The Forgotten Many

Think of your favorite actors from the 90s and 2000s. Who comes to mind that you wish would make another good movie or get another shot on Primetime? 

Out of respect, I won’t name mine but chances are we share more than a couple names on that list. 

I always wondered what happened to them and why it seems like they never acted again. 

It’s fascinating to look at someone’s career, who has been at the top of the industry. There is a lot to learn from them. 

If you have been around Boost My Star for any length of time, you know that I’m a big proponent of doing this. 

Typically, people study those that are still at the top. 

While that’s phenomenal, there’s a lot to learn from those that have retreated from the industry too. 

In fact, their careers can yield even bigger insights. 

Here’s why… 

When someone gets to the top of the industry, there are few other people around for them to get advice from about what to do next. 

This is what “It’s lonely at the top” really means. 

So they are forced to make educated guesses. 

Sometimes they get lucky and make the right moves. More often they try and fail. 

Often, there is more to learn from those that are down and out. It is basically a recipe for success, when reverse engineered properly. 

Remember, when asked about his failures in making a light bulb, Thomas Edison stated “I didn’t fail, I figured out 9,999 ways NOT to make a light bulb.” 

This is how you have to approach these actors as case studies. 

If you see someone (anyone) doing something and it goes badly, do the opposite. 

Diametric-opposition to failure often has a better chance of success than following the blueprint of someone who has succeeded. 

See, it’s hard for us to retrace our steps accurately and we often tend to omit certain parts of our story that seem insignificant to us but that may be crucial points for someone else. 

When we study an actors career that has stalled, the story is much more “honest” and told more accurately. 

Again, I don’t want to name anyone in particular out of respect, so think of an actor that has a stalled career. Compare what you know about them. 

I can think of a handful, but one that comes to mind was a teenage heartthrob. He starred in a film franchise that was significantly important for an entire generation. Though he was not, in my opinion, a world class actor, he was more than good enough to have a fantastic career. 

It has been several years since we’ve heard of him. 

Why? 

He attempted to continue in the role of “heartthrob” long past his peak. When it came time for him to evolve, he was persistent in his pursuit of roles that were the old him. 

A few years older and a couple pounds heavier he would have been perfectly suited for different things and I often looked at a cast list and thought that he would have been perfect in that production. 

The key takeaway there, is to evolve at the right time instead of fighting to keep things as they were. 

Thinking of an actor who competed for roles with him and had a similar career, that was every bit as accomplished, it’s more difficult to pin down the point at which he made the leap and evolved. 

With our subject, it’s easy to see his desirability going south quickly. 

If you were to track his career, you would easily see that after the franchise wrapped, he went on to star in another film successfully. It was in the same category and the film performed well. 

After that, he tried another film in the same category. That one did OK but was a disappointment. 

The third one should have been the nail in the coffin of that category. Not only was he now awkward in that role, the film tanked at the box office and the critics (both professional and everyday moviegoers) were brutal about it. 

He could have resurfaced in a rom-com or every day comedic production with huge success… 

Instead, he went back in for more and tried his hand at the heartthrob action hero again. 

As time went on, the studios that produced the films he starred in and the budgets got smaller and smaller. Before long, he went from nationwide releases to “playing in select theaters,” then straight to DVD releases. 

Let me be clear: there is absolutely nothing wrong with any of that. However, the order should go DVD releases, select theater releases, and finally nationally distributed films. 

The industry has a way of pushing you upstream if you allow it to. 

So, when you feel the currents shifting and like your swimming upstream, it’s time to evolve in your category or choose a new one. 

That’s a big thing to take away from studying this actor that was at the top of the industry and could have had a decades long and highly fulfilling career.

A big problem that many actors face is simply getting traction in their career. You have to be prepared for the industry to notice you but the actors that make it to the top have forced the industry to take notice. 

Here is a powerful way for you to do that.

See, when the powers at be can quantify your industry reputation and literally see that you are a star on the rise, what is there to stop you from achieving everything you dreamed of and more? 

The industry is becoming more risk averse everyday, so you must to prove to them that you have star power, even if you are only reading for bit parts right now. 

We’ve all watched a commercial or have seen someone perform a one liner masterfully and we just knew that they were going to be big. 

We tend to be right about stuff like that because one good actor can spot another one a mile away. 

That’s why I put together a way to help with your career. You can get the details on that here.

Shoot me an email or leave a comment below with questions about this or anything else that’s on your mind. I’ll help however I can because my goal is to… 

See you at the top, 
Scott

“Prepare for Something Amazing”

Grasshopper, I was absolutely tickled to write today’s special report for you. I have been following these guys since what seems like the beginning, though their story starts long before that. 

They are “Four lifelong friends who compete to embarrass each other.” 

Season 8 of their mega hit TV show Impractical Jokers premiered a few days ago. They have a feature film set to debut in 2019, and when they are not filming you can catch them at live shows all over the country (and soon even overseas). 

