How I Got On The Path

     Do you ever look around and ask yourself “how did I get here?”. Well, that is the way that I am feeling at this very moment! Five months ago all that I had was a dream and, it seemed like, there was no way of reaching it. Today I am watching my dream turn into reality... 

    It was summer time, I had just completed all of the Royal Academy of Dance ballet examinations. Meaning I could either become a professional dancer or I would have to change my career completely. In every single conversation that I had with friends, family members, or even acquaintances, the same question kept popping up. That question that every high school graduate dreads. “So, what are you going to do now?” Then there’s that moment of silence hanging in the air. Where you are thinking “Um... hmm. I don’t know”. Then brilliantly you say “I am thinking of taking a year off to work!” 

    September came and I just happened to see an advertisement for an acting workshop. The class was being held at a studio that I’d never heard of, called Young Screen Actors Academy. You should know that I have been taking acting classes, in film, tv, and theatre, at different schools around the lower mainland for the past nine years. Long story short, I went to the workshop and met the Artistic Director Kirsten Clarkson. We got along very well! I guess that she took a shine to me, because after the class she invited me to audition for her full time program. Now that I am not dancing every day. I have the time to invest in my dream of becoming a professional actor.

     A couple of weeks later I found myself with a dozen other teenagers; each with a drive to succeed in this industry. At the moment we are at the half way mark in our full time program. It is exhilarating! The other students are super supportive. We are discovering new things together as a group. It’s like we are a little acting family. We feel safe in class, which allows us to try new things. I know that my classmates won’t judge me if I do something. Each of us has soared as well as crashed in front of each other’s eyes. I have to say there’s lots of laughter as well as tears! 

   We are still transitioning into young adults. As a result, the teachers are really considerate and understanding. Every teacher truly cares about the way we feel. In fact, because it is such a small class, our teachers have been able to take the time to figure out the best way to teach each of us individually.  

    Towards the end of November I began the hunt for a new agent.  My goal was to have representation before Christmas break. Kirsten Clarkson referred me to quality agents here in Vancouver. With Kirsten’s encouragement, I signed on with a boutique agency. I had achieved my goal. It was the best Christmas gift that I could have asked for.

    Another exciting event showed up for me in December. I had the opportunity to assist one of the cities top casting directors. Shoreline Studio’s is a renowned casting facility. Young Screen Actors Academy has built a solid relationship with Shoreline Studio’s. Which opened the door for me to assist Jill Kabush. Some of Jill's credits include being production assistant on the Twilight Saga's: New Moon and Eclipse. To read more about this experience, please check out  The Other Side of the Table- Audition Room from Casting’s Perspective, also found on F.A.B.!

   Young Screen Actors Academy has literally changed my life. I am filled with passion for the craft of acting. A lesson has been learned- be open, listen to your instincts, and it will lead you to the right path. I am so excited to see what the new year will bring!

Written by: Heather Leavoy

F.A.B.! The Other Side of the Table- Audition Room from Casting's Perspective

   “Yay! Christmas break is finally here. My day is free to do whatever I please, all day long”. Like every other teenager in Vancouver, I went and checked my Facebook page first thing in the morning. Little did I know that I would be assisting one of Vancouver’s top casting directors in just a couple of hours.

    To be honest, before I entered Shoreline, I was full of nervous butterflies. Especially because when I was little I used to audition in this very building. It truly felt surreal to be standing outside of Shoreline on my way to work there as a teenager! 

   My day consisted of signing in actors, organizing people in to different groups for the audition room, photocopying hundreds of forms, helping Jill Kabush, and lots and lots of stapling. For some people this might sound super boring. But I was in my element! It felt like I was walking on cloud nine. I couldn’t stop smiling the entire day!

    In between groups of auditioning actors, I was brought in to the audition room to meet Jill Kabush. I had heard many different things about Ms. Kabush; especially because the acting community here in Vancouver is so small. Thankfully, I was met with a bright smile! It turned out that Jill was very welcoming as well as understanding, since it was my first day on the job. We got along quite nicely.

      As actors we always assume that whomever is sitting in a “big black chair” behind “the table” is dangling our career in front of us on a string. Well, there I was sitting next to Ms. Kabush in one of those “big black chairs”. I felt like giggling or pinching myself!

