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Let's talk resumes.
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A resume is also a critical marketing tool. You're going to need one. It shows us your education, experience, and special talents all in one, hopefully easy to read place. You can Google actor resume to check out the formatting that is used on different kinds of actor resumes. Although I will say I've worked in casting, there is kind of a standard format that many actors use. I'll show you that format now.
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Why? Because I used to use it myself. This used to be an eight by 10 and it would be stapled to the back of your headshot. You would bring it in person to an audition. If you didn't have a headshot and resume with you, you might as well not even audition. It was considered very unprofessional not to have one. These days, you don't really need to print it out. A lot of people don't even get printed versions of their headshots because a lot of auditions are not in person anymore. So I'll leave that up to you. Check out the format here for an industry standard actor resume to see how you might want to format yours. This, however, is my writer director resume. Much different branding as you can see. It also has my photo on it. I don't love a photo on an actor resume. I don't think you need it. I think it kind of clutters the page for different kinds of resumes though.
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It just depends on what kind of job you're going for. I also really like that photo. So that's why I included it. Back to actor resumes. You should never lie about anything big.
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That said, if you did a student film and it was extremely professional, the footage turned out great, I don't see a problem with calling that a short film. But if you, let's say, wish you were in a Marvel movie but never have been in a Marvel movie, please don't say you did a very small role in a Marvel movie. That's just a bridge too far. So embellishing is one thing, but outright lying is not something you want to do. Also, do not lie about the people that you've worked with. Why? You would be amazed at how many casting directors or directors will see a name on your resume and go, "Oh, that's my friend Heidi. Oh, I love her. What was it like working with her?" And you're like, "Uh, I just made that name up. I don't know who that is." So try not to lie about your experience, your credits, or who you've worked with. Now, as far as accents go, I think it's good to include them on your resume.
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You can put them on there if you think
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with a couple of days notice, you could brush it off and be fairly believable with it. You don't need to be able to master it on command, like snap your fingers and go, but a couple days of prep,
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I think it's fair to put it on your resume. So I hope that helps in expanding how many accents you're allowed to list. And if accents are your specialty, you're gonna wanna list that because a lot of people are looking for folks who can do dialects, even now. You can also list sports, kinds of dance that you know, special tricks, cartwheels, gymnastics, whistling, horseback riding, things like that. You don't need to have a lot of special skills on there, but it's good to put something, if nothing else, casting directors can get kind of bored and they might see something really unique and strange and use it as a talking point to start a conversation with you in the audition. It can help to kind of relieve the board and relieve attention and help you form a connection with the casting director. Please be sure to have somebody triple check for grammar, spelling errors, typos. It's a really bad look to have mistakes on your resume. You only have one that you're using for all of your submissions. For God's sake, please treat it like a professional document and make sure that it is completely free of errors. You want your columns to be straight, tabbed perfectly. Sometimes actors will give me their resume and it's like wibbly-wobbly columns all over the place. Don't do that. The tabbing is there and makes it incredibly easy to have just the standard three column. Go for that and make sure that you have a nice, neat, ordered columnular design on your page. And finally, as far as how to order things,
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it goes name, any contact info you want to list. I don't personally need stats on height, weight, et cetera, eye color, I can get that all from somebody's comp card, but underneath that you have your credits and then underneath credits you have training. Underneath training you have special skills. Now, the thing that you want to book the most should go on top. So for instance, if you're trying to book feature films versus theater, film credits should go on the top. Maybe you have a different version of your resume for theater auditions so that theater is on top for your theater auditions. And then when you go into a film or TV audition, the on-camera credits are on top for those. You can have two, three different resumes for different occasions, but the thing that you want to focus on for
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The Vermillion Podcast is sponsored by Vermillion, a home for artists. We offer classes, coaching, and community for creatives and innovators in the arts. If you're ready to find your voice and build the life of your dreams, we're here to support you every step of the way. Check out clubvermillion.com and schedule a free call today.
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