In the acting world, where the slightest nuance can grant one actor cinematic immortality but send another back to work at the corner coffee shop, every scrap of experience counts. The Catch-22 of getting acting work, though, is this: How do you acquire experience if you need experience to get experience? Actors are rarely seen by casting directors and agents without a reel. For the actor waiting for the phone to ring, this three- to five-minute calling card might take years to compile before he or she is ready to play in the major leagues. Is there a way to speed up this process--for motivated actors to build that reel, acquire enough on-camera experience to convince casting directors to read them, and ultimately develop the confidence and experience to work on-camera?
Fortunately for local actors, the L.A. area has several world-class film schools in which tomorrow's directors and producers are being trained right now. Even though they offer no pay, these newbies are constantly shooting short films and class assignments. And they need actors. In addition, you just might meet and begin a lasting collaboration with the next David Lynch, Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese, or George Lucas--all directors who attended film schools.
Low budgets, no pay, long hours, tracking down the director for the coveted tape, the worst food imaginable: These should be no deterrent for the actor just starting out or wanting to take on more unique and challenging roles. For those brave enough to test the waters, student films can offer exactly what actors need to jump-start their careers.
Breaking In
Landing a role in a student film--where nobody is getting rich and famous, or even paid--might seem easy. Though less difficult than, say, getting a co-starring role on Lost, the same groundwork--headshots, resume, and the like--needs to be done.
"I can't imagine it being difficult for anybody who has just a bit of a work ethic and talent to not get into student films," says veteran actor and radio personality David Lawrence. "It's not that their standards are lower, it's just that there are so many roles to be filled." Though demand is high for great actors, Lawrence, who has appeared in more than a dozen student films, believes film students are also looking for performers who can roll with the punches of working in a living classroom. "They're looking for people who they can 'learn on,' so you've got to go in there with your eyes open and know that this is an environment of learning," he says. "It's not an environment where you're going to be treated like a superstar. You're not going to have a limo sent for you, but there's a lot of really nice, rewarding things that come out of it."
"Just put yourself out there," says Kristin Pfeifer, who has worked on countless student films for Chapman University, New York Film Academy, Carnegie Mellon University, and USC. Much of the groundwork, Pfeifer says, can be done from the comfort of your home through Internet research. "There are so many schools out here that, at any given moment, you've got undergrads working on projects, and you have students who have to do a grad thesis," she notes, adding that persistence is the key. "It's a numbers game. If you submit enough times, you're going to get called in for auditions. So submit for as much as you feasibly can. Put yourself out there. The more you throw against the wall, the more is bound to stick."
For some people, a more "in your face" strategy brings results. Actor Jon Saphire suggests, "A great thing to do is to go down to the universities while all the film students come out of a class and pass out postcards of yourself with your name on them. You hit all of the students at once, and they remember you." Lawrence says the trick is enthusiasm. "Sam Yousefian did a film called The Elephant's Egg (www.elephantsegg.com), which was just amazing," he notes. "I met him after the screening, and I said, 'Look, if you're ever doing anything, I want to work with you.' Sure enough, three or four months later, he was executive-producing a film that was being directed by a student at USC, and I was tapped [to do] three roles in the film." Lawrence finds this mix of professionalism and excitement contagious, suggesting actors "treat the whole situation with exactly the same fervor and devotion and attention to detail and work ethic that you would treat going to audition for [casting director] Junie Lowry-Johnson [to] get on one of her series." But regardless of what strategy lands you in a student film, the adventure has only just begun.
Setting the Stage
For those looking to learn the basics of working on a set with a film crew, student films offer the real thing. "First of all, you absolutely are on a working set," says Lawrence. "If you've never been on a working set before, it's probably a good idea to do it with a student than it is the first time you go up for a guest star on Alias." Remember, however, that student productions lack the complex infrastructure of even the most modestly budgeted professional projects, and this can result in well-intentioned chaos. "Keep your whole day clear, even if they tell you it's [only] a couple of hours," advises Vida Ghaffari, veteran of countless student films and scene studies. "They're new to the game, just like you are. There's a lot of sitting around, which is true on a regular shoot, but sometimes it's not as organized."
Paul Bond, who recently beefed up his reel acting in two American Film Institute shorts, is creatively fueled on-set by the passion of the young filmmakers. "Most of these student filmmakers, I believe, bring absolute passion and commitment to the table," says Bond. "They intend to make magic in a five-day shoot, and many of them do. As actors in these films, we have the opportunity to join in this process by creating full characters that bring these stories to life. These are often roles that we might not be considered for in feature film or television for various reasons. At this stage of my career, I am happy to gamble a week or two of my time and effort for the possibility of being involved with a really great project, and so far I haven't lost."
Honing the Craft
The student film experience also offers actors the chance to work on their acting in a safe environment. Bryan Herzog, who has acted in half a dozen student films over the last two years, enjoys refining his craft on-set. "Student films are very open to your own ideas and what you want to do, developing your character and trying new and different things," he says. "I never felt like I was rushed into doing a scene or a take. They're working with very limited budgets, but they compensate for that [by taking their time]. That gives the actor a lot more possibilities, more creative juices flowing."
