oliviagracepromotionalportf-blog

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Foot notes

Image One: My acting CV that is not updated from 2017.

Image Two: Screenshots comprised from Actor Robbie Gordon’s website.

Three: Screenshots comprised from Actor Robbie Gordon’s website.

Image Four: Headshot taken from Pinterest.

Image Five: Headshot taken from Pinterest.

Image Six: Headshot taken from Pinterest.

Image Seven: Headshot taken by Tony Smith.

Image Eight: Headshot of Emma Watson.

Image Nine: Headshot of Cate Blanchett

Image Ten: Close of makeup done for head-shots by Adrienn Szobszlai

Image Eleven: Myself behind the scenes on the headshot shoot

Image Twelve: Myself behind the scenes on the headshot shoot

Image Thirteen: Taken at LMA studios by Mike Neary of myself and Chris Hird performing Act 3 scene 1 from Hamlet.

Image Fourteen: Back of the screen shot of myself at LMA studios performing Puck’s closing speech from Act 5 scene 1 of ‘A Midsummer nights dream’ taken by Mike Neary.

Image Fifteen: Back of the screen shot of myself and Chris Hird at LMA studios performing Act 3 scene 1 from ‘Hamlet’ taken by Mike Neary.

Image Sixteen: My home screen to my website with my new white colour palette added. Headshot image John Ayliffe photography.

Image Seventeen: Headshot page on my acting website with newly updated headshot images by John Ayliffe Photography.

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Week ten: Promotional portfolio

In the final week of my promotional portfolio, I had a one on one session with my tutor Rachael Mutch to review my progress with my portfolio and see what I needed to add into it to make it better. With my website, I was told to change my ‘about me’ section to add hyperlinks to any of the roles that I have stated in my ‘about me’ section so that the link will send viewers onto a page on my website that has a description about that particular show. Mutch also commented on my headshots, saying that she thought that the black and white images where professional and the colouring worked well with the stark white background. Mutch also asked me to change the title ‘Work experience to just the subheadings: theatre, screen etc. This is because the former title sounded too much like any mundane CV and not one specifically for acting. Mutch commented that she thought my work on my website was very good and needed little improving. After tweaking my website with all of the suggested edits, my website is looking more professional and sharp.

I also continued editing my showreel together on iMovie. I compiled my screen footage together from three different short films: The hunt, Zebrafish and Detention. I wanted to focus on these pieces of footage and edit them neatly so that the transitions flow fluently and then focus on my theatre pieces in the second half of showreel. I will use scenes from: The crucible, Oh! What a lovely war, Shakespeare in celebration etc. I was a little unsure if I wanted to use the footage shot in the LMA studios as the white backdrop looks too unnatural against my other footage pieces that are more naturalistic. However, I had an idea to edit clips of my Puck speech that I recorded at the LMA studios to start and end my showreel as the speech itself is the closing speech of Shakespeare’s ‘A midsummer night’s dream’. It  may be a nice way to end my showreel as the monologue is directed to the camera saying ‘goodbye’. A monologue is also useful for casting directors as nowadays most casting directors ask for filmed monologues when casting, so including this in my showreel would be advantageous.

Overall,  I feel confident with my promotional portfolio. I believe that it will certainly benefit me after I graduate as this unit has helped me prepare for the industry in both a practical and physical manner. I now have the correct tools to promote myself to the best of my ability when I am applying for jobs as an actor, as well as this I have learned new skills and knowledge about castings in the industry from professionals who work in the field of acting who I have been fortunate enough to have the opportunity to talk to in Q&A’s.I believe that my industry steps so far have given me good insight into the industry. I have already began networking in the industry as I am a part of the theatre company Gambolling arena who perform professional shows and I have performed: The BFG, The Tiger Who Came To Tea and Shakespeare night with the company. I have also performed my own piece of physical theatre that I have performed at the Liverpool fringe festival in 2017 called ‘Lucifer’s list’ and have kept in contact with the head of the festival Sam Hurst for previous networking as he was impressed with my work and expressed viewing any future theatre work I produced. I have also attended premieres such as ‘Reg’ in 2016 at the ACC centre where I spoke with industry professionals who also attended the event as well as attend workshop with jobbing actors such as Steven Graham who attended our university and gave us advice about the industry. I am also currently working on a professional project in the industry for the video game company Cosmonaut.

