Describe the importance of health and safety and wellbeing when in the industry:
It is important for an actor to be healthy when in the industry because as an actor you will be required to turn up for auditions and rehearsals whenever you are needed even if you wasn’t aware of it much before and if for example you are sick it puts you on the line of loosing the job, so you always have to. Be prepared and ready to go looking and feeling like your best self. It is also important as sometimes you might be required to be on set for very long periods of time therefore you need to be well rested and have energy and stamina to get you through the whole day whilst being at the same high energy level at all times and not loosing focus and letting your mind drift off as you start to get tired, the last example I am going to give is that during the long hours of rehearsals you might not get any time to eat or drink as often as you normally would so when you do get the chance you have to make sure to have nutritious meals and water since sugary and caffeine drinks will give you a short energy boost but then it will make you crash which is not a good way at all to be during a time where you have to be at a high all of the time. Mental health is when you are unsure of how you feel in general or about your self due to others opinions, mental health is a big thing that could be at risk when being a part of the industry as the industry is competitive and judgemental especially on peoples appearance for example, Megan Fox was open on her social media about her 'body dysmorphia' in which she received a lot of backlash, this was mentally damaging for her because even though she had received lots of support on the matter, the hate always wins over the compliments. Lone working. "Lone working is when someone works by themselves without close or direct supervision," (for source material click here) this could be a factor that causes an impact on someone's wellbeing because they could feel like they are all alone with no support from anyone, this could cause mental health problems as you could feel alone with no support spending hours by your self.
Explain the roles and responsibilities within the industry:
There are various roles and responsibilities that a person has when in the performing arts industry
Responsibilities of an actor :
Making sure that you learn and know your lines, songs and dances in plenty of time and that you know them well.
Making sure to research your given character before hand and knowing the ins and outs of them and their backstory doing stuff like hot seating and being questioned about your character with questions that you might have to improvise really testing your knowledge.
Making sure you attend all scheduled rehearsals no matter what and always giving it your all.
Making sure you always listen and take on board all directions and suggested improvements from directors, choreographers or even teammates.
Making sure you always work well with other performers, cooperate and support each other working closely as a team.
Responsibilities of light and sound tech:
Set up the lights and sound tech
Operate the lights and sound for a production
Know the script and understand the queues
Pay attention and operate the sound and light on time
Responsibilities of costume designers:
Making sure the costume is well suited to each character
Making sure that each character has a solid design in place ready for each scene
Taking into considerations peoples needs
Researching the play and script to have the best understanding of each character
Responsibilities of hair and makeup designer:
Making sure that they research the play before hand to understand characters
Making sure to patch test before using any prouds and keeping a detailed log of patch tests for safety of actors
Making sure to take into consideration allergies and needs to ensure the actor is feeling comforable
Investigate the range and accessibility of employment opportunities that relate to your specialist area:
Many interesting job options are possible from studying performing arts. Creativity and performance skills will be put on show in a number of jobs in the industry, film, television, music, dance, and other related areas.
Following an education in a performing arts course, you might choose the following professional paths:
Performer: Students have the option of having jobs in TV, movies, and theatre as performers. This could be singing, dancing, acting, or a mix of all three.
Director: You can think about going with a job in directing if you have a passion for telling stories and interacting with performers. Directors are in charge of giving scripts and working closely with performers to produce performances.
“Average actors will book 1 out of every 5-10 auditions, and for new actors with little to no experience, they'll usually book 1 out of every 10-20 auditions.” - (reference link here)
Investigate how to market and develop a career as a performing arts professional:
As someone who is a part of the performing arts industry it is important to keep putting your self out there for any possibilities that may come your way, so that’s why its so important to have a solid way or ways for marketing yourself, I believe one of the best ways to market yourself as a performer is to have a professional website, for my website i am going to add and change certain aspects such as i am going to replace the current headshot with an up to date one since i was a lot younger to ensure that its kept true and professional, i am also going to add videos of my experience to my main page to interest anyone who goes on my website in me and show off my abilities making sure to reflect on them in a professional way talking about what i did well and what i could improve on, as it gives a very good outlook on your person anywhere from how you look from your headshot to what you have played in/ your previous experience and to develop your career you have to make sure you keep your website up to date, detailed and professional at all times.
UNIT 2
What are the risks to well- being and health in your chosen area of performing arts industry?