The career moves that they have made so far have been incredibly calculated. There have been many missteps along the way. 

In fact, they almost quit the entertainment business right before they made it. 

Their story is inspiring and also serves as a perfect case study for anyone trying to make it in the industry. 

Here’s why… 

They had 0 connections, 0 resources, and no idea of what they were doing when they started out. They began as an improv and comedy troupe. They did what most people do: open mic night, community theatre, independent productions, etc. 

This got them nowhere for years. 

By their own admission, it was really tough to keep going sometimes as they felt that they were not making any headway in their careers. 

One night, the four of them got together in their mom’s basement (yes really!) and they collectively decided to call it quits. 

They couldn’t bare to go on. 

Every actor goes through this too. Sometimes it happens after 5, 10 or even 20 auditions without even so much as a callback. This is when our resolve is put to the test though. 

See, even though in a moment of weakness they decided to quit the desire was still alive. Being best friends, they continued to hang out and see each other. After a few weeks they came to the conclusion that they were still quitting for good…unless something big came up that would change their career trajectory. 

This is where things start to get really interesting. 

Out of the 4 guys, 3 of them were creatives and 1 of them was business minded. He [the business minded one] knew that he had to convince the guys to reinvent themselves if they wanted to have a shot at meaningful careers. 

Stand up and improv wouldn’t cut it because there was no place for it in the market. 

We’ll go over exactly what this means to you in a moment… 

He looked at what was in demand and came to the conclusion that this shiny new thing called YouTube was the answer. 

It was a form of distribution for which there was no barrier to entry. People were flocking to it because it had original and off the wall content. This meant their skillset could be put to good use and they didn’t require a big, scripted production to attract an audience. He convinced the other guys to throw a Hail Mary and give it one last, go big or go home, Hollywood or bust, last ditch effort to make it in the industry. 

This was probably the most important thing: they stopped trying to attract the networks. Instead, they built an audience and a platform and forced them to pay attention. 

Here’s how they did it and how you can do it too. 

They tried many things before finding what worked. They tried to record their stand up routines and put it online. This attracted a few viewers but nothing meaningful like what they were looking for. 

They doing skits and put them online…crickets. 

As a prank, 3 of the guys decided to pull a prank on the other one. They filmed it, thought it was hilarious and put it online only as a way to embarrass the other “victim” of the prank. 

It went viral! 

They had finally struck a chord with the audience. 

So, they did it again and got even better results. More viewers. More followers. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

They built one of the original super channels on YouTube by simply pulling pranks and putting each other in compromising situations. 

The business minded one in the group, then took that success to the networks with an idea for turning their antics into a TV show. It was a small start up network that offered the guys the best deal with tons of creative latitude. 

After 8 seasons (and a 9th season guaranteed), the rest as they say is history. 

They have touched millions of lives with their work. On a personal note, I have a close friend that pulled herself out of a multiyear depression partially by watching their show. Every episode is laugh out loud funny from beginning to end, so she would get up, go to the gym, go to work and watch the show from the minute she got home, until she closed her eyes and went to bed. 

That’s the power that we have in the entertainment industry. We touch and change people’s lives in ways we often forget. So, if you truly want to make it in this industry you have to recognize this and don’t let your talent remain inside you. 

Share it with the world. It is our duty and our moral obligation to succeed. You never know how things might be different otherwise. 

We can look at their story and find it inspiring of course, but more importantly we can dissect it and replicate their road to success. 

Before they found their place in the industry, they were struggling to stand out in a crowded field. 

Instead of trying to stand out as a small fish in a crowded ocean, they “changed oceans.” You can do the same. Are you trying to stand out in the crowded audition circuit? Maybe it’s time to change your strategy. 

They built an audience, which in the entertainment business is an immensely valuable asset. This forced the networks to notice them. As much as I wish things were different, a less talented actor with a bigger audience and better industry reputation will almost always be cast over a fantastic but unknown actor.

Here’s a quick fix for that.

It’s a easy to look at someone’s success and think “that’s great but I could never do that.” 

It’s important to keep things in perspective. These guys filmed their pilot episode using a couple iPhones. No crew, no fancy parabolic mics, nothing. 

What they did have, and what all successful actors have, was an ability to suspended reality. More simply stated, they were crazy enough to think it would work…and it did. 

Sometimes, simply going for it and making somewhat calculated moves is all takes. It does help if you have someone in your corner that is paying attention to the business side of the entertainment business.

Here’s what I have found to be the most important part of the entertainment business: reputation and a platform. 

The measure of your industry reputation can be bolstered quite easily. Here’s how I can help with that.

That’s a key thing for you to do if you want to get in front of the right people that can open the right doors that lead to the right opportunities. 

So what moves will you make next? Will you alter how you approach the industry? Let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I read every one that comes in and help however I can because my goal is to… 

See you at the top,
Scott 

The Untold Story of Screenwriters and Your Career

Sometimes things are just too serendipitous to be a coincidence. Things happen almost as if they were preordained. 

