Vanity

Following the advice of my film extra chums, I have been working on extending the network of agencies to which I belong and to which I look for work opportunities. It is difficult to be pro-active in this business. I can revise some of my skills that I can offer, such as horse riding and dancing, but it is very difficult to go after the jobs themselves. The advice I was given was to enlist with more agencies and thereby widen the net of opportunities.
I have joined the Bath office of my main agent as well as their London office. I worked out it is 90 minutes to London and about 2 hours to Bath, so almost equidistant. The only problem is that you have to add these times on to the journey times given to reach the locations.
I have joined an agent who publishes job vacancies on my profile page and to which I am expected to apply by sending my digital CV. At the moment I am surprised by the sheer number of small film production jobs offered for minimal money or none. I am not in the business for money but simply because I enjoy the buzz of being involved. I will probably join some of these projects but feel the need to get more actual paid jobs on the CV first - although the CV might look better with some of these productions showing on there as well - a quandary, a veritable quandary?
My fourth agency invited me up to London for a video session and photo shoot on Thursday. On Wednesday as preparation I learned a speech from "Breezeblock Park" (Willy Russell) and another speech from "The Seafarer" (Conor McPherson). I also learned the song, "Wild Rover". The latter may come as a shock to those people who know my singing voice but the Best Beloved said it was passable. I was also to record a piece to video saying who I was, why I was offering myself for work,who had impressed me in theatre and film, and what friends might say about me as a person. With hindsight I should have spent more time refining what I was going to say in this piece rather than learning pieces and devising a multi-national version of "Riverdance" (the latter came to me as I awoke on Thursday morning). I also learned a joke to recite to camera.
Anyway I spent 40 minutes in a white box working with Anna producing a video for my web page, which the agency maintains on my behalf. This hopefully gives casting directors a 3D version of me to help in their assessment of my suitability. The video should be online once I return from Joe's wedding in Italy and after I have finished the Literary Festival here in Havant ( I am covering the Literary Festival on my sister blog, "Bench Hamlet 2008"). I am not awaiting its arrival with bated breath. My joke, two speeches and dance were recorded and may be used in a TV project forthcoming in 2009. I suspect they will be used to make fun of the participants but here is where the vanity slipped in. I did think I hope it doesn't make me a star because then I would be useless as a background support artiste. Not a drop of humility in there you will notice and just reinforces my view that the world revolves around me. However the session also produced a portfolio of photos to accompany me when I visit casting directors. I was even told I could try modelling as another work possibility. Not you understand as one of America's next top models but as the everyday grandfather figure. As you can see I don't have to manufacture fuel to stoke my bonfire of vanities, other people do it for me.
Finally I have applied to two more agencies, whose books open in September/October. These are the creme de la creme and if I can get on to their books, my film extra chums assure me, I would have opportunities in TV as well as film. The entertainment world could be my oyster!