Criticism

Some people think criticism makes artists better. Or even "constructive criticism" which is still thinly veiled criticism. Who does criticism benefit? The critic might feel good, like they have given this person some direction or help but the artist feels like they aren't good enough or didn't do it the way they should have. When in fact, the artist did it as they saw. They may not have the technical expertise just yet to fully communicate their idea, but it is theirs and theirs alone. They will get better with practice and develop their own style and expertness in time- no criticism required. Some people disagree with this concept. Some people need that "feedback." I think they've been trained to think that way through years of painful "This is for your own good" criticism.

Picture this. You're at the gym. And you are trying to do perfect pull ups. And some one is sitting there after every attempt and saying, "That pull up was no good. You didn't do XYZ." or "Almost, but not quite. You didn't really seem into it." Or whatever. You would probably say, "Eff this. I didn't really care about doing pull ups anyway." It may sound quite ludicrous, this example, but the idea behind it is a very true one.

Many artists are not born amazing or prolific or even proficient but they work for it, they sweat for it, they are even sometimes poor for it. ;) They practice, they do it over and over til they can do it blindfolded and sleeping. Many have had so much criticism in their days that, everything they do is "crap".

A lot of the time, artists will be critical of other artists and thus be critical of themselves. And because they are critical of others they assume that others are being critical of them. And so a vile cycle occurs and artists quit doing what they're doing after enough criticism- even "constructive criticism." I put it quotes because it is still criticism. People don't go to art shows or movies because they hope its crap. They go in hopes that it will effect them in a good way.

So do yourself a favor- STOP CRITICIZING OTHERS. It will make you feel less self conscious of yourself and your art.

AND STOP CRITICIZING YOURSELF. You'll be amazed at how great it will feel. It takes practice for sure. But when you get the hang of it, it sure feels good.

SAG vs. not SAG

I've found that not being SAG has been quite a stop for me. For a long time it was something that didn't seem that important but eventually realized that it would be considerably harder getting good jobs not being SAG. So I begrudgingly did some extra work for my vouchers.
Oh those ever elusive SAG vouchers, those sweet, sweet pink papers. I found a way to circumvent all that crap-tastic-non-union-extra-work-hoping-I'll-get-a-SAG-voucher thingy by signing up for a service. I found out about a person who can help. My friend got his SAG vouchers from it and referred me to him. I don't want to give out the actual info on this blog (for his sake) but it you want, I can send it to you personally. I paid $90 bucks to get started and then $100 bucks per voucher I got. I lucked out and got three days in a row on Greek as a SAG extra. Yay me! And so did my friend that referred me, a girl I referred just got her first one. So if you need help- the money is worth it. The days are long and tiring but well worth those damn vouchers.

Helpful Sites

Casting About This will give you a daily updated list of whats currently casting with the casting info and addresses to send it to. You can pick out the specific CDs you want to submit to.

IMDB Pro Helpful as a tool to know whats kind of goin' on and such. I haven't explored it enough to give you much more, but it seems helpful.

LA 411 Gives you all sorts of resources for the commercial world. Directors names, CDs, `Production Company names and addresses.