Why I Joined The OMPA

So... last Friday, I attended an event thrown by the Oregon Media Production Association at Portland's Indent Studios. The event, dubbed "Oregon's Got Talent," was a celebration of the great actors we have here in our state - and it marked a new period in the OMPA's operation.

Before last Friday, the OMPA was known around Oregon as a producers' and crew members' organization... as Oregon's industry has grown, though, the OMPA board came to realize that talent working in front of the camera was a major factor in our industry's success. The OMPA's mission is to serve and represent everyone in Oregon's film, TV and new media industry, so on Friday they announced that they're offering a new "add on" membership for represented actors, and they've set up a new "Talent" category in SourceOregon, our state's official film and TV personnel directory.

And me? I was there to sign up!

(Want your own coffee cup like the one I showed off in the video? Get it here!)

So, Oregon actors, won't you join me in joining the OMPA? Show Oregon - and the world - just how big our industry is. Make your presence in our field known - get listed in SourceOregon.com and get seen by producers and casting directors all over the world... and get involved in your Chamber of Commerce! Let them know how you think our film and TV industry in Oregon should grow, and how you want to be represented.

It's not a lot of money, really... and the more we speak with a united voice, the stronger we are. Join the OMPA. Get listed. and help us grow our industry into the next decade.

Back To Business: What Does It Mean To Be "Paid?"

The Back-To-Business Series: Index


Hey everyone. Me again! Before I get started on today's topic, I want to apologize for my spotty posting schedule of late. Simply put... things are getting busy here in Portland, and it's leaving me less time for sitting in the office and writing. In coming weeks I'll still strive to post a new Back-To-Business entry every Monday... but if I don't make it, you can bet I'm probably on set or prepping for my next project (there are OODLES coming up - I'm going to have a very busy August!) Be sure to put your email address in the box on the right-hand-side of this page, so changedetection.com emails you when a new post is added - or follow me on Twitter or Facebook. That's the best way to assure you're in-the-know when a new post pops up here.

So... as I've mentioned in previous posts, I'm going to be spending the next several entries talking about the resources we actors - and all businesses - need to manage so we can be successful and stay in business. Before we get into the specific areas represented in the "golden triangle," though, I want to speak to something that's important to all of us: getting paid.


Chances are if you're reading this, you consider yourself a professional. Professionals don't work for nothing; they expect compensation for what they do... that's one of the things that makes them "a professional."


Compensation, though, isn't "all about the money." Remember, as I've said so many times before, money is just a resource... and you've got other resources to manage in your acting career. A professional actor is no different than any other professional - s/he should never work for nothing... but that doesn't mean money is an actor's only concern when looking at the compensation offered for his or her work.



Now, I can already feel some of you starting to steam... bear with me. I'm not saying that actors shouldn't be paid money - hell, I like money! I like money a lot! I'm just saying that there are considerations beyond the money. Look, read all the way to the end before you pass judgement on what I'm saying - and then let me know what you think via email or twitter. I can take it (and besides, we have to put SOMETHING up on Wednesday :) )



Take another look at the "golden triangle" above... go ahead, scroll up. I'll wait.

No, really... I'll wait.

Still waiting...



Ok, you're back. The triangle represents the resources we actors use to conduct business, and as I said in my last post we need to find a way to balance those resources. There's more to "the business" than that, though - the real trick of any business is finding a way to build these resources while finding a way to balance them.


You probably understand this concept when it comes to your money... we all want to increase our money without spending too much in the process. That's called profit, right?

Well, the other resources in our triangle work the same way... we all need more time, right? Never enough hours in the day to get everything done... but we don't want to spend so much time trying to "get organized" that we end up late for that next appointment! We also don't want to gain the reputation that we don't have the time to devote to a project, or an important contact who might bring us money. We have to find a way to build more time into our lives, while still being open to those who want to pay us that money we're so worried about!


And speaking of "worrying about the money..." we also don't want to get the reputation that we're always after money... that the paycheck takes precedence over everything else! We want to spend our time working on things that mean something to us, right? That means being comfortable enough with our money that we can negotiate - but not come across as greedy or desperate about our rent!


So, what's all this got to do with the topic of today's article... gettin' paid? Like I said above, actors need a pool of all three resources in the "golden triangle" to do business... and they need to add to that pool with every project - the more you have of one resource, the easier it is to balance the others! How do you get more of these resources, though, to add to the pool?


You get them from being compensated for your work, of course. An actor should never work for nothing... but s/he should keep all three resources in mind when considering how he or she will be paid for that work.


Yes, money is important... will that project you're considering add to your reputation? Will you meet important contacts who will help you gain money down the line? Will and those industry contacts see you work in the finished product, and tell their contacts about you... thus saving you time down the road when you skip the audition and go straight to the producers?


How much time will the project take? Will it save you the time it takes to build solid material for a demo reel that can increase your reputation with those people I just mentioned who are looking to hire you? Is the money you'll be paid worth the time you're putting into the project? If you don't think your reputation will be increased by the project (because it's for a small audience, for instance... or because you're not allowed to use it on your reel) - is the money you're being offered worth it?


Above all else, caveat emptor folks... no one's going to look out for your business. No one's out to be sure you have all your resources covered. When considering what you're going to be paid for a project, remember that YOU'RE the one who runs your business... you're the one who's in charge of building it up to the next level. You're the one in charge of building - and balancing - those resources.


Let's get to work...


-Harold

Back-To-Business: A Question of Balance

The Back-To-Business Series: Index

I introduced you to the "Golden Triangle" in our last "Back-To-Business" article (I would say "last week's article," but as you know... we had a small problem there...) We're going stay focused on managing the resources you - and any business - use to generate profit over the next few weeks, and you'll notice that I'm going to keep coming back to this Golden Triangle as we do so. You see, the Triangle is a tool to remind us of the resources we need to keep track of - and it's a symbol we can use when we think about the way we run our acting business.