I’m one of those people that marks Shark Week in the calendar months in advance. My Shark Week premier parties have become legendary, in fact. 

I’m so fascinated by these creatures that it’s hard for me to do anything else for the entire week. This year was different however… 

After a chance encounter with one of the industry’s most sought after and successful screenwriters, Shark Week turned out pretty productive this year. 

It gave me an opportunity to pick one of the most important brains in the industry and hear first hand some of the most important things to you as an actor, straight from the source. 

Most actors, myself included, often forget about screenwriters and the integral role they play in the industry. Without them, the wheels would simply stop turning. With such a high demand for content these days, they now wield an unprecedented amount of influence. 

Here’s what that means to you as an actor… 

It’s happened in music for a long time and it has finally caught on in the industry. Songwriters have been able to dictate whom they would like to appear on the songs they wrote. For the most part producers and record labels oblige. 

The same thing has quietly been happening in the industry for the last couple of years too. 

See, when screenwriters create a character, they don’t do it blindly. It’s difficult to put words on a page without having a subject in mind. So, they create one. 

They build a mental picture what every character looks like and list out what the ideal attributes of each actor portraying that character would be. 

This can take on many forms. For some writers it’s surface level stuff: blonde hair, blue eyes, 6 ft. tall. 

For others (the best and most sought after writers) things go much deeper. Not only do they cover the physical appearance, they also build a personality profile. Not just of the character, they also build a personality profile of the actor they would ideally like to see playing the character. 

They cover things like: a raspy voice, wrinkles of wisdom in the forehead that appear when he is deep in thought but do not age the character unnecessarily, etc. 

After the writers put these together it is up to casting to find actors that fit the profiles. 

More and more, screenwriters are asked to stay involved throughout casting and sometimes even into production. 

This is because any good production, at its core, has a phenomenal ensemble cast. Since the screenwriters have created the ensemble throughout the writing process it only makes sense that they help make that ensemble a reality. 

Almost no one in the industry talks about this. This is just one more way that CDs are seeing their place in the industry erode. Studios are still weary of fully trusting writers after the strike, since it revealed how indispensable they are. The studios gave huge concessions to them after this. 

Have you ever wondered why some up and coming actors have a handful of projects in production and stay busy for a couple years before cooling off? 

What typically happens is that a studio will recognize that they are the next “big thing” and lock them into [what is most commonly] a 3 or 5 picture deal. Television works much the same way and actors will be signed to a series plus they will be granted first right of refusal on other projects, just in case their series doesn’t succeed. 

At this point, what happens is that the studios will go to work building entire productions around this particular actor. 

Screenwriters are then brought in to come up with stories suitable for that actor. The process is reversed. 

When I asked my new shark loving friend why this happens he confirmed something that is one of the core concepts of the Boost My Star methodology. 

He said that when writers are tasked with building productions for specific actors it’s because the studios feel they have found something different. Think Pauly Shore in the early 90s or Amy Schumer quite recently. 

The beauty of that is that it’s within reach of anyone. 

You just have to find your X factor. What is the one thing that sets you apart from everyone else? What is your category of one? 

For Kristin Chenowyth it was her incredible singing talent. For Jackie Chan it was his martial arts talent. 

By their own admission, both of these actors built careers beyond their expectations. Kristin Chenowyth had productions created for her that utilized her singing talent. In some cases productions were dramatically redone to allow her to showcase that talent as part of her role. 

The same thing happened to Jackie Chan. Rush hour was intended to be an action-comedy with two American police officers. Because Jackie Chan was available, the story was redone to accommodate him and the martial arts angle. 

Even Josh Groban has landed on screen in much the same way. 

The list goes on and on. 

You have something that sets you apart from everyone else, you just have to identify what that is and play to that strength. 

Create a category of one for yourself and you too can have entire productions built around you that utilize your talent. 

Of course, this all starts with getting in the room with the right people. For that you will need to make sure that your credentials match your goals. 

Here’s a quick fix for that.

See, even if you are able to get in the room and read for a career changing role, having a vulnerable file could still prevent you from being cast. 

Make sure your file matches your potential.

When screenwriters need to put a face to a character during the writing process, guess where they turn to? 

They often turn to IMDb and it’s not uncommon for the “face” they choose to put to the character, to end up with the role. 

You should at least be putting yourself in the running by ensuring that your ranking will expose you to these opportunities. 

Here’s how I can help with that.

So what will you do now grasshopper? What’s your category of one? Do you need help narrowing the possibilities? 

Let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I read every one that comes through. 

After all, my goal is to… 

See you at the top, 
Scott 

The 3 Things Casting Directors Are Looking For

Abraham Lincoln gave you the best auditioning advice ever...if you were paying attention.

He said “give me 6 hours to chop down a tree and I would spend the first 4 sharpening my axe.” He’s talking about showing up prepared for the task.

Think about how this affects what is arguably the most important part of your career: the audition. Being prepared is not simply about knowing your lines.

