4 Ways To Make Your Demo Reel Stand Out

Written by Mark Macias

Put yourself in the position of a casting agent. You need to hire an actress for a commercial shoot. She should have a comedic style and must be strong enough to carry a 30-second commercial. Her age and ethnicity can vary, so the actress search is broad.

I’ve posted similar actor ads on Craigslist and received more than 300 emails in the first 10 hours. After the first 20 emails, I have to be honest all CVs and headshots run together – with the exception of one group: actors with a reel.

I will never understand why actors don’t email a reel when they are applying for an audition, yet less than 3 percent of the actors who have applied for jobs that I posted emailed me a video reel. The rest emailed me multiple attachments with headshots and resumes, assuming I had the time to open 5 attachments.

It doesn’t make any sense. A video reel showcases an actor’s presence, acting skills, delivery, voice and style. A headshot just tells me what you look like, but even that isn’t always accurate.  Read more

Interview: William Mapother talks ‘Another Earth,’ auditioning and how he prepares for a role

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:31 — 14.8MB)

The first time I saw William Mapother’s work was in the excellent film, In The Bedroom. I thought, “Wow, who is this guy?” I wasn’t the only one who thought that because since then, he’s been working non-stop ever since.

He’s currently starring in the film, Another Earth as John Burroughs, a composer who has suffered a tragic loss at the hands of Rhoda (Brit Marling). When Rhoda is released from prison, she finds a way into his life and the two form an odd friendship. When she gets a chance to travel to Earth 2 – the mysterious mirror planet that has appeared in the sky –  she must make a decision to tell Burroughs the truth about her or leave and start a new life.

When Mapother and Marling (who is also the co-writer) are on-screen together, that makes the film. Their scenes are touching and warm and you’re hoping that the two can have a chance to be together. Mapother grounds the story; his character, even in silence lets you in on the rage and sadness he’s feeling inside. It’s a really fantastic performance.

I got a chance to talk to William about his work on the film, how he prepares for a role, bad auditions and his advice to actors!

For the full interview, click the audio link above or download it from iTunes

How did you get involved in the film? Mike [Cahill] was a first time director, Brit hadn’t had a lot of experience yet…

William Mapother: When I was in New York in the summer 2009 at the Shakespeare Lab at the Public Theater, which puts on Shakespeare in the Park. Every summer, they bring in about a twelve of actors and put them together with some of the best classical acting teachers in the country and teach them how to play Shakespeare soup to nuts.  And while I was there, I made a list of all the casting directors in New York whom I hadn’t met over the years and sent that to my manager and asked him to set up a meeting with one of them.  I went over to the meeting.  It was in Chelsea, the elevator was out, fourth floor walk up.  It was noisy, dusty, there was construction going on, 20 minutes in and out, very inauspicious.  Two weeks later in L.A., a script arrived with an offer for a role. And they said, “We have a first time feature director, a new actress who is not in SAG, and it’s about $100 a day.  Are you interested?”

I read the script and I liked the script.  I realized I never played a character like this and then I looked at the footage that Mike and Brit had already shot of them because they began shooting the movie before I came aboard.  They couldn’t find an actor for my role.  They had been looking for about six months and they shot a bunch of Brit’s scenes by herself and with her family.  And from the footage, I could tell that Mike knew how to shoot and Brit knew how to act, and then I met with them for lunch and we got along really well and I realized that they were committed to making the best possible movie without ego or status, and then it would be a lot fun, and then at that point it was a no-brainer decision for me.

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“Hawaii Five-0″ star Scott Caan: “I feel like, right now, acting is work”

“Hawaii Five-0″ star Scott Caan is blunt-spoken and a self-proclaimed perfectionist. “When it comes to something we’re going to put on camera and make a show out of, I want it to be believable.”

CBS Studios chief David Stapf describes Caan as a skilled actor with great appeal. “He has that nice blend. Guys love him. Women love him. He’s able to combine an ease with which he does his job with humor, but not sacrifice how good he is at his job.”

When Caan was a teenager, he worked in the music business, before he felt a tug toward acting. He began studying theater, writing and directing, then segued into writing screenplays. “I feel like, right now, acting is work,” he says. “Directing is a passion, and writing is something I kind of do whether I want to or not.”

Best known for his roles in the Ocean’s films and HBO’s Entourage, Caan says initially he wasn’t sure he wanted to sign on for a  series that had the potential for a long run. Even his father, actor James Caan, tried to persuade him to pass on it.  “He said, ‘You’re going to get bored playing the same character,’ but I haven’t yet, so that’s good.”

And the actor admits, so far the Five-0 experience has been a good one, though he has moments when he feels restless. “I’m happy I have a job. I’m happy that people like what I’m doing. I’m happy that the show is doing good, but I always like to be doing something else. I’m really never happy where I am.  I always want to do better.”

via usatoday.com

Screenplays

Edward Norton, Tim Blake Nelson on their film, “Leaves Of Grass”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:55 — 21.2MB)

Edward Norton playing twins in a movie that’s directed by Tim Blake Nelson? How could that not be great?

