Do it again! Do it again. Again, again and again. Allow me to remind you that Coca-Cola is the most successful soft drink in the world, and they don’t change their logo every 2 years, 5 years or 10 years and what they do is still advertise. They advertise everywhere, all the time, so as to ensure that repetition and reminding the consumer, keeps them on top.It is this type of discipline that makes any individual, any company, any team or any group or goal…a success. We, as actors/performers, absolutely HATE it. We’re artists, we wanna dream, play, explore, experiment, be creative, trying different options constantly, have no plan, work randomly and on and on. Yet, the odd thing is, if you speak with any long time veteran the level of discipline required be a Series Regular is a lot more repetition than you might imagine and does not need to violate the “creativity of the artist.”
But when you are discussing the BUSINESS of this profession, the REALITY of becoming known, and creating opportunities for yourself be them related to getting auditions, taking great meetings, pushing your representative or mastering the execution of target lists the bottom line is that if you do not perform these actions with consistent repetition their value will drop exponentially by the week. We live in a 24-Hour news cycle and in Hollywood we live in a “Monthly Talent” cycle. In one month’s time you have to realize that a “legit” representative has probably received 500-1000 submissions. A legit “somewhat busy” commercial casting director whose had 3 jobs has seen between 10,000 and 100,000 thumbnails depending on how many roles were in each job. And if you’re casting a real Feature film or a TV show, again, you’ve seen thousands upon thousands of pictures. If you “send” 50 submissions one day, push out a few dozen emails over a weekend it doesn’t make it bad or wrong, but if you don’t KEEP ON doing it…it simply makes it commonly a small waste of time.
I know this is a distasteful subject for us. I know that, because 99.9% of the folks reading this have not “been at it” nearly as long as me, and haven’t worked nearly as much as me and still…I have to “keep at it” if I wish to continue to work and create opportunities. The business, the worldwide economy, digital technology have all made our industry more exciting and more accessible and more difficult than ever before in history. Yes, it is about relationships, but if you don’t “accidentally” fall into a random weird great moment that hands you an opportunity what are you going to do?
Here is a thought, and a small challenge, for you to chew on as you begin 2013. There is indeed an inherent “passiveness” about our profession, I do agree on this. Additionally, as stated above, we would MUCH rather spend our time playing, pretending, reading material, working on craft, stretching with characters etc. etc. Totally get it. So while you’re likely only willing to spend about 5-10% of your “time” towards the business of the business, then at least make a commitment to make that time and pursuit REPETITIVE. Give yourself a “shorter list” of people, places or things you’re trying to move forward but make damn SURE that you’re consistently repetitive and it is very likely you’ll get to the end of the year, you will have made REAL progress in those areas at minimum.
My professional best, and always on your side!
@TheKevinE, www.actorbizguru.com, www.kevinewest.com, www.gettingthejob.com