course, three times a day, 3pm, 6 pm and 9pm. I met a lovely gal a few weeks ago who has over 200k and she gave me the scoop. If you post on Instagram it will link directly to your Facebook and twitter. It's that "easy". It's actually a little obnoxious (in my opinion) to post that much, but its working. I've been getting several new followers a week. More followers= more views on my video = bigger audience and my own build in fan base :) Psh, by that time, who knows, I may not even need these other castings because I will have my own paying projects to work on. 

Along with the pay to play casting directors workshops, I don't think these specific casting requirements will be going away anytime soon. Our industry is always evolving and this is just another step one must try and conquer. Good luck to all, and #followme I'll follow you back.

Instagram