Know 10 Bitter Realities to Be An Actor Before You Fall

The Harsh Realities of Being a Professional Successful Actor

The 10 Truths

1. It takes a lot of things to make it as a professional actor or actress in Bollywood or in TV serial. Luck helps. The talent really helps. Grit and guts are essential. Not every actor who moves to Bollywood or is in TV serials is �discovered� and becomes a �star.�

2. If you think that "I will be discovered sitting at home" or "any one from Karan Johar, Sanjay Leela, Bhansali, Rajkumar Hirani, Priyadarshan, Rohit Shetty, Anurag Kashyap, Farhan Akhtar will notice me somewhere on the Mumbai's street" is what acting is about, you are absolutely WRONG and better, think again.

Amitabh Bachchan
Struggled for 8 years before he was an established star.
Madhuri Dixit
Struggled for 5 years before a true break.
Shah Rukh Khan
Struggled for 20 years before his film was a hit- "DDLJ"
Akshay Kumar 
Struggled for 5 years before a true break.
Irrfan Khan
Struggled for 6 years for a true break
Boman Irani 
Struggle period to be in Bollywood-5 years.

• Read more about their struggle here

3. Acting is a serious profession, one with a long struggle and dignified history. Even without achieving a reputation or becoming �stars,� there are many men and women who earn their livings everyday as dramatic performers in films, theatre or on TV in India.

4. If you asked these professionals how they got where they are, they will probably tell you it did not happen overnight.

5. A career in acting takes hard work and dedication.

6. Chances are when you first start out, you will find it tough to make a living from just acting jobs and will need some other source of income. It takes individuals with a true hunger for the art to continue struggling.

7. Yet, however important a desire to perform may be, it is not the only thing an actor needs. Because acting is both, an art and a craft, the more experience you can get and the more skills you can acquire, the better your chances will be of succeeding professionally and excelling personally. That is how acting coach can help you.

8. Such an acting coach can offer you invaluable help in developing your skills as a performer, learning how the business works from the inside, and making useful connections with other professionals in the entertainment industry.

9. A career in acting is not for everyone. In fact, it is probably not for 94%  of everyone. But that is one of the things that make acting so special and that makes a career in acting so fascinating and exciting for those who love it.

10 Finally, if you are going to do it, give it your best and get the right start with a good education.
Partially based on Source

Read More

If Dating a Girl and Boy is Similar to Audition Then How to Win?

Dating and audition. Similarities and how to win

You are excited about this opportunity. You will spend approximately five minutes with a complete stranger, and if they say yes, it has the power to transform your life. You know you have to deliver intelligence, composure, and comfort in this tense situation.

What did I describe? An audition or a dating night with a girl or boy? Both.

Actors believe the key to audition success is to be a better actor by delivering a more emotional, thoughtful performance. Yes, that is true. Mostly. This is certainly the case for major roles.
But what the casting director considers while selecting an actor for the role?

The actor who suits best to the character's profile and gives a unique performance, certainly, but also the actor who has the ability to engage and connect with the concerned people in the audition room. To ensure that the casting session is invigorating and inspiring for the director and producer.

So if you walk in the door and the only thing in your mind is the character and the lines you have tried to memorize, then you have lost an opportunity. Or like a person dating who arrives and blurts out to his| her first time dating event �I was born in Jaipur. I like fast motorbikes. My favorite actor is Akshay Kumar, and my favorite food is Chinese.�

Well, well, well....what you say to that?

You must connect with the people in the audition room if you are to be remembered. And remembered positively. And I imagine the same applies to a fast dating a girl or a boy.
Each audition experience is different. You are meeting different people. They may have had a bad morning. You must sum up the situation in the audition room and fit in, rather than enter and deliver your pre-set approach and glib.

In a nutshell, do not deliver what you want, instead, deliver what they need.

The art of conversation with strangers is a key skill in an audition room. Most likely, experienced actors are at ease in the room. They have done it many times before. But newcomers should understand that casting directors do not get impressed with you only by your performance and performance alone.
How do you practice conversation? Think of going to your first night of dating a girl or a boy!  I imagine the principles are the same. You have five minutes to impress! They don't need each others life story. You merely need to answer the question: "Do I want to see this person again?" And if the answer is �yes� then just be normal and shoot!

And strangely enough, that is exactly the question the casting directors ask themselves in the audition room during casting: �Do I want to see this actor again?� If not for this role, then some other audition opportunity in the future?

In the conclusion, apart from an excellent in portraying a character, it's �The Art of Conversation� by which you may grab the role!

