The Working Life
On-set etiquette, showreels, headshots, unions, and how to build a career that lasts past your first booking.
The working life is everything that happens around the acting. The articles in this category cover the practical scaffolding of a career: what to do on your first day on a professional set, what casting actually wants to see in a headshot and a reel, how the scaffolding changes as the work changes. These pieces are written for actors who have already booked something, or who are close enough to booking that they want to be ready. Most acting advice online stops at the audition. These articles pick up from there.
Articles in The Working Life
How to build a showreel when you do not have footage yet
The hardest showreel is the first one. You need footage to get cast. You need to get cast to get footage. The way out of that loop is to generate your own material: two short self-…
Editing a showreel: order, length, and the merciless first cut
Most showreels are too long, open slow, and end where the editor ran out of ideas. Good reels are two to three minutes, front-load your strongest moment, and leave on something tha…
Self-generated showreel scenes: writing, casting, and shooting your own
If you are going to write your own showreel scenes, write them honestly. Casting can tell the difference between a self-generated scene and a clip from a real production, and prete…
What to do on your first day on a professional set
A first day on a professional set is mostly about not getting in the way. The crew knows their jobs. The other actors know the etiquette. As the new arrival, your job is to be on t…
When to update your showreel (and when a new one is a waste of money)
There are two reasons to update a showreel: you have footage that is stronger than what is currently on there, or your castable range has shifted enough that the existing reel is m…
Headshots, reels, and what casting actually wants to see
Headshots and showreels are the two visual assets every working actor needs, and both are misunderstood. A headshot is not a portrait. It is a photograph of the actor that reads as…