This past Friday night was the world premiere of Gay Baby from Wonder Entertainment. I was so thrilled to have been cast in this short, alongside such amazing and certainly seasoned actors, such as Larry Sullivan ( CSI, 24, the Secret Life of the American Teenager) and Richard Riehle (Grounded for Life, Office Space, too damn much to write!). A wonderful experience, yes. But one I almost didn't get.
It wasn't until Friday night at the FilmOut After Party that I learned, there had been callbacks for my role... which I was not invited to. WHAT?? Huh?? You didn't fall in love with me instantly at the first audition? The short answer is, no. Writer/director Kevin Kelly told me, "We liked you... but we just weren't sure." Well, after calling back a slew of actresses for the role of Maggie, (some who were in real life actually quite pregnant) they still weren't sure. Kelly said, "We liked a lot of them, but we just wanted someone... funnier." Casting director Damian Pelliccione suggested, "Take another look at Beth Shea." Pelliccione had cast me only months before in his project, The Biggestwannabe.com, so luckily he was a fan.
Kelly searched me on youtube, saw my reel and said, "That's it. That's who we want."
So, the story here is, my reel, not my audition, absolutely got me the part. A clip of me slapping my new husband across the face at our wedding reception, sealed the deal.
Reel good to know!
Can I just talk about a few things I love? Ok, if you read my post Demo What? you heard me talk about how important it is these days for actors to "show, not tell" what they do best, and that there's really no excuse these days for an actor not to have a demo reel. And while you originally may want to use one of the amazing demo reel editors I mentioned in that post, how about keeping it updated? Yourself? I'm not edgy nor cool enough to own a Mac, so I have to settle for Windows Movie Maker... which I LOVE!!! It's SO super easy. Here's the latest cut of my reel I updated this afternoon: The Beth Shea Demo Reel
OK, my last name is Shea, my dog's name is Bailey, yup I'm Irish. And I love that wearing green tomorrow drastically narrows down my outfit choices ( I always pick out my work clothes the night before, a chore I LOATHE!). I love that "Flash Forward" is coming back on Thursday and I LOVE that my handsome man is working from home now :) And that he's keeping my other handsome man company. Happiness is good!!
Today it's probably more important than ever for actors to "show, not tell" their performing ability and experience. I know that when you submit for a project on www.actorsaccess.com out of the zillions of submissions, the ones listed first for the casting director to see are the ones with video attached. And really, there's no excuse if you don't have a reel and submit with it. No footage? You can get a flip cam for 80 bucks, and HD flip for about 150, and just get a friend or two and shoot a couple of scenes! Obviously you can use any camera, big or small, and where did it come from? Duh! A student film (btw, I'm rarely asked where my clips came from). Make up a name for it... or don't, and voila! You're only going to use 30-40 seconds of each bit, just make sure each clip starts and ends on your lovely face. You can even edit it yourself in a simple program like iMovie or for PC users, Windows Movie Maker. That might sound hard, but I swear it's not! I did mine on windows Movie Maker: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fDHp57kG-U Regardless, if you're not feeling up to the task (albeit FREE) here is a short collection of demo reel editors I've collected from actors I know and trust:
Jacob Strunk : www.shotgundigital.com He's about $125/hr, but put this together in 45 mins:http://www.amymotta.com/Reel.html
Jeff Castelluccio: littlecastle1@mac.com Contact for rate, loved by Erin Cummings, just look:http://littlecastlefilms.com/erincummings/Reel_v7_01.29.10sm.mov
Matt Riddlehoover: 323-963-0527 He does a flat rate of $150 and did Brian Nolan's:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dzw3j0prw
Josh Fong: 323 650 5854 Noted to be great with comedy. Did all of Naomi Grossman's:http://www.youtube.com/naomigrossman
Allison at Advanced Media: 323-469-0707 Noted to be very good, sweet and reasonable, about$35/hr.http://www.advancedmediallc.com/
David Conner: davconn@roadrunner.com Noted to be awesome, $60/hr, reels starting at $240http://www.facebook.com/l/4a2f8;www.connerpost.com
So shoot, cut or both, but you've gotta have a reel to be in the game, and you can't win a game you're not playing!
