A Little Welsh Girl Goes To L.A!

Well I never imagined where my inquiry would take me!

After deciding on my award title;

 HOW DO YOU BREAK INTO A NEW AREA OF THE INDUSTRY

 I then went on to research and network with professionals in the industry to try and further my inquiry. I had decided that there where two main areas of the industry that I have a real passion for and long to work within. These were Shakespeare and The Television/Film Industry. Naturally I found my inquiry veered towards the Television/Film industry and decided to ‘go with it’.

I realised that the main thing holding me back in breaking into this area was that I don’t have an actor’s show reel. Most companies ask for a show reel before auditioning, but to have a show reel you need to have done a sufficient amount of acting work; therefore as you see this caused a bit of a dilemma for me.

My first thought was to look to the Facebook SIG’s for advice. I joined Hayley Jane Bence’s SIG Showreels. Here I found that the discussion was more around dancer’s show reels rather than actors but decided to post and see if anyone could help. Hayley replied with some suggestions but I wasn’t able to further my search.

I then went on to contact my acting for camera tutor from drama school Paul Dudbridge whose production company Hanover pictures I had worked for as a model in an internet commercial. 

http://www.hanoverpictures.co.uk/warren.html

I emailed asking for advice and whether he had any footage from short films and classes at drama school. He responded promptly and offered to put a few clips together from a short film where I played the main character. This was an amazing development and I now felt like I could further my inquiry. He also advised me on getting work and assured me that I was on the right path in applying for as much filming work as I could both paid and non-paid. He advised me to keep using a website that I’m a part of ;

http://www.shootingpeople.com

This is a website where mainly independent film companies post job’s for actors. Most of the work is only expenses paid but you usually get a copy of the work included hence material for a show reel!

Whilst on the sight searching and applying for jobs I came across a post from a company asking for head shot’s and CV’s to be sent of actor’s interested in breaking into the television and film industry in LA. I thought why not give it a try and proceeded to send off a few headshots, CV and a cover letter. A few days later I was pleasantly surprised to find the company had contacted me expressing their interest and offering me a place on a Networking Week in LA! Of course my fist instinct was that this was an amazing opportunity. After the initial excitement I went on to do my research on the company and was very happy to discover everything was completely legitimate and above board!

I am now booked to go to LA from 14^th- 24^th of May. For the first seven days I will be meeting agents, manager’s, casting directors and big production companies such as Paramount, MGM and Warner Brothers! I am then staying on for 3days in case any opportunities come from my meetings and readings. This truly is a fantastic opportunity and if nothing else a huge learning experience; however there is a LOT of work to do before flying out as I want to make all I possibly can of this opportunity! Although this week will be happening after the module ends I’ll be sure to blog and tell everyone about it!

The name of the company is Industry Hollywood and it is run by Richard Burke:

http://www.industryhollywood.com

Richard has also helped me further my inquiry further, not only will I be getting to meet fantastic people but he has also put me in touch with a company that will be filming a show reel for me whilst out there!

http://www.relentlessfilmworks.com/

This is a company called Relentless Film Works. The write scenes specifically for and actor and also film and edit the work. This is a fantastic service for actor’s who don’t have enough material for a regular show reel and the quality is amazing!

I went on to contact the company, and set up a Skype meeting with Steve Whelan who run’s the process. We discussed what I wanted to show in my show reel and started brainstorming landing on three basic idea’s for my three one minute scenes. The next step is communicating with the writer’s to develop the scenes so they are exactly right for me. I will be filming in LA on the 24^th of May so this is a huge step in BREAKING INTO A NEW AREA OF THE INDUSTRY!