You have to know what the decision makers (the casting director) is looking for. They have a very specific set of criteria and are highly trained in spotting 3 skills during your audition.

Do you know what they are?...

It’s not enough to simply do a good job and have a good audition. Casting Directors are looking to check 3 boxes. Did you do A, B, C?

If so then you will make it to the next round in the audition process. In fact I have seen actors make giant career leaps, overnight, simply by focusing on these 3 things.

There are so few actors that Casting Directors can check all 3 boxes for, that those that do, can end up being cast immediately. No callback. Nothing!

I’ve even seen actors go in to read for bit part. Because they fulfilled all three categories, they ended up with a major role in the production.

This means you should put a lot of focus into those 3 things that every casting director is looking for. They are:

1. Your ability to act in the moment
2. Your ability to react in the moment
3. Natural eye movements

When CDs measure your ability to act in the moment, they are gauging how “in your head” you are. When you are anticipating the next line, it is blatantly obvious. It degrades your performance and Directors don’t want any of this on set.

Casting Directors measure this in a couple of ways. Part of is by observing how your limbs move. If you’re exaggerating those movements because you feel the scene calls for it, it’s obvious to the audience.

If they ask you to read again, and you repeat the same movements and maintain the same pattern of inflection in your voice and delivery, this is a dead giveaway that you are not acting in the moment at all.

Something that directors say about great actors is “she never does the same take twice,” meaning that no two takes are delivered the same way.

This is because you simply cannot repeat something in the exact same way, if you are acting in the moment. Your mind and body will alter things to a degree, involuntarily.

Practice being in the moment by closing your eyes and clearing your mind before beginning a scene. After you finish, close your eyes again and playback the scene in your mind. This time, scramble the visual as if it were an old VHS tape run amok.

This will clear your previous take from your mind, so you can start fresh.

CDs gauge your ability to react in the moment in much the same way as this, except the process is reversed. There’s a difference in listening to the actor that is speaking, and waiting for him to finish so you can get to your line.

This too degrades a performance and it’s difficult for an actor to self-judge whether or not they are doing this. You should ask a friend to read some scenes with you and tape yourself in a close shot so that you can clearly see your reactions.

The same principle about changing your performance with each take still holds true.

After you finish a take, do the scramble technique again to ensure that you start over fresh on the next take.

The third thing that CDs are looking at is your eye movements. If they dart around the room when they shouldn’t or if they are in a dead stare when they shouldn’t be, you likely will never hear from Casting again.

Pay particular attention to this. It is usually an after thought but the eyes are the window to the soul.

So, if your eyes are not connecting to the dialogue and the action in the scene, your character will not come to life.

Most actors deliver one dimensional performances, even though they do the hard work of building a character story. The reason is that nobody teaches the 3 criteria that Casting Directors are looking for and they happen to be the 3 key things that bring characters to life.

CDs can sometimes watch a reel half a dozen times. They do this when the actor is good...really good and the CD is looking to see whether they meet the 3 criteria before calling them in to read.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that a good or even a standout performance is enough. If you want to have long term success in the industry, you must focus on the 3 criteria. After all, it’s what CDs are looking for anyway.

The truth is that, if you can’t get in the room, then most of this doesn’t matter.

Here’s how I can help with that.

Give yourself the best chance at success. When your agent submits you for roles, casting will look into you. If they don’t like what they find, then your headshot is simply tossed into the No Pile.

Make sure your industry reputation matches your goals.

Now that you are prepared to knock any audition or performance out of this world, it is your moral duty to book as much as possible.

Get your talent out to the world where it belongs, instead of keeping it inside.

This all starts with getting into as many auditions as possible.

Do this and I’ll...

See you at the top,
Scott

The Ultimate Guide To Neverending Work

I’m sure you have known actors that spend more time talking about being an actor, than they spend actually acting. 

You have probably known other actors that just can’t seem to take a break from acting and are always on set. 

Why do some actors keep a full calendar while others barely scrape by? 

The ones that stay busy have figured out the secret to never ending work and you are about to get it too… 

While most of us rely on giving a great performance and hoping that casting will remember us next time, this is simply wishful thinking. 

If you want to turn 1 gig into several gigs, then you have to be strategic about this. 

Recently, I wrote a report about how to make yourself unforgettable to Casting Directors and what to do after production wraps, if you want to hear from them again. 

It’s incredibly important to make a lasting impression, because typically you don’t see them again after the casting process. 

They don’t generally appear on set to check in on you. 

What they do get is a very general list of the actors they cast and a one or two sentence performance review if you’re lucky. 

That’s it! 

So if you don’t make a real effort, you basically squander your chances of becoming unforgettable. 

It all starts with a standout performance. 

Have you ever watched a TV show or a movie and seen a bit player steal the show? They outperform the leads (even marquee actors) and you can almost feel their presence jump off the screen. 

Whether you’re playing a lead role, supporting character, or even if you’re role is a one liner, the way in which you deliver a standout performance is largely the same. The difference really comes in the details.

