My Spidey Sense Is Tingling

Ever since the feature film fiasco of 2005 (so heavily detailed in this blog that I just don’t have the energy to talk about it anymore), I had been hesitant to more independent films. The only films I had dared audition for recently were ones where I knew someone who was involved or stuff that was backed by a “reputable” institution, like Algonquin College. This, in turn, helped increase my confidence in independent productions to the point where I randomly sent my stuff in to a few things I found on the ACT website.

Try and see which one I’m actually going to show up and audition for:

Production Company A:
-Has a professional looking website which includes past films they’ve created, detailed biographies of the people involved with the company, news updates, film festivals they’ve participated in, and lots of other details;
-Has an email address with a production company tagline;
-Has an incredibly detailed story synopsis and character breakdown;
-When emailed, they were very friendly and offered lots of additional information.

Production Company B:
-Has no website or past credentials;
-Has a hotmail account;
-Offered no character or story information, only a general need 10 men and women;
-When emailed, told me not to email them but to give them my phone number – also in a sentence of less than 20 words, misspelled more than half of them.

All this to say, if you are a non-union actor, please be careful out there. The only person who can look out for you is you.