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Self-Submitting & Getting an Agent

12/6/2014

14 Comments

 
Stay tuned for Sunday's video about how to finance your acting career and your next star-making project!

A Love Letter To My Fellow Artists - Part II

So I started these newsletters to begin a conversation with my fellow actors, writers, producers about how to survive this business. Roz Coleman was and is my coach (AKA Yoda) for many years and her question to me was,

"Right, I know so and so booked this and you weren't called in for that, but what are you doing?"

She told me I wasn't using what I knew, but pretending I didn't know how to figure it out. So I followed her advice and just started with what I knew and trusted that I'd learn the rest along the way.

I produced my own solo show, Liberty City,  but boy was it hard and I screwed up big time and often.   I also raised $100K to produce, write and act in my new play Good Bread Alley.    But when I looked for other artist/producers, I was left with 2 people who really knew how to self-produce.  That's crazy. Especially, when you think of all the countless articles online, on talk shows, on social media about there are no images of women or Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Gay folks...etc...

I'll tell you why, because we're all so busy complaining that we never see our stories, yet  very few of us are learning the business of show business.  If we were, we wouldn't have time to complain, we'd be living in Shondaland....LOL..  . We're still waiting to be discovered or yelling at someone else because they're not telling the story of us the way we thing it should be told.  We're waiting to be hired.  Waiting for someone to care enough about the kinds of stories we want to tell, to hire us to be in the story that they are producing.  We're waiting to be needed and affirmed. What we're missing is all that juicy fear, ambition, desire, sensitivity and scattered genius that lives inside of you. Those are your gifts that must be shared with the world by any means necessary.

No revolutionary or groundbreaking work ever came out of someone giving an artist exactly what they want.  It came out of a need, an absolute need to create an artist's life and be fulfilled by what one has made.   Brangelina did it. George Clooney did it.  They were told they were just pretty faces.  They were told, here get on this crappy sitcom for 15 years. (George Clooney actually did at least 30 failed sitcoms) before he started producing stories that moved him. Brad Pitt was destined to be a not-so-good actor who was very pretty for the rest of his life. No one knew he could act until he started playing characters and then things really got interesting. No one handed Angelina a meaty role until she played a complicated character completely against her glamourous type and won an Oscar. Success was in the scruffy girl with tats. Her soul understood that when the business didn't. And even though these people are successful now, they didn't get successful until they pursued work that was beyond what their agents/managers thought was their "type." Their careers took off when they formed production companies and started directing, acting and producing their own stories.

So I blog and answer questions because I want you to learn what Brangalina knows.   I want you to not have to stumble around in the dark for 10 years auditioning for minor roles and feeling unsatisfied even if you book them. I want to make you aware of how much power you have.  You have a great deal.  Artists are returning to the model of the 19th Century actor.   Sarah Bernhardt was actor, director, road manager and producer.  With the internet at our fingertips for free, you can become your own TV show, indie film, web series franchise.   Netflix, Amazon, HBO, Showtime, exists to give self-producing artists a break because those networks exist to program what primetime isn't: YOU. Seven Faces of Tara created by a blogger, Girls creator Lena Dunham wrote, directed and starred in her own low budget film at Sundance, next she had her own TV show. Issa Rae wrote/produced/starred in at least 20 webseries and the network came to her. Brit Marling was playing the girl next door sidekick until she wrote/starred/produced Another Earth and The East, a political thriller where she plays a serious bad ass. If you haven't seen this work, go online and see it now. These artists are kicking ass and taking names. You can, too and I want to show you what I've learned by following in their very big footsteps.

#actors  #actorslife




Click Here to learn the 90 min Secret to Booking More Auditions
14 Comments
Shawn Carter Peterson
11/27/2014 03:40:20 am

NICELY DONE!!! I guess my question to submit would be "How do I learn or figure our what I'm selling emotionally?"

Reply
April Yvette Thompson link
11/27/2014 03:55:42 am

Happy Turkey Day, Shawn!

