Actor Networking Rules of Thumb

Video Transcript

"SCOTT DUPONT: Welcome back, Scott DuPont here on behalf of Expert Village. This segment we're going to talk about or I'm going to talk about I should say, there's no one else here. Gonna talk about networking. Okay. Just going to give you some generals of them. Might be a good idea to read some books on networking, not specifically for acting but just to understand the process. I belong to several different associations and trade unions, that sort of thing and I try to go out to film festivals, anywhere I can where there's other people in the industry. And I just mention in the last topic, I always have my little business card. What you don't want to do, you don't want to go up to a director or a producer and pitch them. "I'm a great actor. What project do you have going on next? I would love to get an audition." You don't want to be seem really eager. It's best just to overtime, if you go in to these different meetings, bump in to these people and say "You know what, I really like your last film. I saw it at the Florida Film Festival here." Just flatter them. Be honest. Be sincere. And then, when you part ways, give them a little business card. Okay. Or better yet, get their business card so you can send them your head shot, maybe a DVD because what you don't want to do when you're networking, you don't want to go and say "Oh yeah, I gotta -- I got all these head shots here. Can you take these and I did this really great movie, independent movie, can you take that?" If they're out at the party, if they're out at the networking, they don't want to carry around stacks of stuff. So, be consider them, get to know them and the best way to follow up is maybe top send them a friendly e-mail or just mail, in an 8x10 envelope, your head shot at a later date with a nice note: "Hey, I enjoyed meeting you. Ya-di-ya-di-ya-da." And that's kind of how you network. Just keep it simple and just be nice and sooner or later, they'll start knowing you and that's what it's all about. It's not only who you know but who knows you. That's what's most important. Thanks again on behalf of Expert Village and stay tuned. We got one or two more segments coming up. "