Introduction-
I am aware that the industry is difficult to get into and subjective so it’s important to look after myself because there will be times of hardship and simply things I can’t control. To take the pressure off, I can focus on the things I can control and what kind of impression I want to give off.
Headshots
Alongside my self-tape/audition, biography and cv, my headshots are going to be the first thing an agent, casting director or director will see. My headshots can affect my acting age bracket depending on if I wear a full face of make-up, appearing older, or even use harsh lighting to define the creases and wrinkles in my face. The genre of performance could be implied through my use of facial expression and lighting. Smiling and having a soft bright lighting could suggest a comedy or romance, compared to having a stern face and low dark light, suggesting a drama, thriller or crime. Headshots influences the opinion and judgement of how the industry views an actor in terms of what roles an agent or casting director sees them playing. I also need to take in consideration my casting type, ensuring it aligns with the roles that I’m auditioning for, so a casting director can easily see me in the role and improve my chances of booking roles if I already visually fit their vision.
Through social media, I found a photographer – vrcstudios who’s work I like the look of for my headshots in 3rd year. Their professionalism impressed and reassured me as they sent me a list of what I need to prepare in advance to the shoot (a1, a2).
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They filmed a behind the scenes, showing their set up and interaction with their clients on their Instagram page which, comforted me as it showed to be a friendly and chill environment.
These are headshots that stood up to me from their page due to how sharp the edit as if you’re seeing them in real life (b1, b2, b3). There is no burl effect over them which is what I’ve seen in other companies. Along with the edit, the framing appeals to me as they’re not too close to the camera and get the opportunity to play with body language which adds to the type of impression that is received. It appears they have freedom with their bodies which excites and relaxes me, as I tend to feel stiff once a camera is in-front of me. I’m relieved to see that this photographer has worked with various skin tones as is able to make them radiant and glow. As a black woman my skin often appears washed out because some photographers don’t have the knowledge of lighting for darker skin tones. I like that the clothes are a different colour the background, allows the actor the stand out and not blend into the wallpaper, also like that the colour of the clothes work with the background. I will have to look at the colour wheel to know which colours complement each other so when it’s time for mine, I have clothes that work with the background.
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Cv
My headshots will give an impression of what kind of actor I am and what kind of work I’m pushing forward. For example, having a seductive look suggests that the actor is pushing for the steamy romance genre and the sexy character. However, with this, skills and experience are needed in correlation. This is exactly what and where a cv comes in (c1). My cv details the various experiences I have gain over the course of my training. This notifies agents and casting directors that I am a versatile actor due to utilising different skills and adapting my approach. For instance, my approach to ‘Zeus King of God’s’ differs to ‘Hecatomb’, as the Greek mythology stage performance was created for children. I and the other actors toured this performance to multiple local primary schools, meaning I would have to maintain my level of performance and stamina whilst still having an element of it being fresh and exciting for the children. Also requiring direct address and knowing what do in situations where children might misbehave, audience participation and multi-rolling. Compared to ‘Hecatomb’, which was a short supernatural drama action, demanding hitting marks and keeping consistency and continuity in my movements and script. Physicalisation and reactions to super powers that aren’t there in production but will be edited in post, dealing with adult themes and foul language and doing my own stunts.
As a working actor, I will need to constantly update my cv as I would want to put the most recent projects on there to show that I am active and have a drive to be a-part of projects. I have used a selfie as a place holder for when I receive my headshots, as I want my cv to have a clean and professional look to it. I have made big bold headlines, sectioning out my cv to make it clear and easy to follow also keeping it quite plain and not too busy so it doesn’t overwhelm whoever is reading it. I ensured my name and photo was the biggest element so, the attention is draw to it, ensuing the font is legible so whoever is reading can obtain important information: contact information if they want to get in-touch due to my skills being compatible to a project they’re working on.
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Biography-
Within my biography I focused on the skills I have now and what stage I am at with acting. Opening with: an actor in training, reflecting my self-awareness and determination to put my skills into practise in a professional environment (d1). I entwined my interest into work that I am passionate about and would like to create. I looked at pervious graduates biographies to grasp an idea of the layout and a common factor between them, was they were written in 3rd person and kept concise, to 150 words. This made it feel professional and re-fined. A clear sense of self and style, which is why I established what kind of actor I am in the beginning. This makes me assessable to those in the industry, as an agent could easily brand me as a certain type of actor and essentially sell my skills to casting directors/directors who are looking for that.