And guess what? Leaves Of Grass is great! Edward Norton plays twins Brady and Bill. Brady is a small-time pot grower and Bill is an Ivy league professor. Tim Blake Nelson who also wrote the film plays Brady’s redneck friend Bolger.

I saw the premiere at SXSW and the movie is funny, violent and at times, you have no idea where the story is going to take you, which for me, makes the film.

This was another roundtable interview (my question is here) and the interview ran longer than most, so I’ve cut it down a bit. If you want the whole interview, you can listen/download the whole conversation above or click here for iTunes.

On a side note: I’ve been interviewing people for a while now and I have to say, Tim Blake Nelson is truly one of the nicest guys around. The day after this interview, I was in the hotel lobby when Tim and I saw each other. He said, “Hi” and we started to have this 5 minute long conversation. It wasn’t anything about his movie… just a normal conversation… about BBQ. You gotta love SXSW.

Tim, I was wondering as actor and as a filmmaker do you involve yourself with films that act as a corrective and not go straight towards the stereotypical easy laugh?

Tim Blake Nelson: Yeah, I certainly do.  I do grow tired of intelligence having such a limited manifestation in movies.  And so when I wrote this I knew immediately that the wisest and smartest characters, two characters in the movie in this movie would be the ones who either remained in Oklahoma or returned there.  So, the smartest guy in the movie is Brady.  I think that’s evident and it’s also stated by the mother.  And the wisest character is Keri Russell’s character, and she’s chosen to return and write in Oklahoma, and I think she gives the Bill character the wisdom that allows him to begin to move forward in his life as it’s collapsing around him.  So, in answer to your question, I was eager to debunk certain stereotypes about Southern characters in this movie.

This question is for both of you and it has to do with that obviously to believe in the duality of it you have to have this suspension of disbelief, and I’d like to hear from you how you achieved it through filmmaking and how you achieved it through your acting.

Tim: Yeah, suspension of disbelief in a story like this is pretty essential, although that said, I think you have to be responsible to your story as a storyteller.  To make it feasible enough, and I hope that this story is feasible enough.  There are details peppered throughout that I didn’t want to bang the audience over the head with it.  I mean, an obvious question would be well, hang on, wouldn’t folks know they were twins, but they didn’t grow up in Ida Belle, in the Ida Belle, Broken Bow area.  They grew up in another town, Hugo.  And Brady is moved to Ida Belle.  But these stories are all far-fetched, but the antecedent material for the movie, like in Menander and Plautus and Shakespeare, you know, it’s a retelling of a twins genre.  And the main character in the movie is a classicist, and so that’s all very intentional.  It’s meant to reflect on those earlier works.  The character, Bill, has done a translation of Plautus’ play The Menaechmi, which is a Roman twins play.  And so suspension of disbelief and that whole question is part of the fun of the movie.  Alright and now he’s going got say thanks for referencing Menander (laughter).

Edward Norton:  Well, no, actually I was going to say that any questions I had about whether a redneck from Oklahoma could actually go and become a Brown classical philosophy professor were ended when I met Tim because I think as you can see one conversation with Tim and you kind of realize, ‘Oh, Bill is a believable character.’

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Screenplay: ‘It’s Complicated’

Want the screenplay for It’s Complicated?

Sure you do!

Click here for the script

Screenplay: ‘Public Enemies’

Want the screenplay to Public Enemies?

Sure you do!

Click here to download the script

Screenplay: “Funny People”

Want the screenplay to Funny People?

Sure you do!

Click here to download the script

John Malkovich: “When I look at a really good script I think, when this character wakes up in the morning: what do they see?”

John Malkovich, stars in Disgrace a South African professor who has an affair with a  student. He moves to the Eastern Cape, where he gets caught up in a mess of post-apartheid politics.

From Movieline:

How did you approach finding this character?
A novel could help you, but that depends on who your collaborators are. That isn’t really your job as an actor. When you arrive, you’re there to interpret Coetzee’s interpretation. It’s his allegory of the years since apartheid, not mine. I don’t have one.

But your character illuminates a tragedy?
He illuminates a tragic interior landscape. No, I’m not shy about that — I like to think I can take any character and make him unlikeable.

You wanted to make him unlikeable?
I don’t think about stuff like that very much. I don’t think about people that way.

Which way?
That these are unlikeable, these are likeable. These are good. These are bad. I don’t see the world that way. How we’re told to approach the world doesn’t meet up with my experience of the world. Which is that people whom I quite like — maybe not to the extent Will Rogers liked them, but not so far either — are simply more complicated than they’re purported to be.

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