For example, a one line role doesn’t require a character story that is as detailed as what you would build for a leading character. 

You will not have enough of a relevant backstory to even make that happen. You only have to go deep enough to be able to breathe life into the dialogue. 

It’s up to you to decide when your character story is complete. It could be a full page, a paragraph, or even a single sentence. 

Have you ever been so deep in character that it felt as if you were embodying the character? The director yells cut and you feel as though you are quantum jumping from one reality to another. 

Every top tier actor feels this at some point in their career. The legendary actors feel this with every performance. 

Here’s how they do it. 

The most important thing is to realize your place in the scene. Are you creating it (as with a lead role), supporting it, or are you merely existing in it. 

The smaller the role, the more you have to let go and let the scene drive itself. You must be an active observer of the action. Most actors see these small roles as part of “paying your dues” but it couldn’t be farther from the truth. 

When approached properly, these roles are your pregame workout. They exist, not as a stepping stone, but as preparation. Remember when you first learned to read? 

You started by learning one syllable at a time. You then moved on to combining two syllables, then three, and so on. If you had been tasked with Nitsche as your first read, it is likely to have never happened. 

Acting takes a lot out of you and these smaller roles help to build your stamina. 

You can use these small roles to learn how to merely exist inside of a scene. It’s a huge blow to our actor’s ego to think of it this way, but that’s what it is. However, once you master existing in a scene, learning how to support a scene is as easy tacking on another syllable. 

Think back to when you were a kid. By simply observing, you learned that red means stop. Green means go, yellow means speed up through the intersection and the big red signs mean stop too. 

To deliver a performance that is so memorable as to be unforgettable, you cannot try to play bigger than your role commands. 

BUT, you do have to squeeze everything out of the opportunity to you have. 

Delivering a standout performance in a one liner or a small role will have everyone thinking that there’s just something about you. 

That’s the X factor everyone talks about. 

Knowing your place in the production and operating within those parameters while knocking it out of the park is what that “something” is. It’s one of the leading ways to endear a production staff to you. 

No one likes to have to tone down the guy that tries to steal every scene, which is what our peers tend to do. 

If you have had any kind of training, you’re familiar with the character building process that coaches like to teach. The whole “what did your character, eat for breakfast, what they dream about, blah, blah, blah…” sounds good. 

In reality, it gets boring very fast. 

All you need to know about your character is: what is the chip on their shoulder. 

When you are doing this, think about real people, not characters so you can deliver a genuine performance. 

What is your character trying to prove, disprove, or accomplish with their actions? 

Once you master how to uncover this for your character, your performances will take a giant leap forward. 

Someone shared this with me a long time ago. Since then everyone I’ve shared it with has made fantastic career strides and their acting has become world class. 

It’s called entering Alpha and it’s by far the easiest and most effective way to discover the chip on your character’s shoulder and become a vessel for your character to reside in so that you are the character and the character is you. 

There should be no distinction and no feeling of the audience watching a performance. They should feel as if they are watching life unfolding. 

Here’s how you do it… 

Close your eyes and tilt your eyeballs about 20 degrees upward. Count backwards from 50 and imagine yourself descending a ladder with each number. 

At the bottom of the ladder you see a white circle growing larger with each step. 

When you reach 1, picture yourself in a perfectly lit, bright-white room. See yourself as the character you are playing, standing before you. Then, ask your character anything you want to know. 

What drives you, why does this affect you in that way, is this line accurate or would you say it differently in reality?... 

Remember the answers. Don’t force it. If your character doesn’t speak, keep asking until she does. 

After you have the answers you desire. Take a deep breath and walk over to your character. Remove their head and place it over yours, as if it were a mask and helmet. 

Rehearse your scene(s) over and over again using the information you now have available. 

When you are satisfied with your performance and are ready to come back to the real world, go back to the ladder and count forward from 1 to 10. When you reach 10 say it audibly, open your eyes and snap your fingers. 

When you do this exercise you enter the Alpha state of mind. It’s called that because of the frequency of your brain waves in this state of mind. The level of brain waves is where your creativity resides. 

This is not a theory. It’s been proven time and time again and it’s widely accepted as scientific fact. 

As for the inquiry and “helmet” technique, they were discovered in a trove of US government documents about a secret project that had to do with things like remote viewing, war games, and even mind control. 

There’s nothing mystical about it, though there could be if you want to chase that rabbit. 

For now, let’s keep it practical. When you quiet your mind, and mentally detach from a given situation, you give yourself “permission” to get creative without the filters present in a busy mind. You don’t get the impulse to change the way you act in a scene because you feel your delivery was off. 

You don’t compare your performance to anyone else’s or try to mimic someone else’s performance either. 

When you enter Alpha, you are 100% present in the moment without any outside influence or filter. That’s why this is so powerful and leads to genuine performances. 

Do this anytime you are prepping for an audition and after you have committed your lines to memory. You can also do it anytime you need direction for your character on set. Just step away for a few minutes. 

