The Performing Arts Industry

The Dangers of Social Media

What is 'Social Media'

In the Acting industry, getting yourself out in the public eye is a vital step when it comes to getting recognised by film companies, alongside this getting a good group of supporters who are interested in you as both the actor and person you are.

Before Social Media:

In the days before Social Media, actors weren't viewed like they are today. In todays age we have platforms such as Instagram & Twitter, where actors can freely upload stories of their general non-working life, showing off their true colours and how they are as people, but before the 2000's however this was almost impossible to accomplish. Without social media existing, actors felt more mysterious, alongside this they were also put on a higher pedestal to all the public. With no way to properly share their public lives other than television interviews, fans were really left in the dark on who they were as an actual person. A good example of this is world famous celebrity Elvis Presley, nearer the end of his life he never toured and only played in the same venue, this being the Westgate Hotel in Las Vegas. Due to this, a lot of the public considered him 'washed up' after fading out of the public eye, this was to be disproven after his death however, as it was confirmed in the autopsy that Elvis had a massive drug addiction, leading to his death.

The Positives of Social Media:

When it comes to the positives of social media, one of the main things is being able for an actor to connect with their fans. While before social media actors did have fanbases, they had no way to connect with them and even to an extent, communicate and recognise individuals who really care for them. In today's day and age however that is not the case, with the world-wide web and social media, actors can now easily communicate with their fans and same vice-versa, a good example of a celebrity who communicates with fans via social media is 'Jennifer Lopez', she has a belief that because people take time to care about her and what she likes, she tries her hardest to communicate with as many of those fans as humanly possible.

As I said prior, when Elvis got later into his career people complained saying he was a washed up star who only played at the same place year and year again, this is what the 'media' at the time proclaimed, unfortunately considering that this is where the public knew the most 'reliable' information was released, they could bend it to however they want. Many years later however, due to social media, found out that it wasn't Elvis's fault, instead it was his manager who treated him like a Mule. The point that i'm trying to get across is now that social media exists, people don't have to rely on the media who can twist information, they can instead rely on the actors themselves to say their personal sides of stories and express their own feelings whenever they want. An example of this is 'Demi Lovato', online, she had the courage to come out about her addictions and eating disorders, in which she got thousands of peoples support through her tough times.

Another positive with social media is being able to get recognition for your own work, especially on sites like 'YouTube', alot of up and coming actors get recognised by directors on these sorts of sites, this is because it gives them an opportunity to make their passions come to life through their own personalised content, one of the 21st centuries biggest singers actually got her debut on youtube, this being 'Ariana Grande'. While she was a child actor for Nickelodeon, she ended up getting her first record due to a friend sending a video of hers to a big company.

The Negatives of Social Media:

Unfortunately however, I find that the cons of social media outweigh the pro's. I say this because while yes it is good to get your name out their and show people who you are as an actual person, while there are true fans who care and are interested, you'll have internet trolls who will unfortunately make it their mission to hate on you for no apparent reason. For anyone, Mental Health is a vital thing to living happily, and I personally find that if you want to try and make it big through social media, prepare for alot of backlash, this states my personal issue's with social media perfectly. No matter what you upload on social media, if you've got a big enough following, unfortunately no matter what you do you'll always find some form of backlash. This could be anything from general judging of who you are to full on body-shaming and racism. The reason you find people saying this online and not in person is because they can hide behind a screen so they don't have to worry about anything, which I find is a disgusting way to live. An example of this is actress 'Rebel Wilson', before 2020 she found herself being overweight, in which she embraced it alongside movie producers, especially the ones of the film series 'Pitch Perfect', where her character was referred to as 'Fat Amy'. While she embraced this type of humor she also ended up receiving a lot of backlash for her appearance, which lead to her being ashamed of her diet. While it is okay for people to show concern for that matter, some others believe it to be "funny" to go out and call people out for their appearances for a quick laugh.

A single comment on social media can make all the difference, which shows how powerful of a tool it can be, if utilised in the correct way. Approximately 90% of teenagers use social media (which is approximately 1,209,000,000 people) state that Social Media is a dangerous tool in which they chose to stay away for mental health purposes, alongside this, general concerns for mental health in teenagers and adults have doubled since 2005. Majority of this data I have collected is from Etactics, which you can view HERE!

Self-Promotion with Social Media:

One of the most helpful uses of social media is being able to have two different accounts, one for my personal life and one for my acting, where I can self-promote my work as a performer. When it comes to my acting portfolio, I have two primary social media's that I use. I have my Instagram where you can see my headshot, a few cast photo's which share information about my shows past and present, I also have a YouTube where I upload my performance work, for example. In previous years I have taken part in two full musicals, that being 'Sister Act' and 'The Wedding Singer', I have been able to upload them to my socials to promote my skills, alongside this. To promote my fellow peers who are also trying to promote themselves. Social media is also useful purely because of helping to promote colleagues with their talents, we can help each other expand our audiences with our own unique followers.

