Get ready for Pilot Season!

Being ready for whatever Pilot Season throws at you isn’t easy. “Can you be in Burbank in 20 minutes to read for the director?” is the kind of phrase that gets uttered during Pilot Season. “My agent hasn’t called me in months” is another. Either way, you don’t want any logistical or other details to get in the way this Pilot Season (or ever).

Here are some details that need to be dealt with now so that you are available for success. If these things aren’t managed, you can be sunk before you even start.

1. Clean your Space.

If your place is really messy and you have no space that is organized and set aside for your creative work, your work will suffer. No joke. Your external is a representation of your internal. You need a place to work on sides and scripts that doesn’t offer distraction and disconnection. Get rid of the clutter that clouds your space and your mind so you can focus on your creative work. Best way to do that is to identify a space where you can work well, then clear it out completely. And then create a space where you’ll love working.

2. Create a Self-Tape Room.

You will definitely self-tape this Pilot Season and you may self-tape on a Tuesday for a scene that needs to be in the Casting Director’s inbox by Tuesday night. No time to worry about where you’re going to self-tape. Figure out your space. You need to decide where you’re going to self-tape and free that area of anything that will get in the way or distract from doing your boldest and sharpest work, both creatively and cinematically.

3. Control Your Transportation.

In LA especially the freeways, traffic, and parking can kill an acting career. We see actors blow an audition because they arrive, pulling their hair out after getting lost or spending 2 hours in bumper-to-bumper traffic.  Getting to an audition can be a major obstacle. While there are certain things you just can’t control (if a guy wants to run naked on the 405, stopping traffic for 2 hours there’s nothing you can do), you need to be in command of the things you can. Get your car serviced now. Rotate the tires, change the fluids, check the engine, etc. “My car won’t start” is not an excuse that will move a network to put its casting on hold. Neither is traffic. Leave early, know your routes, be in command. Same thing applies if you’re using public transit. Study the maps.

4. Call Your Agent or Manager.

Whether you talk to her every day or haven’t heard from her in months, give her a call and tell her that you’re ready and excited for Pilot Season. Tell her what your intention is this Pilot Season and tell her what you’re doing right now to prepare for it: “I’m in class, I’m taking care of my body and mind, I’m writing a script, I got the Pilot Season Playbook,” etc. Let her know you’re excited and you’re doing the work. Get a sense of what her intention is and get on the same page. It may feel scary. Do it anyway.

5. Control your communication and technology.

Make sure your phone, computer, router, printer, etc. are in perfect, working order. If you have an agent or manager, make sure they know all the ways to reach you and which way is the best way to reach you. Pilot Season moves fast and no one cares that you didn’t get the email, your printer broke, or your phone fell in the toilet. They can’t care. They’re busy trying to cast a TV pilot.

6. Sign Up For Class Now.

This is the Olympics of acting and you need to compete.

When the audition comes in, you’re being asked to lift really heavy weights, and if you’re not used to lifting those weights with grace and ease, you won’t compete. Either because their agent told them they had to or because they all-of-a-sudden realize they need to stay in championship shape during Pilot Season, actors scramble last minute to get into class for the “quick fix.” We’re here to tell you that there are no quick fixes, no magic pills. The work of champions is doing the work in a consistent practice, lifting the weights daily, making no excuses, digging in with heart and soul. Those actors are ready when the agent calls. So yes, right now, get into class, but do it because you’re committed to doing the work. That’s what we believe. That’s the work we do. That’s the work that books work.

Choose this moment to make it the time of honing your craft, filling your heart, and electrifying your career.

And… Sign up now for one of our career-changing CLASSES.

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