There is a lot of commercial work in Vancouver if you are looking to work for companies like Sony, McDonald’s and Kellogg’s. There are auditions going on right now in Vancouver. As an actor it may honestly come across as a complete surprise that with acting you often find yourself sorted into a character type. Type typically takes into factors like the person’s look, personality and unique qualities that make them different from other actors and actresses. Type is also taken into consideration when an actor starts acting in commercials; especially since the goal of a commercial is to sell the product and not the actor. An actor’s skill set may not even be all that important, as most commercials seek to fill a niche. Commercial acting in the entertainment business is honestly considered to be the easiest form of acting to break into a career with. If you have an interesting look and personality, the opportunities for work in this area of acting are endless. A lot of times when you are on set for a commercial acting job, you just need to make the right facial expressions, dance or simply smile while implying the product you are holding. One easy thing is that you may not even have lines or even need to speak either.
Ever changing trends and interests means that commercial acting is always evolving in one way or another to meet demand. The typical job does not take a lot of time to complete and a shoot usually only takes two days with an average pay of 2,000 dollars including the residual income that you make every time a commercial is aired. This stipend is called a form of residual payments and if a commercial airs for a while; it can make for great residual income even after you are done with the job. You could do some commercials and live off of the residual income while you are trying to get auditions for bigger roles.
You can work anywhere with commercial work, including Vancouver and many other major cities around the country. There are a lot of opportunities out there as there are new products and business started every day. Local commercials however do not pay as well as those that get nationally or even internationally aired. The more range a commercial has the better the pay and residual payments are from that commercial. However, even acting in local commercials can serve as a way to gain experience to add to your resume and help yourself to be able to hone your skill and move on up to larger jobs in film or television even. Many successful actors and actresses started their career in commercials first.
If you are truly interested in making your start in commercial acting; you can really make a name for yourself if you take the time to take specialized commercial acting classes to hone your skills. Even though as a commercial actor you may not need to remember lines or even speak; you have to be able to portray many different emotions and talk with your body rather than your voice. By taking commercial acting classes you can learn many different methods for achieving that and in general make yourself more educated and skillful in your craft. This will also help you be more confident when you get to an audition in Vancouver.
A pitfall that some actors fall into when they start going to auditions for commercial acting jobs is that they fail to treat the audition as they would a more serious role. This can be a huge mistake for you especially if that casting director happens to be the one auditioning you later on for a more major role and commercials can give you the income you need as you are looking for a more substantial role. So be sure to treat a commercial audition as you would a movie audition as this reflects your reputation as an actor in Vancouver. First impressions are everything in the acting world.
