Starting Your Acting Career in Hollywood

If you have been thinking about moving to LA for acting works or you are living there and want to get started then you need to put a plan together. You need to organize your goals so you'll have a clear vision and roadmap of what you will be pursuing.

Strong organization skills and goals will help you to better accomplishing your goals. You need to sit down and do a brainstorm of the types of acting you want to do. What kind of acting do you want to do? Do you want to be acting in drama, action, comedy, or TV's shows? What do you think you will most likely get a role if you went to an audition? What are you naturally good at when it comes to acting? Some actors are natural comedian, some are natural at depicting drama and some at action, you have to find what your good at and stick to it. You will have an easier time acting if you like it and act it well. Also, if you went to college for it, go through all the work you did and try to see what you were told you were good at by your professors or audience.

The next thing on the list is to live in close vicinity of the major studios. It is more convenient this way then trying to drive 1-2 hours for an audition. You would give up soon and ran out of money if you have to drive too far. You would have to get a roommate in LA. Before you start auditioning, you might want to have a part time job to help you pay rent and have some extra cash because auditioning doesn't pay at all. Before auditioning, you can start to work in the film industry as an extra or a crew to help you gain more experience.

If you start working as an extra, you will get more opportunity to expose yourself and your talent. You will also get a chance to meet all the directors and producers and let them see your work. This process is even more valuable then auditioning. Working on movies sets allowed you to network with everyone in the industry; soon enough, everyone will know you and will think of you when they're casting for a new role. It is your job to be aggressive and introducing yourself to the directors and producers. I have been working in the film industry for a while and noticed that most directors and producers are very kind and approachable. I have been approached by them on set; they would give me more work to do and more important work too. People in the film industry are very outgoing and helpful too.

You will need to register with a casting agency in LA to start doing extra work. When you have your pictures in the system, casting directors will also call you for work that they want from you. I was called one time to do a reality TV shows and I got paid more than my usual work. It is a good idea for you to register with the entire casting agency in LA so you can have as much exposure as possible. Some of this casting agency requires only a one time fee of $25 for photo fees. You don't have to pay more than that and if you do then it might be a scam.

Next you will need to take some headshots and build a resume. You need to have your phone number and your agent or agency number on your headshots. You need to keep a lot of these headshots with you so you can distribute them on set to important people. You can also look up the entire commercial agency in LA and mail all of them your headshots. They will call you if they have a gig that matches your looks. You should always try to do commercial because commercial pay very high any where from $5000-100,000.

Next up you will need to get your SAG card into order to get a good agent. You can get your SAG card by doing extra work and you will get SAGS voucher if they give you a line or ask you do something extra. When you have three SAGS voucher you can join the union. You will need to pay around $2500 to join and then a $100-$200 monthly. It cost a lot to join the union therefore you have to save in advance.

After you have your SAG card, you can put together a demo reel of all of your work history. Most agents will not take you unless you have a demo reel. Some agent will take you without it but they don't have a lot of work. After you have your headshots, your SAGS card, your demo reel, you're now set to sign up with an agent.

Once you have an agent they will send you to audition and when you get the part they take a percentage off of your checks. Remember to review your entire work contract carefully; productions in Hollywood are very brutal. You will eventually need to get a lawyer in case the production cheats you. Remember to shop around and ask people for a good agent. Not all agents are good.