Hollywood Advice At Your Fingertips (Copyright 2015)
From Dictionary.com
Go:
3) to keep or be in motion.
22) to move or proceed with remarkable speed or energy.
48) energy, spirit, or animation.
59) to proceed without hesitation or delay.
Word origin: Old English gan “to go, advance, depart; happen; conquer;”
I love these definitions! How will you be “on go” this week from Monday May 22nd to Sunday May 28th? Let me know in the comments section below and I’ll share my status report with you all on Sunday, May 28th!
Let’s push our careers forward!
Okay, let me first start off by saying that I am not the end all be all of social media expertise. If I were, I would have 100 million followers and making bank off of social media.
However, I am proud of the way that I have used social media to put myself out there as a person and as an artist. I am proud of the relationships I have built and the people I engage with. And I am proud of how I have helped people gain clarity about using social media.
And so in today’s blog entry, I wanted to share my point of view as to how and why I use social media. A lot of people have expressed to me their fears, hesitations, allergic reactions, frustrations and confusion regarding social media. Some people would rather spend the rest of their lives in hell than log onto Twitter and deal with hashtags, retweets, mentions and why Twitter only allows 140 characters per tweet.
Some people see social media as yet another thing to add to their list of things to do. Some people see it as a cumbersome or unnecessary burden. Or unimportant. Or a waste of time. Many people continue to avoid social media to this day because they don’t want to post pictures of what they are eating at a restaurant (they actually still believe that this is what social media is all about)
I totally get it. I totally get it. I totally get it. I was one of those people who avoided social media like the plague. But then I looked at the word, “social media”, and what it was originally created and intended for: To use media as a way to be social. To use media as a way to connect, listen and engage with people you are interested in. To use media as a way to build exciting relationships. To use media as a way to let people know about you. You control what you want us to know about you.
How awesome is it that social media allows us access to so many people? Direct access to so many people with no gatekeepers involved? Twitter, Instagram and Facebook give us a first-hand, front row access to the people we love, respect and admire. We have access to engage with a writer, a producer, an animator, a senator, a lawyer, a chef, a wrestler, a teacher, a scientist, a musical theater enthusiast, a clothing designer, a dentist, a charity organization, etc.
When I first started using social media, I made mistakes in terms of cringe-worthy posts and a look at me, look at me, look at me approach and more cringe-worthy posts. I am also guilty of posting a few negative rants back in the day. And it’s okay because once I learned about the power of social media and its true intention, I reshaped my approach.
I use social media as a way to engage with people I am interested in. I use social media to stay engaged with what’s happening in the lives of people that I personally know and that I want to know. I use social media to express my voice as a person and as an artist. As a way for people to learn and know a part of me. I realized that I can’t always post about my career. Great, we get it: You’re an actor. You’re a writer. You’re a showrunner. But what other things is Jorge Ortiz interested in? So I find a balance between sharing my artistic journey with things I am passionate about: Madonna, RuPaul’s Drag Race, music, art work, my sense of humor, my points of view, etc.
I use Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on a regular basis and I feel that I do a pretty good job of balancing and showcasing both the professional and personal aspects of my life. Again, I don’t have millions of followers (and building a larger audience is the next level of learning and application for me) but I am proud of what each of my social media pages represent. I love that I am able to honestly engage with people I am interested in. I love that I am able to impinge and make honest connections.
I use the word “honest” because social media is about–for me at least–making honest connections. I am following you because I’m interested in what you do. You speak my language. You do what I want to do. I truly want to connect with you. Be honest because people can spot a fake immediately.
I give props and shoutouts to people I admire. I’m clear as to why I’m engaging with them. I respond to things they post that resonate with me. I cheer them on. I laugh with them.