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Industry research –
A special interest of mine is motion capture and physical theatre. They’re both heavy on storytelling and evoking emotion through the body through different mediums – stage and screen. I’m attracted to motion capture because I have the freedom to go out of my casting bracket and play whatever age, gender and species I want. I found London based workshops that range from beginner friendly to advanced. The motion capture Vaults at Mountview (£175-525), Studio T3D which does a 2-day course workshops at Dock street (£645) and RADA, which facilities a short course that introduces actors to motion capture (£575). These classes would teach me the necessary terminology and steps to advance in this specific field of work. Such as, familiarising myself with how my performance is recorded, how to use my physicality to represent different characters, and on the final day, experiencing putting my skills into practise with a scene study, which will be developed into motion capture. I am specifically drawn to motion capture in film and video games such as ‘Avatar’, ‘Planet of The Apes’, ‘The Last of Us’ and ‘The Quarry’. (e1).
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I think it would be cool to be in and a great experience because it a different type of performance that the actor does, and audiences and gamers are completely emersed. To sustainably peruse this, I will need to develop required skills. Such as, stamina, as they record and focus on your physicality and will have to re-shoot scenes/movements as a motion capture game will have characters climbing, crouching and running. To have a sustainable performance and ability to repeat these movements, I will do body warm ups and cool downs, which will minimise the chances of getting injured and reduce achy muscles. I will also need stamina due to long shoot days, consisting of 10 hours. I can prepare for this by using tactics that work for me in long rehearsal days, such as, small health snacks, short burst exercise whilst on breaks to improve concentration, and having a regular sleeping pattern.
I will need to develop demonstration emotions through my physical choices, aligning them with my breath to ground the movements into reality. Uta Hagan’s teaching on destination allows the actor to sit comfortably as the character and inhabit them. ‘If you know where you’re going, where you came from, what surrounds you and how it influences your behaviour, you get free’. This is especially important on a motion capture set as the actor will often need to exercise their imagination reacting to something in the space that is not there or represented as a green object, as it would likely be added in post-production using CGI (f1).
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I’ve had a passion for physical theatre since college, inspired by companies such as, Frantic Assembly and DV8. Frantic Assembly’s ‘Things I know to be True’ co-directed by Scott Graham and Geordie Brookman, written by Andrew Bovell.
I like that they have grounded naturalistic scene and use physical theatre when the characters emotions are beyond words. The physical sequences heighten the emotion for the audience, as it raises the stakes of the scene and allows the audience to experience theatre in a different scale.
I want to work with this company because of their performance style. They en-compass dance-like movements that’s rooted in emotional storytelling and use ‘physicality as a way of unlocking the world of the play’. Un-like traditional theatre, the weight of the performance isn’t just through the voice and facial expressions but through the whole body. Frantic Assembly’s physical sequences come so easily and effortless in their productions and doesn’t seem pre-planned or choppy. This is appealing a riveting for me as I’ve always been a physical person and was completely hooked to the company when I was first introduced to them. They combined music and lighting to emotionally driven scenes, creating a beautiful stage picture (g1).
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I plan to join their intense workshop training – Ignition, which is in the form of trial workshops that gets condensed to 24 young people to join for an intensive week of two devised original performances that are performed to a public audience in a theatre. However, if I don’t make it far with the trial workshops, Frantic Assembly have other workshops – ‘Learn’ and ‘Train’ which are ones I would have to pay for and offer different levels of physical theatre. Taylor Russell, Jennifer Lawrence and Jurnee Smollett are female actors who inspire me (h1).
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None of them had the advantage of going to drama school and are focused on their craft and love for acting. Jennifer Lawrence began her career through local theatre and by securing an agent in New York City. After four years of acting, she began getting noticed, with her first major role being Ree Dolly in ‘Winter’s Bone’ (2010). Taylor Russell began her career by taking theatre classes and would save up money to take trips to auditions. It took her four years before getting noticed – Judy Robinson in ‘Lost in Space’ (2018-2021). These women are evidence of consistency paying due to their successful careers, which is reassuring for me to know that success can take time and I may have years of sparse employment before becoming well established.