The performing arts industry is a very challenging industry to be in it comes with a lot of risks. My chosen area of the industry is actor and there are multiple challenges I might have to face such as: Eating disorders due to the industry being so judgmental and like not many other industries judging you purely on your appearance, its a lot to think about that the way you look and the colour of your hair, colour of your eyes, your height everything about you is what determines if you will have a job or not, such pressure can destroy a person especially young mentally really bad and have a huge impact on their lives. The industry proved itself to be so judgemental and discriminating that there was a thing called a #metoo movement, (more about the #metoo movement- The ability to live free from violence is a basic human right. But sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) persists in every country of the world. 'me too.' International ’s groundbreaking survivor-focused leadership on SGBV sparked the global #MeToo hashtag and movement for change that went viral in 2017. While the movement has achieved meaningful wins for survivors, movements like ‘me too.’ in the US and globally—especially those led by Black and Brown women—continue to be under-resourced, lacking access to core, flexible, multi-year funding and structural connections to each other. reference link here)
What are your personal strategies to stay safe and healthy in the industry?
My personal strategies to stay safe are, that I try my best to eat healthy and nutritious meals rather than meals and drinks that will give me a short energy boost then make me even more tired, I make sure to stay hydrated, I exercise regularly I go to the gym and I swim to help build up stamina and help me get through the long hours of rehersals and complicated routines that I might have to do, i try to do breathing and calming exercises couple times a day as I get easily frustrated over things that I really shouldn’t so I am trying my best to try to work on that. I would definetaly like to improve on making sure that i eat a proper healthy and nutricious breakfast and not start my morning off with a monster because i know it wont make me feel better for long just for a short period of time, another thing i do to stay safe in the industry is that i dont upload my personal information such as my address or personal phone number to public websites or profiles as you never know who could come across your profile and what their intensions may be. Last thing i do to stay safe in the industry is that i dont reply to random ads or emails that i am not certain are legit as you could get scammed or even worse seriously hurt.
What are the diversity challenges in the industry at the moment?
The performing arts industry have always been unequal when it comes to Genders, disabilities or even colour of skin, for example Only 17% of nominees at the Oscars since 1929 have been women – and less than 2% of nominees were women of colour, and to this day it is still expected that women are less likely to get the jobs/ roles they want and that even if they do get the jobs they won’t get paid the same as a man would, I feel like this is very unfair as if the same job is getting done then why should the pay be different just because of the gender as It really doesn’t change anything at all. Disabled people are also just starting to get a chance to be industry as before if a disabled part needed to be played an actual disabled person wouldn’t be cast, instead they would take a healthy person and make them play the disabled role instead of letting someone who already fits the criteria to play the part. I myself face some barriers for getting into the industry, one of them being that I am not originally from England meaning that its harder for me to pronounce certain word or learn and remember scripts, I sometimes struggle to understand some saying that might be significant to the play so I have to research them parts so that I understand the significance and am able to interpret it properly in the play. Another thing that is a challenge for me is the location that I live In, the city Im from is not too big and not known so its hard to get noticed and market yourself to big producers, whereas if I lived somewhere like London it would be much simpler as there are always many opportunities everywhere, my age is also a factor for why it would be harder for me as I’m still young and don’t have as much experience as someone who is older and has been able to gain Experience.
Marketing yourself:
1(a).What’s your planned social media profile for your career plan?
My planned social media profile for my character plan is my professional website, it is important that my website is detailed and up to date all the time as it is my personal portfolio that employers can look at, at any moment and it will make them decide if I am suitable or not that’s why its important that on my website I show my best self and show all that I have achieved in my career. I feel like this works the best for me as I don’t see it as “social media” and this is good because to me social media is more for personal life and relaxing whereas If I upload everything onto my website I can view it as more professional and serious, however of course when using social media to promote yourself it is really important to remember that every person has their own opinion on stuff they see and that opinion might not always be positive so its really important to know and understand that one persons opinion shouldn’t get you down and ruin your outlook on what you have done and make sure to remember that as long as you gave it your all and did your best that’s all that matters.
2(B).What should be include in your website/ marketing portfolio?
In my opinion some of the most important things to include in your marketing portfolio are: Examples of your work, even rehersals as then if someone is looking though your website they can see your progress and see how you got better and improved throughout the whole process, another thing that I think is important to include in your portfolio is little logs reflecting on what you have done talking about what you think went well and what you think you could improve on, setting yourself personal goals and challenges to better yourself for next time.
3(C).What useful employment sites do you use?