I feel a sense of pride when I look through my Instagram page @jorgeortizactor 🙂 🙂 🙂 because I see the variety and the thought I put into the professional and personal aspects of my journey. And my Twitter too @jorgeortizactor 🙂 🙂 🙂
Connect with people on social media and build relationships. If someone wanted to work with me or target me, they could easily go through my social media pages and find out how to “cream puff” me with at least five different things I am passionate about. “Cream puff” is a term that famed acting teacher and director Milton Katselas created as a way to build and further relationships. When you are interested in targeting someone or getting on someone’s radar, you have to listen first and see what they like and what they’re interested in. Listen to them, do research on them so that you speak their language. In this way, you bring them a cream puff that is thoughtful and speaks their language. The person who receives the cream puff will be touched/impressed/honored/appreciative because you’ve done your research and gave them a thoughtful, connected gift.
I always ask myself, “What do I want to express today on social media? Will it be in alignment with my voice and brand?” I really do give thought to what I want to express and reveal about myself on social media. Many times, I’ll create my social media plan for the week on Sundays (but I still allow room for inspiration to come in as well throughout the week)
What do I want to express? Because truth be told, people are listening to me. People are watching. People are looking. What do I want to express today? Is it on brand? Is it a reflection of who I am? I want to use social media as a way to engage and build relationships. I also want to use social media as a way to share my journey as an artist and the things I am interested in. On the other side of the coin, I also know what I will not use social media for (e.g. I will not talk about politics, religion, etc.) These are topics that I don’t want to present on my social media pages.
So, for those of you who are reading this and have a profound aversion to social media, I hope this encourages you to give it another try. How can you use social media in a meaningful way that adds something to your life rather than it being a burden or a subtraction from your life? What is the voice you want to put out there? What do you want to share with us? Who do you want to engage with? Who do you want to build relationships with?
And most importantly, have fun! The world is at our fingertips!
You can follow my Instagram and Twitter accounts at @jorgeortizactor
“Storm Hits The Sideshow” was the first painting I ever acquired. Famed acting teacher and director Milton Katselas painted it and the second I saw it in his art gallery, I knew I had to have it. As a matter of fact, I walked into his Saturday master class during a break, marched straight up to him, looked him directly in the eyes and said, “Milton, I love your painting, ‘Storm Hits The Sideshow’, and I must have it. I will own it.” And in true Milton fashion, he put one hand on my shoulder, looked me straight in the eyes and said, “Good!” That’s all he said and I knew that he knew the painting was going to be in great hands.
I purchased the painting a week later, and to this day, I still love it.
This is a work of art that inspires me and is personal to me. If you zoom into the picture of the painting, you will see a guy riding a motorcycle in the middle of this storm. I always saw myself as that guy. I am cutting through the storm, the uncertainty and the craziness of this industry. I am that guy on the motorcycle who is cutting through the ups and downs, the naysayers and the rejections with force and intention.
That guy on the motorcycle is stepping into the storm. He’s stepping into the fire to get to the other side. He is bypassing and pushing through any doubts, fears and considerations he has. I have no doubt that this guy will make it to the other side of this storm and into a place filled with sunshine, clear skies, rainbows and drag queens (Yes to RuPaul’s Drag Race!)
I know that I too am pushing through with intention, even when I don’t have all of the answers. Even when things look dark. Even when it looks like the storm will never end. Why? Because I can ask the next question. Because I am on go. Because I take specific actions for my career. Because I am surrounded by a great community of like-minded artists and friends. Because I am a motherfucking artistic force who knows this is what I want to do with my life. In this painting, there is no sense of where the storm begins or ends, but it doesn’t matter because I am creating and building my career one action at a time.
I would love to read your comments below about what inspires you! Is it a painting? A song? A movie? I would love to know!
Dear James Franco,
I haven’t forgotten about you! I know, I know! The last time I wrote you an open letter was on July 15th, 2015. It was titled, “Sleeping With James Franco For 8 Months”. For those of you who are interested in reading that blog entry, here is the link:
https://chasingthegeorge.wordpress.com/2015/07/26/sleeping-with-james-franco-for-8-months/
Rest assured that I haven’t forgotten about you! I am implementing the next phase to seal this deal! And to make it up to you, here is a song I want to dedicate to you from “The Roar of the Greasepaint, The Smell of the Crowd”. Lyrics appear below the picture.