There are a couple reasons why the Triangle is... well, a triangle. The most obvious is that there are three basic resources you need to manage in your acting career. A lot of actors get stuck on the money - and it's understandable, since you're trying to make money as an actor without spending too much money in the process (that's how you measure the profit of your business, after all... the amount you've brought in versus the amount you've spent.) Money's just one of the resources you need to to actively manage, though, to have a successful career. Time is just as important, as is your reputation amongst those in "the business" - and amongst your audience.

There's another, more subtle reason for the triangle in the symbol above. I use that shape as a reminder to keep all my resources in balance. As actors, we strive for balance in our daily lives... balance between work and play, between feeding our souls and feeding our bellies, between pursuing work and actually working... it's a long list. Balancing our business resources, however, is just as important as balancing our personal life.

What do I mean? Well, lets think about our personal lives... if we spend too much time working, and not enough time with our families, our personal relationships suffer. If we spend too much money at the bar and and we don't have enough to cover our rent, our finances suffer. Spend too much time at our "survival job" and not enough time acting? Then our hearts suffer. I'm sure you've enountered at least one of these scenarios in your own life... we have to balance the things we need (work, family, friends, fun) to live a happy and fulfilled life. I'm not saying that's an easy thing, mind you... but its something every human strives for.

Businesses strive for the same balance in their "lives" - but they seek to balance the resources they need in order to be successful. HP, for example, needs certain resources to make their products, and to generate a profit. They need raw materials like silicon and plastic and glass... they need workers to assemble their products, sell them, and manage daily operations... they need an image or "brand" to trade on... and of course, they need the money for all these things. If they spend too much on one of these resources (such as personnel), they won't have enough money for another (such as advertising). Similarly, if they run into a shortage of one resources (like raw materials), they'll have to spend more on it... and they won't have enough money to put into other resources. They have to balance the resources they use in order to make their products - and thereby make a profit.

Guess what - your acting business follows the same pattern as your personal life... and HP's business "life" (even if you don't use the same resources they do.) You have to keep your resources balanced to make your product (your performance) and generate a profit. If you devote too much attention to one area (say, money) then another area is going to suffer (the time you could be spending working on your lines - or your reputation in "the business.") And because of the nature of our business, if those areas suffer our personal lives are also going to suffer. Balancing your businesses resources will help you balance your personal life - and will help you stay happy at work and at home!

There's a third reason I use a triangle to help track the resources in our acting business - it's because those resources are interrelated.

As I said above, a lot of actors get stuck on money... but consider - you have to have the time to work in order to get that money. You have to invest your money in building your reputation (headshots and reels aren't free, you know... nor are the drinks at networking events!) If you build a good reputation in your market, directors and producers may start approaching you directly to read for roles (or just hire you outright), thus saving you the time of tracking all over town looking for auditions... but building that reputation takes an investment of time and - in some cases - money!

You see, these resources don't live in a bubble. None of them can be the be-all-and-end-all of your life, or of your business (as I said a couple weeks ago, "business isn't about money!") They all relate to one another, and when you put too much emphasis on one, the others naturally suffer. Keep this idea of balance in mind as we move into a more in-depth look at each resource over the coming weeks.

And for now...

Let's get to work!

-Harold

Back-To-Business: Managing Your Resources - Mailbox

The Back-to-Business Series: Index

I got a lot of response to Monday's article on managing resources in your acting business - and not all of it was grammatical (thanks again, Bostin!) I'm going to handle a couple of the "light" ones first, and then I'm going to get a little philosophical. Fair warning!

Oh come on... no one dreams of acting on screen with Kristin Stewart - she's awful! JC (Philadelphia, PA)

247 million trillion kagillion Twilight fans would disagree with you, JC... I didn't say YOUR dream was to act with her. The important thing is to know what your dream is - whatever it is!

I can't believe you campare actors and lawyers! Lawyers are the lowest bottom-feeding form of life. Are you saying we should all be like them? GA (Portland, OR)

No, GA, I'm not saying that all actors should be like lawyers (though, to be fair, some lawyers could probably benefit from acting lessons). I AM, however, saying that the business model lawyers employ isn't that different from an actor's business model.

Think about it for a few minutes... what does a lawyer do, when s/he isn't in court? S/he prepares for court (research, writing, practicing arguments... come on, you've seen Boston Legal) , s/he cultivates new business while keeping in touch with the current client-base (Denny Crane Denny Crane), and s/he does the work of running his or her business (bookkeeping, making the sure the license is paid up, training, getting the invoices out..)

Actually, Boston Legal is a terrible example (Denny Crane Denny Crane). That show - like most shows on TV - focuses on a big, expensive law firm. Think about the sole practitioner who DOESN'T have Candice Bergin around to run the store... how does s/he do all the things I mentioned above? S/he may have an office, or s/he may not. Clients still have to be met with, and new clients have to be wooed. The bills still have to be sent out, and the money has to be dealt with. Time has to be spent writing briefs, practicing opening statements, and researching... and s/he has to do it all him or herself.

And how is this different than what WE have to do as actors? We may have an office or we may not - but we still have to audition for new clients, and keep in touch with the contacts we already have. We have to do spend the time needed to run our businesses - depositing the checks... getting invoices out... We have to rehearse and research OUR work, too. And, unless we have a "team" to help us, we have to do all this ourselves.

When you think about it, the way we conduct business isn't all that different. Don't let the practice of law blind you to this, GA!

OK, here's the big one. I got a LOT of comments along the lines of this one:
How the HELL can you say that business isn't about making money? If you're not trying to make money, you shouldn't be in business - what's the point? PD (Lafayette, LA)

So... I warned you that I was going to get a little philosophical today. So here it is...

