You speedily logged into ActorsAccess.com after reading my previous article listing it as the #1 place for LA actors to be online. Your salivary glands began performing their self-titled function, salivating, upon hearing me herald the bountiful opportunities available therein. You signed into the website, chock full of anticipation, and started bellowing into the ether “Oh my goodness! What must I do next? If only someone would write an article detailing how to do this effectively!” I heard you.

The answer, my starry-eyed target reader, is to create a profile. If you haven’t yet, go register now for Actors Access for the cost of something free. Gaze into your empty wallet as you upload your two free headshots. Using your thrifty, frugal fingers, type every last detail about yourself into the resume and special skills section. Smile, you are now ready to be your own severely-limited-in-power agent.

Before I continue to the juicy tips, I must succinctly get everyone up to speed. ActorsAccess.com is a website filled with theatrical and commercial casting notices (also known as “breakdowns”) that have been hand selected by casting directors for actors to submit themselves on. There are other sites that provide this service, but Actors Access is the best. The website is owned by Breakdown Services, the company on whose website, Breakdown Express, all theatrical agents in Los Angeles do the majority of their electronic submitting. This fact is important to know because the two websites are connected. When you secure theatrical representation, they will be using the pictures, resume and video you uploaded to your Actors Access profile to submit you on Breakdown Express. That’s twice the reasons to make your profile complete and superb.

End flashback sequence. I’m picturing you in my mind. You’re logged in and registered, and now you click on “Projects” with baited breath. You view the bountiful list of breakdowns, hand-selected for your eyes. You joyfully notice that the entire page of casting notices you are looking at have been released today. They are fresh! You click the name of a TV show (or As Seen On TV infomercial) that you love, and notice a role that describes you to a T. “This is it,” you think to yourself. You click the role name, then the words “Submission Options” under your picture, and you choose which shot best fits the role. Perhaps you type a concisely worded, extremely short note to the casting director, knowing that their time is valuable. You click “Done With Role,” return to the original breakdown, and, filled with optimistic zest, click “Submit Electronically.” And… What? It costs money!?

Spend That Paper

www.showfax.com

That’s right, it would appear Breakdown Services, owner of Actors Access, wants you to pay $2 a pop to submit yourself. And judging by the sheer cornucopia of opportunities listed therein, you’re going to be spending a lot of money. Before you shatter the lime green Dell laptop your Aunt Louise bought you against the wall, wait. There is a solution. Take yourself to companion website, Showfax.com and register for a year’s membership. When last I checked, this cost $60.

Showfax is a relatively boring website that serves solely one purpose; When you get yourself an audition, the sides are posted there. You’re going to need these pages of dialogue selected by the casting director to audition you if you’re going to make any kind of good impression. And while knowing your lines and being a reliable, prepared actor may well be more valuable than talent itself in Los Angeles, there’s an even more important reason to register with Showfax. It makes every submission you make on Actors Access free.

Spend the $60 and go wild. If you’re brand new to town and have not a credit to your name besides a community theater production of All’s Well That Ends Well, it’s time to get some experience. If you’re the type that thinks a radio contest for a walk on role on Vampire Diaries will change your life, it’s time to learn first hand what “honey wagon” really means. It’s time to stop being green, and start making some.

Set aside an hour a day and submit yourself for every role that feasibly fits you. If there’s nothing rare about you (8 feet tall, speaks Tagalog with a Southern accent), you can expect about 1 audition every month or two. Prepare the heck out of the auditions you get and nail ‘em. In a perfect world, you’d be submitting yourself on roles the moment they are released, since your submissions are often viewed by casting in the order they are received, but in an imperfect world you’re probably too busy working at Yogurtland to pay your inflated Miracle Mile rent for that. So do what you can.

Making Movies To Make It Into Movies

Now you’ve got a leg up on all the schmoes who think writing their name in White Out all over their ’89 Tercel is the key to getting exposure. But how do you edge out the hundreds of thousands of other motivated actors all hiding in a corner waiting to swallow your soul? Wait, this article wasn’t directed by Sam Ramis. Let me rephrase that. “Compete with you.” There we go.

On Actors Access, uploading a video is absolutely key. When casting is looking at 4000 tiny thumbnail pictures displayed on 20 pages for a 2 line co-star on Lie To Me, the submissions with video attached are viewed first. If you want to have top odds for getting the audition, you want to submit as close to when the breakdown is released as possible and make sure to include a video.

What kind of video? I’ll be more detailed on that in another article, but for now, let’s just say it’s preferable that it be video of you acting. Cut yourself a one minute reel, burn it to a DVD, take it down to the Breakdown Services office at 7700 Sunset Blvd, and pay them $50 to upload it. It’s $50 for the first minute, $22 for each additional minute. Sounds like an overpriced 1-900 line. But if you want to be seen by anyone other than Ms Cleo, I strongly suggest you make the call. Actors Access offers other options for creating video if you have none, as does Speedreels.com. Also, just as when you’re reproducing your hardcopy headshots at isgophoto.com, you’ll get a discount if uploading in bulk.

Don’t Call Us, We’ll… Get Emailed By You?

As an actor you are president of your own company, and you are the product your company sells. As you get used to selling this product day in and day out over the internet, gradually accruing credits to make your product more attractive, you may wish to hire a service company that specializes in selling products like yours in exchange for taking a percentage of the profits.

You’re going to want an agent and/or manager. And while spending hundreds of dollars a year on postage and envelopes may sound like a thrill, I would suggest you try it the free way: electronically. Get an agent’s email address when you network with her. Or, if by some odd happenstance you’re an actor afraid of talking to people, buy a membership to IMDBPro and collect the email addresses of representation appropriate for where you’re at in your career. Then, enclose a friendly cover letter, and use Actors Access’s “Email Profile” feature to email them your head shot, resume and reel electronically. The Internet has yet to charge postage.

There’s two reasons why it’s vital to discuss the state of your online profile at this point. Obviously, you’re going to want impressive head shots, video clips and resume credits enclosed in your electronic materials if you want to convince an agent to represent you.

But here’s the key: As I said before, if they choose to rep you, the agent will be using exactly the same materials you send them through Actors Access to submit you via Breakdowns Express. No agent or manager enjoys taking on a new client only to spend the next two months nagging the client to upload a reel, or viable head shots or to format their resume to the industry standard. Let the agent know you already know what you’re doing. Make their job easy, so they can easily get you a job.

Don’t spend another night at Sky Bar hoping someone notices your new veneers and casts you as the Cheshire Cat opposite Johnny Depp. If you aren’t educating and marketing yourself via the internet in the most effective way possible, you’re just another gorgeous husk lapping up a pomegranate martini of failure. If you won’t take it from me, take it from a Jessica Simpson commercial: It’s time to get proactive.