“Look at that face –
Just look at it,
Look at that fabulous face of yours.
I knew first look I took at it,
This was the face that the world adores.
Look at those eyes –
As wise and as deep as the sea.
Look at that nose –
It shows what a nose should be.
As for your smile, it’s lyrical –
Friendly and warm as a summer’s day –
That face is just a miracle.
Where could I ever find words to say.
The way that it makes me happy
Whatever the time or place?
I’ll find in no book
What I find when I look
At that face.”
So in last Sunday’s blog entry, “Yale + Harvard = ShondaLand?”, I shared with you all an assignment I received to read challenging material out loud for five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night for one full month. The objective was to train myself to pick up material cold, on the spot, and read from it with confidence and fluidity. This practice will help me with procedural auditions (cold readings in particular)
I decided to tackle articles from the Yale Law Review, the Harvard Medical Journal and the New England Journal of Medicine. I want these journals to be one of the tools I use to understand and get myself into a procedural world like ShondaLand.
Lord chile! I stumbled through all of the journals for the first fews days. I think I had a 70% success rate of ease and comfortability. The remaining 30% of challenge came from law and medical terms I was not familiar with. Or a series of large words that require effort and thought. Every time I stumbled, I would read the section over and over again until I nailed it.
DEFIBRILLATOR!
AORTIC!
UNILATERAL HUMANITARIAN INTERVENTION!
Critics of the criminalization of aggression adopt the same understanding of the internal normative posture of the law, but object to its classification alongside the other international crimes precisely because it privileges sovereignty over humanity. (Yale Law Journal. “Why Have We Criminalized Aggressive War?” by Tom Dannenbaum)
The cool thing I noticed was that I read each article as an actor. Meaning that even though I stumbled over unfamiliar words here and there, I still had a strong sense of storytelling. I understood setup and payoff with certain sections. I added emphasis in certain sections to drive a point home. I felt like I was delivering a speech to an assembled audience of doctors or lawyers and I wanted to make sure that my communication landed on them. That I was impinging them. That I was connecting to them.
One week down! Three more weeks to go! At some point, I’d love to film myself reading one of these articles cold and then sharing it with you all.
I recently did a cold read audition in class. I had 10 minutes to prepare for this procedural type material. I was playing a character who was one of the top heart surgeons in the city. I quickly started making strong choices, but I found myself tripping over the medical terms. I realized that procedurals are an area where I need more strengthening. By the way, “procedural” is a term used to describe a type of television series: medical, law, cop/detective.
I did my cold read on camera and it went very well. When I watched my audition and assessed my work afterwards, I said that I was happy with what I created in 10 minutes. However, I could see that my attention was on making sure that I delivered the medical terms correctly first and that my performance came second. I was more focused on getting the words right then focusing on my performance.
So my teacher, Richard Lawson, gave me an assignment. Actually, he gave the entire class an assignment. Over the next month, he wants us to pick up and read challenging material out loud for five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night. In this way, we build certainty and strength in picking up challenging material and reading it cold out loud.
Like anything else, it’s about the reps. It takes practice. Some people are just naturally at ease when it comes to procedural terminology. For others, like myself, it takes practice. If I go in for any procedural show like Scandal or NCIS New Orleans or Chicago Med, I need to be comfortable with saying their words in a clear and confident way. Picking up challenging material and reading it out loud for the next month is going to be very helpful.
So I decided to read articles from the Yale Law Journal and the Harvard Medicine Magazine. I’ll also read articles from The New England Journal of Medicine.
In a month, we’re going to do cold read auditions again and he’s going to give us sides from procedural TV shows. It will be great to see how much I improve in picking up challenging procedural sides and reading them cold with more certainty and confidence.
Will Yale and Harvard lead me to ShondaLand?
Stay tuned!