Great question. The center of your emotional range is where your strongest emotional chords live. What moves you. I talk about this in detail in the previous video, but here's the quick and dirty:

1. Make a list of 20 scenes from movies, tv shows, plays, musicals, videos, novels or any storytelling medium that move you. They make you laugh, cry, sigh, wish for more.

2. Get specific about what is going on for the character in the scene. What issue are they wrestling with. If it's good writing, it's almost always one emotional lesson that the character is trying to learn.

For example, is it fear of the loss of love? Is it like Holly Hunter's character in the piano who has lost her voice because of the powerlessness she holds in her world? Is is Rocky trying to make a comeback and why is it so important to him? The underdog against all odds. Go through your list, you will begin to see recurring themes. You can reduce these down to one sentence. That's the center of your emotional range. You understand and "get" characters like that immediately. You'll find a lot of themes repeating. If that happens, choose another genre of emotions or stories. You should come up with 3 primary sentences that express, the most moving emotional chords for you. Check out this video on the previous blog post to learn how to talk to your agents about these discoveries so you can shape a plan to get your seen for more roles.

Here's the link: http://thedreamunlocked.weebly.com/blog

Reply
Sonora Chase link
11/30/2014 03:16:52 pm

Sonora Chase ‏@sonorachase
@AprilYThompson That was awesome! And I Loved you in Clybourne Park.

Reply
April Yvette Thompson
11/30/2014 03:42:18 pm

Thank you so much, Sonora! It is absolutely my pleasure...artists are the conscious of our world...we keep us vulnerable and true...we are so very necessary...xxoxo

Reply
Dahiana Torres
11/30/2014 03:17:50 pm

Dahiana Torres ‏@ActressDahiana Nov 28
Thank u @AprilYThompson not only 4 answering my questions but 4 the motivation. Love reading the newsletters! #actorslife

Reply
April Yvette Thompson
11/30/2014 03:43:19 pm

My pleasure lovely Dahiana,

I only remind you of what you already know and may have forgotten...xoxo

Reply
Tori Hartman
11/30/2014 03:18:35 pm

ToriHartman ‏@ToriHartman Nov 28

@AprilYThompson Follow this WOMAN! Her work is amazing!!! Stay on path April YOU have many to save and be of service to. xTori

Reply
Cynthia Bastidas
11/30/2014 03:29:11 pm

Found this video to be very helpful and strangely appropriate for what I'm going through. I hope some of you can benefit from it as well. Thank you April Yvette Thompson

Reply
Craig MacArthur Dolezel
11/30/2014 03:30:55 pm

Highly recommend peeps watch. Good share April!

Reply
April Yvette Thompson
11/30/2014 03:44:14 pm

Thanks for the support, Mr. Off-Broadway Producer/Actor extraordinaire!

Reply
Jeorge Watson
11/30/2014 03:38:58 pm

I'm especially interested in what you called, 'the emotional chord?';that sounds very intriguing to me. I appreciate your words in your message above. I found it very inspiring, very interesting.

Reply
April Yvette Thompson
11/30/2014 03:48:27 pm

Hugs Jeorge:

Thank you for the lovely note you sent me. First step is to be gentle with yourself always. Build a solid, stable situation/survival job that is low stress and flexible (perhaps something online) and then focus all of your attention on the setting up your business structure. I begin to discuss fundraising in my next video, so you should stay tuned for that. I discuss financing your acting career so you can begin with a solid base.

In terms of the emotional chords. It's a much longer, exercise that I'd usually take 90 mins to do with one client, but I can give you the basics to begin on your own.

Center of Your Emotional Range:
The center of your emotional range is where your strongest emotional chords live. What moves you. I talk about this in detail in the previous video, but here's the quick and dirty:

1. Make a list of 20 scenes from movies, tv shows, plays, musicals, videos, novels or any storytelling medium that move you. They make you laugh, cry, sigh, wish for more.

2. Get specific about what is going on for the character in the scene. What issue are they wrestling with. If it's good writing, it's almost always one emotional lesson that the character is trying to learn.

