How I Booked A Union Film & Signed with My Agent Through Social Media
I had worked professionally for over a decade in the entertainment industry as an actor and film and TV before I quit the industry…but that did not mean that things were easy and breezy when I decided to come back as an actor five years later. In fact when I first moved to Atlanta to restart my acting career things were really hard. It was a long challenging battle for me to get an agent and it was even harder to get auditions. I’ve had my fair share of times that I was frustrated ,that I cried, and where I felt like I was beating my head against the wall doing everything I could possibly do and not seeing any results.
I’d even been told by many wonderful agents in the Atlanta market that they really liked me and thought I was talented, but they just didn’t have room in my typecast on their roster. Well, as you all know, that didn’t really fly with me. I’m not someone who likes to sit, wait around, and hope for a miracle. I knew that I had been training my whole life that I was ready to be auditioning again, so I picked myself up and dusted myself off and kept moving forward.
I decided to stop focusing so much on what I had no control over and start focusing on what I could control. Just because I wasn’t able to get an agent or auditions right away didn’t mean that I wasn’t going to stop putting my name out there. So I really started using social media when I first moved to Atlanta as a way to get plugged into the community, make friends, grow my connections with agents, casting, and filmmakers, and start to create my own content.
It was after a year of waiting around that I finally started using all of the information that I knew from my marketing career and started applying it to my acting career.
It seems crazy looking back on it now that it took me so long to actually do this, because at this time, I’d been working in marketing professionally for about 4 years, but in my brain they were such separate parts of my life that I didn’t realize the options that were right in front of me. In hindsight it’s a big facepalm moment.
How I Booked a Film Without An Agent
So I sat down and I started posting really thoughtfully, I started reaching out and commenting and interacting with other people in the Atlanta community, and before I knew it, after about a year of trying to get representation and trying to get auditions, I received a message in my DM‘s on Instagram from an Atlanta casting director!
He said he was casting for a SAG-AFTRA horror film that is shooting in Atlanta and he had a role that he’d like to see me audition for. He asked for my agent’s information (which I still didn’t have!). So I told him I didn’t currently have an agent, but I’d love to audition! A few days later, I submit the film audition…and I didn’t hear anything back. But, honestly I was just thrilled that the casting director found me through social media and that it had led to an audition! That alone to me was such a huge victory!
But…lo and behold, a few months later I get a phone call from the casting director and he says, “How soon can you get to set? We had to have a last-minute replacement for the role that you auditioned for - can you come to set to audition for the director and writers in person? If they pick you, you’ll shoot today.”
So I literally just like threw some things in a bag hopped in my car and drive 45 minutes through Atlanta rush hour to get to the set. Someone handed me some sides and I had about 10 minutes to look it over before we went into a trailer on set at base camp and I auditioned there in front of the director and writer.
Boom. They loved what I did, booked me on the spot, and before I knew it, I was in hair and make up.
And so I ended up doing three days on that set and it was a wonderful, whirlwind of an experience (which is a story for another time). But after my time on that set was over, I found myself in the same predicament…I booked this film entirely on my own without an agent. The second I’m off that set, I still don’t have an agent, or ANY auditions coming through. I reached back out to several of the agents I’d submitted to before, sharing with them about my recent booking, but STILL no one would sign me.
And guys, I was crushed. I went from riding that insane high of being on set to the lowest of lows of feeling like no matter what I did, it would be an uphill battle for me to get an agent on my team. I felt like a crazy person trying everything I could to get repped (and SO many wonderful people vouched for me for which I’m eternally grateful for).
How I Got My Agent Through Social Media
But even though I was upset and exhausted from the continual “no’s”, I was still committed to working on my marketing, social media, and networking in the community.
So once again…on a random afternoon I see a new DM on Instagram from an agent in Atlanta. She mentioned that she had heard about me around town and following me on social media and that she would love to take a meeting with me about representation. Well, I went, and that turned out to be the meeting where I met my now agent!
And that’s not to say that marketing or social media alone were the ONLY reason why I got that film booking or signed with my agent. I still had to show up and showcase my talent and professionalism. BUT I got those opportunities: the meetings, audition, that chance to show off my stuff 100% because of my social media and marketing efforts.
This piece of my story really proved to me that marketing and acting can and should work hand-in-hand to help actors create opportunities for their careers and I’m so excited to see what happens next!
this could be you, too!
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