Actor-Preneur

While on the road between Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia,New Zealand and the United Kingdom, the TVI Actors Studio staff have essentials which every actor should have easily available so they do not miss that film screen test.

On my list:

Always have on hand Euros, British pounds, US dollars, Australian dollars, South African Rand, etc

An un-locked mobile phone so you can swap the sim cards with local pay as you go cards. In order for you to do this if you are American, you must go with AT&T or T-Mobile as they have the same GSM technology as the rest of the world. Verizon and Sprint use a technology called CSMA that will not work internationally.

I also suggest a Blackberry device with international data plan. Although I have the AT&T International service, T-Mobile international service is actually much less expensive at $20 a month.

Of course a current passport with available pages. (South Africa requires 4 pages free)

And if you have an American iphone please see the details on the AT&T web site. They clearly note, “International roaming and data usage is not covered under your existing data plan.” Be Careful and put your iphone on airplane mode when leaving the US!

I was heading to London after a few days in Paris for meetings in the business class car of Eurostar’s Chunnel service. The day long Actorpreneur workshop in London, I expanded the usual presentation with amazing video interviews with prominent Broadway and Los Angeles professionals.

The all day Intensive included a catered lunch and informative video interviews with Roy Steinberg, TV Producer/Director, Angela Terry, Los Angeles Casting director, Joel Kleinman, Los Angeles Talent Agent, Corey Pepper, an established working actor, Donald Norris, Los Angeles professional headshot photographer, Pat McCorkle, Broadway/Film Casting Director, Bobby Daye, an established Broadway star and Rob Decina, Casting director, CBS Guiding Light.

Several weeks ago I had the honor of speaking and presenting the “actorpreneur” workshop to the students of distinguished actor Arved Birnbaum at his acting school, Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film in Cologne (Köln), Germany. Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film is one of the most respected and prominent acting programs in Europe.

Pictured to the left is Juilliard graduate and instructor at Zentrum für Schauspiel und Film Carolyn James who was instrumental in organizing the event.

Just as actors market themselves, American casting directors have been creating amazing web sites. Above is NY Casting Director and TVI teacher Judy Bowman.

Also take a look at Los Angeles casting directors Terry Berland’s and Renita Whited new sites.

The availability to showcase yourself to a world-wide audience is phenomenal with the popularity of all the networking social sites on the web. LA based actor Jeff Grace who is also a TVI Actors Studio’s Los Angeles career coach has the third most watched video on digg.com in the last 365 days and the link was only posted 24 hours ago!

From TVI’s Brisbane event, back to Sydney, then a few days in Los Angeles!

I caught United’s 8:40am LAX flight Thursday morning to New York’s JFK just in time for substantial thunderstorms. After circling JFK for 90 minutes, we landed only to spend 2 hours in a taxi into Manhattan.

All to attend BackStage’s “ActorFest” on Saturday, the 13th.

2007 Daytime Emmy Awards were announced Friday, April 28, during a live telecast on ABC Television.

Traditionally held in New York City, the ceremony took place in Los Angeles for
the first time this year at the Kodak Theatre.TVI Actors Studio teacher
and casting director Mark Teschner for the past 20 years won the Emmy for “Outstanding
Achievement for a Casting Director For A Drama Series”.

Congratulations on your 2nd Emmy and 3 Artios Awards in 1996, 2001 and 2002.

Been way to long that I have not posted. Hope that it will be on a frequent basis now. Extraordinary actors and places that I have been seeing and meeting all over the world. Further posts I will share some interesting people and actorpreneur workshops that I have lead.

Caught a 6:00m flight from Los Angeles (LAX) to Chicago’s O’Hare Airport today. Spending the day in Chicago, dinner with Chicago talent agents and watching the workshop that TVI - New York career coach Kristi Funk is presenting at TVI Chicago tonight.

Arriving from NY tonight are talent agents Peter Kaiser from Henderson/Hogan Talent Agency and John Shea from Frontier Booking International, Inc. (FBI). They will be meeting Chicago actors on Saturday and Sunday.

My colleague’s blog at TVI Actors Studio, Susan Sleepers “Pick a Little Talk a Lot” has an interesting post about pilots that have been green lit and most probably will be cast and shot in NY.