Financing Your Acting Career & Raising Money for Your Projects

12/21/2014

Making your life's work, your life's artistic work is noble, fulfilling and it's not rocket science folks. (LOL). There are step-by-step strategies that you can put together to put yourself on Primetime, Sundance, Netflix, HBO, Shondaland. There is no magic trick, it's plain old business strategy and that's the message, the courage, the dream I want to give away to my fellow artists.

I'm living proof that it can be done. I produced 4 Sundance films before I even really knew what an Indie should look like. The first Broadway producing team I ever joined won a Tony for Porgy & Bess. My first play was produced and is still touring, not because I'm smarter than anyone else, but rather because I have a plan. And I finally decided that no one is going to present me with a gig that's better than the stories I have to tell. Once I let go of needing to be hired was the day I started booking Film/TV.

So I want to remind you of your power. That's why I'm here. That's why I've been asking you to use me as a resource. Ask the questions. I'll give as detailed an answer as I can to put you on track. What the questions also allow me to do is get a clearer picture of what artists need to know right now in the business, so I can figure out a way to get that info for you, exactly the way you asked and with a step-by-step formula. I want reduce some of the lag time in becoming a bad ass...the more questions you ask, the more precise I can be in my upcoming "State of the Business" which will ultimately be whatever you decide is most important for you to know. So keep asking, I'll answer with my full heart because I simply love badass artists who will not take no for answer. Do it!
#actors #actorslife

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5 Comments

madeleine link

12/1/2014 06:00:55 pm

Thank you so much for all your videos April; they are really helpful! I never thought about having an email list before but now I know.

febbieta link

12/7/2014 06:08:51 pm

I'm grateful that you've shared your very interesting videos. Thanks so much!

April link

2/13/2015 04:44:24 pm

The pleasure is all mine! Thanks for tuning in!

xoxoApril

Dana link

2/13/2015 10:16:44 am

Great video! My question is regarding coming into an audition looking like a "movie star". My strategy has always been to dress suggestive of the character I'm auditioning for. So if it's a nature loving bike-riding early 20s girl, I make a point not to come in all fancy... this seems to go against what you are advocating. Do you think it's more important to look like a million bucks than it is to look like the role?

April Yvette Thompson link

2/13/2015 04:54:46 pm

Hi Dana:

If you want to be paid $20,000 for 2 hours of work (that's what you'll make as a day player in residuals), then you need to look like your co-stars on that show, but better because they have established careers already. TV/Film is driven by money which means physical appearance (sex appeal) and look matter a lot. Talent is important, but there is such a thing as "TV ugly" meaning even the folks on TV who are supposed to be unattractive are really good looking people in real life.

Look to those who are doing, playing the things you want to be doing and playing. If they are already famous, then you have to be vibrating 100% more than they are in the physical appearance category. Regional Theatre maybe, the art comes first, but TV stars are now appearing in regional theatre productions and with that comes all the press that TV stars draw. It's a chance to get seen, be noticed and heard. We don't turn on the TV to watch people who look like us (watch British TV for that), we turn on the TV to watch people who are the uber version of who we look in real life (smooth foreheads, no wrinkles, perfect skin, physical-trainer toned bodies).

If you want to make a living at this business, then your physical appearance is 50% of job. If you're in it for just the art, then show up looking like the character with no regard to looking fabulous. Just know that you live with the decision if someone "movie-star looking" gets the job with less talent. It's fine to be an artist strictly for the sake of art and ignore the constraints of the business. You just have to be prepared for the consequences of making yourself less competitive in a very competitive business (not artform, acting is a business first). That's all I got!

Thanks and be well on this journey!

April xoxox

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