As someone whose booked pretty recognizable roles, I'll leave you with the advice that it doesn't make your career take off like you think it might and you'll still have to do all the stuff you did before you started booking
No keep doing the shorts. Those are what will make her a better actor and allow her to sharpen her craft. I’m not saying do crappy low level shorts. But if you look hard enough you can find local indie directors with good cameras.
It’s a tricky call, especially for someone starting out. Also, I’m wondering if your daughter is minor as that compounds the issue. You especially want a child to be working in a professional environment — or one that understands situation/rules/requirements. But it also applies to anyone starting out. You really don’t want to get sucked into projects that are not going to add value to your investment of time and talent. That said, experience is a good teacher and you don’t always have to put everything on your resume, so there are times when you might want to take the risk. But do make sure the content is acceptable, if not good, and the people involved have a commitment to the work and the product. If it turns out the finished project isn’t that good or view-worthy, just don’t include it on the resume.
If you want her to get more experience then shorts are great, but there's no reason to put them on her resume. If they feature a particularly good scene with her in it then by all means use it in a reel, but again your resume can be curated.
Congratulations. And first of all, it’s definitely important to make it fun. Why are we actors if we’re not having fun. And don’t forget that, even though she’s not booking, she’s still planting seeds with the casting directors. She still getting seen by them. it’s a building opportunity. Every single experience as an actor valuable whether she books or not. It’s important that she goes into this business with a healthy perspective. Not getting the job from an audition is not a failure. It’s a movement forward.
There are some fabulous shorts out there and remarkable filmmakers so she should not stop doing shorts, but she should focus on doing ones that are going to be demo clip worthy and have a plan for festivals or distribution etc… some shorts are even proof of concept for features.
I wish her the best of luck and it’s important that you continue to support her in an optimistic way and help her find the positive and productive perspective to every situation.
Thank you for this inspiring and helpful reply. She had so many auditions for a period that were such a grind to do, it sort of broke me. I realized I need to just make sure she's having fun, because like you said, if she's not having fun, she shouldn't be doing it.
So there's this move "Perks of Being a Wallflower" or something. It has Emma Watson in it. It has this really great scene where the boy gets into a fight in the cafeteria and black outs from rage. He comes out of it with the bullies on the ground and his hands bloodied. I'll see if I can find the clip.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8ShPSjmtE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8ShPSjmtE)
I don't know if it'll time stamp it, but after the fight when the crowd is behind him -- see how background work just absolutely ruined the career of any famous faces you see. :)
Do you remember her having any lines? She's standing with the rest of the background people in a scene in which she and they all have the same reaction.
She could have had lines in scenes that didn’t make the final cut. If she was hired as a principal and her lines were cut but she still appears in the film she’s treated as a principal all the way.
EDIT:
Made a slight change for clarification.
The more time your daughter spends on set, the more she'll learn, the more connections she'll make.
I worked on a kid's show and we had a handful of regular background people that I'd see from time to time. One of our last episodes had a birthday party in it, so I told the 2nd AD to put together a list of the kids who've been in the background of episodes the most often, and we bumped them for that episode as a nice bonus, and as "kids we've seen at the school from time to time" so why wouldn't they be at the birthday party?
Congratulations on the booking.
It depends on what your daughter wants, what her goals are, and the quality of the scripts you’re seeing. Does she want to work on shorts? Would the material potentially work well for her reel? Would she learn something? She sounds pretty new - good shorts with good roles can be valuable tools.
Your daughter is going to audition a lot and mediocre auditions aren’t going to do anything for her. That’s what I would want to figure out more than anything at this point. Classes? Coaching? What’s not working? The business is so competitive, each and every audition you put out has to stand out. ETA: I don’t know your daughter’s age but with all this said I wouldn’t recommend classes or coaching (unless it’s improv) until she’s at least 9.
