I’ve been in LA for almost two weeks now and it’s really been an eye-opening experience. Everything that you’ve heard about how competitive and hard it is here is true and then some! Other than through agents, there are only a handful of places to look for auditions and there are just so many people that submit through them that unless you’re headshot is exactly what the casting director had in mind for the part, you’re not going to get called – even if you really could play that part, you could dye your hair or cut it or whatever, even if you might be a better actor than the others submitting, that doesn’t matter – it’s all about the right now. Even getting extra work, just to make a little extra cash, is competitive. There is just such an overwhelming amount of people going for the same thing that it’s easy to get lost in the clutter.

The cliche of just trying to get your foot in the door is really true – that’s half the battle, if not more – but certainly the hardest part – to separate yourself from the literally hundred of thousands of other people who are all doing exactly the same thing you are. There are no such things as open casting calls for speaking roles. You have to be invited to everything, which means, getting people to pay attention to you in the first place.

In the almost two weeks I’ve here I’ve had 3 auditions, met with one casting director, and did some extra work where I met some really great people who have been super helpful with settling in. But I feel like I have barely scratched the surface, that there is still so much more to do and to dig my way into, that I’m not being productive enough. But therein lies the problem – it’s really not up to me – all I can do is keep looking, submitting, and researching and just wait. It’s very frustrating especially coming from somewhere where I always had work, or always knew of the next audition or project ect. I know I’m being impatient and that this is what it’s going to be like for a very long time – that more than likely I am not going to work for a long time, until the role that I am absolutely perfect for comes along, and even then there will have been lots of people here who have been doing the same thing, but for a whole lot longer than I have who are going for that same part that is perfect for them too.

So, this is the life – just waiting for the right thing. I don’t mean waiting by sitting on your hands and doing nothing by any means – of course not! I am still getting out there, still meeting people, still submitting, still determined to go out there and get it and find that perfect role – but waiting for the right thing and the right person to be looking for you. It’s really a whole lot of luck I guess and preparation to be ready when the opporunity arrives. I understand a whole lot more know what so many actors talk about with training. I’ve been on a bunch of actor message board even before moving and so many actors are always talking about training – how you should always be training and doing scenes and practicing your skills…I always thought that working on a project was just as good if not better than training because you’re actually doing it – you are putting the things you learned into practice and making them work, testing them out and trying new ideas. My motto was that you should always be working rather than always training. But now I get it – it’s practically impossible here it always be working, at least at this point it seems that way. I’m sure there are people who are doing it, but for the newbies like myself, it’s really just not something that is going to happen no matter how hard I look for things. The odds are stacked way against you to always be working – even if working it just doing something small like a student film because it’s even competitive to even get one of those! So now I get the “always be training” mentality because it’s the only way to stay fresh and to be ready when you get those auditions. I still don’t think I 100% agree with the idea of “always be training”, but I do agree with the idea of “always be practicing”, so for a lot of people I guess that translates into training.

One of the things that has really surprised me thus far is the lack of the “in the middle” productions – or at least from what I’ve been able to find so far. You can find student films, you can find no budget short films, you can find the 100K+ indie films, but there aren’t a whole lot of “in the middle” films that would fall between the two – or atleast not many that I’ve been able to find thus far. Maybe they just don’t exist since it would be so expensive to shoot anything here that those films have to get bumped up to make the film even possible…

It’s certainly going to take a while to get the hang of the flow here, and I know the next step for me is going to be to have to get an agent since there is a real limit on what you can do yourself – so new headshots (I was scolded by a casting director for not looking exactly like my headshot), revised reel with some new footage, and then the hunt will begin!