Prepare for your upcoming audition using the technique you just learned. Let me know how it goes, in the comments below or shoot me an email. 

OF course, it all starts with the audition. If you need more auditions and opportunities, make sure that your industry reputation is helping you instead of holding you back.

When Casting Directors call someone in to read they build a file.

They scrutinize everything from your social media standing to your IMDb profile. 

If you are not being called to read as often as you like, there may be something in your file they don’t like. 

Here’s a quick fix for that.

If you are as talented as you are passionate about acting, then you have to share your talent with the world. Don’t let it sit idly inside of you. 

Give yourself every advantage and opportunity to be successful.

See you at the top, 
Scott 

About Your Castability Index…

Grasshopper, what we’re talking about today could kill your career before it even has a chance to get off the ground… 

It could also be the thing that launches your career to levels you never imagined were possible. 

The topic of today’s special report has been around a long time but most of the industry is still unaware of it. There have been rumors but nothing has been verified publicly. 

You won’t hear about this from the union, or even from your agent (that has your best interest at heart). 

Here’s why. 

I’ve thought long and hard about how to say this tactfully, but I can’t think of a way so I’ll just come out and say it… 

If your agent hasn’t told you about this yet, they may not be big enough players in the industry. 

If your peers aren’t talking about this with you, then it may be time to consider a new circle of people that match your goals. 

The industry is pretty tight lipped about this and with good reason. If it became “public knowledge” pandemonium would ensue. People would feel discriminated against, they might even feel belittled by the information that the industry has gathered. 

I’m not intending to drag this out for the sake of theatrics. 

I just wanted to give you some background as to why you may not have been in the know thus far. 

I’m talking about your Castability Index. 

Rumors of this have been floating around the industry for a long time and with good reason: it happens to exist. 

You may have even heard traces of it around town, such as “X agent won’t even consider you if your IMDb STARmeter is above 20K.” 

Perhaps, you have known people in casting that let you in on the casting criteria for the productions they’ve worked on. 

Those are pieces of the Castabiity Index. The number of people that know exactly what goes into the castability index can be counted on one hand. 

Before we get into what goes into your index (and yes, you have an index even if you’re brand new to the industry), let’s go over what it is. 

Simply stated, the Castability Index is the industry’s attempt at systematizing casting decisions. It is a numerical value that is assigned to you and it is aimed at advising Casting Directors as to whether or not you should be considered for a particular production. 

One of my favorite people in the industry, Cheryl, is very old school and all but disregards the index unless she is pushed into it by her superiors. However, she mentioned that almost every one of her colleagues completely disregard every actor with a castability index below 75. 

They won’t even look at their headshot or even skim the resume. A simple click of the mouse eliminates those actors from the running altogether. 

This is why it can’t be made public. 

Agents would be upset that their clients never even had a chance. Actors of course would be upset that their fate was decided by a computer that has no way of even gauging their talent. 

See, the industry has evolved. Perhaps a bit too much. 

I’ve seen many emails over the last couple of weeks from actors expressing their frustration about this very thing: talent seems to kind of be taking a back seat to other things. 

Your Castability Index is made up of public perception [of you], the public’s likely acceptance of you in the role being cast, the likelihood of you being a profit center in the role being cast, the relational capital you may bring to the production, and many other factors. These are the main ones that are weighted the most heavily, when calculating your Castability Index. 

See, when George Clooney earns $20 Million for a film, it’s because the studio expects that having him attached to the film will produce $40 Million or more at the box office. 

While that’s an extreme example, they are doing the same with everyone (even one liners that may only be on set for one day). 

Let’s assume that you would be paid $1,000 for a role on a production. The castability index will favor you over someone else if it determines that you could potentially sell $2,000 worth of tickets while your peers may only have the potential to sell a couple hundred dollars worth. More on that in a bit. 

It will also favor you, if it determines that your “public perception” is better aligned with the production. To determine this they take a reading of your social media, amongst other things. 

While I’m not in the practice of telling anyone what to do, ever, I know that your Castability Index will be impacted by things like an extreme political leaning (whether it’s left or right) and the support or renunciation of key issues. 

The truth is, let’s assume the country is split exactly 50-50 left and right politically. If you lean hard one way and shout about it all over social media, you’re alienating half of your potential audience. 

The way the studio sees it is that you are eliminating half of their potential profit center. The folks that you see doing this have already built a platform that is indestructible. 

Chris Pratt’s career will not suffer nor would Robert DeNiro’s if they alienate a few people. 

These are actors that have more work available to them than they can handle. When you are in the career building phase, you have to take a different approach. 

You have to maximize your chances of being cast. That means you have to play the odds and play the game well. 

So take the key factors that I shared here in this special report and use them. 

Start by asking yourself how you might measure up against the competition. 

How is your social media standing? That’s how your profitability to a production is determined (X number followers=X number of tickets sold or viewers tuning in live) 

What does your platform think of you? 

