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| Introduction | |
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| About This Book | |
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| How to Use This Book | |
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| Conventions Used in This Book | |
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| Foolish Assumptions | |
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| How This Book Is Organized | |
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| Icons Used in This Book | |
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| Where to Go from Here | |
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| Figuring Out the Business of Acting | |
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| Opening the Door to Show Business | |
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| Understanding the World of Acting | |
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| What You Need to Succeed | |
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| An attention-grabbing head shot | |
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| A five-star acting resume | |
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| Polished talent | |
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| Taking Your First Steps in Show Business | |
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| Marketing yourself | |
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| Finding your first ally: An agent | |
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| Showcasing your talent: Auditioning | |
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| The Many Ways to Make Money as an Actor | |
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| Managing Money (A Little or a Lot) | |
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| Knowing What to Expect from an Acting Career | |
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| Discovering How Show Business Really Works | |
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| The Business of Show Business | |
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| Taking It "From the Top"--It All Begins with an Idea | |
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| Selling an Idea | |
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| Producing a Script | |
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| Going into Production | |
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| It's Showtime! | |
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| Cleaning Up in Post-Production | |
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| Distributing the Product | |
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| From Agents to Unions: Introducing the Movers and Shakers of Show Business | |
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| Producers: The Champions of Every Project | |
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| Directors: The Bosses on the Set | |
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| Writers: The Idea Makers | |
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| The Studios: The Ones Who Make It All Possible | |
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| Financing a project | |
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| Marketing and distributing a project | |
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| Casting Directors: The Gatekeepers | |
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| Agents: Your Door to Show Business | |
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| Personal and Business Managers: The Guiding Forces Behind the Scenes | |
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| Actors: The Talent in Front of the Spotlight | |
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| Unions: An Actor's Best Friend | |
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| The Screen Actor's Guild (SAG) | |
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| Actors' Equity Association | |
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| American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) | |
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| Packaging and Marketing Yourself | |
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| Making a Great First Impression with a Head Shot | |
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| Introducing the Head Shot: An Actor's Calling Card | |
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| Examining Variations on the Standard | |
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| The commercial head shot | |
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| The theatrical shot | |
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| Creating the Perfect Head Shot | |
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| Hiring a professional photographer | |
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| Picking the right look | |
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| Making the most of your photo session | |
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| Getting Your Head Shot Ready | |
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| Adding (or eliminating) borders | |
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| Including your name and contact info | |
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| Choosing a finish for your head shot | |
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| Duplicating your head shot | |
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| Publicizing Your Head Shot with a Twist | |
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| Distributing Your Head Shot | |
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| Avoiding Problems with Head Shots | |
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| Is that really you? | |
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| Your head shot doesn't match your personality | |
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| Don't be "cute" or "funny" (or naked) | |
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| Technical problems: You look great but your head shot still stinks | |
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| Creating a Five-Star Acting Resume | |
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| Tackling the Basics of Creating a Resume | |
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| Identifying the Info to Include | |
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| Your name, union membership, and contact information | |
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| Your physical description | |
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| Your acting experience and education | |
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| Your knowledge of special skills | |
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| Avoiding Resume No-Nos | |
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| Examining Sample Resumes | |
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| The beginner's resume | |
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| The intermediate actor's resume | |
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| The veteran's resume | |
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| Customizing Your Resume for the Part | |
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| Training to Improve Your Acting Skills | |
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| Mastering the Art of Auditioning: Taking Classes | |
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| Benefiting from an auditioning class | |
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| Advancing your auditioning skills | |
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| Improving Your Performing Skills | |
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| Stand-up comedy workshops | |
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| Improvisation classes | |
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| Speech and accent coaching | |
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| Singing and dancing lessons | |
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| Developing Physical Fitness Skills | |
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| Improving Your Unique Skills | |
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| Taking Your First Steps into Show Business | |
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| Getting Seen by the Industry: Promoting Yourself | |
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| Looking for Your Own Work | |
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| Use the actors' unions | |
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| Network to stay in touch | |
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| Scan trade publications | |
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| Browse the Internet | |
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| Contact casting directors on your own | |
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| Advertising Yourself | |
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| Showcasing Yourself | |
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| Finding and Working with an Agent | |
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| Getting the Ball Rolling | |
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| Discovering potential agents | |
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| Contacting potential agents | |
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| Calling for an appointment | |
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| Interviewing with a Prospective Agent | |
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| Preparing for your interview | |
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| Arriving for your interview | |
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| Conducting yourself during your interview | |
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| Ending the interview | |
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| Signing On with an Agent | |
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| Working with Your Agent | |
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| Staying in touch | |
