I love knowing how others are contributing to a project. I’ve always been ultra curious about what others do on set. I like to understand the big picture and everyone’s role in it cause then it lets me do my job better. Summer and I recently met a Storyboard Artist, Jose Guillen, a freelancer in the LA market who comes from a comic book background. I was excited to learn a bit more about his process and got him to say a few words on the difference between storyboards in each category (Commercial/ Theatrical/ Animation). When you see story boards posted at an audition, look at them. You can garner a lot of intuitive information from them as well as get the full plot. You may want to ask yourself these questions:
How detailed are the boards?
Who’s perspective is the board coming from?
What type of character am I expected to audition as based on the look of the characters in the boards? (ie. If you’re looking at stick figures you have more room to play than if you’re looking at fully colored/rendered characters with facial expressions).
Dear Actors and Actresses and all making your dreams come to life,
Summer and I have been discussing our options as performers and have realized that the opportunities right now for the actor/ actress is like no other. The magic of the web and all of the freedom that lies at our fingertips makes us giddy. We are in an age where the power is being passed to the individual. Was there ever a time/ platform in which you could (as an individual), market yourself, find like minded individuals, go global and say WHATEVER you WANTED to say without spending gazillions of dollars on a team? Nope. We are all so lucky right now and this is exactly where we come from when we’re approaching our careers. We are in an age where you can do it by yourself. Cause here it is, my friends. Define what you want and allow it to unfold. Go for your dreams. They are so in your grasp. You just have to grab what you want. It’s right here for the taking. Now, get clear, and go get your career.
I’ve been a subscriber of Bob Fraser’s news letter Show Biz How-To for a few years now and I’ve learned quite a bit from just his emails. Check out the email I received today! Thanks Bob! -Aurora
From Bob Fraser’s email:
As you know, one of my oft-repeated themes is “be nice.”
I don’t harp on this because I think you should be worried about
being’black-balled,’ or put on a list, or that toadying obsequious
brown-nosing is the way to go – I say this because
I started working on breaking down “Project 2″ and thought that it would be a good opportunity to give you a quick look at what I do to breakdown a script. Using “the Funnel” will make all your choices align. -Aurora
“The Funnel” Super Objective: What your character lives for in the most macro sense. Scene Objective: what they want in the scene that leads them directly to their Super Objective Previous Circumstances: Describe what is happening the moment before the scene. Given Circumstances: Describe what is happening in the scene, including time of day, year, pressing matters (if any), etc. Action: The actionable verb that guides all of your activities. Activities: A list of actionable verbs that are your tactics ( plug these into your script at any beat change at a minimum). This is the smallest, most micro part of your funnel.
We were able to collect two interviews for Reel Services at ActorFest. They offer different services and we encourage you to look around and find the best fit you you. Here is a link to our Create Your Reel interview for comparison. Secret Handshake Entertainment is a production company that will also put your reel together. We spoke with Joe Gressis and we were able to find out more about his approach to putting together a strong reel in the market today. He says he puts together an actors’ reel from his perspective as a Producer.
Aurora_&_Summer