What does the industry think of you? The lower your STARmeter, the better.

These 3 factors make up most of your Castability Index. Everything else kind of stems from this and is weighted accordingly. 

So if your IMDb doesn’t match your goals, here’s a quick fix for that.

How does your social media standing measure up to your competition? 

If you feel that you could use some improvement in that department too, here’s how I can help with that.

Focus on the key things that I have mentioned here and you may end up in a better casting position than ever. Don’t worry about the minutiae and I’ll be sure to… 

See you at the top, 
Scott

The Ultimate Guide to Getting Verified on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook

Grasshopper, I went through a lot to get this information for you. I called in favors and shook every tree to find someone who could give me the real scoop. 

There is so much misinformation out there about what it takes to get verified and I didn’t want to mislead you. Moreover, the “guidelines” that have been made public, are so vague and subjective that I wanted to find someone to clarify things. 

Not a day goes by, that I don’t get at least a couple of emails asking me about how to get verified on social media. 

Before we get into what you need to get verified, let’s go over what you don’t need… 

You do not need millions of followers. 

You do not need to be a world famous public figure. 

You do not need tons of cash to bribe someone on the inside to get you verified. 

This is all you need… 

There are a number of reasons that accounts get verified but many of them are not what you may think. 

You can also take many different routes to get verified, but some may take longer than others, there may be barriers to entry, or some may even be too difficult to take on at this time. 

For example, I have a friend who is a junior editor at Entrepreneur Magazine Online. Her main job is to curate content and provide guidance on future stories. She doesn’t actually do any writing herself. 

Junior editor sounds like a mid level managerial role, but truthfully (and not detracting from her accomplishments) there are several dozen junior editors on staff there. 

In fact, she sits in a tiny cubicle and doesn’t even have her own office. But, guess what she does have… 

That elusive blue checkmark! 

See, high profile companies like this want their employees to be verified so that no one can impersonate even a junior editor and go on a Twitter rant or post photos that may cause harm to the company. 

On day 1 of her job, she got a tiny cubicle and an extension. On day 2, she got her blue checkmarks. 

Since it involves getting a job at a high profile company, this route may be somewhat difficult to accomplish, but it’s probably the easiest if you see an opportunity (since verification is basically automatic). You will need to land a job with a high profile company that will at least give you an @entrepreneur.com (for example) email address. 

I doubt you’d get one of these in the mail room, but just about everyone above ground gets a company email address. 

On to the more tangible ways of getting verified. 

There’s currently no option to apply for verification on any of the networks, but there are ways “around it” 

PR companies have access to a media partners dashboard with the ability to apply for verification on behalf of their clients. If you have the budget for it, then by all means, go shopping for PR representation. 

My source on the inside, who spoke to me on condition of complete anonymity let me in on something that was incredibly valuable. There have been many crackdowns because of employees getting their friends verified and playing favorites on who gets verified and who doesn’t, so I was asked to not even use gender-specific pronouns (he or she) to protect their identity to the max. 

They said, “in our internal guidelines [not the vague public ones], we have to judge whether anyone could be harmed if they were impersonated on our network. It has very little to do with the amount of followers or even how long you have been using the network.” 

That’s why you see some brand new accounts getting verified with only a few hundred followers. While other accounts that have been around forever and have a few hundred thousand followers are still unverified. 

Here’s why. In the event that something were to happen, the responsibility will always flow upstream. 

This is how my inside source explained it, “if someone were to create an account like @TheRealBradPitt (that’s just an example and I’m sure that’s already taken) and he started sweet talking people online and asked them to send him money because he was stuck at the airport with no cash, after leaving his wallet at his other mansion the social media network used to be responsible for that and they settled thousands of cases like this. The lawyers argued that the network should have done more to make sure it was really Brad Pitt that owned the account. That’s when the verification started.” 

Because the networks now verify who the real Brad Pitt is, they are no longer liable because “you should have known better and noticed that there wasn’t a blue checkmark.” 

This makes getting verified rather simple. You just need to show reasonable damage that could be caused if someone impersonated you. This is why public figures get verified, but even having a one liner in a major picture could open the studio to hard decisions if someone impersonating you went off the rails and started tweeting craziness. 

Maybe this has already happened to you at some point. That could be cause for your verification to be approved. 

This is the single most important factor to being verified. 

They also said that, even though you can’t “apply” you can indirectly open a case for verification. You can email support stating your case about why you need to be verified and what harm could be caused if you’re not. 

You can also submit feedback through the Instagram app, also with the same information. This will indirectly open a case file for your verification. 

Aside from the that, the rest of what you have probably already seen elsewhere online applies. 

Make sure that your profile is completely filled out and that you have verified your email address and your phone number. 

A custom banner always helps, along with keeping your profile photo up to date constantly. 

Keep in mind that all of the networks want to be your #1 choice. So if you’re tweeting or posting once a month, not much of an argument can be made for giving you verification. Be sure that you are using the network more than the average person. 

