As an actor, you’re constantly trying to find work. As classes, auditions and casting calls can take up a considerable amount of your time – not to mention any side hustles. In auditions and productions, you’re pretty much at the mercy of the director and the production team, and your creative and artistic decisions are pretty much affected by their input. But sometimes, you want to exert more control over your work, your career, your destiny: you just want to be able to call the shots. What if, instead of always trying to book and work on projects by other people, you could just make projects on your own?
If your answer to this question is “Yes!” then you should consider creating your own content. In a nutshell, content creation is the production of online digital media such as blog posts, web sites, podcasts, and videos meant for consumption by a specific audience in specific contexts. It’s one of the favorite marketing strategies used by businesses to attract new customers and engage loyal ones by providing information and articles that may be useful and interesting to them. So if businesses big and small are marketing themselves by creating their own content, then you as an actor could also use the strategy of content creation to market yourself, create a fan base, and express and showcase yourself and your talent to more people in the way that you want.
Streaming sites have made it possible for anyone to share their videos online and make them public. You can try creating an online portfolio of excerpts of your acting work. Create and use your reel to promote yourself on your social media accounts. Better yet, you can create original video content and and channels that represent you. Who knows, with enough views, you could become a partner and monetize your videos. Or you could attract enough attention from the right people if your content goes viral. You might even be able to leverage your newfound online fame to book gigs, get your own show, create your own movie, and get yourself an endorsement deal…pretty much find work. And the best part? It’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg. Most streaming video sites have free registration and membership and and your smart phone has an HD camera. There are video editing apps that are free or you could spring for them because they are definitely going to be a blessing if you decide to edit your own videos and indie movies (who knows, they may eventually pay for themselves!). You could ask your friends to help you with the locations and music, or you could take care of these details yourself: a lot of top Hollywood actors also tend to get involved with the production and direction of their movie projects, so why can’t you do the same? Unleash the multi-hyphenate in you!
The only other thing you need to create your own original video content is a cast. If you’re an actor who needs to cast other actors for your project, Casting Frontier can help you find the talents you need to make your original productions come to life.
Content creation is probably not going to replace your daily grind of auditioning and working to get roles, but it should complement your work in other productions, helping you to further hone your skills as an actor. It’s not for everyone, but it may just be the strategy you need to help you put your work out there, and eventually let YOU be the one to call the shots.
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