 I believe that I have good knowledge of the industry and I look forwards to getting out their more in the industry.

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Live video footage taken of the open rehearsal Q&A with Nick Bagnell and Andrew Biskell of the Everyman rep companies production of ‘A clockwork orange’ that I attended in person on Tuesday 27th March 2018. 

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Image Sixteen: My home screen to my website with my new white colour palette added. Headshot image John Ayliffe photography.

Image Seventeen: Headshot page on my acting website with newly updated headshot images by John Ayliffe Photography.

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Week nine: Promotional portfolio

In the ninth week I decided to completely change the colour palette of my website from grey to white. I wasn’t truly wowed by the grey colouring as I felt it didn’t provide much in terms of being eye catching. The white colouring gives off a minimalist and modern quality. White is a colour often suited to marketing and companies like Apple use white for its futuristic quality. I believe it gives a ‘blank canvas’ effect and as a graduating actor that is a trait I wish to represent. During the week, I also received my headshots back from Ayliffe. I am very impressed with the quality of the headshots and I will be using them in my portfolio as they are a good mix of colour and black and white images that showcase my appearance.

I also attended an open rehearsal workshop for Everyman Rep companies production of ‘A clockwork orange’ at the Anthony Burgress foundation in Manchester. I watched the company perform extracts from the show before it is staged. One of the scenes had not been blocked yet so the scene was still raw. It was particularly useful to watch how a seasoned professional like Bagnell directs actors and it is crucial insight into the life of a jobbing actor.

Bagnell had put a cabaret twist to the show making the movements stylised to further juxtapose the brutality of the play with the happy sounding lyrics. The play also cleverly incorporated props into the extracts, similar to Frantic assemblies ‘Othello’ which I watched in 2014. The company manipulates cue sticks from a pool table to push around a drunken Cassio which is similar to the brooms used in ‘A clockwork orange’ to move and manipulate the body. This style is very appealing for me as the pieces gave me great inspiration for developing my own pieces of physical theatre as I would like to use similar movements when creating my own style of performance. A Q&A session lead by Nick Bagnell who also interviewed the head of the Anthony Burgress foundation Andrew Biskell which followed after the performances. Bagnell was asked by Biskell “How do you cast the show?” and Bagnell replied: “It’s actors who can sing... everybody has to be able to do a bit of something most certainly about actors. But it’s more about company, I don’t want to spend six months of my life with an arsehole” (Bagnell, 2018). This is relevant information as a graduating actor with hopes of participating in the rep company in the future. So it is useful advice from such a highly sort after director to know that his main attribute in hiring actors is their pleasant personality.  It is always important to be a team player when acting as you will likely spend a lot of time with other actors so you do not want to be stuck with somebody for months who brings down the energy of the working environment.

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Image Thirteen: Taken at LMA studios by Mike Neary of myself and Chris Hird performing Act 3 scene 1 from Hamlet.

Image Fourteen: Back of the screen shot of myself at LMA studios performing Puck’s closing speech from Act 5 scene 1 of ‘A Midsummer nights dream’ taken by Mike Neary.

Image Fifteen: Back of the screen shot of myself and Chris Hird at LMA studios performing Act 3 scene 1 from ‘Hamlet’ taken by Mike Neary.

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Week Eight: Promotional portfolio

During the eighth week I updated my acting website. I edited my wix page to include an updated version of my current acting CV that is accessible on my website page: ‘Acting CV’. I listed my acting experiences with my most recent experiences first. This shows that I have a lot of experience and I am constantly working on new productions to add to my CV. This will show to casting directors that I am hardworking and willing to put in a lot of effort in order to learn from the outside world as most of my credits are from work that I have found outside of university. I also linked my actual acting CV document as a downloadable PDF file at the bottom of my ‘Acting CV’ page so that casting directors will be able to download my CV if they are interested in working with me.