They also want to see momentum, though they won’t penalize you for being an up and comer. If you’re growing even a little bit but doing it steadily, they will take note of that during the verification process. 

If you can be seen elsewhere online, then that improves your chances dramatically according to my source. 

If you’re a public figure and have mainline articles written about you, or if you have a Wikipedia page that’s even better. 

As an actor, guess where they will look? 

You can’t make an argument about needing verification to protect your acting career when your IMDb STARmeter is over 100K! 

If that’s not where it should be, here’s a quick fix.

You have to make sure that when you’re being evaluated for verification, your credentials match your goals. 

Remember you don’t have to sit around and wait for the networks to choose you, but I have seen many actors chosen for verification simply because their industry credentials created the need for verification.

So grasshopper, while I can’t wave a magic wand and get you verified I have given you what it really takes to get verified on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, straight from the source. 

The only other way I can help, is by helping you make your case stronger through your industry reputation. Not only will that help you with the verification process, it’s just a good career move anyway. 

Here are the details on that.

As always if you have any questions, let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I read every one that comes through. 

See you at the top, 
Scott 

Turn One Job into Many

What do you do after the director calls the production a wrap? 

Almost all actors go back the drawing board, waiting for their agents to find something else for them to work on. 

Sometimes it may take a few months for the next job to come around. 

But what if it didn’t have to be like that? What if you could continuously go from one production to the next whenever you wanted to? 

Someone once told me “it’s great to open new doors, but you should never let one close behind you.” What he meant was that, to fully take advantage of an opportunity, you should leverage it into multiple opportunities. 

One of the greatest places for you to find your next production, is the one you are working on. 

Almost all actors ignore this. 

Look at it this way. Successful businesses rely on repeat customers and for many businesses this could be as high as 70% of their revenue. 

Businesses that fail tend to have revenue from repeat customers much, much lower than this. When this happens you never get to hit your stride. 

You see this in the industry too, because it’s easier to maintain a relationship than it is to build a new one. 

Look at the most successful actors and you will see that they all have a core group of people that they work with constantly. 

Think Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg… 

The reason they team up is because it’s the path of least resistance. Is it easier with Tom Hanks again or is it easier to find a new Tom Hanks? 

Casting Directors spend the first few years of their career building a “rolodex” of talent. Their aim is to find actors to call on in the future. When they are casting a 30 something, witty blonde with great comedic timing they know just who to call. 

CDs don’t want to go back to square one every time, any more than you do. 

They don’t want to sort dozens of reels, go through the audition process, call backs, scheduling and negotiations. They would rather just call someone from their Rolodex. 

The question then becomes: how do you make it on to the Rolodex? 

You have to earn your spot by delivering an outstanding performance of course and proving that you are a serious and professional actor. 

Beyond that you have to make an unforgettable impression on everyone you work with, in particular the Casting Director. 

Almost everyone forgets about the CD the moment they get booked. You really should already be nurturing the relationship at this point. 

Next time you go on an audition, the minute you get back home you should pop a thank you card in the mail to the CD. Be sure to include your name so that it is clearly legible. 

Stuff like that doesn’t happen often to a CD and they will remember and appreciate it. That doesn’t mean you will be cast for that particular role, but your goal with this is to start a relationship and make an unforgettable impression. 

When you are cast, you should do the same thing after you have finished the job. Along with a thank you card, consider sending a small bouquet of flowers or an Edible Arrangements type of fruit basket. Let them know how much you enjoyed working on the project, how great everyone else was to work with, and that you hope to work with them (the CD) again. 

This will put you top of mind, and if you knocked it out of the park on set, you are well on your way into the rolodex. 

After all, why else would they go back to square one next time they need to cast for something you would be perfect in? 

Nowadays, since our lives play out on social media, it’s easy to find birthdays, new job announcements, and other reasons to reach out with a congratulatory gesture. 

Don’t let those little opportunities go by. 

Remember “it’s great to open new doors, but you should never let one close behind you.” 

This is how you can leverage one job, into multiple ones. Don’t take it lightly. Do this systematically and without fail. 

You can even do this for jobs you recently booked. 

The great thing is that it you and the CD are probably on similar career tracks. So if you are reading for one and two liners at this point, that is what they are currently casting too and you can move up the ranks together. 

Their career track tends to move faster so as they graduate to bigger and better projects, you will benefit from that too. 

This effort will however be in vain if your industry reputation doesn’t match your goals.

Before putting their stamp of approval on an actor, CDs will look into you. They will review your IMDb profile, scan your social media and make sure that everything measures up. 

Be sure that when they do this, you again make a good impression, otherwise you may never get in the room to begin with. 

Here’s something you can do right now to make sure that you exceed the CD’s expectations.

As I write this, 2018 is just about half over. If it hasn’t been all that you hoped for, maybe it’s time to switch gears and put this to work. 

Remember, I’m always here if you have questions. Shoot me an email or ask away in the comments below. 

See you at the top, 
Scott