Expert: Phil Nemy - 2/23/2005

Question
I am doing a school project and need the questions answered A.S.A.P., Thanks.
1. About how much do actors get paid a movie?
2. What are the impacts on acting?
3. What effects acting and actors?
4. How are actors picked to be in movies, commercial, etc?, most of the time do they audition or are they just picked for the role of the character?
5. What usually goes on when making a movie, commercial, television show, etc?
6. What's the worst thimg about acting?
7. What do you think movies would be like 5-10 years from now?
8. What's the difference between being on a television show and making a movie?
And Again, Thank you.

Answer
Dear Nelle,

Thanks for writing. Your questions are a bit vague, but I'll try and answer them anyway.

1) The scale rate for an actor is $695/day and $2,411/week.

2) I'm not sure what you mean by "impacts."

3) Again, I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean what affects them on the set, what affects them in their personal lives, how does a director affect an actors work, etc.? You need to be more specific.

4) Actors are cast in specific roles by the director and casting director of the project. Most of the time actors audition. If they are well-known actors or stars, they may not have to audition and instead are simply offered the role.

5) Again, this is a vague question. You need to be more specific. Everyone working on a film, TV show, commercial has a specific job. Whom do you want to know about and what specifically about what they do do you wish to know?

6) The worst thing about acting is unemployment. Actors work from job to job. A job can last anywhere from one day to 10 months. A television series actor generally works for the season of a show which is roughly 26 weeks. After that, they are unemployed and looking for work.

7) Pretty much the same. There will always be dramas, comedies, thrillers, action/adventure, horror and independent films. Only the stories will change.

8) A film usually takes anywhere from 25 days to 150 days to shoot. Then the film takes about 4 months of post-production work to edit the film, record the sound effects, create the visual effects and record the music. On average, it takes a film a year from beginning to end before it arrives in a theater to be seen by an audience. A television show must complete ALL of it's work in 8 days in order to be ready to air on television the following week. In other words, television moves at a much faster pace than motion pictures.

Hope this helps. Feel free to write back with more specific questions for the ones I didn't answer and I'll try and answer them for you.

Good luck!

Phil