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| Following your agent's advice | |
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| Sharing audition information with your agent | |
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| Leaving Your Agent | |
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| Reasons to leave your agent | |
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| How to leave your agent | |
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| Auditioning | |
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| Looking at Types of Auditions | |
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| Going to open casting calls (cattle calls) | |
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| Attending casting auditions | |
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| Preparing for an Audition | |
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| Planning for the audition | |
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| Deciding what to wear | |
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| Arriving at the Audition | |
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| Impressing a Casting Director | |
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| Auditioning: What to Expect | |
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| Speaking your lines | |
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| Minding your auditioning manners | |
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| Making your exit | |
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| Preparing for the Next Audition | |
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| Sending out thank-you cards | |
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| Evaluating yourself | |
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| Getting on with your life | |
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| Hoping for the Best that Can Happen: The Callback | |
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| Dealing with Rejection | |
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| Scoping Out the Markets | |
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| Acting in Film and Television | |
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| Landing a Job | |
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| Film and Television Acting Versus Theater Acting | |
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| Fine-Tuning Your Performance on Film | |
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| Playing to the camera | |
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| Acting consistently with different takes | |
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| Successfully acting scenes out of order | |
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| Hitting your mark | |
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| Recognizing different shots | |
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| Dealing with close-ups | |
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| Performing on a Set | |
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| A typical day on the set | |
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| What to do when your scene's done | |
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| Participating in Post-production: Looping | |
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| Gaining Experience and Exposure by Working in Different Markets | |
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| Options in the film market | |
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| Options in the TV market | |
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| Acting in Commercials | |
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| Understanding How a Commercial Gets Made | |
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| Preparing for a Career in Commercials | |
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| Taking a class or workshop | |
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| Studying working actors | |
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| Hiring a commercial agent | |
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| Auditioning for a Commercial Role | |
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| Fitting the part | |
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| Preparing your part | |
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| Handling yourself during the audition | |
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| Recognizing Commercial Patterns to Improve Your Performance | |
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| The slice-of-life commercial | |
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| The spokesperson commercial | |
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| The dialogue-less commercial | |
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| Understanding the Market for Commercials | |
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| Acting in Theater | |
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| Mastering Your Skills Onstage | |
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| Gearing Up for a Theatrical Career | |
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| The academic route | |
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| The pounding-the-pavement route | |
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| Auditioning for Theater | |
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| Familiarizing Yourself with Stage Types | |
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| Proscenium stages | |
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| Thrust stages | |
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| Arena stages | |
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| Rehearsing for a Play | |
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| Read-through | |
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| Blocking with stage directions | |
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| Scene work | |
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| Work-throughs | |
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| Run-throughs | |
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| Technical rehearsals | |
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| Dress rehearsals | |
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| Working in Different Markets | |
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| Performing Without Being Seen: Voice-Over Acting | |
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| What You Need to Succeed in Voice-Over Acting | |
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| What's that you say? Speaking clearly | |
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| Polly want a cracker? Voice versatility | |
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| Testing...testing: Playing to the microphone | |
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| Training for a Voice-Over Career | |
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| Finding Voice-Over Work | |
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| Preparing Your Demo Tape | |
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| Including all the right stuff | |
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| Laying down the tracks | |
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| Recording subsequent demo tapes | |
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| Getting an Agent | |
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| Auditioning for Voice-Over Work | |
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| Getting Paid as a Voice-Over Actor | |
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| Working as an Extra | |
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| Delving into the Glamorous World of an Extra | |
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| Recognizing types of extras | |
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| Getting work as an extra | |
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| Examining a day in the life of an extra | |
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| Appreciating the Advantages of Being an Extra | |
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| Investigating the technical business of show business | |
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| Studying the acting side of filmmaking | |
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| Networking with fellow actors | |
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| Making a little (emphasis on "little") money | |
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| Advancing Your Career Beyond an Extra | |
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| Getting Your Kid into Show Biz | |
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| Considering the Commitment | |
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| Does your kid really want to do this? | |
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| Do you really want to do this? | |
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| Setting goals for you and your child | |
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| Exploring the Acting Options | |
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| Print ads | |
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| TV commercials | |
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| Film and TV shows | |
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| Theater | |
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| The Business of Child Actors | |
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| Getting started as a proud parent of a child actor | |
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| Procuring the paperwork | |
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| Watching out for your child's welfare | |
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| Restricting time on the set | |
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| Educating on the set | |
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| Managing all that money | |