     Experiencing the audition room from casting’s perspective was incredible. It was like I was a fly on the wall gathering up all of this information to share with you, my fellow actors. 

    As an actor I used to imagine the audition room as a small cramped space, with people lurking in the shadows that you can’t see very well. With white lights blinding  your eyes while you try to make some sort of interesting conversation with the casting director. For me during an audition I felt like a mannequin on display in a store window.

     Now, after being a shadow myself, and seeing the auditioning process from the other side of the table. I feel like there’s ever more reason to embrace the coziness of the audition room. Because everyone in the room wants you to do well and succeed. It’s true! They are rooting for you and they will try to help you as much as they possibly can. As actors we feel like we have to prove ourselves in the audition room. When actually your individuality will secure the job for you. That’s why they say “bring yourself to the part”. When you add a pinch of your personal touch to your work, that’s when you stand out from the crowd. “You have to trust that you are enough”.

      Another thing that really stood out to me, was the way that the actors presented themselves and interacted with casting. Some were tense and nervous, where as others were too relaxed. For you, try to meet the happy medium. If you are a working actor please don’t forget your manners! You should still keep that professionalism between you and the casting director during your audition. If you don’t, you look very full of yourself.  Casting does notice how you behave when you’re in the audition room. Just a reminder! Always be sure to say thank you after your audition. Gratitude separates you from other actors. 

      

Do your work before the audition. Know your part well enough so that if casting asks you to improv the part you will be prepared. Breathe. If you are breathing big deep breaths it calms you down and makes you look more confident. Take your time, don’t rush. Ground your feet and feel rooted to the floor. Enjoy yourself and come to play!

Written by: Heather Leavoy

So far in Voice Over Land

Naturally there are many differences in doing Voice Over work in comparison to Scene Study, however, I was surprised to find how many similarities there were as well. In voice over you have to do a lot of the same Character work as you do in Scene Study.  In our first weeks we were doing 8 tones of selling for Commercial Voice Over, which was a lot of fun. Now we’ve moved on to narration where I’m finding I have to apply lots of the same methods that I use in Scene Study.

The sound of a lie resonates different in someone’s voice then the truth, so as a voice over actor I have to make the audience hear truth in what I say without seeing my face. We were given Joker monologues as an assignment and had to personalize them, this was very difficult to do because you need to come across as unique, and for me I couldn’t get out of that joker voice, that heath ledger so wonderfully created. After 3 classes we had written bios and the Who, What, Where, When, Want of our unique jokeresque characters. We did our homework and created a separate life. But it was when we used a sense memory exercise and applied the breathing and microphone techniques we were taught that we able to extract an extremely personal and unique voice.  Every one of my classmates came out of the booth that day with a proud smile. Including myself.

I love going into the recording booth because I am encouraged to use my voice both in strength and in heart. In life we don’t always get the opportunity to be as loud, as passionate and as fiery as we want to be. In the booth we can reach for our highest levels and then learn to adapt them. It is very freeing. 

written by: Dylan Padgett

My Journey

Where to begin… I first started acting in high school, no not the drama department but that constant metaphorical “mask” every teenager seems to struggle with.  The interesting thing is it was easy for me to adapt, like a chameleon. The unfortunate thing is that due to the monarchy of the highschool civilization certain talents get buried. The reason why I loved drama class was because this was the one place I could show the talents that I hid away behind my real-life theatrical show. Ironically it became harder and harder for me to wear a mask everyday as I learned to create characters and scenes in acting.  By the end of highschool I had accepted the true me and was then able to embrace my love for and the craft of acting as a career and not as a defense mechanism. All humans are great actors, but the great actors are the ones who accept themselves to be just human.

I want to show and retell the beauty of a real persons life.  The extreme depressions and the unescessary bliss that a human goes through. I want to live, love, laugh in not just my life but in the poetic lives of others. To obtain a true understanding of what it means to be human,  simply human.

What I love about acting classes, is that you are sharing an experience with a team. We are all watching each other grow and fall, weep and laugh and its safe. We feel safe. The hardest thing for me is that I am so afraid of turning into somebody that I don’t want to be, so I push myself far away from what I think that is. I am slowly learning that to run away from it means that I am not telling a human beings story. That my instinct is to be selective about the stories I will tell. And that’s not the actor I want to be. Every story is worth being told. It is my journey to tell those stories.