Like I said in Monday's article, money has to be part of business. If you're not selling a product, an idea, a service, your expertise... whatever for some sort of reward, then you're not in business. You're running a charity, or you're engaged in a hobby... but if you're not making some money at it, then you're not in business.

That being said, the notion is business is about making leads us down the rabbit hole to the blackest part of human nature; it says that all we're about is getting as much for ourselves as we can, whatever the cost. Sorry, I just don't buy into that. Yes, I want to make money - I'm not anti-capitalist by any means... but I do recognize that the motive to just "make money" leads to avarice, greed, and (it's been argued by economic minds much smarter than I) the economic sink-hole we find ourselves in today.

Look, it's a question of perspective. Why do you do what you do? What is it that made you want to be in the business you're in? If you were to ask other business owners (in other fields), they'd have a variety of answers... but I don't think you'll find "getting rich" to be among them. They went into business to provide something for someone - either something that didn't exist yet, or a better quality "something" than was available... yes, they wanted to get paid for their efforts and yes, they hoped that their businesses would support not only them, but their families. It wasn't about money, though... it was about what they were providing.

When a business is all about money, it begins to fail. It's as simple as that... the consumers start to hate it, and don't mind looking to the competition for a better value. Look at the airline industry today - almost every carrier is charging their customers a per-bag fee. The airlines that don't, however, have seen their business surge - because the customer thinks of those that do charge per-bag fees as greedy... and no one wants to give their money to a greedy company.

By contrast, the couple that own the UPS Store I get my mail at go above and beyond the call of duty for me regularly. If I call them to see if a package I've been waiting on has been delivered, they go and check... they don't tell me I have to come in and look for myself. Heck, once, they told me the package I was waiting for wasn't in, then took the initiative to call me BACK 10 minutes later to tell me they'd found it. Strangely enough, I have no desire to give my business to their competitors... even though they're located across town from me. They realize that their business isn't about the money they can get from me - it's about the SERVICE they provide TO me, that brings my money to them.

Businesses aren't about money. They're about products, or services. Businesses are ways to get money, yes... but if you make them all about money, you're headed down the rabbit hole. And it's a long way back up.

We're going to talk some more about money next week... and about the other resources in the "Golden Triangle" that you, as a business owner, need to manage in order to be successful. Feel free to keep in contact via Email or Twitter... and between now and then...

Let's get to work!

-Harold

Back-To-Business Aside: Acting Is Believing

The Back-To-Business Series: Index




Hey everyone. You ever read this book? Maybe it was handed to you as a textbook for Theater 101 back in College... maybe you ran across it in a used book store.


Ok, wait - I know... I KNOW! At the end of last week's post, I said that this week I was going to talk about the resources - other than money - that we as actors need to manage. Before I get into that, though, I want to take and Aside.

Now, fair warning - I'm gonna to do this periodically throughout the Back-to-Business series... my series, my rules :) I've got my little "modules" I'm going to take you through - but every once in a while I'm going to "off topic" and discuss some things in more general terms.


See, as I was going through responses to last week's post, I kept hearing the same thing over and over...

"There's no guarantee that you're going to make money in this business."
"How do I know I'm going to get a return on the money I invest?"
"Isn't it dumb to throw money at a business that has such a history of LOSING money?"

etc etc etc... Which brought to mind the title of this book, from the musty bygone days of my Acting 101 class - way way far away at the University of Alaska, Anchorage.

Acting is Believing. It's a pretty simple concept for we actors to get, isn't it? If we don't believe the moment, on stage or in front of the camera... if we don't believe that our character is actually addressing Parliament... or in prison... or taking arms against a sea of troubles (and by opposing end them!)... if we don't believe that moment then the audience won't, either. We will have failed in our tasks as actors. Simple as that.

Guess what... business is believing, too. You can do all the risk-assessment you want to... you can prepare, you can save, you can train and you can and you can track... but at when all is said and done, if you don't believe that you can be a success... if you don't believe that you can make more money than you can spend, then you won't. Simple as that.

Look folks, all business is speculative. It doesn't matter whether you're acting, or your selling pencils on the street corner... there's no guarantee. It's always a risk. You ever watch Dragon's Den, or the US equivalent Shark Tank? On every episode, people go up before the shows tribunal of venture capitalists (and the TV audience) and they ask them to believe in their idea. If the presenter him or herself doesn't believe in their product/ service/ business idea - it shows. And the presentation gets shot down. If the tribunal doesn't believe in the idea, it gets shot down.

On those rare occasions where the presenter believes and the tribunal believes (and the presenter has done his or her homework... and the business model is sound, and there's a market for the product, and... and...) and the product or business is funded - what's the guarantee that the business will succeed? How are those investors assured that they'll get their investment back?

They aren't. No matter how good the presentation, or how solid the numbers... there's no guarantee - for the investor or the business owner. They have to take the risk, though, to see that investment repaid. They have to believe that they will succeed. We actors are familiar with that term, aren't we? We're told that we have to take risks in our acting, or else our performance won't be interesting, right? Well, we have to take risks in our businesses. If we don't... honestly, why bother? Why decide you're going to fail, and then keep walking down that road to failure (since you've certainly directed your steps in that direction.)

Acting is believing. The acting business is believing. You have to believe that you're going to succeed... or all the tips and tricks and advice from people like me in the world will never help you succeed. Simple as that.

Ok, next week I'll get into resources (other than money) that we need to manage in our businesses... for now -

Let's get to work!

-Harold

Back-To-Business: The Right Time To Invest In Your Business - Mailbox

The Back-to-Business Series: Index

Howdy folks

Well, I got a lot of email and more than a few Twitter comments about Monday's post about investing in your acting business... let's dive right in!