"To me, a student film is like a free acting class," says Pfeifer. "Often you have acting classes where you're there for three and a half hours and you work for 10 minutes." With student films, Pfeifer has acquired skills that make her stand out in the crowded marketplace. "I might not be getting paid, but I'm getting a chance to learn how to 'nail it' in one or two takes because that's all we have time for, how to give them what they want. It's a great chance to practice your craft without having to pay for it any more than gas and time." Pfeifer also emphasizes that beyond learning how to act, working on student films grants her the opportunity to see real filmmakers in action. "Filmmakers at this level are very involved and often have a very specific vision," she notes. "Sometimes it's a good chance to, as an actor, put yourself in any variety of situations and see if you can deal with this director's personality, that director's personality. You learn how to adapt to different directorial styles."
For actors who tend to land character roles, student films allow something that Hollywood traditionally does not: character actors as the stars. Ghaffari, for one, has benefited from this lack of discrimination. "What I love about student films is that I'm always the lead," she says. "You play things you never play. It's good for stretching or doing something different, working on a dialect. To be the leading lady you don't have to be some blond girl, you can be anything. You can be an Everywoman and be the lead."
Student films also offer the opportunity to hone another valuable skill: networking. "Once you have booked a student-film role, take advantage of the opportunity by networking as you would on any other job," suggests Bond. "Show up ready to do your best work, be professional, and get to know as many people on-set as you can. You never know who might be casting a project in the future. Today's boom operator might be directing a project next month. These people work under incredible deadlines, and if they can book an actor who they know and trust, that saves them valuable time for other aspects of their production."
The Downsides
So why doesn't everybody rush to be in student films? "The worst thing is lack of organization, which is sometimes not the student's fault," says Pfeifer. "Sometimes the fact that they're inexperienced in how to direct actors--they haven't done it a lot, [or] they don't have a shot list--that can be frustrating when you feel like your time, which is valuable, isn't being used efficiently. But then, that happens everywhere, so it's good practice."
Sometimes the lack of organization can be a colossal waste of time for the actor. Ghaffari laments, "My one experience that stopped me from doing student films for a while was, I had to go to the middle of nowhere--Tustin [about an hour's drive from L.A.]. I went all the way out there, and guess what? There was no shoot."
Even something as simple as catering can turn a potentially good experience bad. "I did a student film where the guy had only bread and bologna for food and only Diet Coke [to drink]," Saphire recalls. "You judge a project, to a degree, by how they service the actors with food, beverage, and accommodations while on-set."
The toil ideally produces a film everyone involved can use to market him- or herself. For Lawrence, the quality of the end product determines its reel-worthiness. "The one thing that I would say about student films that has been the most disappointing to me is, the finished product can be much, much better if the lighting is better," he says. "It may be a matter of money, it may be a matter of equipment, I don't know. When you're looking for something for your reel, if the lighting isn't good, you can't use it." Herzog agrees that the better the image of the end product, the more useful it is to him. "Besides the [acting] that I have on my reel, the camerawork is really important to me," he notes. "Being that it's not a professional shoot--the camera people are learning, as well--your character work can be great, but if it doesn't look good on tape, it's not going to matter."
Even if the picture quality is flawless, an airplane flying overhead or a refrigerator buzzing in the background or simply bad placement of the microphone can make a perfect performance sound muffled, distorted, or unintelligible. "If you're going to spend money on something, have a good sound person because the sound issues have been major ones on some of the films [I've worked on]," says Pfeifer.
Once an actor has spent valuable time on a student film, he or she needs to get the tape. "It is extremely important to provide the performers with the best possible copy of their work that can be produced," says Bond. "In my experience with AFI, the producers honored their promise and delivered the copy on time. One producer even went to the trouble of tracking down some deleted footage that he thought might be valuable for my reel. Needless to say, I appreciated that greatly. I have been truly lucky in this aspect. I have heard numerous stories from less fortunate actors who have taken up to six months or longer to get any footage from projects they have worked on."
Moving Up
Student films offer actors the opportunity to hone their craft, build a reel, and build relationships that could last a lifetime. Says Herzog, "You've got to treat all these people as though in the future, five or 10 years down the road, they're going to be the next big director or producer."
Pfeifer agrees. "The student filmmakers are the filmmakers of tomorrow," she says. "You build this relationship and you establish a good working rapport, and once they graduate and they have another project [they say,] 'Hey, I'd love to have you come and read for this.' You're in their pool of known people that they can rely on, who they know are responsible and dedicated and professional. It's a huge asset to any actor."
Although many actors bounce back and forth between paying gigs and student films, the goal for most actors is to quit their day job and focus 100 percent on acting. From his work in student film, Lawrence has been able to secure an agent and plenty of paying work. "When you're showing clips from a movie, if it's done properly, it's not hard to see that it's good work, and it's not distinguishable from a [theatrical] feature," says Lawrence.
"If you simply try to do as much work as you possibly can, student work, commercial work, guest stars, co-stars--whatever you can do--is all going to work toward you staying on that path to more and more success," he concludes. "Student films seem to me to be a very straightforward way of doing that. They're not for everybody. Student films have been a great path for me. If I had it to do all over again, this is exactly the path that I would take." BSW