I got an email today from a thoughtful, well-connected friend asking if I'd like to do some voiceover work later this week. Due to the tight turnaround time, I'd need to submit my voice reel rather than audition. Um, yeah, I've neglected to make a voice reel. I know of a class I can take in town that teaches voiceover techniques. The class costs $250, and does not include production of a voice reel. There was a lady in town who taught voiceover and helped students make a professional reel, but she does not have any future workshops scheduled. I've heard that her series of classes to get a voice reel run about $600.
Very sheepishly, I emailed my well-intentioned friend and admitted that I don't have a voice reel. She encouraged me by stating that it was too bad, because, "I know you could knock this one out of the park."
I'm at a crossroads. My pursuit of a professional acting career is getting ridiculously expensive. In 2009, I spent over $1500 on actor photos, acting classes/workshops and web hosting fees for my acting website. This "business" feels like such a racket.
For several years prior to 2008, I did only stage acting. I made good money doing dinner theater shows and so-so money acting in shows at small, local theatres. I sometimes brought photos of myself to auditions, but did not have to pay for professional headshots. I didn't take any acting classes, because I was too busy holding down day jobs and actually acting.
The jump from stage to screen acting has been so flipping expensive it boggles my mind. I've had limited, small successes with small paychecks for my screen work. I booked all those roles myself, combing the actor resource websites each day and hustling to get work. In the interest of total disclosure, I have not booked a single job based on auditions arranged by my agent. They send me on commercial auditions, and I'm not a super-smiley, fast-talker as I've previously mentioned on this blog. I'm an actress, dangit; not a talking head.
My quandaries: whether or not to pour more money into new headshot photos as requested by my agent; whether or not to pour more money into a voiceover class and making a voice reel; whether or not to pour more money into more classes in hopes of getting myself out there and making some new connections. My instinct tells me to cut and run. I can still do stage work and make a bit of money without all of these expensive prerequisites. However, I worry that I might later regret not making more of a wholehearted/whole-wallet attempt at an acting career.
Add to this heap of insecurity the fact that I don't live in Los Angeles. If an actor wants a screen role with more than three lines, it is typically cast in LA, not in the actual city where the project is filming. Even Law & Order is leaving New York City for LA. Now those New York actors are stuck with mostly stage prospects. My city calls itself "the third coast", but there are more projects filming in Michigan and Louisiana than here over the past few years.
What's a sometime actress to do?
I do not want to pay for more photos. I swear my look has not changed over the past eleven months since my last (expensive) photo session. And my look had not changed in the thirteen months since the previous photo session. If I get a tattoo on my face or chop/dye my hair drastically, then I might be persuaded to pay for new photos.
I think I will take the $250 voiceover class. Maybe I can make my own voice reel on the computer after hearing some other actors' voice reels.
I might also take a dialect class that I've been intrigued by for a few years, but not bother with classes that seem more like expensive networking and less like true instruction.
