Off Script: The Business Of Acting

In this episode of 'The Late Bloomer Actor,' David John Clark delves into the business side of acting, sharing insights and advice for actors at all stages of their careers. He emphasizes the importance of treating acting as a small business, understanding one's brand, and maintaining professionalism. David discusses the significance of headshots, showreels, and online presence, while also touching on the challenges of rejection and the value of resilience. He encourages actors to create their own work, stay organized, and continuously develop their skills.

Takeaways

• Acting is a small business; treat it professionally.
• Know your brand and communicate it effectively.
• Invest in current headshots that represent you.
• Create a showreel that showcases your work.
• Build and maintain a strong online presence.
• Rejection is part of the journey; stay resilient.
• Create your own work to maintain control and creativity.
• Stay organized with an acting tracker spreadsheet.
• Continuously develop skills and seek professional growth.
• Community and joy are essential in the acting journey.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to the Business of Acting
• 2:26 Understanding Your Brand as an Actor
• 6:05 Building Your Online Presence
• 7:00 Some Key Business Aspects
• 10:34 Mindset and Resilience in Acting
• 13:52 The Importance of Joy in Acting
• 14:53 Tracking Your Progress and Future Goals
• 15:48 Key Lessons I've Learned So Far

Transcript

David John Clark (00:00)

Hello, hello, hello, hello. Welcome to an Off Script episode of the Late Bloomer Actor. I think I've been pretty slack this year. I think this is only the second off script episode. I think the first one was back in January. My apologies for that, but it has been one of those years. We have managed to get every episode out. And the theme this year was the business side of acting.

I was hoping to address some of the issues separately in off script episodes such as IMDB or your show reels or Casting Networks or your casting sites, et cetera, et cetera. But time just got away from me and I had some wonderful episodes to put out that kept me busy enough anyway. So what I'm doing as we coming into the end of the year, I thought I'd throw out this off script episode and

address some of the business side of stuff for you. Now this is a presentation that I put together for an episode that I did with the Equity Foundation, Late Bloomers for Actors, but it has a lot of the business side of aspects in it.

I'll cut straight to the chase there and go straight into the business side of acting for this off script episode. I'm going to use a presentation for something a bit different just for the people watching on YouTube, but you'll get everything you need if you're listening on the podcast. So thank you very much and look out for a very special episode coming up Christmas day, my Christmas day episode where we're going to look into

where the podcast has been and its results, et cetera, et cetera. So very exciting, very interesting. So here we go. I'm going to share my screen for those watching on YouTube. Enjoy. It's not too exciting, but it's something a little bit different. So instead of looking at my mug for the whole presentation. So sit down and enjoy.

The fun part, the business side of acting guys. I like to think of acting as a small business and you are the brand. I've treated my acting journey professionally from day one. It doesn't mean being fake or salesy It means knowing what you offer and how to communicate it.

Ask yourself, what's my essence? What type of characters naturally fit me? What makes me unique on screen? That's your brand. For me, it's taken a while, but I identify as the everyman, you know, the nice guy, someone who is relatable, an ordinary character who serves as a mirror for the audience, allowing viewers to project themselves into extraordinary situations and identify with their struggles and triumphs.

Some great examples are like Bilbo Baggins from The Hobbit or Jim Halpert from The Office. They're great every man character. So try and find your brand and run with it. From there, some of the important business aspects you need to implement and maintain. Invest in solid headshots that represent you now, not who you were 10 years ago. Make sure they show you the real you, especially the ladies. Minimize the makeup, both men and women.

Use nice everyday clothing.

Try to capture your eyes. A photograph will capture the truth in your eyes. But make sure you have versions that don't showcase too much background. Remember, the first time your photo crosses the desk of a casting director for a production will be likely in a tiny, tiny photo icon of tens to hundreds of actors. They need to see you. Get a short reel together, even if it's just a few scenes you've shot yourself and update it as you improve. That's a big one.

I could spend a whole day discussing the complexities of showreels and every casting director will tell you something different. If you have good work already in professional productions, yes, use that for sure, but make sure it's edited to showcase primarily your work and make sure it starts on you first.

No good having your scene partner outshine you by appearing on scene first. If you don't have professional scenes, then use self-tapes. Make sure you can be seen clearly, but more importantly, heard. Sound is important and make it good acting. But refrain from using scenes that are over the top, as yelling or extremely emotional scenes. They just need to see you act. That's it. Don't use iconic scenes like, you can't handle the truth. Everyone knows that

and they're going to compare you to the primary actors. So try and use something that people can't relate to directly. Build your online presence. You don't have to do social media, Facebook, Instagram, et cetera, but build your presence where it matters. Casting Networks and Showcast are must haves in Australia. Altai is gaining momentum. Certainly another site worth considering. Backstage or Star Now are great for getting those indie roles or the student films.