... What you said about investing in my career sounds good, but I need that money I make from my theater jobs to pay my rent. I'm not GM or Apple - I can't afford to be spending my hard-earned dollars on fancy software programs. GA (Baton Rouge, LA)

I get what you're saying, GA - believe me, I do! If you're pursuing acting as a profession, rather than a hobby, then you're using the money you get to pay your bills, eat, put gas in your tank... etc. No one's arguing that those needs have to come first.

That being said, to get ahead we have to do more than just subsist on what we earn - we have to use our money wisely, and put some aside for when things are slow... or for those unexpected "emergency" costs... or for investments in our business. This is why I encourage my career coaching clients to set up a separate bank account for their acting businesses - and to hold back whatever they can afford in that account to pay their business-related expenses.

Trust me, I'm not saying holding funds back is an easy thing - like you say, we've all got expenses that need taken care of. With a little forethought, planning and frugality (cutting back on our purchases of things we want instead of things we need, for instance... or making your own coffee instead of buying it, fewer trips to the bar after the show... that kind of thing) actors can save up a little cash to reinvest in their business. It's not necessarily easy - but it's possible.

PerformerTrack calls this little savings fund the Performer Trust account (once again, remember you can save 20% off a 1-year subscription with coupon code PORTLAND9). After a few months of holding 5%, 10%, or 20% of your pay checks back you might be surprised at how much cash you can accumulate to invest in your business!

... Sorry, but it is a job - actors should always be paid as employees, and congress agrees: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/feds_poised_to_pursue_misclassification_of_workers_as_a_crime/ so you'd better be wondering where that next "job" is coming from. SD (Seattle, WA)

I'm not saying actors should or shouldn't be paid as employees, SD. As I've said in the past, until every actor gets paid for every project as a W-2 employee, it's important for us to know how to operate as both 1099 "independent contractors" and W-2 employees. If you don't want to work as an independent contractor, that's fine - but plenty of other actors are accepting 1099-based contracts.

Whether you're working as an employee or a contractor, though, I'd suggest always treating your career a business. It's a question of focus and perspective - a lot of actors I've known approach their careers with the perspective that they're "working a job," so they put all their focus on doing that job (nothing wrong with that, right?) When that job ends, though (as all acting jobs eventually do), their focus is fully on finding a new boss to give them their next "job."

Businesses don't work this way - they have a range of clients or customers, and they work on cultivating more of them even as they're doing work for their existing clients and customers. Their perspective is that they're selling a product or providing a service to a group of people, and their focus isn't solely on the work they do for one client, but all the work they do for all of them (including those they haven't met yet.) Consequently, when work for one client ends, they don't panic and run around looking for work - they simply shift into work for their next client.

W2 or 1099 aside, mentally it's to an actor's advantage to emulate the way that business.. well, does business. Following that model is what allows us to build a sustainable career... as opposed to waiting for one job to end before we frantically look for the next one.

I don't disagree with what you are advocating, however, there is one major aspect of an acting career that differs from big business. ROI. Return On Investment....The annual income statistics that the unions put out continue to be pitiful. And let's remember that's averaging in all those gazillion dollar salaries of the major stars. It's simply a fact that the ROI of most actors will be a negative number. BC (Studio City, CA)

ROI is important, BC. I don't agree that "the ROI of most actors will be zero" (my emphasis, not his), but it's important to keep ROI in mind when considering investments in your business.

Before we go much further, lets get one thing out of the way - the term "ROI" is more of that "Nightly Business Report" language that a lot of actors' eyes glaze over at. It's a simple enough concept: You spend money (investment.) You want to make at least as much money as you've spent (the return) as a result of that investment. How much money you make (or don't) beyond what you've spent is the return on investment. Of course, most of you readers have probably already figured that out... but I figured it was a good idea to define the term for my "special" cousin Eustace (Auntie-Norma-Jean got him one a' them there computer machines fer his birthday, ya know...)

(Great, now I'm going to get hate mail from all you readers named Norma Jean and Eustace. Sigh... moving on...)

Like I said above, ROI is important. If we're going to lay out money on something, we want to see a positive result from what we spend. If we pay to get new headshots taken and printed, for instance, we want to see more auditions and booked projects (and therefore more income) as a result of that cash outlay. The question is... how do you know whether you've got a positive or negative ROI on what you spent?

This is one of the many reasons why I use PerformerTrack. Unless you're tracking what you've spent and what you've brought in, there's no way to know what the ROI on those headshots was. By entering my income and expenses into PerformerTrack, I can print out an Income Report and an Expense Report, and I can see if I'm making a profit this year or not (if I'm making a profit, I'm getting a positive ROI - everything I've invested in has cost me less than I've brought in, after all...)

If I'm not making a profit, then I have to look at what I've invested in and see what's working or what's not. I might need to spend more money to balance things out (those headshots I paid for? Not working? Ok... I guess I need different ones), or I might need to reduce the amount I spend on memberships... or subscriptions to breakdown services... or...

The point is, we should never assume that we're going to have a negative ROI. We should invest expecting a positive ROI - and then we should pay attention to be sure that our expectations are met. If they're not, then it's time to make a correction of some type or another. Our income level doesn't necessarily factor into this - if we know how much we're making, then we know how much we can spend.

Expecting not to get a positive ROI, though, just becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. Why invest in something that could make us more successful if it's never going to pay off, right? Like I said to SD, it's about perspective and focus - focusing on the "fact" that actors "will" have a negative ROI just allows that to happen... focusing on making wise investments to be sure you have a positive ROI, on the other hand, just prompts you to keep track of things. And keeping track of your business is what allows you to grow your business.