During this week we also had a Q & A with director of the Everyman YEP company Matt Rutter. It was interesting to note that Rutter had had a background in physical theatre work in the past. I asked Rutter “What is the best way to get into physical theatre work?” He replied “There used to be a lot more theatre companies in Liverpool but check out Hope street limited and Tmesis”. These are two well respected and high quality theatre’s in Liverpool. We also had a Q and A with Unity theatre director Anthony Proctor who rose up in the ranks of the theatre. The unity theatre is renown for putting on politically driven plays, a genre of theatre that I am very interested in pursuing in the future as I am politically driven and enjoy plays that share a thought provoking message. The unity is also a pioneer for young and upcoming artists and he explained that the theatre holds events called ‘physical fest scratch night’ which showcases different upcoming physical theatre groups. This is a very exciting opportunity that is based around ‘Physical fest’ a annual physical theatre festival held in Liverpool. This would be a great opportunity to showcase my own physical theatre piece in front of the unity theatre creatives but also to the Liverpool based physical theatre company Tmesis who may be scouting for future productions.

We were also given the opportunity to use the LMA studios to take our head-shots and also to film any footage for our show reel. I also decided to film a duologue from ‘Hamlet’ with Chris Hird and a monologue from ‘Twelfth Night’ for my show reel. Although I already have quite a lot of footage from both short films and performances I believe it would be beneficial to have some footage filmed in a studio environment if I should wish to add it to my portfolio. However, I do not want the harsh white colour of the background to stand out too much compared to my other footage clips which are done either on stage or in a natural environment. I wish for my show reel to blend well and not become an eyesore.

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Image Ten: Close of makeup done for head-shots by Adrienn Szobszlai

Image Eleven: Myself behind the scenes on the headshot shoot

Image Twelve: Myself behind the scenes on the headshot shoot

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Image Eight: Emma Watson Headshot

Image Nine: Cate Blanchett Headshot

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Week Seven: Promotional Portfolio

On the seventh week it was time to get my professional acting headshots done. I had arranged to work with photographer John Ayliffe and makeup artist Adrienn Szobszlai at Libre studios in the Gostins building, Liverpool. We had previously discussed that I was looking for forward facing and side on head shots as this is the professional standard that is required on acting CV’s. This allows the casting director or agency to have a clear image of the actors face. Prior to the shoot day I had shared the link to my pinterest page with the headshot images used on the inspiration mood board. This was particularly as it also provided Ayliffe with inspiration for what I was after in order to produce the best and most productive work. It was also handy during the shoot as Ayliffe had the mood board open on his computer in the studio so that we could always refer back to it for inspiration. It became particularly useful if I was stuck on where to place my hands on any shots that required use of my hands. For example, The headshot of Australian actress Cate Blanchett that is featured on my mood board provided useful help when I referred back to it during the shoot. On the image Blanchett is resting her head on one of her hands, this pose is relaxed yet still captivating as her eyes are still looking straight at the camera to create a look of intensity. In one of the later shots I used a similar pose to the one used by Blanchett, by resting my head gently between both of my hands. This allowed me to use a interesting pose whilst still remaining to look natural. The shoot last for three and a half hours with an hours makeup session beforehand. We shot two different t-shirts, one black and one white. I wanted to use block colours as anything too patterned would be too distracting. Black is a symbolic colour that is primarily linked to acting. Bourn states that: “The color black represents strength, seriousness, power, and authority” (Bourn, 2010). This shows that the colour black is a powerful and creative colour perfect for an actor. Cherry states that: “The color white often seems like a blank slate, symbolising a new beginning or a fresh start”  (Verywellmind, 2017). White is the perfect symbolic colour for a graduate actor like myself about to enter the industry as I am a fresh slate that can be moulded into anything. I also went through two hair styles during the shoot, the first was my hair down to showcase my natural hair length, colour and wavy hair so that casting directors get an idea of what I look like in the most truthful sense. The second hair I opted for was based on the slightly ‘out of place’ up-do that actress Emma Watson wore in her head-shot (which I included in my pinterest mood board). The up-do symbolises both elegance and practicality as it showcases my facial structure without distraction. Overall, the shoot was very successful and I learnt a lot about what is needed when taking head-shots.

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Link: Pinterest, Actors head-shot mood board.