But in relation to those ones, just be mindful of these platforms. You can be taken advantage of.

Be extremely mindful of low paid work in a commercial production. Yes, actors need to work for free, unfortunately, to gain that experience and exposure in low budget productions, but be mindful of any commercial type arrangement, especially anything sign you up for in perpetuity. Imagine signing up for a local vehicle sales company for a $500 fee of which you've signed up as in perpetuity agreement to then find you can't accept the face of Toyota role you've been offered. Ouch.

It's tough, but make sure your profiles are all up to date on each platform. IMDB, I feel, is a must have. Find the annual fee in your budget and put up your photos, bio and showreel. It's a great link to the rest of the world and is where you really want to build your CV as the credits roll in. I've had my IMDB Pro account pretty much from day one. Showcases my professionalism and

it's also a feel good thing. Knowing you are on it, seeing your credits, your links to other actors and filmmakers is a great thing. It's an energy booster for when you feel things are just not moving forward, which unfortunately happens way too often when you feel like that. So you need that booster. And yes, you can work as a freelancer. Many late bloomers, many actors are business and network savvy enough to make it work, but

I recommend an agent as soon as you can. Start within your region. The smaller agents will have access to all the casting directors and roles available. So move on when it feels right. It's not disloyal. It is improvement. And all agents understand that. So when approaching agents, don't lead with an apology, lead with clarity. You could say something like,

I'm a working actor who came to the craft later in life if you're a late bloomer like me or I'm straight out of college. I'm ready to go. Whatever works for you. Just be short and succinct.

You can say, I've trained, I've worked, I'm ready to contribute, whatever works. Agents love professionalism. They love people who treat acting seriously. So show that. Don't ask what they can do for you. Tell them what you can do for them. Sounds like a movie. And your agent is a part of your team. Don't rely on them to get you work. You guys work together.

Communicate with the agent, discuss regularly about where you're at, where you want to be and what you can both do as a team to accomplish those goals. And remember, your acting career doesn't have to look like anyone else's. Might be a mix of short films, commercials, voiceover, theater. The point is to keep creating. I make a point of trying to feature in at least one student film each year to support my local acting institutions, but also...

You never know when a student film team are the future Mad Max or Marvel movie makers. And I know this is talked about a lot and it is quite pertinent, it's quite strong. Make your own work if you can. This gives you control to make your own story, control your character and keep the fire burning.

I've just finished my fourth year in the 48 hour film challenge, primarily as a one person team. And it's always a heap of fun. And it's great to see your work on the big screen. And because many of us have had other careers, if you're older like me, we know how to stay organized, handle rejection and communicate. They're all key business tools. So for you younger ones, these are little things that you need to start working on.

Read some books, find out some stuff about business management. If you have to do a short course, it will certainly be a big help in this journey. Each of these are a whole discussion in themselves, but certainly keep them in mind as you move forward. Some other points to note on the business side of acting. Create a career plan or just a list of future goals. Where do you want to be in one, five, 10 years time?

Maintain your online marketing and branding. I've mentioned this already, but it can slip past you quickly and it takes a ⁓ hell of a lot of work to tidy up. Think about financial management. Many people may have that nailed down already, but you know, just be mindful of budgeting for your acting. It doesn't matter where you are in this journey. The money is sometimes not there when you need it. So just try and budget, pick what you need. IMDb like I said,

number one on my list, make sure you can do that if you can't do anything else and find ways to make everything else work. Unfortunately, you may find more goes out than comes in. This has been the case for me for at least 10 years, but make sure you record all your expenses regardless and discuss the ability to claim them with your accountant. Register with an ABN as a sole trader and many productions require this. So you should already have this.

And with proper record keeping and some income, you may be able to claim costs, even if you're negative at the year's end.

All right, guys, that's a little bit of the business side of things. I said I would have loved to have dived in a lot deeper, but while we're at it, I'm just going to go through a few other things that sort of go hand in hand with the business side of acting and more of your acting journey as well. This was part of my presentation with the Equity Foundation. So I've got the information here. If you haven't listened to that episode, well, I'm going to lay it out here anyway. So one of the biggest things I find that I need to do and to keep things going is mindset and resilience.

And now my wife will laugh at this because I'm not the biggest proponent of it, but I do understand why we need it. It's where the real longevity lies. It's mindset. As I said, I still laugh at the mindset and the manifestation and even the mindfullness aspects. They're so big part of acting courses these days. I'm old guys, I'm old, getting older.

that's expected, but I do see the benefits in them and am slowly trying to instill them into my daily and weekly acting habits. Okay, here's a big one. Rejection. It's part of the deal guys. Every actor, matter the age or experience gets told no far more times than you'll hear the word yes. But I just like to reframe it. Every no just means you weren't the puzzle piece they needed this time. Your job is to stay ready for the next one.

