Your Material – an Introduction

Sooner or later – it could be next week, or next month, or in five minutes time – you are going to find the perfect acting job for you.

You will read a casting notice (an advertisement) for an actor and you will know it was written for you.

Everything will just click.

The casting director (of CD) will be asking for someone of your age, with your looks and your style, and you will know in your heart that you are 100% perfect for the role.
And then you’re going to panic because you don’t have any photos or a curriculum (CV or résumé) ready to send them. So you rush about trying to organise them and miss the deadline for the job because the photocopy shop was closed and you lose the role to someone who isn’t as good for the role as you but they were more professional and prepared.
So now, right now, it’s time to prepare your material.

What is your material?

If you want to find work as an actor you need good material. And by that we mean:
  1. An application email
  2. Headshots (photos)
  3. A curriculum or CV (résumé)
  4. And ideally, a showreel
When you apply for a job the casting director will first glance over your application email to see if you sound like the right kind of actor for the role.
If that looks good, they’ll next check out your headshots to see if you look like the character they are after.
Then they’ll perhaps check out your showreel and curriculum to see if you can act and have experience.
And if it all looks good, they’ll call you in for an audition.
But if something isn’t quite right, then they’ll bin your application.
So it’s incredibly important to make sure these 4 simple elements of your material are right. And you need to prepare them now and have them up to date and ready so that when the next casting arrives, you’ll be 100% ready to apply within a few minutes.
Step One then: prepare your headshots.

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