For example, is it fear of the loss of love? Is it like Holly Hunter's character in the piano who has lost her voice because of the powerlessness she holds in her world? Is is Rocky trying to make a comeback and why is it so important to him? The underdog against all odds. Go through your list, you will begin to see recurring themes. You can reduce these down to one sentence. That's the center of your emotional range. You understand and "get" characters like that immediately. You'll find a lot of themes repeating. If that happens, choose another genre of emotions or stories. You should come up with 3 primary sentences that express, the most moving emotional chords for you. Check out this video on the previous blog post to learn how to talk to your agents about these discoveries so you can shape a plan to get your seen for more roles.

Here's the link: http://thedreamunlocked.weebly.com/blog

Please post any other questions in this thread and I'll get back to you as soon as I'm able. Stay still and determined and your joy will find you.

xoxoApril

Reply
Soyini Crenshaw
12/3/2014 02:29:42 am

Hi April
In my previous comment I talked about recovering from trauma and mental health issues. Actually I have been working on writing a one woman show about my healing journey from sexual abuse. I want to use this piece as a way of marketing myself and to jumpstart my career. Is this a good idea?

Reply
April Yvette Thompson link
12/3/2014 03:33:40 pm

Hi Soyini:

I usually try to give my clients as thorough an answer as possible. In this case, without having read your work or knowing you, that is not a question I can answer well, in all good conscience. Having dealt with trauma myself, I can tell you that you have to be very careful with mixing your emotional health with your art.

The best writers have an important story to tell that must come out because it serves the greater common good. Anything other than that and you run the risk of using your work as a form of healing. But when you're dispensing your deep hurts to an audience, it's very easy to look for healing from that catharsis. But that can and often will set you back because an audience cannot provide that and the theatre or film or storytelling in general was created as a catharsis for the audience, not the performer. When we tell story, we exist to serve the audience, not the other way around. As a solo performer and writer, I wrote stories, not about my journey, but rather that of the folks around me who were broken, fragile, but still engaged in a grand fight. Had my healing been wrapped up in that storytelling, it would not have been a good story. As a matter of fact, I don't reference my healing in my stories at all even though I'm writing about people I know very well and who are still living. I have a writers' distance that allows the reader and the viewer into the story. I can tell you that I could not write full, rich, deep characters until I'd healed from my trauma and depression.

Hope that's useful, but if you take nothing else from this exchange: take care of you, first. Finish that job before you take on any other. I speak from experience...

hugs to u,

xoxoApril

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    April Yvette Thompson
    is a Tony-winning
    producer,
    writer
    &  actor
    ​working
    across media.  


    FOUNDER/CEO of TheDreamUnLocked: Boutique Coaching for Actors, Writers & Dreamers⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    W/25 years of teaching, acting, writing & advocating for people's dreams, April has the uncanny ability to help her clients find their personal transformation magic. ⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    April is a midwife of genius: helping u give birth to ur dreams & crossing the finish line to ur goals. ⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    The DreamingOutLoud Technique from April's Ted Talk: ReWrite Your Story, is the basis of her teaching method⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    . • Writing is the way to focus ourselves in the present, on what's working & figuring out new ways to get around old problems⁣⁣

    ​ ⁣⁣ •Writing is a way to align the life ur living w/the life uv always dreamed about⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    • Writing is also how u let go of the BS beliefs u have about what ur capable of.⁣⁣ The DreamingOutLoud Technique allows ⁣⁣u to grieve the losses, forgive urself for past mistakes & weave a new story of how ud like to spend the rest of ur life thriving instead of just surviving.⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    HOW I HELP YOU MOVE FROM FEAR TO F🌀CK THIS⁣⁣
    The DreamingOutLoud Technique uses writing exercises, a rigorous questioning process & dismantling of all the limiting beliefs u hold that no longer serve u⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    Like Kali, the Hindu goddess of destruction & transformation, I help u root out the dead weight so that u can focus on flying. ⁣⁣
    ⁣⁣
    I teach u
    How to get⁣⁣
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    to F🌀CK THIS ⁣⁣
    F🌀CK THIS is that place where even though you're broke & nothing is working & you're afraid of complete failure, you finally decide:⁣⁣
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