Don't let the no knock you down because it can be as simple as eye color that ruled you out. I've seen it dozens of times. The very fact that you've been asked to audition is a winning moment right there. You're asked to be seen. Get up, do the audition, enjoy it. That is acting right there. That's your job. That is the work. Booking the role is just the icing on the cake really. And comparison. That can be a killer. It's so

easy to look at others and think they've done more started sooner they look different but they're not you they don't have your story your texture your lived truth own that and run with that be your own person and the successes will come with it. When I talk with guests on The Late Bloomer Actor, one of the big themes is joy.

For my fellow Late Bloomer listeners, you understand this and this is something that we'd like to pass on to every other actor, regardless of your age. Late bloomers often rediscover the fun in acting. Maintain that, keep that. That's why you get into acting in the first place. Maintain the fun, don't let it disappear. When it disappears, you need to take the break. And we're not chasing fame, we're chasing fulfillment. And that's what sustains you.

If fame is an end result, double bonus, right? The moment you lose that joy, regardless of your stage in the acting journey is the moment you need to step back or step out. That's what I just said before. Don't lose the joy. And also don't underestimate the mental health side.

Acting can be a form of therapy. You get to explore emotions, build confidence and connect deeply with others. And that's more, that's worth more than any credit on IMDb. And just touching on the rejection aspect of acting again, as we wind up.

Maintain a spreadsheet of your acting, record everything. My acting tracker spreadsheet has tabs that include audition tracker. So every audition by date, project role and who was the casting director. I then have one for castings. Again, it's a record showing a successful casting by project role and medium release. I also maintain a record of training courses, agencies I have reached out to for consideration and a record of my touching base

reach out to casting directors, all information that not only builds and shows you what you've done, but it gives you a great insight into how many times you were considered good enough to be seen. And that is a mindset winner right there. If you want a copy or have a look at my spreadsheet, reach out via email or message me. I'm certainly happy to send you a blank canvas that you can use and add straight to it for sure.

And as I like to wind up guys, as I said, I would have loved to have done this a lot deeper and a bit more in depth into the business side of acting for you. And I know I've pinched this from another presentation. It's just the message I wanted to end the year with. For my fellow late bloomers, it's never too late to start. You found that out. So for any actor listening to this, if you're, if you're listening to this because you want to start, regardless of your age, just start, just do it.

Best time to start was 20 years ago or today, as they say.

And as my point say here, life experience is your training. So it doesn't matter how old you are. Use your life experience, put that into your training. Consistency, consistency. It beats talent every time, every time. And don't wait for permission. Just do it. Community. We focus on that so much in the podcast. Community is everything. And as I mentioned just earlier, keep it joyful.

And there we go guys to wrap up. I want to leave you with this. Acting isn't about being the youngest or the most trained or the most connected or the oldest. It's about truth and the industry needs truth tellers of all ages. So whether you're just starting or coming back after decades or finally chasing that dream you tucked away, as I said before, do it. Because as I like to say, it's never too late to start, but it's always too soon to give up.

Thank you very much for sharing season four with me. It's been an absolute pleasure. I'm going to do a very special episode on Christmas Day, which is going to dive into the numbers of the podcast and how successful has been and getting better every day. So that is because of you, the listener, this medium, this podcast medium doesn't seem doesn't get a lot of feedback back because you're all out and about listening to it in your head sort of thing. So it's not like YouTube.

We don't get that feedback, but the numbers are coming in to say that you're listening and you are certainly getting something from it. So I appreciate that very much. If this is your first time listening to this, go back and binge all the episodes. And if you haven't guys reach out, touch base with me, if you want to. I'm planning to in the new year for season five, season five, starting in 2026, I'd like to get up a proper webpage and start running out a newsletter

and getting an email list so I can sort of reach out to you little bit more in your own time. So if you're interested in that, certainly look out for that or reach out earlier, go from that. So I hope you've got a lot out of 2025 season four. As I said, look out for my annual Christmas day message that I'll put out and a new year message to start the new year within 2026. So it's been a pleasure. Thank you very much for this Offscript episode. It's been a pleasure.

We could dive a lot more, as I said, into the business side of acting, it's, it's, it's bigger than Ben Hur as they say. If you want any help, or if you have any questions, reach out, I'll certainly lead you down the right path because that's what I'm here for. That's what I like to do is share, share what I've learned and teach you my mistakes so you don't have to make them. So thank you very much. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas and a happy new year. And we'll see you on the Christmas day special and the new year special and

look out for episode one on the 15th of January, 2026. It's going to be a little bit different, but very exciting and very interesting. So thank you very much, guys, and I'll see you on set.