How To Do Just About Everything
Some say to become a successful actor you really have to have "the passion" and patience for the "big break" but if patience isn't one of your virtues then it's time to for you to become more then just an actor in the entertainment industry to make a living as an actor. This means becoming a director,producer and your very own entertainment lawyer and publicist.
Develop your different looks. - Actor Joey Fiero
The first step is to take a look at yourself and your life experiences and ask yourself what type of characters do I look like or can I fit into? You are at a crossroad in your life or you have to make a decision to get a job or follow your dreams. Working as an actor is compared to becoming a rock star.
Follow the Entertainment! - Actor Joey Fiero
Most of the networking you will do that will help your acting career will be by living in a major city near you that has a "Hollywood" town. The best place to be is Hollywood, CA or New York City. Hollywood is known for Film,TV and Commercials, New York is known for Theater. Hollywood loves theater credits and New York loves TV,Commercial and Film credits so you can build your resume up at either city. The places where there is major production is where you want to be. Follow the movie star actors you see already and where they are hanging out at!
Learning to play a instrument will greaty help your career! - Actor Joey Fiero
At this point you will be a very green actor and you will probably have nothing on your resume, so you have to build it up. Start by getting a full time job to support yourself and take a class or two at a cheap acting school or at a Jr. College. Develop your extra talents in other entertainment industry related areas. Read everywhere you go and at every free chance you get, never let a minute go by you not reading something about the entertainment industry, learn about casting,producing,directing,TV,Filmmaking. The more you know about how things happen, the better you will be prepared. You have to think,eat and even sleep "entertainment industry". This will build a lot of stress and this stress is normal. Start writing your resume out and print out copies to send to unionized agents "ATA" or "SAG". If you can't get in one of these start our with a new agent that is picking up new actors. These agents are a dime a dozen. If you can't afford to send to 50 or more agents make little postcards with a picture stating "Looking for new representation".
Get yourself in front of a camera anytime you can! Including filming yourself! - Actor, Joey Fiero
Now for the good stuff, you have your actor headshot and resume BUT you need something more, you need to pick up a camera and record yourself. Out of the money that you have go get yourself a pocket camera with a memory card big enough to hold 40 mins of video. Search around online and look at "Actor Demo Reels". Find a place to record yourself reading some lines, acting in other words. Also pick up a tri-pod. Film yourself hosting, copy a commercial, copy a film you saw. Don't make yourself look foolish and shoot yourself several times until you see the perfect scene. Change your clothes for each scene and possibly the background where you shoot yourself. Use the video editing software to add titles and contact information.
Here we were selected as one of the
Now you have a resume,headshot, and a demo reel. Submit yourself to actor casting sites (LaCasting.com,Actorsaccess.com,nowcasting.com) for example and all the free cheap wanna-b ones. Don't pay for the non-brand ones.Upload all your information on the trusted sites. Add yourself and pictures to other networking sites and state that you are an actor such as "myspace" type sites or picture sites.Upload your actor demo reels to multiple video sites with your name as keywords,description and tags. One good site for multiple video uploads is a site named "TubeMogul.com" which is currently still free. Visit these sites every hour of the day. Add any other videos you would like with your name as keywords but make sure if you come up with a idea you copyright it.
Joey Fiero on the Mcdonalds Bags and Cups Worldwide! Seen by billions a day.
Acting or being a "actor" is more then just all this. It's about controlling your career as much as possible and at the same time stimulate your mind to think "outside" the box in the industry because there is no "for sure" ladder as an actor. The goal is to become well known by millions of people in a positive light and help your career take off that much more. This could be to develop your own feature films you star in and distribute them yourself. To pitch a reality show or to submit to a open casting call for a contest that is held on TV.Contests could be a great way to extra exposure. Do not mention you are an actor when you apply to any of these "contests". They want real people and state that you are an actor once you are on the show. Start saving the money you get from this point on. Google "Casting Call".
Actor Joey Fiero and Actor Michael Madsen
Always accept invitations to Hollywood events or try to find events you might even be able to sneak into. Being around the people who have succeed already will only help you that much more. Don't be too desperate looking and act like yourself and leave your ego at the door. At this point you should be a working actor and/or getting some type of residuals to live off from and it might be time to quit your job or move into part time work.
Joey Fiero and Sean Graham, stunt driving!
As you begin to work you will be invited to join guilds and to work purely "Union" while this is good for the whole, you as an individual actor need to be working all the time. In America, the Screen Actors Guild tells you, you can't work non-union which is not true. You have the right to work non-union jobs as well and you can under "Financial Core". This will increase your work as an actor 4 times that much more. You are still a SAG member but all the non-union work you do doesn't count toward your benefits and you won't get a card or get to attend the events. Financial Core SAG actors are cleared to work by SAG Jobs no matter what. So if you are thinking twice about joining SAG because of non-union buy outs you see for a couple of thousand, don't. Just become "Financial Core". Don't pay attention to any propaganda you will receive from them against becoming FI-CORE, at the end of the day you will be the one without a Job and on food stamps because you missed 2 non union auditions with a $10,000.00 2 year but out. At this point you should be making somewhat of a income off acting so it might be safe to quit your job.
Enthusiast 
Comments
DreamLiving said
on 8/30/2008 Great info.
wishay said
on 8/29/2008 I think the article was very useful! thanks Joseph
josephfiero said
on 7/5/2008 umm, what "stuff" are you talking about? what "professional sites" have you been to and what do they tell you? and in what country are you talking about? Part of being a "smart" critic is providing the information you claim to "know". Read my other articles and the ones I'm going to write about maybe that will help you a bit... and yes there is a lot more information that can be read but I can't write it all on ehow. Thanks for your ugly comment.
chinchershey said
on 7/4/2008 umm im not too sure you know what your talking about...ive been to profesional sites and this is the stuff that they tell you not to do or tell you dosent matter so yeah why dont you ask someone who acctually knows how to be an actor/actress and then put down valuable info.~savannah~
Geodon said
on 7/1/2008 I think you're fabulous for disclosing all of this invaluable information. I HATE LURKERS!!!! They are disturbingly weird to me. I'm glad I caught all of this before you decide to take it down because of the ingrates. (((Smooches)))