Acting Professionally

In the Acting Academy, us Soul Visionaries are reading a book titled Acting Professionally written by Robert Cohen. There is a section that really stood out to me that I would like to share entitled Looks and Physical Type.
Here are the points that I really feel you can benefit from by reading.

• According to statistics taken in 2001, women have been increasing in role potentials. They take up about %38 of all T.V./Film roles, 39% of lead roles - which all together is an increase of over 55% from thirty years ago
• Men still get  61%
• The ten 25 million dollar club only consists of one woman and that's Julia Roberts
• Of all ethnic groups, African Americans have the highest percentage in actors, although they are usually stereotypically casted (12.9%)
• 4.9% for Latinos/Hispanics
• 2.6% for Asians/Pacific Islanders 
• 0.3% for Native Americans
• More actors under 20 are being casted and less actors over fifties
• Disabilities can be used to your advantage as well
• Weight, dress, health, hairstyle, height, voice, teeth, posture, grooming and complexion can too 
• Actor types are not defined solely by age, but by a position on some sort of romantic/sexual scale
• "Children" range from 12 years old and younger, and are ordinarily not involved in any romantic affairs
• "Ingenues" (girls) and "young leading men" are usually in their early to mid-twenties and they send off a vibration of youth, innocence and charm. They are often in the first love category
• "Leading men" and "leading women" are in their mid-twenties to mid-forties and beyond and are usually casted as wiser, more experienced lovers; they're glamorous, romantic, mature and sophisticated
• You need to know your type
• If you are going for a role as a romantic lead, you must be attractive and have sex appeal
• As you know, plastic surgery can go too far. Sometimes it can ultimately be what costs you a role or your entire career (Research Jennifer Grey)
• If you're fat, be fat, or skinny, be skinny. Nothing in between
• And if you're ugly, cultivate it and make it work. Just don't be bland.

I got all those facts from just one section of a chapter. I recommend you read Acting Professionally if acting is the career path you want to take.

Summer Fierce

Global Warming ; It's Not Just A Warning !

Many people still think that Global Warming is just a myth to scare people into changing their habits. Well, it's not! These are the people that are too caught up in their personal lives that they are blinded by the chaos that is taking place around them. Global Warming isn't just affecting the climate, it's affecting absolutely everything and everyone in the world as well. The thinning of the atmosphere is caused by the increase of toxic fumes being let out such as carbon dioxide and methane gas. Because of deforestation, there are less trees and less oxygen to balance out the amounts of carbon dioxide in the air. The thinner atmosphere is allowing more heat from the sun to enter the world and hit the surface. Hence the rise in temperature. This rise in temperature is causing rising sea levels, which is causing floods, tsunamis, loss of species, spread of diseases, formulation of new diseases, etc. The hottest years ever recorded happened within the past fifteen years. Hurricanes are becoming more and more common, as are other natural disasters. Don't they see that? Diseases such as H1N1 are arising and becoming epidemic. West Nile, Mad Cow Disease, Sars, etc. All these things are taking the lives or devastating the lives of millions of people everyday. Every single day. Where are our leaders? Where are the Mother Theresas' and the Ghandis'? Who will save us from ourselves? Ourselves. Yes. It was humans who creating this revolutionary chaos. We took for granted this beautiful planet God blessed us with. It has its defects, its imperfections, and its faults, but it's our home. Our only home. Is it too late to fix this? Maybe. But we need to come together as one race to combat it. We are one race. We need to stop acting like the Earth is just land that we can claim. Land that we can steal. Land that we have stolen. It is land that we've lived on. Land that has held us on its shoulders and allowed us life. We need to pay it forward. We need to allow it life now. We need to save it. Together we may conquer Global Warming.

I'm in.

. . .

ARE YOU?

[I have been studying very passionately about Global Warming since Gr.8. So all this knowledge is sown into me. I live it. Breathe it. And now I share it. So there is no way I can document my work.]


Summer Fierce

I Know Who I Am . . . I Think .