That's it for now... more on managing your resources in Monday's post. For now...

Let's get to work!

-Harold

Back To Business: The Right Time To Invest In Your Business

**Note: And we're back! Thanks for hanging with me, folks... I'm re-starting my regular Monday series today; feel free to email or Twitter me questions and/or comments; I'll respond to those messages each Wednesday!

The Back-To-Business Series: Index

If you can remember back that far, you may recall that I didn't follow my last Back-to-Business post about using PerformerTrack (remember - you can save 20% off a one-year subscription to PerformerTrack by using the coupon-code PORTLAND9 at check-out) with my usual Wednesday "Mailbox" post. That's because, for the most part, all the responses I got went something like this:

It sounds like a good system. Maybe once I start making money I'll buy-into-it. (Ft. Washington, MD)
Once I get more auditions to track, I'll think about using something to track them. (Miami, FL)
Maybe once my career really takes off, I'll set PT up. (Richmond, VA)

I responded to each of these folks individually (and the 20 or 30 others who said essentially the same thing) with the following note:

Hi ______! Thanks very much for your response. I certainly understand your need to watch your spending - we're all poor actors, trying to save whatever money we can! I might suggest, though, that you're looking at things the wrong way. Is the right time to invest in your business after you've become successful? I don't think many businesses can make that equation work - they have to invest in their business to become successful! We'll talk more about this in next week's post.

Of course, "next week's post" was a bit misleading :) My little vacation aside, though, think about the logic of what these people were saying... Did General Motors say they'd hire people to make cars once they'd sold some cars? Did Coke say they'd buy a case of bottles after they'd sold a few bottles of soda? Of course not... those businesses had to invest some money to start up, and once they'd sold a few products they had to invest the money they'd brought in to make more and better products.

That doesn't mean these businesses had to drop a million dollars at the beginning, of course - they were small businesses run by individuals, just like we actors are. They had to keep their costs down to maximize their profit and build the funds they needed for re-investment.

Ok, hold on there... I actually felt your eyes glaze over as I wrote that - that "Nightly Business Report" language tends to make actors - and, indeed, most Americans- blood pressure go up, I know... take a breath. All I'm saying up there is that these businesses - and we, in our acting businesses - need to keep costs down, so they - and we - make more money when we get paid. (ok, you probably got that part...) The toughie, though, is that once you - and they - get paid, some of the money brought in needs to be re-invested to make your business grow.

Here, let's take a look at the proto-typical American "garage business" - Apple computers. A group of friends literally started building computers in Steve Jobs' garage (That's a picture of "The Woz" working away in the upper-left of this post!) Once they'd sold a few computers, though - they didn't stay in the garage! They re-invested their earnings in the business they were building and moved out to larger facilities... and started making Apple into the giant it is today.

Sadly, a lot of business owners - and a lot of actors - never mentally move out of the garage. Their businesses might grow beyond their garage, but their mind-set doesn't. Let me tell you a little secret™: most Americans are afraid of money. It's a hard truth - but a truth nonetheless. We're trained to worry about money from an early age. When we don't have it, we're desperate to get it; when we do get it, we don't want to part with it - OR, on the other side of the spectrum, we spend it on things we want (as opposed to the things we need) as quickly as possible - thinking we'll never get any again!

Actors are even more fearful when it comes to their money than most Americans - because our income comes in sporadically. We're never sure when the next job is coming, so we hold on to our shekels with a tight fist... and then, when we get cash in our hands, we're even more extreme about holding onto it... or we enjoy it a little too much.

We've had this attitude towards money drilled into us because Americans have come depend on "the steady paycheck." It's part of what we were brought up with - this 1950's ideal that we're going to work for a single company our entire life - a company that will keep us employed, pay our benefits, and take care of us into retirement. It's a nice ideal, and certainly one I'd like to see the country to strive to rebuild - but lets be honest, we don't see many jobs like that in this day and age and haven't for a good long while.

The acting profession doesn't work that way. Sure, maybe it used to for the lucky few who were put under contract in the "Studio Era" of Hollywood... but those days are long gone. We actors get paid on a per-project basis; we're hired on to a project, do the work, and then we move on to the next project to start the cycle over. The only way to make a sustainable living from this model is think ahead - to manage our resources (and believe me, money is just one of those resources) so we can line up a number of projects to fill out our yearly income. In essence, we need to have a certain number of "sales" (the contracts we sign with various production companies) in a given year to make a living.

And here's the thing... if you think about it, there's not much difference between that and the way GM, Coke, and Apple make their livings. These companies don't have a "steady paycheck," either. Like we actors, they don't a number of guaranteed sales each year; they have to produce their product, market it, make the sale, and then manage the money that comes in so that some goes to profit and some goes back into the business to help it grow. Just like we want to grow our careers. It's that simple.

This is what I was talking about in my video post last week - we can run around chasing our tails looking for a "job" to do until the work runs out - and then run around looking for the next "job - " or we can run our careers like GM, Coke and Apple do. We can manage our resources - money included - to grow our businesses, and increase the number of projects we work.

I've talked a lot in the past few Back-To-Business posts about the expenses related to an acting career. There are things you have to spend your money on - such as head shots and training - and there are things you can spend your money on - like a car, a web site, or the commission you pay to an agent. You can get by without spending money on those "can" things I just mentioned... but what are you giving up by doing so? How many opportunities to book that next project - and fill out your income for the year - are you giving up by NOT having a car, web site, or agent? When thinking about places to invest your acting money, that's the question you need to answer. Not "what will I get for my money," but "what will I lose out on by NOT spending the money.

Like I said above, money's just one resource that we as actors - and any business person - needs to manage. I'll get into some of those other resources in next week's post. As always, feel free to email or Twitter your comments and questions. For now...