Read More

Details of World Class Actor's Private Coaching

Top International Standard Private Coaching Details

http://topactingcoach.weebly.com/fees--courses.html

1. The coaching is NOT based on a typical school system where students are taught in a bunch of 20 or 30 with a common syllabus for all. A school may not be in certain situations, concerned about whether a student who completes a course gets a break in films or serial or in commercial ads.
  An actor is an artist who masters a highly sensitive craft based on an individual's emotional and attitude built up and therefore there cannot be a common syllabus. As per the survey, the failure percentage of actors passing out of schools in India is 82% (CAA survey).

2. I design a career plan and syllabus based on an individual after weighing the strengths and weaknesses by auditions and by interviews before a candidate joins me.

3. The learning journey of a candidate starts with understanding the "Game" of acting and how can you become a star in Bollywood and TV serials. It continues with types of actors, mastering techniques, camera acting, how to win auditions etc.. Finally leading to the most needed strategy development of how to market and promote yourself to get sure entry into Films, TV serials, commercial ads and print media.

4. A hand-picked list of casting directors and coordinators is provided

5. Suitable candidates get a break in our own short films. 
6. The coaching sessions are taken 2 to 3 days a  week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 2 PM to 5 PM for 5 weeks. 

7. We can train you on Bollywood conversational Hindi and Urdu

How Can We Make You a Great Actor?

Important

The Registration for all below-mentioned courses is one month in advance by paying the full fees. 

Courses and fees

Supreme Individual Course (Recommended)

This course is designed for those who have an ambitious dream to be sure to be an expert in the acting craft and need all the notes and "an excellence certificate from 'A Master Coach' 
Key features:
1.  A SWOT analysis of you to assess by our capabilities and chances of success
2.  An exhaustive and personalized syllabus designed especially for you
3. A practice of all the techniques, emotions, attitudes, acting for camera and other aspects till you are perfect
4. Creation of your website and it's online promotion
5. Creating and filming a monologue for you and promoting online OR creating and filming   video interview and promoting
6. Goal setting 
Duration:
Three to four months depending upon your progress, 2 to 3 times a week in the afternoon

Fees: Rs. 1, 20,000 (One Lakh Twenty Thousand)  to be paid one month in advance

1. The 'Focused Group Course' 

Either one on one or in a group of 3 aspiring actors for a total of 30 hours spread over 4 to 5 weeks, 2 to 3 days in a week in the afternoon. 

Fees: Rs. 20,000 for each of group members

2.  The 'Elite Course' 

Only for you to be trained privately

Absolutely on individual and personal 'on one on one' basis for a total of 40 hours spread over 2 months, 2 to 3 times a week in the afternoon. 

Fees: Rs. 40, 000

This includes:
A. Learning International, acting techniques like Stanslavsky, Michael Chekhov and Alexander techniques
B. Focused acting instrument development like finer aspects of  body and mental health
C. Elaborate camera scene acting
D. Personal S.W.O.T. Analysis (your strength, weaknesses, opportunity analysis)
E. Writing, rehearsing a monologue suited to your profile, making a video film of monologue and its International promotion through internet
F. Goal Setting-Career and life
G. A detailed marketing and promotional plan
H. Long term support

?NOTE: A special Weekend Course ?under this "Elite Course" can be arranged for aspiring actors who are "working"?

3. The Intense Course

It is a special course or "Urgent" course to suit an individual requirement of time/days available at him/ her. Obviously, this means that our other regular batch sessions will have to be postponed to suit this individual. The fees for such "Urgent" courses could be high and would be decided based on dates and time available to this individual.
Please send the details of your specific number of days and dates  available with you and the reason why you want to be an actor and why an acting coach and not a regular school? 

4. The Bullet Workshop 

One day (3 hours) workshop on the fundamentals of acting and acting for the camera. Fees: Rs. 4000
??

5. Monologue Tailored for You??

For writing a 2 minute filmed monologue for you, rehearsing, filming and promoting your film online on media. 
Fees: Rs. 4000

6. Chance in a Film

To give you a chance in a film, we can make a short film  of 15 minutes, at a reasonable cost to you. This will be promoted online Internationally on YouTube and on our websites and blog 

NOTE: Outstation candidates will have to make their own arrangements for a stay.

For more details like my consultation charges if you just want to meet me, syllabus, duration, venue etc. 

Visit my acting coaching website:

http://topactingcoach.weebly.com

Contact:

Email: 

1. actingcoach.kiran.pande@gmail.com 
2. kiran.aged@gmail.com

Read More

Not Promoting Yourself on YouTube? 9 Reasons Why Should You

A Pity! Not Having Your Own YouTube Channel to Promote Yourself as an actor?