Personally the place that I look for opportunities is either the college notice board as there are many times when actors are needed either for something small just inside the college but also sometimes it had opportunities for some outside bigger parts, I also use social media often and I often see opportunities come up on there from people promoting themselves looking for support in plays etc.
4(D).Offline self-marketing ideas?
For offline self marketing in my opinion the best thing to to is always say yes to any opportunities that may come your way, any plays, ads, performances anything just try to put yourself out there the most you can because you never know who could be watching so make sure to always give It your all no matter what and always show off your best self, another thing I think is good is talking to people, many people know different things and different people therefore if you ask maybe they will know of any opportunities.
What jobs are open to you in the industry?
There are many jobs that are open to me in the industry for example I could have a part in college productions not only in acting but in lighting, sound, backstage, props, makeup, hair and so on which is really good as it lets me expand my portfolio and gain experience. Another job that is open to me in the industry is being and ensemble or an extra in small productions that are going on locally. I could also look at limited acting agencies, and get a space in for example somewhere like Phoenix Bristol or volunteer at the Everyman theatre that is local to me as a background character, i could also take part in heigher degree media students plays and opportunities. My limitations are that my confidence is still not at 100% and i am still working on building it up by taking part in more opportunities that come my way for example being in other peoples projects and speaking out more in class, putting forward more of my ideas rather than just keeping them to myself and taking the easy way out like i used to do, my goals that i will set myslef for over the summer break is to learn a script and show it to family and freinds and for them to be able to give me constructive critisism, i feel like this would build my confidence up as i would openly be putting myself out there to critisism and also being by my self and performing infront of people i know which in my opinion could be even more stressful, one of my other limitsions are that i am still training therefore there isint as much opportunitites open to me as say to someone older and more experienced with better qualifications.
Does your current skill set match up with your career ambitions and the current job market?
My current skill set matches up with my career ambitions at a beginner level as I am still a student and have a lot more to learn and experience to move up in the industry, personally I would like to get better at dancing and singing not professionally since it would be too late for that now and if i wanted to be a professional dancer or singer i would have to start at a young age but i want to just better my skills so that I could be more likely to atract employers attention and be able to play in musicals as I like how energetic they are and how there is always so much going on, I would also like to have an insight on the lighting and sound side to see how it makes the performance really comes to life. I feel like i am good at improvison, as i have a very wide imagination and to me there are no limitations as to what i could come up with, i could be given any circumstance and then my brain can just come up with a scenario i am also good at remembering scripts and lines, ever since i was little i had a really good memory with scripts which is a really good skill to have for, for example giong to an audition and you get given a script and you are expected to memorise it in a short time, things i am not good at are time keeping, time keeping is a very important skill to have not only in the industry but in life in general, therefore what i will do to improve on this is start waking up earlier to allow myself the time i need to get myself together and presentable without having to rush and not leaving spare time just incase i need it, i will do this to make sure i always turn up to anything i am required to before time or on time. Another thing i am not good at is maintaining energy, i start with alot of energy and then as the day goes on it gradually drops, what i will do to prevent this is make sure i get plenty of sleep and drink alot of water and eat nutricoius meals as that will help me maintain my energy and stamina at a consistent level all thoughout which is important as you might have to do long hours on set going over the same scenes many times but in each one you have to have the same energy.
Set yourself development goals and targets.
The target that I want to set for myself is to take push myself out of my comfort zone and try things that I haven’t before, I would definitely like to take up a hair and makeup or costume design unit in the next year (hnd). I also want to set myself a goal to take part in every exercise. To achieve set goals i will do many things such as, to build up my confidence i will look into learning a script over summer and performing it infront of family and freinds, this well help me boost my confidence as it will be people i know and for me its harder to perform infront of someone i know compared to someone i dont as i know they will give me their honest opinion which on the other hand will be a good thing as it will allow me to better myself and learn from mistakes ive made the first time, another thing i will do to help my confidence is aim for more main roles on performences that we will do in college such as the christmas performence we are planning to do after summer break, this will certainly help me with my confidence as i will have attention on me when performing rather than just being in the background and not being seen as much. To take up a hair and makeup unit i will set myself a goal to research the important aspects and responsibilities of the role such as, having to research your characters before hand to be familiar with their vibes and how they are meant to be portrayed. For my last goal that i have set myself is to take part in every exercise and warm up game or not that i am offered to do, to achieve this goal i will tell myself that i am going to do it for my future and bettering myself in my chosen specialty, but i will also make sure to take part in any opportunites given to help me.