BirdFilm

09/02/2024

Your competition isn’t other people.

Your competition is your procrastination, your ego, the unhealthy food you are consuming, the knowledge you neglect, the negative behaviour you are nurturing and your lack of creativity.

Compete against that.

Stolen from Stephen Bartlett but so apt and needed to be shared.

28/02/2022

27/10/2021

I have all these people that have shown an interest in this page with very few posts or snippets of useful information. So maybe it is about time I wrote something of relevance that the page followers might find of use.

To start with I am going to deal with the most asked question of how to get a job as an actor.

Some may find the following as obvious or patronising. That is not my intention.

In the context of Birdfilm; we are a commercial service production company. We project manage for international production companies and their directors. We do not choose cast.

We present cast options put together by a casting director and the choices are made from those castings.

Nearly all cast presented are done so through an agent. No agent – no casting invite

Get an agent – There are many people out there prepared to take money from desperate people. Good agents either belong to the National Association of Model Agencies (NAMA) https://www.nama.co.za or the Personal Manager’s Association (PMA) https://www.thepma.co.za These agents are bound to a code of practice.

You will need to have experience for them to look at you and take you on. School plays don’t really count. Build up your social media profile. Join theatre groups, start your own acting troupe Get coaching. Always be learning. Offer your services for short films.

On the soft skill side: be good to your agent. Get known to casting directors. For local work get known to directors. Get known.

Lastly you will be self-employed. This is a tough life and although the day fees and buyouts look high if you only have a few days work in a year, it’s not so high after all. Find some form of work that you can stop at a moments notice to take care of your bread and butter income.

03/10/2021

And now for a bit of good news

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/oct/02/uk-to-slash-international-travel-red-list-to-just-9-countries

Quarantine will no longer be required for fully vaccinated travellers from 45 other countries from later in October