Acting In The Million Dollar Minute The Sequel

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.

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.

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.

Whether rocketing to other worlds or galloping through time, science fiction television has often featured the best of the medium. The genre's broad appeal allows youngsters to enjoy fantastic premises and far out stories, while offering adults a sublime way to view the human experience in a dramatic perspective. From Alien Nation to World of Giants, this reference work provides comprehensive episode guides and cast and production credits for 62 science fiction series that were aired from 1959 through 1989. For each episode, a brief synopsis is given, along with the writer and director of the show and the guest cast. Using extensive research and interviews with writers, directors, actors, stuntmen and many of the show's creators, an essay about each of the shows is also provided, covering such issues as its genesis and its network and syndication histories.

This book is about a group of actors who bring drama to the big screen the way the fair haired hero never could. The granddaddies of Darth Vadar and J.R. Ewing--villains of the Westerns. Witty interviews with ten Hollywood heavies--Lee Van Cleef, Jack Elam, Strother Martin, others--about their backgrounds, and feelings about themselves, their families, and playing bad guys. Horner asks the right questions, pulls out good answers and shows a fondness for controversial and sensitive issues. Two sections contain 43 photos of these familiar grisly characters in well known roles. All in all a splendid portrayal of a bunch of fine fellows who make a living convincing audiences they are despicable, degenerate and mean. A thorough filmography and a solid index are included.