Let's get to work!

-Harold

What Can The Oregon Film Industry Expect From A New Governor?

Well, someone out there gets it! Take a look at what showed up in my change yesterday when I bought a Viso at my corner mini-mart!

While the legality of writing on US currency is a bit questionable, the message is clear - the Film and TV industry in Oregon is bringing money into the economy! Film and TV dollars aren't just going to rent equipment and cater the craft services tables on the set of Leverage... they're going into the pockets of people who spend those dollars at the corner store, keeping local merchants in business.

This is a message that needs to be repeated often, especially in light of the upcoming governors' race here in Oregon. Whether John Kitzhaber or Chris Dudley moves into the Governor's Mansion this November, they're going to have a lot of hard work to do. Oregon's economy is still in trouble, and our current budget shortfall has brought proposals for a 9% across-the-board cut in state agencies - bringing drastic cuts to Oregon schools, health services, and other programs. Add to this an 11% unemployment rate, and whomever the new Governor is... he's going to face some challenges.

The problem here is revenue; most industries in the state have seen their income drop - and the taxes they pay on that income have dropped as well - which has reduced the amount the state has to spend on services it provides. This is a pretty simple formula, right? When Oregon industry does well, the state gets lots of money in tax revenue... when Oregon industry does poorly, the state doesn't have as much money to spend.

In an environment like this, it would seem logical to shore up the industries bringing jobs and revenue into the state - yet, to date, both Dudley and Kitzhaber have been silent when it comes to their support of one of the few industries actually growing here in Oregon - the film and TV industry.

According to Susan Haley at the Governor's Office of Film and Television, this industry brought $62,000,000.00 into the state in "direct spending" last year (Portland AFTRA president and SAG National Board member Mary McDonald-Lewis points out that "indirect spending" has a conservative multiplier of 2 - by industry standards - which makes the actual total brought in more like $124,000,000.00).

As of February of this year, TNT's hit show Leverage - just ONE project in this industry - had hired over 900 Oregonians to appear on camera - and many more to work behind-the-scenes as carpenters, grips, drivers... you name it (sadly, I don't have any figures on crew positions at this point.)

Now, there's been a lot of negative buzz lately about the "worth" of film incentive programs throughout the country... as this recent article in Parade Magazine points out, several states are suspending or reducing their incentive funds in the quest to balance their own budgets. Looking at the numbers above, it's patently obvious that Oregon would be mistaken to follow this trend. When Ms. Haley at the GOFTV gave me last year's revenue figures, she also gave me another figure - the amount the state spent as an incentive to bring outside projects in to shoot (the Oregon Production Incentive Fund gives producers a rebate - up to 20% - on what they spend here in Oregon when they shoot... unlike many other film incentive programs, though, producers have to spend their dollars in the state before they see any return). That figure? $7.8 million.


So, lets do a little math here... the Oregon film and television industry spent $7.8 million to bring production into Oregon... and that production brought at least $62 million into the state (or, if you factor in "indirect spending" - the hotel rooms and restaurants cast and crew eat at, the rental cars, the cell phones... etc, perhaps as much as $124 million.)


And at least one of those dollars ended up at my corner store. We can only wonder how many more have filtered into the rest of the Oregon economy at-large. So the question to the candidates for Oregon's governor is clear - what are you going to do continue this industry's growth, and continue bringing the jobs and revenue our state so desperately needs?


We're still waiting for their answer...



-Harold

Back-To-Business is Back Next Week (Video)

The Back-To-Business Series: Index

Hey folks

You might remember my last entry in the Back-to-Business series wasn't so much an entry, as a video of me taking a break.

Well, break's over... and it seemed like the appropriate way to start up again would be...



(Ok, so maybe I didn't yammer on TOO much... but I still think Mercedes Rose's videos are better!)

So, check back next Monday for the next entry in the Back-To-Business series... and for now...

Lets get to work!

-Harold

Back-To-Business Will Be Back...

The Back-To-Business Series: Index

... eventually! I'm taking a little break from the Back-to-Business series. It's all explained in the video below!

The Back To Business Series

You know how I yammer on and on... This directory will help you find posts in the Back To Business Series. Remember, you can always send your questions to me via email or Twitter - you might just have your question answered in a Wednesday Mailbox post!

• 2/22/2010: Introduction
• 2/24/2010: Mailbox


• 3/1/2010: A Taxing Situation
• 3/3/2010: Mailbox
• 3/8/2010: A Taxing Situation II - Track The Money
• 3/10/2010: Mailbox
• 3/15/2010: A Taxing Situation III - Bank Run
• 3/17/2010: Mailbox
• 3/22/2010: A Taxing Situation IV - Tracking Tools
• 3/24/2010: Mailbox
• 3/29/2010: A Taxing Situation V - Using PerformerTrack
• 4/26/2010: Back-To-Business Will Be Back...
• 6/7/2010: Back-To-Business Comes Back Next Week
• 6/14/2010: The Right Time To Invest In Your Business
• 6/16/2010: Mailbox
• 6/21/2010: Aside - Acting Is Believing
• 6/28/2010: Managing Your Resources
• 6/30/2010: Mailbox
• 7/12/2010: A Question of Balance
• 7/26/2010: What Does It Mean To Be "Paid?"

This Is The Life I Lead...

12:20 PM The phone rings. "Hi Harold, this is the producer on the short you were supposed to shoot today... yeah. We're not going to be able to get to your scene today - the first scenes of the day are taking longer than we expected to shoot, so we're going to have to reschedule."

"Oh, ok... well, cool. Call me when you wrap for the day and we'll talk about when we can re-schedule."

12:30 PM "Hey Trish... looks like I don't have a shoot today after all!"