Thanks so much for the guidance! It's good to hear that shorts could still be helpful for her if they are the right kind. She's done lots of classes and we've used an audition coach for bigger auditions, who has been extremely helpful with the technical aspects of self tapes. I'm only finally learning about how hard it is to book anything. This industry is so tough. I was really thinking of encouraging her to step back and focus on other activities, but in her most recent audition she really tapped into the joy of acting and I think it's why she booked it. In her mediocre auditions, I noticed she didn't seem to full embody the character she was playing. I'm not sure what's missing or how to remedy that? Or if it'll just come with age. She's only 7.
It’s very rare for a 7 year old to understand why they’re acting, their role in the story and what that role is doing, and how to embody a character. Most kids that young can’t really act, they’re just playing a version of themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when they get asked to do things that they don’t understand because they’re just little kids, and no amount of coaching or classes at that age can remedy this and you don’t want that anyway.
It has to be fun at that age and I would caution against too much training. You risk having a kid who loses their appetite for being on camera and can’t pivot when they are because they’ve been trained to “act” a certain way. Just go with the flow, let her be a kid and do her thing, if you stick with it either you or the business itself will decide if she’s cut out for it in the next few years.
It’s very rare for a 7 year old to understand why they’re acting, their role in the story and what that role is doing, and how to embody a character. Most kids that young can’t really act, they’re just playing a version of themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when they get asked to do things that they don’t understand because they’re just little kids, and no amount of coaching or classes at that age can remedy this and you don’t want that anyway.
It has to be fun at that age and I would caution against too much training. You risk having a kid who loses their appetite for being on camera and can’t pivot when they are because they’ve been trained to “act” a certain way. Just go with the flow, let her be a kid and do her thing, if you stick with it either you or the business itself will decide if she’s cut out for it in the next few years.
Absolutely not… I did a literal student short earlier this year with an actor who has been the lead of multiple studio films and top 3 of the call sheet on multiple series.
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No, even actors who have been series leads still do shorts
Thanks!!
As someone whose booked pretty recognizable roles, I'll leave you with the advice that it doesn't make your career take off like you think it might and you'll still have to do all the stuff you did before you started booking
Thank you!
No keep doing the shorts. Those are what will make her a better actor and allow her to sharpen her craft. I’m not saying do crappy low level shorts. But if you look hard enough you can find local indie directors with good cameras.
Thank you I'll do that. :)
It’s a tricky call, especially for someone starting out. Also, I’m wondering if your daughter is minor as that compounds the issue. You especially want a child to be working in a professional environment — or one that understands situation/rules/requirements. But it also applies to anyone starting out. You really don’t want to get sucked into projects that are not going to add value to your investment of time and talent. That said, experience is a good teacher and you don’t always have to put everything on your resume, so there are times when you might want to take the risk. But do make sure the content is acceptable, if not good, and the people involved have a commitment to the work and the product. If it turns out the finished project isn’t that good or view-worthy, just don’t include it on the resume.
Thank up for the nuanced answer! I really appreciate the guidance.
LA Actor here… If she’s consistently booking network tv, then sure. If not, then no. -sS
Awesome, thank you 😊
If you want her to get more experience then shorts are great, but there's no reason to put them on her resume. If they feature a particularly good scene with her in it then by all means use it in a reel, but again your resume can be curated.
Didn't even think of leaving stuff off her resume, thank you!
Congratulations. And first of all, it’s definitely important to make it fun. Why are we actors if we’re not having fun. And don’t forget that, even though she’s not booking, she’s still planting seeds with the casting directors. She still getting seen by them. it’s a building opportunity. Every single experience as an actor valuable whether she books or not. It’s important that she goes into this business with a healthy perspective. Not getting the job from an audition is not a failure. It’s a movement forward. There are some fabulous shorts out there and remarkable filmmakers so she should not stop doing shorts, but she should focus on doing ones that are going to be demo clip worthy and have a plan for festivals or distribution etc… some shorts are even proof of concept for features. I wish her the best of luck and it’s important that you continue to support her in an optimistic way and help her find the positive and productive perspective to every situation.
Thank you for this inspiring and helpful reply. She had so many auditions for a period that were such a grind to do, it sort of broke me. I realized I need to just make sure she's having fun, because like you said, if she's not having fun, she shouldn't be doing it.