My experiences with Social Media:

When it comes to my personal experience with social media, as someone who doesn't post that much I find it a good way to communicate with friends new and old, I also find it good because I can see what my older friends are up to and how they are as people even though I don't see them as much as I used to. The only negatives I personally get from Social Media are the ones I see other people get, I hear about some of the hate that my friends have recieved. For that reason alone is why I don't personally choose to upload anything.

How I keep Healthy:

 To me, the healthiest way to live is by making sure your happy with yourself mentally and physically. The way I go about doing this is by keeping social media posts to a minimum, unless its for self promotion for my acting career, I also go to the gym every other day to keep myself physically fit and to also give my brain time to process things that have happened in the current day. I also try to keep myself on less meat-filled diet.

Equality and Opportunities in the Industry

Finding your way into the Industry: 

When it comes to the industry, you can find auditions in many different ways, such as:

The Internet:

If you want a more traditional start in the industry, the conventional way is getting a headshot and film reel ready and sending it off for all types of different auditions, by doing this you are showing your commitment, alongside this you are also promoting yourself as an actor in the industry, there are many different places to go online to try get an acting job, one of the pro's of using a website is you get to find a project that you think suits you as an actor, giving many different options and opportunities to get ahead in the acting style that you, as an actor want to portray. Below are some of the internets most popular and used casting sites, for new and experienced actors alike.

• Backstage

• Playbill

• Actors Access

Below I will also show an example of what a headshot, ShowReel and resume looks like:

Local Theatre Companies:

If an actor is looking for a start in the performing arts industry, a lot of them will end up starting in theatre. This doesn't necessarily have to be a big theatre either, some people like to get their name out there by working with local companies in their towns, villages or cities where they grew up in or currently live. A good example of this is famous marvel actor Chris Evans, Who is most well known for playing the character of Captain America in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While he originally did it for a hobby with his siblings, he found himself making a career out of it, doing a new production every year. While this does have a high chance of getting recognised, it also gives you a chance of improving your skills socially and on stage. 

Creating Content:

As an aspiring actor, one of the best ways to promote yourself is by making projects of things that you find in interesting. This could be from simple song covers to vlogs, when it comes to making content the only limit truly is your imagination. Alongside this, you can start your very own fanbase from sites such as YouTube and Twitch, which in turn gives you a whole new output when it comes to making your way in the industry. A good example of this is celebrity Shawn Mendes. He started uploading music videos onto YouTube when he was in year 8, because of this he blew into stardom quite fast after being noticed by American Talent manager Andrew Gertler, this is a perfect example of how having a big fan base can lead to further connections. Fans can introduce them to other people who might know talent managers and many more.

Finding whats Trending:

When it comes to the industry, you need to show relevance to whatever is currently popular, this could be by promoting certain films or TV shows, making your own personal videos with correlation to the trend at hand, or just generally showing interest in whats new. For example, in the early 2010's thanks to MARVEL, superhero films were back in a big way, after the release and success of 2012 film 'Avengers', alot of companies wanted to ride the back off the avengers success by either bringing back older superheroes, or making completely new ones on top of this, due to this, many actors did research into superheroes and managed to get their big breaks through these films. One of the best examples is 'Chris Hemsworth', who came into stardom after playing the character of 'Thor' in the avengers movies, there are so many more examples of this so I will just list a few:

Robert Downey Jnr. - Iron Man

Tom Holland - Spider-Man

Jason Momoa - AquaMan

Gender Pay-Gap, Inside the Industry and Out:

As long as women have been able to work alongside men in the work-world, there has always been a pay gap between the two, in which every case the man earns more than the woman. This is due to societies pressure on the steretypical gender roles that have been apparent for centuries, this being the working husband and the stay at home wife who takes care of the children. However, in recent years that original stereotype is being completely changed and reworked as women are finding themselves taking more of a leadership role in society, in which instead of the the scales being tipped in the males favour, has now been balanced out by women who want to make their own decisions and take charge, to me I find this a fantastic thing, as more and more women are being able to do what they feel is necessary to live by their own ideals without society pressuring them to live a life they wouldn't be happy with. Even with this as the case the world still unfortunately haven't allowed that pay gap to be closed for true equality. According to 'The University of Huddersfield', female actors make approximately 1.1 million U.S dollars less than men in their lifetime, which you can read more about HERE! Even in the general working world, in the United Kingdom, recent studies show that for every Great British Pound a male will earn, a female will earn on average around 86 pence, this is for doing the same level of work with the same level of qualifications. From doing research I discovered that one of the front-running reasons for the gender pay gap is that companies believe women to be a 'Bigger Risk' in the workplace due to health related situations such as pregnancy and more, which I believe to be an unfair reason to treat women with the same experience as lesser in the working world.