"Great! Can you drive me, my sister and our friends who are going to see Hats down to the PCPA so we don't have to pay for parking?"

"Sure! Why not?"

12:35 PM Hm... A text message from my friend and frequent collaborator Mercedes Rose. "Hey! When do you wrap shooting today?" "Well, actually, my shoot got cancelled today. What's up?"

12:36 PM The phone rings. "Hey, it's Mercedes! So... __________ was supposed to shoot a short with me tonight, but he's sick and isn't able to do it. Wendy, the producer, asked if I know anyone... are you available?" "Uh... well, sure!" "Hey, Trish..."

12:40 PM "Hi, Harold! It's Wendy Downing! It's been a long time since we worked together... hey, Mercedes says you might be able to step in for our sick actor. Here's the details, and the location... can you come down right away to meet the production team? Oh, and you should probably bring some wardrobe options, too." "Uh... yeah. Just let me get my wife, her sister, and their friends to the play they're going to see... oh! And I'll have to leave set for about an hour so I can pick them up and bring them home - would that be ok?" "You mean you have to be wrapped in time to take them home?" "Oh no! I'll come back once I've taken them home - I just need an hour or so to deliver them." "Oh, ok... that'll be fine!"

12:45 PM Shave! Comb hair into more appropriate style for the character! Check my "go bag" to be sure I've got the standard equipment packed - black socks, t-shirt, towel, comb, etc.! Throw some some sweaters on top, a different colored pair of shoes, a different colored belt. Throw some shirts and pants into my garment bag. Pack it all in the car as Trish's sister and their friends start to arrive at the house.

1:10 PM Pack all six of us into my Prius (a tight fit but we manage) and drive to the PCPA. Find out when to pick them up. Drive to location and meet the production team. Work with the wardrobe person to find the clothing options.

2:55 PM Leave set to pick up Trish from Hats, which is slated to let out at 3:15.

3:15 PM Park and wait.

3:20 PM Still waiting. Text message from the producer of the short I was supposed to shoot proposing re-schedule dates.

3:30 PM Pick up Trish, her sister and their friends and get them home

4:05 PM Head back to set (stopping to get Mercedes Diet Coke - a must for my good friend when she's on set.

4:30 PM Arrive back at set, start shooting...

6:00 PM Lunch Break. Text message from Steve Coker re: Dex Dixon. Call him back, leave a message about talking tomorrow.

8:00 PM Shooting. Email from producer of the short I was supposed to shoot earlier - the proposed dates won't work for one of the other actors. Check my schedule on the Blackberry and give him other open dates in the next couple weeks.

12:30 PM Shooting wraps - a great time had by all, and great footage captured. Time to go home...

1:00 AM "Oh, Trish, sorry! Didn't mean to wake you up! Let me just put out the garbage for the morning pickup and I'll join you in bed..."

There ya go. Just a day in the life... not an uncommon day, in fact. Thankfully, I answered the phone, had my "go bag" packed, and was able to make the time for an opportunity when it came my way...

But now, really. I'm headed for bed.

A New Experiment...

... or, "Hey Ya Bastard, What's With The Ads? (Part 2)"

So, if you came by earlier today (or yesterday, or last week, or whenever...) to take a look at my new "Support Your Local Filmmaker" post, you probably noticed that I've been messing around with the site lay-out a bit this morning.

As you probably know, I'm a big fan of a few online comic strips, such as Something*Positive and Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal... over the years, as I've visited those sites and laughed at their twisted humor, I've also been impressed by the ads on them... they're contextual. They don't stand out as being inconsistent with the interests of the audience that visits the site. In fact, I found myself clicking on the banners more often than not.

When I clicked the "Your Ad Could be Here" link below these ads, I started to understand why. The company that provides these sites' ads, Project Wonderful, has a completely different model than Google's Adsense program... rather than reading keywords on a page and automatically displaying ads from Google's "pool" of advertisers (have you noticed how many "cruise ads" have popped up since I added those slide shows from Trish and my Alaska cruise?), Project Wonderful matches advertisers with "publishers" through an "auction" system - the process isn't automated, but personal.

There's a lot to like about Project Wonderful's system - I really like the human element; advertisers have to take a look at my site, understand the content of my posts, and decide if you - my readers - would respond to whatever it is they're pitching. I also like the auction-style pricing structure; the advertisers bid against each other for the top position on my site. They get to determine what the top-spot on my blog is worth (though I can set a minimum bid price to start them off).

Perhaps the best part of this system is the level of control it gives me as the "publisher -" I don't have much control at all with Google's Adsense program; I can block ads from particular advertisers, or from up to five advertising sectors... but that's it. Those cruise ads I mentioned earlier? I know most of you don't care to find out how inexpensive a cruise to Italy is... you might want to see the photos from Trish and my cruise, but that's it.

With Project Wonderful, I approve each and every ad that gets displayed on the site. If someone wants to advertise something I don't think you care about, I don't approve it - it's that easy. More to the point, I get to approve ads for things I care about - and I think you should know about. So, if a local theatre company or film company wants to advertise on the blog - I'm approving that straight-away. An editor who wants to advertise his services for reel-making? It's up there. "Male enhancement" and "search engine optimization?" No way. I've got the control.

Look, like I said in my earlier post about adding advertising to the blog, I have no illusions that I'm going to get rich off of these little ads... I'm throwing them up there for a little supplemental income, and to test various advertising models for Animus Cross and Dex Dixon. If project wonderful lets me get a few pennies AND give people I want to support a platform to advertise their goods and services... well, I call that a win-win.

And hey, like the box says, your ad could be at the top of my blog, for just a few cents a day. I get to say yay or nay (and if you're a reader, I'll probably say "yay.") Want to play around with it? Visit Project Wonderful and see how easy it is to set up an ad; then, click the "Your Ad Could Be Here" link at the top of the page and bid on an ad spot. It's cheap, and if I can drive more clicks over to your web site... well, I'm happy to do it.