Here are the simple ways to be in the Limelight to filmmakers and casting directors through Your Own YouTube Channel

Acting isn't all about an excellence in the acting craft, be able to portray any type of role, feeling the character and being in the moment. If you can't get a job as an actor, being labelled as �an excellent actor� would be depressing to you. Acting is only possible if somebody's prepared to sit and watch you do it. To survive emotionally and professionally, you've got to both earn a living and fulfill your dreams and self-esteem.

Your fears!

The statistics are terrifying, with something like 95% of the trained or untrained actors out of work for perhaps during a long duration of time.
So, what happens? Shattered dreams and a financial catastrophe, resulting in destroying life!

The trick

Therefore, it is to be in the top 5% out of the above statistics.  How do you do it?
The only way is to promote �you� as a �product� as if you are a businessman / woman running your  �Business�. Let the people who matter like casting directors, production houses, directors, TV channels �know you� among thousands of struggling actors roaming the streets of Mumbai.

However, there is a piece of warning!

Have you developed yourself into � A Good Product� of being an excellent professional actor with an unparalleled excellence in acting craft? Have you taken a personalized, professional acting for a better school or better, from an expert acting coach, an artist teacher?

Don't overlook this factor before you start your business of acting!

Now, coming to an important, though the generally overlooked aspect of business by most of you is marketing and promoting through Video channels!

The reason Why Actors Need Their Own YouTube Channel 

Before you start, you must have show reel, monologue, small films which you have made through your own mobile phone or professionally and portfolio slides which could be uploaded on YouTube. (If you need help, join us for a professional one on one training)

1) YouTube is free

For an actor YouTube is the cheapest and most effective way of marketing themselves.
It doesn�t cost anything to upload videos onto YouTube. If you are a beginner or have a tight financial budget,   you must use this marketing tool.

2) Grab attention

Each minute 300 hours worth of videos is being uploaded onto YouTube and over 4 billion videos are viewed daily. If you upload quality video content, whatever it is, then they are very likely to get lots of followers to their page. The better quality, the most attention, obviously.

3) Reach to a staggering volume of traffic

YouTube has one billion users, and this figure will only keep on increasing.
For an actor, this type of pre-existing audience is very attractive. You can reach out to the large number of people throughout the world for free. Since Google owns YouTube, an actor�s video could also show up on Google�s search results, and could reach the top spot, which could mean large volumes of traffic to their page.

4) Market yourself like a wild fire (Viral Marketing)

People love sharing videos with family and friends, and for an actor, this means if someone likes their video they can share it via social media and send it to others.
This type of viral sharing will create a ripple effect, and the video could be shared by thousands or millions of people. Actors can also add a subscribe button to their videos so that their followers can subscribe to them. The more videos an actor uploads to their page the more people will keep coming back to it.

5) Can upload your best work

An actor can use YouTube to show off their best work. It doesn�t have to be just your show reel or a monologue, but any creative short videos that you make.
Actors can also link to certain scenes in the films that they worked on which the viewers may enjoy. Filmmakers are using YouTube to look out for talented actors, and if they see an actor that has lots of followers they are highly likely to be attracted to that actor. You can upload multiple videos onto YouTube to see which ones your followers like the most, and continue with that trend.

6) Add personal website with your link

Some actors have personal websites, especially the more experienced actors. Having a website makes actors look very professional, especially to casting directors or producers.
Actors that have a page on YouTube are adding a link that will take them to their personal website. This will enable anybody or a casting director looking at your videos to get in touch with you if they like your YouTube channel. Actors can also add their social media links so that others can get in touch via Twitter or Facebook.

7) Upload trailers 

Actors can use YouTube to upload trailers that will help to promote a new film that they are appearing in.

8) Can promote yourself 24 hours x 7 days

When an actor uploads a video onto YouTube they are marketing themselves 24/7.
Once an actor uploads a video it�s there for as long as they want it to be. It doesn�t get taken away and so their videos are always out there promoting them and their work. The more videos an actor uploads, the more effective the marketing campaign will be.

9) Chances of more auditions for roles

Directors and writers are turning to YouTube to release independent projects. If an actor is well liked and has a professional looking YouTube page casting director will be attracted to them and could call them for auditions or offer them a role directly (As it happened to me).

As you can see,  YouTube  really can help actors market themselves online, but also bring a lot more exposure, particularly in the beginning of your career. We are in a digital age now, and for actors, YouTube is the number one destination where they can maximize on large volumes of traffic at no cost. Actors have to promote themselves in the business YouTube is the best
So what are you waiting for? Go create your very first YouTube channel right now, whether you�re planning to use it or not anytime soon.
Based on

An Example of a character actor's YouTube channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzQWl2lRVtVAUP4C4ellX5w

Read More

Not getting Roles? Your Fault! Learn My 3 On-Camera Tips

The secret of success behind becoming a Bollywood star!