I recently met with a talented actor and friend to help them with his business plan-or DOIN’ as we call it at the Richard Lawson Studios. DOIN’ stands for Declaration of Independence. We only focused on his raison d’être (which literally means your reason for existence. Your reason for being.) In other words, purpose. What is your purpose as an artist and as a person? Why are you pursuing this particular career and not another one like law, medicine, etc.? We only focused on this part because the raison d’être is the engine that drives everything. It colors and influences everything that comes after it in your business plan.
It was great to hear his raison d’être and then ask the next question so that it could be a little more specific and personal to him. What he had already written down was great! I just asked questions to help him take it to a higher level of specificity and personal resonance.
And there was one part in his raison d’être that really struck me. He mentioned “sending down the elevator” to others when he reaches a certain level of success. “Sending down the elevator” meaning that he’s reached a high level of success and now wants to give back to others in the same way people have supported him in his journey. He wants to pay it forward to others who are just starting out, who need direction or help, etc. He took the elevator up to the top and now wants to send it down to others and help them make it to the top as well.
It’s interesting because I’ve heard this similar desire in others who have shared their raison d’être with me before. They too want to help and inspire others. And what I told my friend is that he can send the elevator down NOW. Through small, simple, meaningful actions of GIVE, he can help others now.
Now, as he becomes more famous or wealthy, his sphere of influence and give will increase. But he can take actions now. He loved that perspective and it opened up his eyes to the fact that he can give now. He’s excited in what he can do now to help others and I can’t wait to check in with him to see what actions he’s taking.
So, you don’t have to wait until you “make it” or become famous or rich in order to send the elevator down. Your raison d’être exists in you now. That’s what drives you every day to be who and what you are. So give now.
For those of you at home experiencing a similar situation as my friend, here are some simple, doable actions of give that I’m going to quickly throw out as they pop into my head:
Offer to help someone do their first scene in scene study class.
Offer to help someone with their film shoot by being a production assistant or first assistant director or running craft services, etc.
Support someone by attending their comedy showcase.
Help someone out with their audition.
Be a buddy or mentor to a new student in class and show them the ropes, the ins and outs.
Offer to help someone out at their headshot session.
Share someone’s weekly blog entries with your contacts and on your social media 🙂 🙂 🙂
Introduce someone to your agent or manager.
Introduce someone to your friends.
Volunteer at a shelter.
Donate money or time to charities.
Donate money to a fundraising campaign to help bring a person’s passion project to life.
Offer to listen and provide helpful advice.
If you see an opportunity for someone, let them know about it.
Go to the movies with someone.
Take someone out to lunch.
Share someone’s weekly blog entries with your contacts and on your social media 🙂 🙂 🙂
Write someone a note of thanks and appreciation.
Do research for someone in a particular area they need help with.
Donate items to someone’s yard sale.
If someone is looking to repaint or redecorate their room, offer help.
If someone needs help moving out of their old place and into their new one, offer help.
What other ways can you think of to pay it forward and give? I would love to hear from you in the comments section below!
Okay! So you’ve had a successful headshot shoot. Hooray! Congratulations! You did it and you’ve celebrated all the hard and fun work you put into having a wonderful headshot shoot experience.
So, now what?
Depending on the photographer you’ve shot with, the length of time you spent shooting with them, the number of characters you shot, etc., you could end up with anywhere from hundreds of shots to choose from to over a thousand to choose from.
For a lot of actors, this is an agonizing process. How do I choose my favorite shots out of hundreds? Out of thousands? YIKES! YIKES! YIKES! The horror! The stress! Bite your fingernails, tear your hair out, run to a corner and sob violently!
“Not today, Satan, not today!” (Thank you Bianca Del Rio for creating that phrase!)
Actually, this process doesn’t have to be agonizing or painful. It doesn’t have to consume weeks of your life. Choosing your favorite shots can be a very easy process.
I want to share with you my process for how I made my final selects from the headshots I took on February 25th.
1) I go through each photo with a forward and intentional pace. I don’t linger on each photo for five minutes. Move with intention because the photos will either hit me on a gut level or not. Our instincts are incredibly powerful. We know what we know. A photo either hits me or it doesn’t. Those that hit me, I move them over to a new folder. I continue this process until I get to the last photo. Once I get to the last photo, see number 2.
