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>> KRISTINE: Hi, this is Kristine Oller! Welcome to the Actor’s Library How-They-Did-It Success
Story Newsletter. This issue features L.A. based actor, KC White who shares how creating
self-made videos led to her booking a web series. Take it away KC.
>> KC: I was contacted by someone I had been in a play with about four years ago and I
hadn’t had really any contact with her except we were friends on Facebook. She messaged
me and she’s like, “hey I’m shooting something I have a role for you.” I’m
thinking, oh, hey cool. And she’s like “are you interested?“ I’m like I message her
back, of course I’m interested. We went back and forth a little bit. She sent me the
script. She sent me videos. It was a web series so she sent me previous episodes. It was really
funny. I liked the script. The thing that really stuck out was it was really well done.
You could tell okay, these people put some time and effort and money into this.
About a day later she messaged me again and she’s like, “okay, cool, do you have a
reel the director can look at?” I’m like, “oh no, okay, I don’t have a reel.”
I have the problem most actors seem to have that either I couldn’t get the footage,
or I got it and it was bad, or I just wasn’t happy with it. So what I had done about a
month ago is I had a bunch of clips I had taped for auditions and different things.
A few auditions. One was not really a competition, but it was an online website where you could
submit little clips of yourself and one of mine had been voted a best performance. And
I was looking at those and I was like these are better than most of my footage for my
reel. I’m thinking I’m just going to put these up on YouTube and see what happens.
At least I’ll have something to show people.
So I put them up on YouTube and when I got the message from her asking about the reel,
I’m like okay, don’t chicken out, just send her the clips. So I’m like, “look,
I don’t have a reel, but I do have these clips on YouTube of auditions and a couple
different things.” I think one was from a webisode I had done. It was a monologue
in a webisode I had done.
I sent them to her and a day later she messages me back and she’s like, “you’re cast.
Cool.” I’m like, “oh yeah.” There were a few logistical things. She just wanted
to make sure I was okay with the day and we needed to talk about wardrobe and different
things. We actually talked on the phone a couple days later and she’s like, “oh,
yeah, the director really liked your clips. He got a good vibe from them.” I was like
“oh, good.” I was explaining yeah, I don’t have a reel. I’m not happy with the footage
I have. She was like, “I totally get it.” Because she’s also an actress. She produces
and acts. She’s like there are so many things I’ve never been able to get. I don’t have
footage for this. I totally get it. And she also liked that I had done if it was an audition
I had written on the clip on YouTube I just put a little note on it - it’s an audition.
She was like I really like that you did that because it shows you can put yourself on tape
for an audition. I can contact you and say “hey, can you put yourself on tape for this?
I’m shooting this thing and I know you can do it.” Yeah, we had a really good conversation
about it. She was really impressed that I had put this stuff up on YouTube. So I got
cast and it shot for two days and it was a lot of fun.
>> KRISTINE: When I heard you tell this story in our Mastermind group I was like, yes. Because
I’m such a huge advocate for actors using the technology that’s now available to us
but just doing a series of little tiny clips. I’m talking 15 seconds to maybe, at the
most, 49 seconds. I had been talking about that for months and months now. And you were
one of the first people out of the 44 members of the group to do it. And you hopped on that
and you were like here’s some stuff and I was able to see some of it. And I knew that
actors who would start having these clips ready would be able to take advantage of opportunities
that other actors might not. And this is the perfect illustration of that happening because
had you not proactively - when no one was requesting it from you - taken the time to
play around and get good and comfortable putting yourself on tape like that, and then actually
posting them on YouTube, because that is the second step. You have to put your work out
into the world.
>> KC: That’s the scary part.
>> KRISTINE: Totally. And your work, the third component is you have to be good at what you
do. So you did all of that before the opportunity came along. The definition of luck is when
preparation meets opportunity. Then you - “you get lucky” - you were contacted and got
a role in a web series out of luck. No, no, no, not luck. You had the preparation in place.
I think that you spoke to something that is so true. Even if you have a reel and a reel
is supposed to be a sample of the work that you’ve done but the work that you’ve necessarily
done isn’t always your best work or…
>> KC: That’s so true.
>> KRISTINE: Or you get cast as a sort of roles, but not the roles that you could totally
do so well. Okay, well you were in this particular project and these were the words you had to
say. It doesn’t necessarily showcase you in your best light. And then of course because
this is a collaborative art, you have no control over the footage. And what you get back if
at all any, and even though reels are only a minute long and you think what’s a minute
- well these days a minute is the same thing as three minutes in the olden days (back when
I had a reel). With the reels, a minute, I have to watch a minute and then there’s
this weird obligation with the reel, like if I watch your reel, you kind of assume you’re
expecting some sort of feedback from it. Or audition from it. But if you say, “I’ve
got some clips, hey, there’s no strings attached to that. They’re only a couple
seconds and if you post them on YouTube I go watch one clip. Well here’s some more
clips of you.” I might go down the rabbit hole and start watching clips. And every single
one of those clips is an audition.
>> KC: I decided what I wanted to put up there when I was taping that. If I didn’t like
it, I just redid it. Overall I felt a lot more confident about the work in those clips
than a lot of stuff that would have gone on my reel.
>> KRISTINE: Right. And a lot of actors think of this in kind of old school terms meaning
I have to write a scene. I have to get a production crew and film this scene. And that’s not
what I’m talking about at all. You’re not a writer. Some actors are, but not, I
don’t mean you, KC, but you know, most actors aren’t necessarily writers but what you
can do is act. So turn on the camera, get into the character and the scenario that you’ve
chosen for this clip and just act for 20 minutes. Just make it up. Just improv. Just pretend
you had just done a scene on set and the director hasn’t called cut, so you’ve got to keep
going. And then pull from that 20 minutes or so or 10 minutes the best 15 seconds or
29 seconds or 39 seconds. And the reason I keep using those weird numbers - 29, why not
30 seconds? Odd, weird numbers are more interesting. “29 seconds? Huh, that’s precise.” If
you say something precise people kind of prick up their ears and pay attention. There’s
something about that language that’s more compelling. I was so happy when you had put
the clips on but now I’m even more ecstatic that you actually got to experience the fruits
of that labor.
>> KC: Yeah, and now I feel like okay, now that I’ve sent them out, once, and I did
get something from it like I don’t have that fear to send them to other people. Oh,
now it’s like, “oh, hey, here’s some clips I have up on YouTube, if you want to
take a look, here they are.”
>> KRISTINE: You can do it that way or you can also drip it out. Once or twice a month
send the casting directors, industry people, and friends and family - here’s the next
clip. Here’s the next clip. Here’s another clip. Even if they are all posted on YouTube
you would just email them out the little link to each one separately so it’s just sort
of like, “wow, KC’s working all the time.” Look, I’m kind of, if your friends even
see these, now your friends have this experience of the spectrum of your work. Because there’s
a lot of people in your life who know you, may have seen something you’ve done, but
who do not know the full spectrum of what you’re capable of.
>> KC: Yeah.
>> KRISTINE: Thank you so much for spending some time to share this story with us. It’s
awesome.
>> KC: You’re welcome. Thank you.
>> KRISTINE: And that’s just one more example that you can bet on yourself and win. If you
need to get on the Actor’s Library newsletter list you can do so at TheActorsLibrary.com.