Commercial pay cycles run for 13 weeks. Payments are sent directly to the actor or representation, NOT to SAGAFTRA. If the commercial is not a ‘buy out’, residuals for commercials are paid for each airing.
Payments for each airing are on a sliding scale, ie: the ‘cost per airing’ is much higher for airings #1 - #10 than for airings #50 - 60. This continues until the cycle maximum (3000 airings). IF the production company wishes to continue using the commercial after the 13 weeks, the payment scale resets and they must pay for each airing from the top of the payment structure. This is known as a ‘roll over’ as the commercial ‘rolls over’ into the next payment cycle, and a nice shiny new check arrives in the mail.
Cable TV
Payment for all intended airings within a cycle is due 15 days after the date the commercial first airs. This first air date is considered the beginning of the first 13 week cycle. The next payment is due 15 days after the beginning of the 2nd cycle, and so on for every cycle.
Network TV
Network TV residuals are based on a 7 day payment period, running from Monday to Sunday. Whatever airs within those 7 days is due 15 days after the first Sunday following the initial airing of the commercial. The next payment is due 7 days after the following Sunday for all usage within that week, and so on. Although payments are being made every week, the payment rate sheet still resets (rolls over) after each 13 week cycle.
Preparing For LA
If you can’t get to LA yet, there are many things you can be doing right now to prepare:
• SAVE AS MUCH MONEY AS POSSIBLE. Think of every fifty dollars you don’t spend as one more day you can survive in LA.
• STUDY YOUR CRAFT. Take the best acting classes you can find as often as you’re able.
• Learn a PERFECT standard American accent.
• GET ON STAGE. I can tell whether an actor has a substantial theatre background within moments of watching them perform. It will add tangible depth and layers to your work. Do community theatre, school plays, whatever you can get your hands on.
• Learn how to do as many accents as you can. This skill will aid you for the rest of your career.
• Girls should learn how to do hair and makeup to suit different roles.
• Fix your teeth. Make sure they’re straight and white, unless your type is ‘creepy homeless guy’. This is more important than you’d think for lead roles in LA.
• Fix your skin. Eat less sugar, drink more water, eat well, exercise, cleanse, tone, and moisturize your face twice a day … and if that doesn’t work, see a specialist. Clear skin is a must for American TV and film.
• EXERCISE! You need high energy and great stamina to stay alert on a film or TV set for twelve hours a day. If you want to play lead roles, get your body looking healthy and toned for your body type. Do not simply try to ‘get skinny’.
• Find two great two-person scenes from films. One comedic and one dramatic. Memorize and prepare. These will be your showcase scenes.
• Find two great monologues: one comedic and one dramatic. Memorize and prepare. You will use these in the rare instances a director asks you to audition with a “monologue of your choice”.
• Film yourself performing scenes as often as possible.
• Go to AS MANY AUDITIONS AS YOU CAN. Think of every audition as a free class on audition techniques.
• Do LOTS of short films and indie features to gain on-set experience.
• Read scripts of great films online at Scriptapolooza.com or InkTip.com to become familiar with what a good script looks like.
• Watch every single one of the ‘top 250 movies’ listed on IMDBpro and observe who cast and directed them.
• Select a top director and watch a selection of their films. Become familiar with the top directors in the industry.
• Watch every movie that has ever won best picture, actor or actress at the academy awards.
• Watch American hit TV shows and learn the CD and actor’s names.
• Join every casting website in your area.
• Improve your cold reading skills by reading dialogue into a mirror for fifteen minutes a day.
• Get some friends together and shoot a web series for FunnyOrDie.com or YouTube.com.
• Get your resume, headshot and demo up to a professional standard.
• Practice memorization. Memorize one page of a character’s dialogue from a two-person scene every day. Aim to be off-book in ten minutes.
• Go to every film festival close enough for you to get to.
• Try writing a film or scene. Writing helps you understand more about what goes into creating characters and stories.
• ‘Follow the top filmmakers and actors on Twitter and Facebook. Watch how they market themselves and interact with their fan base.
• Write a business plan for your acting career. Write one for the next 1 year, 2 years and 5 years.
Creating Your Acting Website
An actor’s website is rarely used in the professional casting process. Your profile pages on IMDB.com and BreakdownExpress.com (via ActorsAccess.com) give a filmmaker or CD all the tools needed to consider auditioning you for a role.
While a personalized acting website may not make or break your career, it is a great tool to show industry professionals all of your marketing materials in one place. It enables you to guide people towards otherwise hard to find press, like theatre reviews and red carpet photos.
If you do have a website, ensure that it is professional, current, functional, and well maintained. There are many companies online that build websites for actors. Others (like Wix.com) allow you to build a site by easily dropping elements and information into pre-designed pages.
An actor’s website should be utilized as an online ‘press kit’ (see ‘press and publicity’ section), referring the user to reviews, articles, film trailers, and other press. The site must be easy to navigate and all pages must completely download in less than ten seconds. It is unlikely that a CD will wait twenty seconds for your headshot to display, so if needed, reduce the photo file size. Don’t give her a reason to move to the next actor on the list.