Is Your Dream to be a Bollywood Star is breaking into pieces?
Not Getting Roles?
How long would continue with failures? One, two, five years?
Who would financially support a failing actor and for how long?
Do you really know how to really act in front of a camera?

The solution is HERE!!

I'm sure you out there are actual human beings and not aliens from other planets that also might be actors. And most people think that the easiest thing in the world is to just be yourself when the camera comes on. Wrong! I find that most people have the toughest problem, not with techniques about the script and character building and playing emotions and different attitudes, but with-

just looking and feeling like an actual living being, once the camera is running. And, let�s face it, a good acting scene should never look like a good acting scene.

It should look like a reality show that is so natural and real that we forget it is an acting scene.

Here are my crazy 3 tips  to let my students and other hundreds of aspiring actors on Mumbai roads to feel and look like real human beings in a scene:
(Caution: With due apologies to our esteemed directors, many like to focus on �perfection� with the screenplay and does not like to experiment or look for options and especially do not encourage new actors the freedom to do what actors think natural. Of course, there are some notable exceptions (read below) who would experiment and allow actors to �Improvise� and the results are there. Therefore, understanding your director and what he/she really want is important before you read, understand and practice to be �Real You�)
Directors of Bollywood I admire who like to experiment and allow actors to be themselves and improvise:

Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Omi Vadiya in 3 idiots
Boman Irani in Munna Bhai MBBS
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Hrithik Roshan in Guzaarish
Amitabh Bachchan in Black
Director: Anurag Kashap
Nawazuddin Siddiqui in Gangs of Wasseypur
Director: Shoojit Sircar
Deepika Padukone and other new actors in in Piku
Director Prakash Jha's numerous films
(Damul, Mrityudand, Gangaajal, Apaharan,Raajneeti,Aarakshan,hakravyuh, and Satyagraha)

1. Be Lazy

Start by relaxing  and getting into your body by just �loosening and becoming lazy. It�s important to physically loosen your body and to unfreeze it so that you respond and react naturally to stimuli
(Note:
What is a stimulus? Normally we react to things which we see and feel by our 5 senses (eyes, smell, listen, taste and through touch) and then respond. The cause of our reaction is a stimulus.)

• I always teach students a simple relaxation technique of breathing in through your nose on a count of four, holding for a count of seven, and breathing out through your mouth on a count of eight. Deep-breathing is the fastest way to balance and relax. The counting helps your brain to shut down so that you can be more in the moment instead of spinning past everything.
• Then, take a deep breath (raising your shoulders up) and, as you exhale, flop down into your body like you�re a bag of potatoes. Slob out so you aren�t holding your body in a stiff acting position. It should feel like you are not in front of a camera at all. You shall begin to feel the difference between being stiff and locked in your body (fake actor) and freeing your life energy and blood to flow through your veins as though you are real (natural human being). Allow this natural flow to continue as you slide into your character. Make sure you don�t stiffen up again right before you start the scene. 
• Keep tiny movements going on (breathing, slightly shifting your weight, wiggling your toes, etc.) so that you don�t freeze up. Get the flow going and go!

2. Free Yourself

Free yourself as though you are alone and no one is watching you.Do the things you would do if you were alone. Scratch. Get the hair out of your face. Set free natural things to happen so that you are working as a real �living human being�. Allow yourself to feel ugly, imperfect, even boring. Everyone actually looks better in a relaxed mode, as your face and body get a beautiful, natural glow and flow. It will look like you are doing nothing, but tiny nuances will begin to happen that warm up the whole scene. The more you do this, the easier it gets to trust that all the good stuff happens in this zone.

3. Do something which is real

 If approved by the director or in case of an �improvised� scene, give yourself something to do! Anything that is real looks amazing on camera. So really read the book; really listen to the other person; really try to get the piece of lint off of your clothes; really trace a heart in the water spilled on the table.
Use props and bits of in a scene. Adjust your clothes. Really observe the other person in the scene. Feel the breeze on your face. Clean your finger nails. Touch someone with love. Stare so hard into their eyes that you make them tell you the truth.
Doing something also distracts you from feeling like you are acting. If you are busy doing you won�t be stuck thinking. Thus, you will get out of your head (which is making you fake and stiff) and you shall easily get lost in your body and the scene. You are in the moment and truthful!.
Partly besed on

Read More