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(Top) Image Four: Headshot image taken from Pinterest

(Left) Image Five: Headshot image taken from Pinterest

(Right) Image Six: Headshot taken from Pinterest

(Bottom) Image Seven: Headshot taken by Tony Smith

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Week Six: Promotional Portfolio

In preparation for my head-shot shoot I put together a mood board on pinterest with photographs of other professional actors head-shots for inspiration. This has helped me to discover what poses, hairstyle and makeup works best for my own acting head-shots. In the mood board I collected fifteen images for my inspiration.  The first image, (shown below as image three) by metro photography. The image is well lit, clean and beautifully edited so that the actor appears natural. The actor is also positioned side on but still keeping eye contact with the camera. This creates an interesting but natural posture that is appealing to the eye. The fourth image in the portfolio is of Jessica Cook by Head-shots LA. (shown below as image four). This particular head-shot stood out to me as the first thing that I noticed was the actors eyes. The most impact aspect of any head-shot is the eyes as that draws in people’s attention so the focus needs to be on the actors eyes. I also like the hair pulled back away from the face as this allows the viewer analyse the structure of the actors face without distraction of flyaway hairs. However, it is also important for a casting director to be able to see what the actors natural hair looks like and how it sits. In the next head-shot of actor Lily Collins who has appeared on films such as: ‘The mortal instruments’ (Shown below as image five). This head-shot highlights the actors hair style and colour in a very natural manner. Coloured head-shots give the best impression of naturalism and are useful for my portfolio to give a honest representation of myself to agencies. However, Rory Lewis a professional head-shot photographer states: “It’s worth noting that Spotlight does still print its directories in Black & White” (Lewis, 2014). Although coloured head-shots have become increasingly popular and are becoming more industry standard. It is still important to have some Black and white head-shots as portfolio platform sites such as Spotlight still use the dramatic tones and shading of black white imagery to showcase their actors. For my own portfolio I will aim to have both colour and black and white images so that I may have a range of options to choose from to add to my CV and website.

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Week Five: Promotional Portfolio

In the fifth week I received back my headshots from Smith and although the lighting looks fine, they do not really emulate an ‘actors’ headshot. Smith is a talented photographer but has not done acting headshots before so it is not something he is experienced in. The backdrop of blue does not work in the photographs, as the colour is too prominent and not subtle like most acting headshots. My makeup also does not eminent naturalness as I wish it would. Although somewhat of a flop, these headshots presented a valuable learning experience as I now know what to avoid the next time I get my headshots done.

I then decided to research different local head-shot photographers. Firstly, I searched for examples of actors head-shots. It is important for the photo to represent yourself in the most truthful light. So natural makeup is important as you do not want to go overboard so that you look unrecognisable. Newton (2017) states: “You want to look like yourself on your best day, and not look like you tried too hard” (Backstage, 2017). This is especially important as casting directors may be looking for a very particular look when casting an actor, so you want to look like yourself. One of the leading acting head-shot photographers is the Manchester based photographer Tony Blake. Blake has a very reputable, professional  and high standard portfolio. He has also worked with the BBC and many professional actors too. In Blake’s portfolio, I noticed that the head shots were all profile, either face on or looking over the shoulder. Blake’s head-shot package came to £150 with a two hour shoot time with consultation, three edited high resolution images. Blake’s photography is definitely something a great inspiration for my own head-shots that I wish to create for my own portfolio. So, I decided to research some local head-shot photographers. One head-shot photographer whom I know well personally and that I also know other actors who he has worked with in the past is the photographer John Ayliffe. Ayliffe owns a photographic studio in the centre of Liverpool called ‘Libre studios’. His fixed student head-shot rate is £65 which includes five high resolution edited images. In comparison to Blake’s photography, this head-shot package is more affordable and allows me more choice of images as I would receive a total of five images instead of three and I would also save travel costs as it is more expensive to travel to Manchester than to Liverpool city centre. However, Blake’s standard of photography is more well known so they would perhaps stand out more professionally in the eye of casting directors in comparison to Ayliffe who is lesser known for his head-shot work. Nevertheless, Ayliffe’s head-shots are still high quality and a affordable price especially for students and graduates. I also researched another Liverpool based head-shot photographer: Aiden Ogden. Unlike the previous two photographers, Ogdens rates are far too extortionate for students with his first package starting from £97 for only one hours worth of shoot time. Although Ogden’s portfolio is good, it is not at a higher standard than that of Blake who is a highly sort after photographer and his packaging prices are still cheaper than Ogden’s. After much consideration, I decided to choose Ayliffe’s head-shot package. This package will allow me to choose five head-shots of my own variety and at a reasonable fee. I contacted Ayliffe and booked in to shoot with him and makeup artist Adrienn Szoboszlai on Monday 5th March.