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| Helping Your Child Deal with the Ups and Downs of Show Business | |
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| Managing Your Money as an Actor | |
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| Don't Get Ripped Off! Avoiding Con Games, Scams, and Self-Destruction | |
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| Identifying the Elements of a Con Game | |
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| The hook: baiting the suckers | |
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| The line: exploiting your trust | |
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| The sinker: taking your money | |
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| Exposing Common Show Business Con Games | |
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| Fake screen tests | |
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| Phony agents | |
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| Shoddy photographers | |
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| Worthless acting schools | |
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| Sleazy casting directors | |
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| Useless 1-900 casting hotlines | |
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| Meaningless beauty pageants | |
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| Shady get-rich-quick schemes | |
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| Dealing with Dishonesty | |
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| Potential problems with non-union productions | |
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| Unscrupulous business managers | |
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| Casting and networking parties | |
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| Missing residuals | |
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| Protect Yourself: Beating the Con at His Own Game | |
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| Being Your Own Worst Enemy | |
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| Dealing with drug abuse | |
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| Separating sex from show business | |
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| Dealing with alcohol addiction | |
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| Curbing excessive spending | |
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| Avoiding criminal activities | |
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| Handling emotional and psychological problems | |
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| Working to Pay Your Bills Until You Hit It Big | |
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| Deciding Between a Full-time and a Part-time Job | |
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| Getting temporary work | |
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| Getting full or part-time work | |
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| Working for Yourself | |
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| Getting a Job That Pays You to Be Entertaining | |
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| Teaching traffic school | |
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| Performing on the street | |
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| Amusing patrons at an amusement park | |
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| Entertaining the kiddies | |
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| Catering to the acting crowd | |
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| Working in a film or television studio | |
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| Perusing scripts for payment | |
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| Winning big on a game show | |
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| Do a song and dance in a casino | |
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| Performing on a cruise ship | |
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| Acting in an interactive play | |
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| Becoming a professional reader during auditions | |
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| Getting "extra" time in the studio | |
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| Managing Your Finances | |
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| Handling Your Money | |
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| Saving it! | |
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| Dealing with income texes | |
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| Digging yourself out of debt | |
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| Investing your earnings | |
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| Living Well Without Going Broke | |
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| Dealing with housing expenses | |
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| Eating cheaply | |
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| Buying clothes | |
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| Deciding When to Quit Your Day Job | |
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| The Part of Tens | |
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| Ten Myths of Show Business | |
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| Show Business Is Closed to Outsiders | |
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| It's Who You Know, Not What You Know | |
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| Only the Young and the Beautiful Get Work | |
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| You Have to Move to L.A., London, or New York to Succeed | |
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| Plastic Surgery and Body Implants Get You Work | |
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| You Have to Sacrifice Your Principles | |
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| You Can Break into Show Business by Taking Off Your Clothes | |
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| The myth of posing nude | |
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| The myth of sleeping with someone famous or powerful | |
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| The myth of appearing in adult movies | |
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| You Can Be "Discovered" and Made into a Star | |
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| The Right Agent/Manager/Coach Can Get You Work | |
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| Show Business Will Destroy You | |
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| Ten Traits of Successful Actors | |
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| Respecting Other People's Time | |
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| Planning Ahead | |
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| Being Flexible and Adaptable | |
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| Being Professional | |
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| How a professional actor behaves | |
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| Acting professionally with your agent | |
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| Acting professionally with casting directors | |
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| Acting professionally on the set | |
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| Being Yourself | |
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| Being Well-Groomed | |
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| Being Persistent | |
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| Avoiding Mind-Altering Substances | |
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| Being Willing to Learn and Improve Yourself | |
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| Believing in Yourself | |
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| Ten Tips for Improving as an Actor | |
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| Mastering the Art of Auditioning | |
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| Knowing How to Audition and Act for the Camera | |
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| Auditioning for the camera | |
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| Acting for the camera | |
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| Expecting the Unexpected: Improvising | |
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| Developing a Sense of Humor | |
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| Overcoming Stage Fright | |
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| Understanding Human Psychology | |
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| Developing Your Voice and Improving Your Body | |
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| Your voice | |
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| Your body | |
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| Maintaining a Reliable Source of Income | |
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| Avoiding Guaranteed Failure | |
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| Staying Sharp | |
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| Ten Ways to Act Just for the Fun of It | |
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| Join a Community Theater Group | |
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| Become a Storyteller | |
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| Join an Improvisational Group | |
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| Volunteer at Your Local School Drama Department | |
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| Put on a Play for a Charity | |
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| Appear in a Student Film | |
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| Work as an Extra | |
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| Volunteer at Your Local Museum | |
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| Appear on Public Access TV | |
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| Produce Your Own Show on the Internet | |
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| Index | |