Actor Jurnee Smollett inspires me as during her career she has been continuously type-cast as the black, loud, sassy character, however, she managed to break through this and take on more emotionally complex roles. Her type-casted career lead her to consider quitting but after being on a trip with other artists, she saw the power of art to impact social change, which inspired her to continue. This spoke to me as I don’t want to be boxed into racial stereotypes just because of my ethnicity. All of these women do the work that they want, they don’t take what’s handed to them and just do it because it will pay the bills, but do it for the love of acting. They know their worth and that’s the type of confidence I want to have in myself. I believe I have a similar casting type to these women – strong, resilient and emotionally complex and vulnerable – and can see myself playing some of the roles they have done, such as Jurnee Smollett portrayal of Letitia Lewis in ‘Lovecraft Country’ (2020), and Taylor Russell as Emily in ‘Waves’ (2019).
Jennifer Lawrence and Jurnee Smollett have both been with Creative Artists Agency (CAA), and Taylor Russell is with Untied Talent Agency (UTA). Both these agencies have UK locations. I plan on contacting them both, once I have material for my showreel. I took note of their contact details for future reference (UTA: +44 20 7278 3331.) (CAA: 12 Hammersmith Grove, London W6 7AP, +44 20 8846 3000) Both agencies cover theatre and screen which I was glad to see as I have an interest in both. I have more experience within theatre so, I want to sharpen my skills in screen acting by watching and studying different styles of tv acting, doing regular practice self tapes, as well as learning from my third year recorded media modules.
I also want to have an access rider to advocate for my needs and any adjustments I might need, so I can avoid having awkward conversations where I might have to repeat myself, having to explain my needs to multiple people. This document would enable organisation and being able to work efficiently as my needs are attended to in advanced. This would include needing short breaks for energy a green coloured script and preferred communication of needing things broken down with examples to help with my processing due to my dyslexia (i1).
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Summative statement –
My audition for ‘The Rimers of Eldritch’, made me realise that I struggled to articulate myself when it comes to explaining my take on a character and thoughts of the play with clarity. I think it’s because I tend to sit a stew on thoughts and ideas, but I don’t always articulate them or say them out loud, so when it comes to someone asking me directly, all the thoughts jumble over each other. Similarly, I did a mock interview, having my peer act like an agent and ask questions about what I want to do within the industry and talk about myself and interests. With Richard Galloway running the session. In the first try, I blanked at moments in but in the second try, I was advised to take my time and treat it as a friendly chat, instead of viewing as a formal discussion of my future. This was a big help as it took the pressure of this conversation, and I was able to take the time to formulate my thoughts. Both of these experiences taught me I need practise speaking about myself and projects I’m auditioning for, as I tend to stutter and repeat myself rather than saying full sentences, having more to say but couldn’t. I need to allow myself to take up time and space to collect my thoughts which will come with time, and third year will be a great opportunity to do so.
A challenge I had in ‘The Rimers of Eldritch’, was working with unbroken line of action because of the non-linear structure. This made it hard to have a sense of what took place before the scene, leaving me feeling unprepared, forcing the emotion. I used the time walking into position to recall the scene before to combat the challenge. This taught me taking charge of scenes and trust in myself and instincts. As it’s the sole responsibility for the actor to ground the location for the audience. I used Uta Hagen’s technique of fourth side to do this, establishing where things are set, keeping it up and out ‘playing to the audience’, which I read in her book: ‘Respect for Acting’ (chapter 14). This helped me stay true to my character Pasty, as I attacked an emotional emotion to what she was seeing – hatred towards shops in town, due to her feeling trapped in this town.
Playing Patsy and Suzane in FM were break through moments, as they took me outside of my comfort-zone and allowed me to build confidence within strong and out-spoken characters. In a way, these characters relate to me as they’re both emotionally explosive which I can access quite easily. I think because of this I felt connected and saw reason for why they act the way they do. My acting process sourced out their personalities, which gave me the freedom to play with my vocal range. I played with accent as both of them had Southern American accents, and used emphasis on certain words, elongating them if they were annoyed or desperately wanting something, e.g., ‘But alllll the boys have caaaarrrrs’. I had tonal shifts to show frustration, fear and sadness, using my volume to bring the energy to the voice. Playing both of them opened my casting bracket and made me see the potential I have.