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Week Four: Promotional Portfolio

In the fourth week we discussed the correct length and what to include in a professional actors show reel. A show reel is important for an actor, as it showcases not only an actors their talent as a performer but also what experience they have had in the past. It is very important before creating a show reel to know what kind of casting you are going for and how you would like to be portrayed. For myself, I believe that my type casting is along the lines of: ‘the girl next door’ prototype. However, I do not want to forever be pigeon holed as this time of character but I do want to play to my strengths. I also want to portray my physical ability in regards to wanting to progress as a physical theatre performer. Personal aesthetics and looks come down to type casting too. For example, my look is not best suited for ‘punk’ or ‘gothic’ roles as I lack stereotypical aesthetics of the genre such as: multiple piercings, alternative hair colour etc. Whereas, my look is more suited for period drama or modern castings with my naturally coloured hair and unaltered and unmodified appearance.

Next, I thought about what I wanted to add into my show reel. Over the last few years I have been involved in lots of different short films and theatre shows that I have performed in outside of university as well as shows and footage I had shot whilst at uni. This will give me a good variety of choice when selecting show reel footage and it will also show potential employers that I am hard working and versatile. I then noted down the pieces of filmed footage and how long a section I want to use. I also need to keep in mind that I do not want my show reel to go over three minutes and ideally would be two minutes long. This is to keep the viewers attention from wandering, so my show reel needs to be short and snappy but to the point.

My website I decided to create my pages and subpages. In the pages I labelled these pages as:

Home

About Me

Headshots

Showreel

Screen

Theatre

Movement

The pages ‘Theatre, screen and movement’  will have additional sub pages. These sub pages will show the different examples of work that I have had and a description of each performance.

I then arranged a headshot session with a photographer friend Tony Smith in the same week we had set up a date for the shoot. We used a blue backdrop and did some more natural light photographs too in a brightly lit corridor. I also brought a high neck white lace top to compliment the background and wore my hair down and did my own makeup for the shoot. Once the shoot was over, Smith will send me a dropbox link to go through the images and allow me to choose which ones I wish to use.

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Image Two and Three: Screenshots comprised from Actor Robbie Gordon’s website. 

http://www.robbiegordon.org/about/

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Week Three: Promotional portfolio

In the third week I come about setting up my own Actors website. I set up a free wix account and began to build my website by creating my own template.

But first, I needed to do more research into what is needed in creating a successful website. Lawrence (2011) states that: “Your goal in building an acting site for the industry is simple: to get work”  (Backstage, 2011). This is a simplistic but aspiring way to look at the website as an actors website is to ultimately lead to future employment. This online article also further explores what is necessary in creating a website. Lawrence (2011) also states: “Your image should be front and center, but clearly label it as a clickable link for downloading a jpeg of your headshot” (Backstage, 2011). This would be especially useful for casting directors who wish to download for headshot for future references. Next I looked at another graduate actor ‘Robbie Gordon’s’ website. Gordon’s website is very eye catching and creative. The bright white background and quirky ‘Amatic SC’ font give off the impression of someone organised yet artistic. This is a similar theme that I myself would like to include in my website as I would like to represent myself as a creative artist. Because of this influence, I have added the ‘Amatic SC’ font for my titles such as on my: ‘Acting CV’ page. This combined with a grey background to create a creative yet calm feeling, nothing too eccentric but something to showcase tranquility and grey itself represents neutrality. Bourn (2010) states that: “Gray (Grey) is a cool, neutral, and balanced color...formal, conservative, and sophisticated” (Bourn Creative,2010). This further emphasises my use of the colour Grey as a background for my website as I would like to represent myself as ‘neutral’ and adaptable performer.