A quality actor website will have the following tabs:
• Home
• Resume
• Demo
• Press
• Contact
• Photos
Home Page
Display your name and main theatrical headshot. Perhaps write a bio on yourself and a few career highlights with a small paragraph or two about your recent gigs and upcoming releases. Embed trailers for any current upcoming releases. Include links to your IMDb, Twitter and Facebook.
Resume
Under the resume tab, list the following links at the top of the page then display your full resume on the page below them.
• IMDb profile
• Breakdown profile
• Download .pdf
• Print
Your downloadable resume should be in an un-editable .pdf format.
Demo Reel
Your demo can be displayed via a link to a professional site (like ActorsAccess.com or NowCasting.com), or by embedding a high quality video into your site. If you are using YouTube.com or Vimeo.com for hosting, embed the file into the webpage rather than re-directing users to a public site. Ensure the resolution is high, the file size is small (for fast buffering), and that the picture isn’t too big or small (640 × 480 is standard).
Press
Include links to any positive or neutral press written by an independent media source (i.e. NOT a production or management company website). These sources include newspapers, magazines, online publications, critic’s reviews, and red carpet sites. Scan and upload hardcopy press in .pdf format.
As your press kit grows, separate this section into more specific categories, such as ‘articles’, ‘reviews’ and ‘interviews’.
Contact
Display contact information for your representation and include their logo for branding. If you have more than one agent, specify the field in which they represent you. Provide your direct email for those rare last minute bookings that may occur the night before or morning of a shoot.
Photos
Your website is not an appropriate forum for the twenty different headshots you took in one session, or for headshots that have become outdated. If you are a model, having a modeling tab is great, but make sure that none of your shots are too revealing. Other than your main theatrical and red carpet images, include alternative looks and character shots
If you have several shots, use thumbnail photos that show a full size version of the shot when rolled over or clicked on. A great example of this is the photo section of your ActorsAccess.com profile. Make sure the larger versions of the photos are easily downloadable and printable (72dpi is a fine minimum resolution), with a print size between 4” × 6” and 8” × 10”.
Red Carpet Photos
One option is to put direct links to your personal search results page on WireImage.com or GettyImages.com. To do this, search your name then copy the url in the browser window above your search results.
Another option is to show a selection of red carpet photos on your website in the same thumbnail format used for headshot photos. Don’t worry about the watermarks: they help legitimize the image and prevent you from breaching any copyrights.
Production Stills
Production stills are taken on set during a shoot. Great production stills show crew and camera equipment in the background, the director instructing you, or the other actors dressed in wardrobe on set. Photos of you in character, acting, are also great (these look like someone has pressed pause on a movie).
Production stills taken with a cheap camera or bad lighting give the impression that the production was cheap. Your production stills should look as good as stills from bigger budget films, implying that you are a professional, working actor. If you don’t have great stills, don’t resort to using bad ones. Having no production stills is better than having bad ones.
Networking
What Is Networking?
Networking, also known as ‘schmoosing’, or in Hollywood: ‘setting foot
outside your apartment’, is often misconstrued as a dirty word. There are
many slimy, dishonest people who will make friends with anyone they
think can help them in their quest to be whoever they are trying to be.
These people are usually easy to see through and avoid.
Networking doesn’t mean meeting people who are in a position of
power and sucking up to them. There are thousands of friendly, interesting, likeminded people who just happen to also be very well positioned in this industry. Networking does mean meeting and working with these people and establishing organic personal and business relationships with them over time. It is as simple as being good to your friends and co-workers, and staying in touch.
Avoid successful egomaniacs, regardless of what you think they can
do for you. They’re no fun to be around, and realistically people like this
are not likely to get you a job or help you out because they are too busy
thinking about themselves.
Networking continues at every level of your career. Most celebrities still
procure a large portion of their work through relationships they have built
over the years with filmmakers, CDs, and other actors.
There’s an old adage in Hollywood: “People don’t do favors for acquaintances, they do favors for friends”, which essentially means people are not likely to help some person they met for three minutes and swapped cards with at a party. However, if someone spends some time with, connects with, and respects you they might be willing to make a referral. Once you’ve gone for beers with someone a few times, they might be motivated to pull a favor for you.
This doesn’t mean the only way you should gain contacts is by making
friends with every cool person you meet and ignoring those you might not get along with. If someone is in a position to give you a job make sure they know who you are, what you do, and that they have your information.
Get contact information from them … and follow up on it. You know when someone isn’t the type of person you’d hang out with
socially and so do they, so don’t be fake about it, just keep it as a clear business relationship.
When I started attending festivals, I thought I had to meet ‘everyone at
the party’ … but that’s not necessarily true. It’s about finding a few people of value and passing the time at that event getting to know them. It’s about finding real long-term friends and future co-workers who are passionate about directing, producing, or any other aspect of the film and TV industry in the same way that you are passionate about acting.
Extract from: The Hollywood Survival Guide - For Actors