The New Communicators (Amended)

Note: I'm a bad bad web monkey... I completely forgot to mention in the post below that this event is organized and led by Portland's own Abundant Artist Cory Huff - mea culpa! If you're an artist and you're not following Cory on Twitter, you're really missing out!

Original Post:

I'm honored to be part of "Art is War: Reinventing the Art Sales System with New Media," a panel discussion tomorrow night from 7 - 9 PM at the Art Institute Portland (1122 N.W. Davis Street • Portland, OR 97209-2911, Portland, Oregon - Click here for a map).

The discussion is part of the New Communicators Conference, an innovative decentralized conference aiming to "share experiences and inspire discussion about how we communicate with others using both online and offline media."

In a nutshell, the conference is about understanding the massive shift in communications we find ourselves in the midst of right now... more and more avenues for communicating with friends, family, business associates, and customers are popping up each day. Ten years ago, "social networking" meant going to parties and get-togethers and interacting in person with people... then came email lists, which were followed by blogs... and then, suddenly (over the course of about three years), we had MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Plaxo, and any number of new "social networking" applications that could be accessed from home or office.

Now, we could argue 'til the cows come home about the pro's and con's of this shift (Pro: easier to stay in touch with friends and family, broadening connections around the world... Con: Wall*E. 'Nuff said there). One thing that can be agreed on though, is that the potential for businesses to reach new customers through social networking is enormous.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: "there's no business like show business, but show business is like any other business." As actors, we have to market ourselves to our customers (the audience) and our business partners (the other actors we want to work with and the producers who hire us). These social media outlets give us a valuable, inexpensive way to do just that - market our services and increase our audience-base. Sadly, many actors don't utilize the internet to market themselves effectively. There are a lot of reasons; they may be intimidated or overwhelmed by the breadth of social media channels, they may be undereducated about what's available, they may be worried about how much time is spent... whatever the reason, this event is a good introduction for actors and visual artists to utilizing the internet to effectively sell themselves and their work.

I hope you'll join me tomorrow night... this promises to be an inspiring and energizing evening!

See you then...

-Harold

Hey! I Saw Your Commercial!

So, in the past couple of weeks, I saw two of my friends from the Portland acting community in separate TV commercials - and I immediately shot them an email and/ or Facebook message letting them know I saw the spot, and congratulating them on the gig.

Now, I did this for a couple of reasons... the first is obvious: it's always nice when you have the opportunity to pat your friends on the back and give them a hearty "way-to-go-you-got-the-gig." It's no big secret that the odds are against us in this business - there's always more actors than there are roles, and any time a friend books a role they're to be congratulated for beating those odds.

I had another reason for letting them know I saw their spots, though - one that people outside "the business" aren't often aware of. When an actor gets hired to do a commercial, he or she doesn't just get paid for the time s/he works shooting the commercial; s/he gets paid for the length of time that commercial runs. Now, this doesn't make sense to a lot of people with regular 9-5 jobs; it's not uncommon for people to say to me, "why should you get paid for more than the time it takes to do the work? I don't get paid that way."

It's an understandable question; consider, though, that we actors don't work for one boss 9-5 every day. We don't get a regular pay-check for our weekly efforts. Instead, we're independent business people selling a product: our image (well, ok, we're selling a few different flavors of the same product... we sell our voice, our actions, our "look" in a given situation... but you get the idea). We get one check every time we sell that product... and then we have to go out and sell it again. Might take a week, or a month, or a year.

When we sell our image to promote a product, we're effectively out of the market (at least for that segment of industry) while that commercial is running - Pizza Hut isn't going to hire my friend Jim Caputo (above), for instance, while he's promoting Izzy's Pizza. He's the "Izzies Guy," and is identifiable as such. An actor might be able to book a commercial for a different type of product, but even that's not guaranteed; if the actor is too identifiable with a particular product or company, companies in other sectors might still find him or her too "identifiable," and not want to go that way with the job.

So, the actor is compensated for the time that s/he is going to have a difficult time booking more work; part of his or her payment is determined by the amount of time the commercial is set to run. Which brings me back to my hearty "way-to-go-you-got-the-gig" messages to my friends...

Some times, a commercial runs outside the time period its contracted to, and the actor isn't aware of that (because s/he didn't get paid for it). I don't want to necessarily ascribe sinister motives here... some times the company or ad agency just makes an oopsy-daisy: one hand doesn't know what the other is doing, they don't realize the spot is out-of-contract, whatever. Mistakes happen. It's important for the actors in the commercial to know about this, though - if they don't happen to be watching that specific channel at that specific time, they'd have no clue that they should be getting paid for their work (and compensated for not being able to get more work). If the commercial is shot under a union contract (SAG or AFTRA), the actor can go to the union; then union would then contact the producers and/ or ad agency and/ or company (whomever is responsible), and remind them that more payment is due - or order that they stop running the spots. If it's a non-union commercial... well, then it's up to the actor him or herself to pursue it (hopefully with an agent's help). Either way, such measures can't be undertaken if the actor doesn't know the spot has run.

Trish and I have both been in this situation, and we've both been helped by friends who dropped us an email or called us to let us know they'd seen a commercial on TV we should have been getting paid for. It makes a big difference to us - not only to our bank accounts, but to the types of work we're able to pursue while that spot we thought was off the air is running.

So, I'd just like to ask all of you reading this to keep an eye out - if you see someone you know on TV, take a second to let him or her know - mention the station and time, if you can remember it. Whoever you call will be flattered that you saw the spot - and you might do that actor a favor in letting him or her know that s/he is due another payment.