So with that, I fearfully go into the unknown. Fearfully and happily.


Written by: Dylan Padgett

A Fabulous Interview With: Kirk Adair Douglas

Kirk Douglas, the owner and sound engineer at The Sound Lounge Studio, was kind enough to let us take up ten minutes of his day to interview him about his thoughts on the sound scene in Vancouver. For those of you who don’t know Kirk is one of the Voice Over teachers for Young Screen Actors Academy and an expert in music both with an instrument and behind the sound board.

Why did you get into the industry?

I started as a professional musician at 17 and by 19 I decided to get into recording. After being in the recording studio I realized how cool and fascinating it was for me. So I moved from Edmonton to Vancouver and took a course in recording arts and science, as a recording engineer and got a diploma.  In my 3^rd year I got a job at a recording studio called the Bullfrog in the tape duplicating room (a job that doesn’t exist anymore) and eventually moved up and became an engineer.  I have been a recording engineer now for 22 years.

What’s new and exciting?

Other then teaching the YSAA Voice over program, I’m working on different albums: The Jardines, Shilo Lindsey, Among the Ghosts and other local Vancouver bands.

Any part of the sound industry your favorite?

I am really enjoying working with the students. Other then that, I love working on musical soundtracks for film and television, and effecting the experience the artist gets in the studio. I’ve heard some horror stories about other studio experiences and I like that I can make the artists feel like they could do it all again.

Tell us a bit more about working sound on film and television?

I’ve worked on Road hockey rumble, a full soundtrack for a reality show called Tight, 5 songs on Supernatural, 2 songs on Smallville, 5 songs on The Boy Next Door. And just recently worked with Christopher Petry ( a Producer from Smallville) on a film called Marilyn.  I also did some music on Jim Rose’s new film. Most of these were songs done with the band Swank that I was a part of for years. I love working on soundtracks, they are just lots of fun.

Do you have a tip for Voice Over actors and other Recording Artists?

In everything people do you will always be told, “you suck, stop wasting your time.”

I’ve had that all my life. People saying, “You can’t do that you’re not good enough for this, you are not good enough for that.” You have to believe. It is about perseverance. Taking pride in what you do.

What is the strongest thing you bring to your craft?

Patience and the willingness to bend.  People come into the studio saying “ I want it this way” and I’m thinking “ you must be crazy” but I do it anyway and sometimes it works and you walk away learning something new and growing. But patience is over time. When you start out your patience is small. Not everything can be dipped in gold.

What is your biggest pet peeve?

Arrogance, and negative people talking about other people. People who say “I’m the best and nothing else is as good as me.” If you talk with arrogance you better be more then amazing and even then you don’t have the right.

If you could work with anyone, who would it be?

George Martin (The Producer of all The Beatles albums) I would love to just sit and chat with him for even an hour.

http://www.soundloungeproductions.com/vancouver_recording_studio/home.html

written by: Dylan and Madison Padgett

Less is More

When talking about chocolate cake, sunny days or balloons you can never have too much. When it comes to a scene, however, less is more.

Don’t over think a scene. We are people telling stories about people. We are equipped already with what we need to do the scene.  Who is the better chess player? Someone who wins in 20 moves or 6?  As a western society we are always looking for the fastest way to get there, so wouldn’t that translate in how we behave as people? 

Trust your instincts. Have fun. Breathe. And just be. 

written by: Dylan and Madison Padgett

A Body of Work

A body has many parts, and nothing in the body is random or unnecessary. Different parts of the body rely on another part to function. For example the brain needs the heart and the lungs to control the body. The heart needs blood; the blood needs cells and so on and so on. 

A scene is the same way; a living-breathing thing that needs every meticulous piece working to survive.  The brain of the scene would be the homework the actor does before the scene even begins. It understands how to move the rest of the “body”. The who, what , where, why, when, how, and want of the character. What is their background? Do they like their father? Are they an only child? Do they have an accent? Etc. etc. This is everything the actor does before the story even begins and when its done nobody should notice that its even functioning. Just like the brain.

