Notes from the June 2 meeting: I apologize for it taking so long to get these notes out to you. Work intruded and I got myself into such a dither that I’m just now getting back to normal. 1. House of Cards, which – according to Bjorn Munson - will be shooting (and casting) through the end of the year and possibly into early 2014, was a major topic of conversation. The scripts for this series weren’t set in stone at the start of filming, but have evolved somewhat as each episode is shot. This could present opportunities for actors to get bumped up from background or to have small speaking roles expand or recur. There apparently have been incidences of background actors behaving badly on set, however, and at one point mobile phones were collected to prevent tweeting, texting, and photo-taking. Executive producers are sensitive about any plot leaks and actors are asked to sign a non-disclosure statement, which seems reasonable. Word is that Kimberly Skyrme Casting is committed to local hires, so area actors should do their best to make that look like a good decision. (Season 2 is the last for HOC, according to Wikipedia.) Killing Kennedy is the only other production going on nearby. Has anyone gotten into that? 2. The question was raised about whether an actress should reveal her actual age on her acting résumé and the consensus was no, not even an age range. Casting should be by apparent age (and your headshot should realistically depict that). One member said that she learned from a casting director in New York that he is now typically casting actors for parts 15 years younger than their actual age. As this member put it, it’s not Mayberry anymore. Actors don’t have the gray-haired Grandma/Grandpa look until much later in life, so revealing your actual age to casting only risks confusing them. 3. Klout numbers came up in conversation. I attended a SAG workshop a couple of weeks ago where a recent arrival from NYC was adamant that an actor’s Klout number was now checked by every casting person in NY and LA and that it was entering into the decision to hire. A Klout number (klout) is apparently some measure of a person’s influence on the public. It is certainly another attempt by online services to access your private information and contacts. But I have to wonder about its validity too, since I found you can easily manipulate your number up. The SAG actress who insisted it was a big deal said she had 2,500 Twitter followers and a 28 Klout number, which she said was pretty good. Well I decided to run a test using my Twitter account, because I seldom tweet anything and have few followers. I started out with an 11 number and within a week had it up to 31 by replying to tweets from large entertainment organizations and famous industry people in a way that encouraged them to retweet my comment to their own followers. So, instead of reaching my 4 I’m suddenly reaching director Ron Howard’s 650,000. (Basically, I wrote every reply as a complete thought that repeated the basics of their original tweet and added information they might think valuable.) Interestingly, the rise in my Klout number did not affect my IMDb rating, which actually dipped slightly during the same period. I think the jury is out on this, unless you have something on Klout numbers to add. On the one hand if you can easily pump up your numbers, how valuable is it as a measure of influence? On the other hand, every big name in the biz seems to be on Twitter, including people like director Ron Howard (who you would think would have far more important things to do), so maybe there is something to what this actress said. I decided to change the venue for our next meeting since some members said they’d like to continue the conversation over dinner. So the next meeting of the actress group will be Sunday, June 30th, at 3 p.m. at the Cheesecake Factory in Tyson’s Galleria, which is just off the Beltway (exit at Rt. 123 west) at 1796 International Drive, McLean, VA (for your GPS). It’s upstairs, at the Neiman Marcus end. There are actually several nice restaurants in that same location (Maggiano’s, Lebanese Taverna, etc), so we can make it a different place each time if you like. Those who just come for the meeting can leave when they need to and the others can stay. Again, sorry this is late getting out. See you then.
Posted on: Fri, 12 Jul 2013 11:38:13 +0000
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