Recently I read an article entitled Don't Lose Yourself in Hollywood written by Kirsten Tetbar and posted on www.theactingroom.com . The article is written to actors considering or on the verge of moving to L.A. It states and restates and restates again how you should not lose yourself when you move there, which many people do. A lot of people, many child stars, come to Hollywood thinking that they need to totally reinvent themselves to make it in the industry. But that's not it. What actually makes you as an actor stand out, is your ability to be yourself and be true to your heart. Yes, of course, during an audition you are impersonating someone else, but at the end of the day, you can be the greatest actor in the world, but no director is going to want to work with someone like Miranda Priestly (From The Devil Wears Prada).
Also, people don`t take the time to realize that Hollywood isn`t all that it`s made out to be on television. It`s not all partying and picture perfect lives, it`s a whole lot more complicated than that. In fact, this came as a surprise to me, it is poverty stricken. Life is difficult there, as the expenses are a lot higher, as an actor, jobs are limited, etc.
You need to know what your morals and standards are. What lessons have your parents taught you as a child that you still continue to carry with you? Are you going to change your beliefs to get a role? Or are you going to be true to yourself? Many people say that they`re going to stay true to themselves, but as soon as they see the money that's attached to the role, they will cross all lines, even the ones that depict their religious values to get that part.
Personally, I know where the line is. My parents brought me up well. Everything they taught me and continue to teach me are my immortal values and understandings of life. If there is a role that requires me to smoke or do a nude scene and this is a once in a life time opportunity to get more than a foot in the door of the acting industry, than I will confidently have to pass it up. I respect myself and my parents way too much to cross that line.
So, my advice to you, as the article advised me, stay true to yourself. If you're going to move to Hollywood, know who you are and what is in your heart. Don't change for anyone, but yourself. You are you. God put you on Earth this way and gave you talent. Use it. Use it right.

Summer Fierce

Feed a Child . Save the World .

[ This is an article I wrote last year . I felt that with Thanks Giving around the corner and the previous enrty, this would go hand-in-hand with it all . ]

According to World Vision, 28, 000 children die needlessly each day. There are 2.2 billion children in the world today. One in three of these children live in poverty. One in five of these children have no access to clean drinking water.

What is Poverty?

                                Hunger

 Lack of shelter

 Being sick and not being able to see a doctor

 Having no access to school and not knowing how to read

Not having a job, is in fear for the future, living one day at a time

  Losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water

Powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom

 

Less than one per cent of what the world spent every year on weapons was needed to put every child into school by the year 2000 and yet it didn’t happen. (Global Issues) The world is so blinded by their everyday lives that they are failing to see the ones who are in great need of help. Yes, there are many other large global issues that the world has yet to account for, such as Global Warming, Wars, Recession and so many others, but poverty is an issue which has been costing millions of lives. Covering costs for war is not highly has important as allowing a child to have at least one meal a day. Allowing every child to have a home, have a family, have a feeling of safeness and well-being, have a voice, have their parents, have a childhood.  The world is just too ignorantly blinded to see that.

There are millions, billions in fact, of children living today without parents. HIV/AIDS have deprived many them of having their parents. It took away from their childhood, forcing them to grow up prematurely. There are children in this world that don’t plan for tomorrow, as they know their faith can never promise a tomorrow. They live every second of their life worrying when they’ll be blessed enough to have their next meal; their next drink of water – and it’s not even clean water they’re dependent on. A half of the world’s children do not plan for a future because they know they will simply never be able to afford it. They don’t dream big, as they know life will never take them that far no matter how hard they pray or how much they want something. It is deeply saddening to know that a majority of the wealthier nations are highly aware of this knowledge, yet are not taking action. Instead they are wasting time and money on wars. They are pushing aside poverty; leaving it as an issue to deal with later on. But they are failing to realize that every minute and every second they wait, a life is being lost. Who is to account for all of these lives being lost?

Summer Fierce

Be Grateful .

