| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: News Item: Posted 2008-09-25
Similarities: Breaking into Photography—and Acting
Jim McNay says you might have to play in the minor leagues, like Mike Piazza, before you hit the big time.
By Jim McNay
Photo by Brad Mangin
Even future hall of famers like Piazza pay their dues in the minor leagues. This is Piazza in action playing for the AAA Albuquerque Dukes (Dodgers farm team) against the Calgary Cannons in Calgary in 1992.
|
Career paths in photography can sometimes be better understood by looking at other careers to see how people get started. The sports analogy of starting in the minor leagues and moving up works fine. Noticing the career paths of actors also sheds some light.
When actors come out of school few of them go straight to Broadway or major motion pictures. Yes, it happens. The stars do align for a fortunate few. But not everyone will be so lucky.
Actors often get started by having day jobs. Driving cabs and waiting on tables are standard rent payers. In their off time, actors take classes (dance, voice, dialect, fencing, whatever they see they need to work on.) Then they audition for parts. They look for work in commercials. They seek opportunities to do voice-overs for radio and TV spots.
Again, sometimes lightening strikes and they get an important role right away. Often they serve in the vineyards for a few months—or a few years—before getting noticed.
In one interview, actor/director Ben Stiller talked about his run-up to success. Stiller, who finds opportunities in front of and behind the motion picture camera as a director, told of knocking on doors in New York for two years before he got a part in a show. He’s glad he hung in.
Perhaps the prize for perseverance goes to now successful actor Harvey Keitel, who paid a lot of rent in his early acting days working as a court reporter. Though he was taking classes at the Actor’s Studio, one of the finer acting schools in New York, Keitel wanted to be formally accepted into the program.
The Actor’s Studio is notoriously tough on those who audition. Many famous actors who take classes there never manage to actually confront the challenging audition process. In addition, of a couple thousand who audition each year, few are accepted. Oscar winner Martin Landau noted when he auditioned, only he and Steve McQueen were voted into the program.
Keitel auditioned for ten years before getting in. That means he auditioned during the regular tryout period, failed, waited a year, auditioned again, failed, and so on—ten times before finally making the cut.
The key here is, Keitel knew what he wanted to do with his time on the planet, and knew where he believed he would find the best training for him. He hung in and now appears regularly in major and minor films, seemingly never out of work.
With luck, most photographers may find work in their field right out of school. With a combination of shooting, lighting, and computer training, even experience with digital video shooting and editing, there are opportunities for photographers to work in and around photography. They can shoot, assist, or be employed in something related to their photography interest.
And if circumstances prevent that, then they have the model of other professionals, such as actors and people in the entertainment industry who face perhaps even greater challenges breaking into their profession. Understanding the experiences of actors can show photographers how others travel parallel paths of their own.
Bottom line: Can we imagine ourselves going back to the same company ten years in a row with an updated portfolio seeking the particular opportunity that company offers? How badly do we want the experience of working for that organization?
Jim McNay teaches and writes about photojournalism in California—while fantasizing about running a charter fishing business in Key West.
Photographers, particularly those in school or seeking to break into photojournalism, are welcome to send ideas for future columns to Jim McNay at jimmcnay@cox.net.
Questions about getting started in photojournalism that might be answered in future columns are also welcome.
Related Links:
McNay's member page
|
|
|
Contents copyright 2008, SportsShooter.com. Do not republish without permission.
|