Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Time to Start Writing...

This is a post I published on casaPeople.com in response to a thread asking about people's hopes and dreams in the film industry.

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Very much enjoyed reading everyone's posts...if nothing else, everyone has passion in common which is so exciting to see.

I did want to add my own hopes and dreams both because writing them down and sharing them will make them more likely to happen, and because I feel like actors have been underrepresented in this thread...

To begin, I arrived in Los Angeles last week, and am currently getting settled in and ready to start my new life here in California. I had a few reasons for moving...(in no particular order):

-I'd lived in Colorado my whole life and was ready (read: desperate) for change...a new Starbucks, anything...
-I'm young and have essentially zero responsibility
-While Colorado (both the local scene as well as CU-Boulder where I graduated from in May) was a 
phenomenalplace to start my acting career--get things on my resume, good experience, variety of performance venues, stuff for a reel, some money here and there, good contacts, etc. etc.--there just isn't enough work to make any decent amount of money.
-I got enough experience in Colorado that I didn't feel I needed to go to NM, Chicago, Austin, etc. as a stepping stone (although I'm not sure I agree with those who give that advice anyway)

What's unfortunate to me is that I've seen my entire acting community move or plan to move out of Colorado within a year (rarely more) of graduating college...these are talented actors and actresses who were starting successful careers in Colorado, but there just wasn't enough work (or even projects!) to keep them fed/happy. While I was constantly working, the money was scarce and there was not nearly the variety of work available as I have already seen in L.A. Maybe this was just my experience, but the vast majority of the work my agent was sending me out for were commercials, industrials, and the like. While I am by NO means "above" doing this work (any time in front of a camera makes my insides squirm with delight and my mouth taste like the laughter of children) it's not what I ultimately want to do...

...which is to have a career where I can choose (and have the opportunity to) what feature films and television shows I would like to be in. I want to be in art that has a purpose and changes the world, but also art that makes money and reaches a broad (read: millions) audience. I want to act with the best of the best. I'm also not ashamed to say that I do indeed aspire to be in the top 1/2 % that is famous and makes the big bucks...if one can't even admit to themselves that they want that, I have a hard time believing they will obtain it...I don't think it's an accidental thing.

Something I've thought a lot about is that I don't actually have it as a goal to support myself financially with my acting. It turns out that that would be a nice side effect of my above goals, but is has never been my focus. If I had a life where I paid my bills with my other skills (web design, I own my own company, etc.) and had the time and flexibility to act in whatever movies I wanted but had (got!) to do so for free, I totally would.

Those are my 2am (Pacific Standard Time, baby! :p) thoughts...