Yesterday, an actress from my last short sent me a FB message to look at her new demo reel.
It is pretty bad. She has no talent. She could not even play a drunken soldier in my production convincingly. The only reason why I kept her was she was willing to work and was committed to the production.
So, I replied to her message keeping my comments positive. I told her to get role models in acting and learn from their tips. I recommended two of my favorite actresses that I follow, Jody Foster and Nicole Kidman. They give great tips for actors and indie filmmakers to learn from in the craft of acting. They make millions because they can become many different kinds of characters. They share their techniques on how to become a new character that is believable.
In her case, if I had a better actor available for her role, the other actor would have taken her role. I lost someone who got tired waiting for the production to begin because we had to keep on auditining actors to get enough people to show up to fill the roles. I know most of my crew commented to me I should have held out for a better actor for her role. I did not want to delay the production further waiting for enough actors to show up to recast her role. I may have lost another actor who might have gotten another conflict in their schedule waiting for us to begin. Big budget productions can have scheduling conflicts with their shooting schedules too. But, with the wages they can pay, they get a higher caliber of talent to replace dropouts.
So, I recommend keeping comments positive when dealing with people in the field as often as possible. I made a choice to kepp a bad actor because of her willingness to work.
It is pretty bad. She has no talent. She could not even play a drunken soldier in my production convincingly. The only reason why I kept her was she was willing to work and was committed to the production.
So, I replied to her message keeping my comments positive. I told her to get role models in acting and learn from their tips. I recommended two of my favorite actresses that I follow, Jody Foster and Nicole Kidman. They give great tips for actors and indie filmmakers to learn from in the craft of acting. They make millions because they can become many different kinds of characters. They share their techniques on how to become a new character that is believable.
In her case, if I had a better actor available for her role, the other actor would have taken her role. I lost someone who got tired waiting for the production to begin because we had to keep on auditining actors to get enough people to show up to fill the roles. I know most of my crew commented to me I should have held out for a better actor for her role. I did not want to delay the production further waiting for enough actors to show up to recast her role. I may have lost another actor who might have gotten another conflict in their schedule waiting for us to begin. Big budget productions can have scheduling conflicts with their shooting schedules too. But, with the wages they can pay, they get a higher caliber of talent to replace dropouts.
So, I recommend keeping comments positive when dealing with people in the field as often as possible. I made a choice to kepp a bad actor because of her willingness to work.
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