Next we have the blood, the flow of the scene, a balance. Is there enough blood in the body to keep it alive?  Are you there for your scene partner? Do you understand the writer?  Is there a give and take, and most importantly a trust between all those involved? If you drop the scene the body slowly starts to lose blood. The blood is pumped from the heart and through the body.

The heart is the connection.  Once the brain is out of the way and we have enough blood to keep us alive are we connected? Do we trust that we have everything in place to pump and push the scene forward? Are we connected to what we have discovered and created? Without connection it is fake, it is just a dummy of a scene. The more connection the quicker the heart pumps, the more flow of life and faster the brain works without anyone even noticing it is.

So we have the body working, but not living. To breathe life into the scene we need oxygen and the lungs. Oxygen is the commitment.  You can never breathe enough. You can never commit enough.  Nobody ever says stop breathing  (well nobody I want to know). Commitment is the fuel to the scene.  The lungs are the action. Commitment is nothing without action and action is nothing with out commitment. The oxygen, the commitment, is the key to allowing everything to move at its fullest potential. The more you commit to your homework, to your partners, to your connection and to your action the more the scene comes alive.

As actors we have to figure out a way to not only have these all working but have them working at their fullest capacity at the exact same time.

Just like the body.
written by: Dylan and Madison Padgett

Production Heads

Our fabulous leader Kirsten Clarkson has a great online called : http://www.productionheads.com/


Here is a snip it of her latest post: 

Spotlight Interview with Casting Director, Tiffany Mak

by Kirsten Clarkson on November 23, 2011

The lovely and talented Ms. Tiffany Mak was born in “Winterpeg”, Manitoba and moved to Vancouver in 1998. She achieved a degree in Criminology from Simon Fraser University and planned to pursue a career as a lawyer. Even though Criminology doesn’t seem to have anything in common with casting, she says it’s helped her a lot with the job and environment.

“You learn to be able to read people quickly, be analytical about everything and appreciate that nothing in life (or casting!) is black and white.”

Outside of Criminology, Tiffany’s had some pretty crazy life experiences – some she can’t reveal in writing! But she says the most challenging and rewarding life experiences happened when she allowed herself to be outside of her comfort zone and really tested her emotional and physical limits – some may think they were reckless decisions but she thinks of them as character?building adventures.

That’s as far as the fascinating Ms. Mak is willing to go with her history so on with the interview!

It's great! check out the rest at: http://www.productionheads.com/2011/11/1813/

Getting out of the actors brain and into the characters.

In class recently I have been learning what it means to detach my own brain, person, from the character. 

“Getting out of my own way”. 

As actors, I find, that we always have to be conscious of the world around us. If a pin drops we shouldn’t ignore it but embrace it into the scene at hand. It’s a balance of holding on and letting go; just like my own thoughts and feelings and how they compliment and hurt the characters thoughts and feelings.

My personal story and encounters are huge tools in helping me connect and find a relationship with the character I’m breathing life into. However, this means I have to leave my ego, however big, and all my unresolved baggage, however big, at the door or else my life begins to suffocate the life of my character.

My teacher, Marc-Anthony Massiah said, “ The character should be 90% aware in the brain and the actor should be 10%.”

This is completely translated in my life, my actor brain is on 10% of the time and I take up the rest.  Which is the one thing the actor brain always seems to forget: I am a character in a story being told. Just like the one I am trying to capture in the scene given to me. I’m sure percentage of how much awareness each life gets will change between teachers,but the heart of it should be allowing them both to live in harmony together. And of course having fun while doing it…. But that’s a post for another day.
written by: Dylan and Madison Padgett

to learn more from Marc-Anthony Massiah Check out: 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Best-Acting-Workshops-Classes/302097946499406
http://www.youngscreenactorsacademy.com/myschool/

Why We're F.A.B.!

Welcome to our fabulous new film actors blog! 


Here we will have interviews with successful local actors, casting directors, agents and general thoughts, goals and teachings learned in class and through life. The water cooler of the acting world so to speak. 


There will also be new video's posted weekly from our youtube channel. 


Till Next Time! 


- FAB! 
http://youngscreenactorsacademy.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Best-Acting-Workshops-Classes/302097946499406