Expert: Taylor Sheppard - 4/23/2009

Question
QUESTION: hi my name is Derrick Torres i am 15 years old and next year i am trying to get on Disney, and i have went to hell and back to get my body and everything right for next year but i want to start my dream of becoming an actor on Disney channel, maybe have my own show. i have a few questions.
1.) I live in San Angelo, Texas and i want to be on Disney so am i able to live here but get and agency and agent in California?
2.) The only experience i will have of acting is from school theater, plays, all that, but mostly because i do not have enough money for other acting things is that enough for my resume?
3.)what agencies are the best that can try to get me Disney channel auditions?
4.)I thought my parents only have to pay for plane ticket, hotel, food, pictures, and rental car, what all will my parents be paying for?
5.)what other tips do you have for me?
I already almost have all my school credits done, i make very good grades in school, im fit, i have voice training practice, my parents are ready to support me through the whole thing but they kinda have a limit on what to spend, i just need answers and tips to help me. so please please answer my questions thank you.
sincerely, Derrick Torres

ANSWER: Hi Derrick,

Well, you are certainly better prepared than most people who write to be on Disney.

It would help to have more training and have a few paid acting credits on your resume. Living in San Angelo would only work if you could travel to LA a LOT and stay there for weeks at a time. You would want to be there for "Pilot Season" in the spring to try to get on a show. As to agents, you would just have to locate one in the talent agency section in the yellow pages. It would help if you started with an agent in Dallas first, so you wouldn't go green to California. The agents tend to want more experience in LA because there are plenty of teens who have acted professionally for a long time out there. It's best not to rely on luck in life, but try to make your own by working hard to have the right training for whatever job first.  

As to tips: Have the best PROFESSIONAL headshots done and look at resumes on the internet to get an idea how to prepare them. Use resume paper, not just copier paper, as this is part of how you make a first impression with casting. A cheap headshot made with a home camera doesn't cut it. A mis-spelled or badly formatted resume will tell on you. You don't put personal info on resumes, just name schooling and credits. Do not put height, weight, hair color, age or anything else like that.

I strongly recommend classes for acting so you know what to do on camera! It looks easy because the actors know how to make it look that way. There is a lot of technique to learn for looking good on camera and how to take a script and make the character come to life. The only way to know what you don't know is to find out!

Best,

Taylor

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: thank you so much taylor, but i realy want to get on disney before i get to old, my birthday is on january 6, and ill be 16 when i start everything...
disney wont hire me to have my own show or anything if im to old.
also how much would you say if i DO go to california, how much a month would i be spending?
and if i were to go to dallas, how much a month?
please thank you=)

Answer
Hi Derrick,

I know this won't comfort you, and likely you won't get it until you are much older, but patience is something you have to develop as an actor. You will have lots of times where you have to wait to find out if an audition went your way, many times where you sit and sit and sit for HOURS on a set waiting for them to call you to take your mark and do your acting. It's the nature of the business.

Many times I have met people on sets who are there for the first time, who got on as extras and thought "Wow! this will be like a party...in a few minutes I will be the center of attention cause I'm so special, ....yada yada." They usually hate the experience. That's because it can be hot as hell, cold as hell, you get hungry waiting for lunch (sometimes they don't provide craft services to everyone) sometimes it rains all night and they won't let you leave the set because they are hoping for a break in the weather ("Spy Kids 2") and you just want to get warm and sleep!

One time, I worked on a movie as an extra and they brought us a big bowl of cheap SALTY potato chips. We were STARVING! -Unfortunately, they didn't get around to delivering any liquids until four hours later. That was a typical 100 degree plus Texas summer day!

While it may be true that Disney may not hire you if you hit your expiration date (whatever that may be) in life we get unhappy because what we want often doesn't match what happens. Did you know that a lot of times they hire actors who LOOK younger to play younger? Many times "high schoolers" are 20-something or older! Lucky is the actor who can do that. The thing is, you just can't rush some things. If you go out unprepared and the casting people or agents see you as overeager, but clueless, they remember that and it sticks in their minds a LONG time.
Remember when I mentioned above about taking your mark? Do you know what that means? Do you know how to run up to a mark and stop without looking down at the ground to see it? It's like reading a script at an audition, you want to be looking at the other person or the camera as much as possible. If you have your nose buried in a script, reading, how are they going to see your face? Of course, if they were casting for a character that only sat with his face in a book, you'd be perfect! However, I have never seen that movie! Lol!

Same goes for marks, if you run up and miss the mark, the cameraman/cinematographer gets frustrated because you are not at the focus point where the lights are aimed for and the camera is set to capture your face. If you run looking down, they don't see your face either. That is a tiny example of why you need to learn the different tricks to work on camera. A lot of the things actors do on camera are not what you do in real life.

In real life, when you talk with someone face to face, you generally are around three feet apart because of the invisible "bubble" of interpersonal space. If you did that on film, you couldn't get two people in the same frame for an ECU ("extreme closeup" -where you see just their heads). On film, you stand uncomfortably close, noses are inches from each other to do this. It feels really odd, but looks normal to the audience. When you are talking to the other character, you also use "cheating" a lot. That's where you are talking to each other, but looking with your eye farthest from the camera at the other guy's eye closest to the camera. What that does is "opens up" more of your face to the camera instead of hiding it.

So you see, there is lots to learn.

As to your question about expenses, it isn't something I can answer, because it would depend on where you live in the areas, how you like to live (expensive lifestyle or frugal) transprtation, etc. All I can say is that whatever you figur, it is likely HALF of what it will actually cost.

Best,

Taylor