HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR - 10 TOP TIPS

1. Never Forget That Absolutely No One Looks Like You. You Are Original, You Are Unique. The Planet Earth Is Your Play Ground; There Will Always Be The Perfect Part Waiting For You.

2. Always Be “You” Never Try To Be or Become Someone Else. Act with Your own Soul!

3. Get Professional Headshots (Photos from yourselfer). This Headshot Will Become Part Of Your Marketing Tools To Promote Yourself To The Producer, Director, Casting Director, Theaters etc. It Will Help You Get In The Doors To Start Working In The Industry.

4. Locate and Call your Film Commissioner In Your Area. By Doing so You will Know Witch Movies And TV Series Are Being film in Your Town. From your local Film Commission Get Your Local Film Directory.

5. Sharpen Your Acting Talent By Taking Acting Classes. Never Forget That A Good Actor Studies Society And Their Behaviors. As You Know The Society As Change Over The Years. To Be A Good Actor Is To Accept That You Will Study and Grow In Your Craft Until You Die.

a. Learn to do Cold Readings : A cold reading is a reading aloud from a script or other text without any rehearsal, practice or study in advance.
b. Develop Audition Techniques
c. Get your Monologues

6. Phone Your Local Production Companies And Their Respective Producers. The one That Make Commercials Will More Likely To Hire New Faces And Have Regular Jobs. Combine This by Getting the Hotline Listings From Your Local Film commissioner

7. Make Sure You Locate and Contact Your Local Casting Directors. Introduce Yourself To Them And Send Them Your Pictures and Resume witch will be very small at the beginning but It will Grow as You will Gain Experience. As You Ad More Acting Classes And Jobs Experience On Your Resume Your Casting director will start calling you to a lot more auditions. You will start to get some jobs, like for a day or as extra-background performer.

8. Build Up Your Resume By Attending Acting, Singing, Voice, Cold Reading, Audition Techniques Classes etc.. That Will Diversify Your Talent. Join Forces With Teammates and Create A Play And ShowCase Your Talent.

9. Get an Agent-Manager. Start Building Your Acting Team. Associate Yourself With The Ones That Believes In Your Talent And Your Dream. Make Short And Long Term Plan With Them. Dont Wait For Them To Do The Job For You. Become Proactive! Because No One Will Believe More In Your Dreams Then Yourself.

10. When You Start Building A Name For Yourself Maybe You Will Start Thinking To Move To LA (Hollywood), New York (Broadway), Chicago, Toronto or Vancouver To Get The Real Big Acting Parts.

HOW TO BECOME AN ACTOR - Outline

1-You are Unique

2- Always be "You"

3-Get Your Profile Picture

4-Make friend with film Commissioners

5-Get Production Directory

6-Take Acting Class (Cold Reading-Audition Techniques-Monologues)

7-Contact Local Producers (Commercials)

8-Listen to Hotline Listings Film commissioner

9-Contact Local Casting Directors, Production Directory

10- Go to Auditions

11-Try to get the job, Day Player, Extra-Atmosphere

12-Build a Resume

13-Move to Nearest Film industry

14-Get an Agent-Manager

15-Welcome to Film industry

16-Always Be You (You are Unique! – You are Original!)

BEGINNING VOCAL TRAINING

BEGINNING VOCAL TRAINING

Objective: To introduce the importance of vocal techniques, vocal improvement games and key physical terms of the voice, for the actor.

The students will be able to label basic physical features of the human vocal system.
The students will be able to display and practice breathing control techniques.
The students will understand the importance of pitch, tone, quality, volume, rate, articulation and pronunciation in speaking everyday as compared to the stage.

Terms:
Controlled breathing- control over the intake and exhale of breath to produce vocal sounds.
Diaphragm- muscular body partition between the chest and abdomen.
Lungs- holds air.
Larynx- upper part of trachea, contains vocal cords.
Resonators- throat, nose, mouth, sinuses.
Articulators- tongue, teeth, cheeks, jaw, lips, hard and soft palates.
Quality- characteristics that distinguish different voices.
Pitch- highness or lowness of vocal sound.
Volume- control for audibility of sound.
Rate- speed of the voice, suggests age and emotion.
Articulation- clarity in speaking words.
Pronunciation- accurately producing sound with syllables, accents and stresses.

Controlled breathing warm-up:
Allows deeper breath for controlled, prolonged sounds.
1) Yawn and relax.
2) Stand. Breath in normally, feel chest rise. Now breathe in and feel diaphragm expand, chest should not rise. Do this at home. Lie on your back and then stand and try to feel the same things.
3) Do this standing and hold exhale as long as you can by counting as high as you can.
4) Work with tongue twister: Red leather, yellow leather. Same breathing as above.

Continue tomorrow:
Warm-up
Intro to Voice, Controlled Breathing
Pitch, Volume, Inflection, Rate, Articulation
Tongue twisters

VOICE WORKSHEET

CONTROLLED BREATHING HANDOUT

Controlled Breathing

An actor's voice is basic to his craft. His voice should be audible and flexible so that he can communicate a variety of characters, meanings and emotions. His voice should also be able to withstand strenuous rehearsals and performances. Vocal training is not only for the professional actor, all voices can be improved upon with care and exercise. Avoid colds, smoking and drinking and never strain your voice by yelling When exercising your voice strive for controlled breathing; a trained ear; a rich, resonant quality; variety in pitch, volume and rate; clear articulation; and proper pronunciation.

The first step in vocal training is the mastery of controlled breathing. Speech sounds are produced by air that has been forced through the lungs by the action of certain rib muscles and the diaphragm, a flat muscle separating the chest from the abdominal cavity. The exhaled air vibrates the vocal folds in the larynx. The sound produced is modified by the resonators (throat, nose, mouth, sinuses) and formed into vowels and consonants by the articulators (tongue, jaw, teeth, cheeks, lips, hard and soft palates).

To have the necessary air control for efficient speaking, it is advisable to breathe from your diaphragm. This means that your chest cavity is relatively still, while your waistline expands and contracts, and your lower ribs slightly rise and fall. Diaphragmatic breathing requires less effort than chest breathing, allows you to breathe deeply, provides the necessary waist control that enables you to project long passages without running out of breath. For controlled breathing practice these exercises:

1) Lie flat on your back with one hand on your abdomen and the other on your chest. Keep the chest still. The abdomen should out when you inhale and in when you exhale. Now stand up and like a dog, with only the abdomen moving in and out. Keep the area motionless. This is diaphragmatic breathing.

2) Use diaphragmatic breathing, take a deep breath and see how far you can count as you exhale on one breath. Do not force the count. When you grow tense, breath, start again, and exhale the air slowly for control. Work until you can effortlessly count up to sixty.
from the text:
Basic Drama Projects, Fran A. Tanner, Clark Publishing Co. 1982

Actor

Actor