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Hollywood is full of stories about instant success… actors who were discovered sitting in Soda Parlors or Diners, overnight sensations… and understandably, actors are obsessed with those stories.

But all too often, we miss the important details.

Take for instance, the recent success of Youtube phenomenon Lucas Cruikshank. Here’s a kid who at 16 years old has a website with over 1 million subscribers (the first for Youtube), a development deal with Nickeldeon, and a feature film in the works, all based on the character he created (Fred) and uploaded when he was 13.

Did you get all that?

It’s quick to judge him as another “overnight success”–he just got lucky right?

Come on! This kid has spent how much time at home shooting these videos? Editing? Processing the audio? Uploading? Promoting?

Lucas isn’t an overnight success… he’s a hard worker, and a great role model, even for adults.

An acting career is hard to pursue… but Lucas created his own. Through hard work, dedication, and ingenuity.

And while Fred may make me grind my teeth when I hear his voice, I have a lot of respect for Lucas Cruickshank.

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It must be in the air… first Bonnie Gillespie is talking about Time, and now Mark Westbrook on his blog. Mark makes an excellent observation: successful actors invest in their careers, financially, yes but also in time.

He goes on to suggest that American actors are great at this, but in my experience, United States actors have just as much trouble investing in their acting careers as their Scottish counterparts.

So why do we actors have such trouble devoting time to our craft, careers, and art?

Time is tricky. It has a way of running away from us. We don’t often think about time until we’re regretting it passing.

But we somehow always make it to work on time (at least I hope so). We make it to rehearsal on time. We get to important meetings on time.

Why is that?

I think Mark is right… it’s because we schedule those things.

So how much more successful might we be if we start scheduling time for our acting pursuits?

Mark suggests daily activities (and even provides a sample calendar). Some people might find it hard to devote time every day, but why not start with a weekly investment?

Right now I’m meeting weekly with a fabulous group of actors who hold each other accountable for just this sort of thing.

What are you doing?

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Casting Director Bonnie Gillespie has a great post on her blog right now about why “Type” and “Branding” are actually GOOD things for actors.

When I have a meeting with an actor about headshots, we always talk about type. When shooting a headshot session, you’re going to be shooting a specific number of “looks” (clothing changes), and those looks should all be unique “Types”.

“Type” is a short-hand code word for “Stereotype”. You know–Young Mom, High School Jock, Techno-Geek, etc.

Actors get very touchy when the word “Type” comes up–mostly because they believe they are being asked to voluntarily limit themselves: “So tell me, Actor, what one role do you think you can play?”

Bonnie points out that the whole “Type” question is actually a Time Management tool for Casting Directors. And Time is something every Casting Director wants to save. As actors who have yet to dominate public conscience, we all have to think about working in tandem with Casting… and part of that is working with them the way they work. And that means giving them headshots and brands they can quickly recognize and cast.

So help them out!

Know your “Types” (yes, you can be more than one), “Brand” yourself, and instead of fighting the system, conquer it!

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If you haven’t heard, there’s some controversy over whether Demi Moore’s latest cover (for W Magazine) was overly re-touched.

Now before I say anything else, let me just put my two cents in on retouching in general… in my opinion, when shooting people who are supposed to reflect reality in the final shot (like NYC headshots), retouching should be used to remove temporary imperfections (blemishes, rashes, etc) and unintentional mistakes that could have been corrected physically. If you’re shooting fantasy, or otherwise, all bets are off.

The big to-do in question is whether Demi’s hip was doctored to make it appear slimmer. Popular Photography posted some links with example images, one coming from Ms. Moore herself (an un-retouched version). There’s even a photographer so worked up he’s willing to donate $5,000 to charity if the hip is actually real!

I took a look at the photos in question, put them under the “microscope” in Photoshop, and came to the conclusion that the image has been retouched — but not in the hip area everyone is so concerned about! …

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