Acting In The Million Dollar Minute

Acting in the Million Dollar Minute deals exclusively with the art of acting in commercials. Updated, revised, and expanded for today’s commercial actor, Tom Logan uses decades of experience to give the commercial actor insight into what happens on set and how a commercial is shot. He includes guidance on how to decipher the meaning behind the commercial script, begin and end each performance, immediately obtain the auditioners' attention, and beat out your competition. In addition, Logan offers direction on "taking the camera" from another actor (i.e., upstaging), working with the product, what separates the actor who got the part from the actors who didn't, and how to give the director a performance he can “cut” in the editing room. Compiled from thousands of comments from hundreds of casting directors, ad executives, producers, and more, Acting in the Million Dollar Minute provides practical advice from an award-winning director.

This guide deals exclusively with acting in commercials, covering script terminology and procedure, commercial dialogue, camera staging, working the product, training, photos, unions, and actor-agency contracts, and also provides a complete list of SAG and AFTRA offices.

For nearly a decade, Jackie Apodaca and Michael Kostroff shared duties as advice columnists for the actors’ trade paper, Backstage. Their highly popular weekly feature, "The Working Actor," fielded questions from actors all over the country. A cross between "Dear Abby" and The Hollywood Reporter, their column was a fact-based, humorous, compassionate take on the questions actors most wanted answered. Using some of their most interesting, entertaining, and informative columns as launch points, Answers from "The Working Actor" guides readers through the ins and outs (and ups and downs) of the acting industry. Apodaca and Kostroff share an approach that is decidedly "on the ground." They’ve both labored in the trenches just like their readers—dealing with auditions, classes, photos, résumés, rehearsals, contract negotiations, representatives, jobs, challenging colleagues, and the search for that elusive life/career balance. There are few absolutes in the acting profession and virtually no proven and reliable steps. Unlike books that claim to offer "Quick Steps to a Successful Acting Career," Answers from "The Working Actor" deals honestly with the realities, providing facts, options, strategies, stories, points of view, and the wisdom of experience, while ultimately challenging readers to make their own decisions. This book will give new actors a head start on their journeys and remind experienced professionals that, in the acting business, there is never only one answer to any question.

This essential update to the classic book from the ultimate insider, Tom Logan, contains everything you need to know about the profession of acting from both sides of the camera. Previously a highly successful working actor, Tom Logan brings that experience to this updated and expanded edition of How to Act & Eat at the Same Time, the Sequel, but through the unique lens of now being an extremely successful working TV, film, and commercial director, writer, and producer. You’ll learn that ultimately, success in an audition has absolutely nothing to do with acting. Rather, it’s having the essential audition skills—which you won’t find in a “how to” audition book. That’s what you’ll learn from a master who has spent a career in and around the universe of auditions and the casting process. All sixteen chapters have been brought up-to-date, making this book a must read for today’s aspiring and working actors. And all of the appendices containing the essential practical information an actor needs in his toolbox has been updated too – resource websites; SAG, AFTRA, and Equity locations; rules and requirements for joining SAG, AEA, and Equity; plus, an updated glossary.

A world list of books in the English language.

This really is the ultimate guidebook for actors who are determined to initiate and sustain a successful acting career in Los Angeles or in their hometowns. Filled with practical advice, Acting Is Everything helps beginners avoid scams so they can get down to the business of getting work. Written by a renowned acting coach, it helps actors do it right the first time -- saving them time, money and heartache. Enlisting the thoughts and advice of many Hollywood insiders, Kerr teaches actors to approach acting as an art, a business and a career, and gives them the tools to succeed in all three areas. Kerr's essential book covers it all, including... -- Developing your talent -- Breaking into the biz -- Places to work as an actor -- Career team -- Career tools -- Personal tools: style and image -- Acting in everything -- Child actors -- Becoming geographically desirable. Drawing upon more than twenty years in the business, Kerr gives actors the resources they need to make it. From headshots to fake cigarettes, from changing one's name to that great plastic surgeon -- it's all in this book. Filled with invaluable lessons, this book is like eavesdropping at all the right Hollywood parties. The author's hands-on experience as an acting coach, actress, dialogue coach and producer comes to life on the pages of this essential book.