Category: Getting Work
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Getting Started with Showreels and Voice Clips
Performer Success Manager Mel Brown’s advice on creating a showreel without professional footage and ideas for your ‘Audio’ section. As a Spotlight member, you have space on your profile for at least 20 minutes of video and 20 minutes of audio. That’s 20 minutes for various clips and reels – all of which can showcase…
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Finding Acting Work Overseas
Tips on finding an agent and acting work abroad from ‘Happy Valley’ star Amit Shah. We know the nature of being an actor requires you to be ambitious. The industry insists on your pursuit and perseverance in finding and attending auditions; you have to carry that energy into acting jobs once you get them. As…
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What Casting Director Amy Hubbard Wants to See in the Audition Room
Audition room tips from the casting director of ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Time’ and ‘Assassin’s Creed: Origins’. During her incredible career, casting director Amy Hubbard has worked on various film, television and video game projects, including blockbusters like The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit trilogies, and hit television series like Apple TV+’s Hijack…
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Technical Tips to Improve Your Self-Tape
Our troubleshooting tips and fixes for common self-taping issues, including what the best colour backdrop is, and the ideal camera setting. In all our years of providing industry advice and helping performers improve their Spotlight profiles, we’ve seen a lot of self-tapes, and we’ve noticed a few recurring issues actors are having while filming. From…
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8 Tips to Prepare You for an Audition
Top tips from casting director Kate Rhodes James on how to prepare for an audition. Kate Rhodes James has had a long and varied career as a casting director. Her past projects include House of Gucci, Catherine the Great, A Discovery of Witches, The Good Karma Hospital, Line of Duty, Sherlock, and many more. Most…
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My Casting Story: Samuel Haughton in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’
Performer Samuel Haughton shares how he came to be cast as Monsieur Reyer in ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ and his tips for performing on stage Spotlight member Samuel Haughton has been working professionally as an actor for 11 years since leaving drama school. Predominantly working in theatre, Sam has appeared in musicals like School of Rock, Top Hat and Spamalot,…
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How Do I Market my Acting Career?
Casting directors and agents share their advice for how to promote yourself as an actor and why Spotlight is an important tool for this. When it comes to the performing arts industry, you – the actor – are the product. And as with any product, marketing yourself well will increase the chances of the right…
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Top Tips on How to Write Your Own Show
Mark Thomas, Simon Longman, Vinay Patel, Luke Barnes and Georgia Christou share their top tips for writing your own work When opportunities don’t come your way, you need to go out and create your own. For actors, this can mean writing your own show to perform in. As screenwriter and playwright, Vinay Patel (Murdered by…
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Working Without an Agent
Tips for navigating the performing arts world when you’re self-represented. Not getting an agent is not rejection of you or a statement about your ability. It is about market conditions. Which I know sounds very dull and corporate. But acting is a business… Not getting an agent straightaway when I graduated from drama school was…
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What Actors Need to Know About Theatre in Education
Find out what Theatre in Education is, the opportunities it presents for actors and how to get started. Theatre in Education (TiE) is theatre that takes place in an educational setting such as schools, colleges, pupil referral units, and even onsite at museums and exhibitions. The performances are message-focused and educational, offering a different way…