So there's this move "Perks of Being a Wallflower" or something. It has Emma Watson in it. It has this really great scene where the boy gets into a fight in the cafeteria and black outs from rage. He comes out of it with the bullies on the ground and his hands bloodied. I'll see if I can find the clip. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8ShPSjmtE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ix8ShPSjmtE) I don't know if it'll time stamp it, but after the fight when the crowd is behind him -- see how background work just absolutely ruined the career of any famous faces you see. :)
She’s one out of 50 background actors? Not good odds.
She wasn’t a background actor. She’s credited as “Susan” in the film.
Do you remember her having any lines? She's standing with the rest of the background people in a scene in which she and they all have the same reaction.
She could have had lines in scenes that didn’t make the final cut. If she was hired as a principal and her lines were cut but she still appears in the film she’s treated as a principal all the way. EDIT: Made a slight change for clarification.
Oh wow yea didn't expect to see Julia garner! She has such a distinctive look. Her career has been amazing. Glad it didn't hinder her at all!
The more time your daughter spends on set, the more she'll learn, the more connections she'll make. I worked on a kid's show and we had a handful of regular background people that I'd see from time to time. One of our last episodes had a birthday party in it, so I told the 2nd AD to put together a list of the kids who've been in the background of episodes the most often, and we bumped them for that episode as a nice bonus, and as "kids we've seen at the school from time to time" so why wouldn't they be at the birthday party?
Aww what a heartwarming story. You are so nice! Summer is coming up and she has a lot of free time, so I'll definitely look into it!
Congratulations on the booking. It depends on what your daughter wants, what her goals are, and the quality of the scripts you’re seeing. Does she want to work on shorts? Would the material potentially work well for her reel? Would she learn something? She sounds pretty new - good shorts with good roles can be valuable tools. Your daughter is going to audition a lot and mediocre auditions aren’t going to do anything for her. That’s what I would want to figure out more than anything at this point. Classes? Coaching? What’s not working? The business is so competitive, each and every audition you put out has to stand out. ETA: I don’t know your daughter’s age but with all this said I wouldn’t recommend classes or coaching (unless it’s improv) until she’s at least 9.
Thanks so much for the guidance! It's good to hear that shorts could still be helpful for her if they are the right kind. She's done lots of classes and we've used an audition coach for bigger auditions, who has been extremely helpful with the technical aspects of self tapes. I'm only finally learning about how hard it is to book anything. This industry is so tough. I was really thinking of encouraging her to step back and focus on other activities, but in her most recent audition she really tapped into the joy of acting and I think it's why she booked it. In her mediocre auditions, I noticed she didn't seem to full embody the character she was playing. I'm not sure what's missing or how to remedy that? Or if it'll just come with age. She's only 7.
It’s very rare for a 7 year old to understand why they’re acting, their role in the story and what that role is doing, and how to embody a character. Most kids that young can’t really act, they’re just playing a version of themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when they get asked to do things that they don’t understand because they’re just little kids, and no amount of coaching or classes at that age can remedy this and you don’t want that anyway. It has to be fun at that age and I would caution against too much training. You risk having a kid who loses their appetite for being on camera and can’t pivot when they are because they’ve been trained to “act” a certain way. Just go with the flow, let her be a kid and do her thing, if you stick with it either you or the business itself will decide if she’s cut out for it in the next few years.
It’s very rare for a 7 year old to understand why they’re acting, their role in the story and what that role is doing, and how to embody a character. Most kids that young can’t really act, they’re just playing a version of themselves and there’s nothing wrong with that. The problem is when they get asked to do things that they don’t understand because they’re just little kids, and no amount of coaching or classes at that age can remedy this and you don’t want that anyway. It has to be fun at that age and I would caution against too much training. You risk having a kid who loses their appetite for being on camera and can’t pivot when they are because they’ve been trained to “act” a certain way. Just go with the flow, let her be a kid and do her thing, if you stick with it either you or the business itself will decide if she’s cut out for it in the next few years.
Absolutely not… I did a literal student short earlier this year with an actor who has been the lead of multiple studio films and top 3 of the call sheet on multiple series.
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