I'm not selfless. But I want to be. There are few people who have walked the grounds of the earth and who truly were or are selfless people. They give and they give and never expect anything in return. They put the need of others before their own. They put the happiness of others before their own. There are people who do selfless acts, but at some point they do expect something in return. Sometimes it's just respect that they want, but it's still something. It isn't an absolute sin not the be selfless or to be selfish at times. But it is sinful to always be selfish and never try to be selfless. Even just smiling at a stranger could be a selfless act. Your intention of the smile is nothing more than to acknowledge the person's existence and to raise their self-esteem.
I have so many things in life that I take for granted. I have a house, my own room, an education, a cellphone, a computer, clothes, shoes, and most importantly, a family that loves me. How many families do you know that actually sit together every night and eat dinner together? Mine does. And I never once stopped to think how lucky I am for just that. There are 28,000 children dying every single day that passes by due to poverty (according to UNICEF). There are landfills full of food, garbage bins full of food in North America. Food that could have saved millions of lives. Millions. There are people in your neighbourhood, your office, your class, that go a day or two without a meal. And yet, you have the nerve to complain about what you have or haven't. Greed. The youth these days are being controlled by greed. They see something they want and suddenly it becomes a need. Need is what those children have that are orphans fending for themselves, living one day at a time just with the hopes to make it through to tomorrow. And then the day starts over. Each day getting worse and worse until it's over. It's over. Their life is over. After fighting and suffering, their life has ended. Why didn't anyone help them? The wealthy is too caught up in their personal altercations and their own well-being that their forgetting about those who really need them right now. The world is to focused on hating that their forgetting to love. Why are there still wars? Why is the planet falling apart? Why hasn't the human race come together as one to conquer it all? Why is there still poverty?

I challenge you to do one selfless act everyday.

Summer Fierce

My Inspiration .

As an aspiring actress, I need inspiration. Who inspires me? The icons. Morgan Freeman, Julia Roberts, Angelina Jolie, Will Smith and so many others. Although all of them impact my decision of entering the acting industry, there's one of them that had the greatest influence on me of all. Will Smith. I have been watching Fresh Prince of Bel-Air since I was a about ten-years old and the re-runs still make me laugh. At the young age of 22-years-old, Will Smith was already becoming a star. His first great hit came to him when he was 28. Playing the co-starring lead role in Bad Boys. After that, his acting career took a plight. He went from goofy teen on Fresh Prince, to re-enacting the life of a man in The Pursuit of Happyness. That movie is what really captured my love for Will Smith. I thought it was phenomenal how big of a leap he took.
Another actor who greatly inspires me is young actress, Dakota Fanning. At the young age of six-years old, the young starlet already began her career in acting. She's well-known for her roles in horror films, which is what inspired me to take on that genre as my main focus. The role that really won me over for her was I Am Sam. I thought it was absolutely profound how well of an actress this little girl was already. To evoke such emotion on cue, I thought was impeccable.
Angelina Jolie is a whole other story. She is an extraordinary actress and the way she took on Hollywood and became practically Queen of the acting industry, was amazing. And she still holds this position. I think she is amazingly talented and versatile in her work and she is the actress I wish to be like.

Summer Fierce

Original Spoken Word Piece - ' Dreamer . ' [Unfinished]

Potential. What's the point of having potential if you're not given a chance. A chance to prove; prove yourself worthy of having that shot. Shot. You missed the first shot. A miss. Who's responsible for this? What happened to second chances with the possibility that your skill enhances - and then you gain victories, so you're asking; you're begging - please! - just one more shot. Success is my only option. Failures not. Too many times I've been put down. Yeah, I've been pushed to the ground. But I'm a fighter. I fight. If I go down, it's after I've used all my might. I'm in the game. I'm here to stay. Leave? You may. But I know where I belong and right here is where that is. You live your life, I live mine and he lives his- but what I have that you don't is a passion. A passion that burns hotter than the core. When I achieve something, I don't stop- I strive for more. I'm a dreamer. I waste my time with non-believers. They wanna take from me what I worked to get, but they don't realize that I'm not giving up - at least, not yet. I know the difference between wrong and right. My parents taught me well. They taught me to never allow the stress to dwell - dwell on my spirits and my passion. My passion to make a change. Make a difference. Reach further than my range and accomplish what you told me was impossible. Impossible. Understand that - without you trying to bring me down, I wouldn't have fought. Had I not fought, I may not be at the top right now. At the top. So no. I will not grow to hate you, the way you've always done me. I will thank you. Embrace you metaphorically. Because of you - my passion, my determination, my dreams have all gotten more and more strong. Doubt. Made me doubt myself? Of course you did. That only made me stronger though. You should know. Know that to make it in this world, isn't to crush the dreams of others, but to be a part of it. Guess that's too hard for you. For her. For him. Because your own dreams weren't fulfilled.

Summer Fierce