Many people want to pursue their love of acting as a career. Research must be done before such a pursuit. Here are some main points that should be considered as you follow your acting dream:
Identify Your Goals
The first step to pursuing an acting career is to identify your goals and why you want to go into acting. Are you going into acting just to “get famous?” Are you going into acting for whatever other aspect the field provides for you?
Also, what kind of acting do you want to do? Do you want to do background acting? Is it your goal to be on television shows or commercials? Do you strive to get main parts?
Go to College
There are many colleges where people can be acting majors. Community colleges, state universities and private universities provide opportunities to earn college credit and degrees in acting. They also provide opportunities for people to network with other students who are passionate about pursuing it as an occupation, as well as professionals who are already in the field.
There are specific colleges that are very well-known and have prestigious acting schools. New York University, also known as NYU, has a world-renowned acting program at their Tisch School of the Arts. Various colleges in California, such as UCLA, UC San Diego and USC School of Dramatic Arts have acting programs. Harvard and Julliard School also have acting programs. The big, well-known colleges tend to be a lot more money than community colleges and miscellaneous workshops
Take Workshops
There are plenty of workshops to take advantage of when it comes to developing acting skills, attaining advice from professionals and networking in pursuit of an acting career. There are plenty of NYC acting workshops, as well as acting workshops in other places. Most, if not all, of the workshops cost money to attend. However, they pay dividends in experience.
Keep Up on Acting News and Role Listings
There are well-known publications and websites that talk about news in the acting industry, and show listings for casting calls. Backstage is a print publication that also has an online presence. It has been around for a while, and you can subscribe to it. Casting Networks is a website that shows listings of roles for commercials, movies, television shows, print and whatever else. NYcasting and LAcasting are other websites. A few more include Actor’s Access and Playbill.
Beware of Scams
In this industry, you have to be on your guard for scammers who are not posting notices for legit jobs. There are some people who want to con others into giving them money, as well as those who want to sexually abuse and/or kidnap others. Of course, if you get involved with any agency, casting company, filmmaker or whoever else, you should definitely look up their credentials and scope out the locations of where you have to go before you go.
The types of people who want to con others out of money usually ask for money up front. Agents, supposed filmmakers and others do this. People who make films might do this by saying that they do not have enough money, and that they need people to “chip in” for the project to be funded.