Professional Acting In Television Commercials

What are the tools and techniques you need to make a successful career in television commercials? Does stage training help? How does one organize and market oneself to the people doing the hiring? How do you handle auditions? What do you do when the director wants different interpretations of the same material? And how do you handle those shoots when nothing seems to go right? Actress and writer Pat Dougan, who has worked in hundred of commercials, gives you the tools to answer these and other questions necessary for the actor who seriously wants to make the move into this fast-paced and lucrative field.

Popular television commercial actor Squire Fridell updates his classic guide of inside tips and advice for breaking into the commercial business and for continuing to get work. This revision includes completely new lists of agents, union offices, and publications along with Squire's essential guidelines for industry entries.

The Ultimate Guide to Commercial Success Acting in television commercials is a highly competitive business, but it can also be very lucrative. Whether you’re looking for your first break or want to take your acting career to the next level, Squire Fridell will give you the insider’s edge. Arguably the king of TV commercials, Fridell distills four decades of experience in this comprehensive, humorously written guide that has been indispensable to aspiring TV commercial actors since the first edition hit the shelves in 1980. This fully updated fourth edition gives the lowdown on how online and digital technologies have changed the industry and tells you everything you need to know about: • Getting a terrific headshot • Writing a winning résumé • Finding (and keeping) the perfect agent • Honing the skills that every serious commercial actor should have • Auditioning well and getting the job • Using the best online services for posting your headshot, résumé, and reel You’ll learn how to launch your commercial acting career and–more important–how to sustain it and be successful.

Every actor knows that working in commercials is lucrative. But many actors, trained primarily for working on the stage, have mistaken ideas about this field and lack essential on-camera experience. Now in an updated and expanded edition, Acting in Commercials is the only resource that fills all the gaps in the performer’s knowledge of this demanding medium. Invaluable for its insight into the craft as well as the business of acting, it tells you how to prepare for commercial auditions and, once you’ve landed a job, how to deliver the most expressive on-camera performance—leading to more work and success in a competitive field. Author Joan See illuminates all the secrets she has learned while appearing in hundreds of commercials over the past thirty years. She shows you how to approach five distinctly different commercial forms and explains the specific acting techniques to employ in each. In fact, Acting in Commercials will take you beyond commercial work, sharpening all your acting skills for a broader film and television career.

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.

Performing on TV commercials is bread and butter for actors. It not only helps them pay the rent while striving for recognition, frequently it enables them to break into film, television and theater. Plus, acting in commercials can be a rewarding and lucrative career in itself. This comprehensive workbook provides step-by-step training, along with commercial copy and other materials available on the publisher's website. Acting in On-Camera Commercials covers every aspect of the field of performing inTV commercials. It is a reference book that will serve the actor throughout all the years of his or her career. PRAISE FOR THE PREVIOUS EDITION "The book is filled with useful information obviously mined from years of experience and success in the field by the authors. The exercises, demonstration copy and practical advice mesh easily with the assignments in my syllabus. This is an excellent resource that will help my students understand the requisite professional standards and develop the many skills necessary to compete in this complex business." Stephen Neal, Instructor, Department of Theatre, Florida International University "I have just completed teaching a very successful course on Acting in Commercials, thanks to Ruthe Geier-Price and Michael Geier's innovative course, as presented in their new book, Acting in On-Camera Commercials. The students loved the very practical presentation of the material, the clever copy provided, and the visuals, as available in the photo illustrations. The reviews presented at the ends of the chapters left no question as to the importance of the salient points. To make his or her mistakes in a non-threatening environment, he or she avoids much of the trial by fire when they enter the actual audition experience." Barbara Lowery, Professor, Performing Arts Department, Miami-Dade College

What do ad agencies look for when casting TV commercials? This insider's guide, written by a former actor turned ad agency exec, has the answers. It provides step—by—step instructions to help actors understand and master the entire process, from assessing one's looks and personality to the agency preproduction process, from reading scripts and understanding storyboards to preparing for the audition, doing the shoot, and more.