2) I repeat the process to see if there are any other possible photos that hit me on a gut level.
3) I go to the new folder and call it “Selects”. I then go through each photo a little more carefully and make note of things that would disqualify the photo from making it into my final selects. For example, is the photo blurry? Do my eyes look a little dead in the photo? Is there a shadow across my face that maybe can’t be fixed in Photoshop? Am I blown out? I go through this folder to examine mistakes.
4) I weed out the photos that contain mistakes and I’m left with 56 photos in the “Selects” folder (By the way, we shot a total of 463 photos.) I go through the 56 photos to start narrowing down my personal favorites. I look at the subtext of my characters. I look for a secret in the characters’ eyes. Whenever I choose a favorite photo, I tag them (I work on a Mac, so I right click on the photo file name and choose “Tags”. Then, I choose a color to go next to the file name. I chose red.) The photos I don’t tag as my personal favorites are still kept in the “Selects” folder because they are still strong contenders and I want to have options to present to my community and to my agent. They may see something I don’t see. Once I’ve tagged my personal favorites, see number 5.
5) I present these 56 photos to my small group of classmates (These are people I trust and respect.) It’s important not to have too many cooks in the kitchen because you will only become confused!!! So find a handful of people you trust to share your photos with. When I presented my photos and went through each one, I took note of the photos that received the biggest reactions. If my community was responding powerfully to certain photos, then those were keepers and I later tagged them in red as well (and it was nice to see that my class and I matched on several photos I already tagged.)
Now, for the photos I already tagged as a personal favorite, but didn’t receive as big of a reaction as others, I looked them over to see why they didn’t impinge my classmates. I ended up removing 4 personal favorites from the “Selects” folder. So now, I have 52 photos left in this folder. Again, some are tagged as my personal favorites, while the rest are un-tagged photos that are still strong contenders.
6) I sent the 52 photos to my agent to see which ones he liked. When he emailed me his list of favorites, I tagged them in a different color. I chose blue. And it was great to see that he and I matched on several photos. He also chose a few photos that I didn’t tag as a personal favorite. However, I took those photos into consideration because his job is to field the entertainment market place 24/7. He knows what’s out there. He knows what’s selling and what’s being bought. I want this to be a collaboration between the two of us and include his picks as well.
7) The photos where he and I matched (Red and blue tags) were definite keepers. For the photos where he and I didn’t match, I chose a few photos that had a blue tag (his personal favorites) and a few photos that had a red tag (my personal favorites) In this way, I’m including both of our personal favorites and respecting both of our opinions. I create a final folder called “Winners” and put these final photos in it.
And that’s it! A pretty easy, painless process!
I have 20 photos that I will upload across Actors Access, LA Casting, IMDB, etc.
Let the new chapter of submissions begin!
See you all later!
Jorge Ortiz: Actor. Writer. Showrunner.
POWERHOUSE.
(Photo by Mary Thompson on November 3rd, 2016)
For a second week in a row, I stepped up my awareness in certain areas of my personal and professional lives so that I can be in alignment with my career postulates. With this increased awareness, and by taking a set of actions, I am stepping into the light and power of my postulates. If I see and want these things for my career, then I need to behave and act in accordance with the things that I see and want. For example, one of my postulates is:
I am a household name infiltrating and conquering mainstream Hollywood through my film acting work and by creating TV and Film content that is just beyond the margin of comfortability (Daring and artistically free content that falls within the wheelhouse of HBO, Showtime, Netflix, The Weinstein Company and other powerful indie studio houses)
I see this postulate. I just have to fill in the blanks to get there. Take the actions to get there. So that when I do become a household name, it’s déjà vu because I already saw it X amount of time ago. But in order for me to get closer and closer to achieving this postulate (and other postulates), I need to have an increased awareness of how to live and operate my life in certain areas. For example, I have to be a leader. I have to be in the front. I have to speak my mind. My viewpoint must be unyielding with good-humored inflexibility. I have to ask for what I want from the people on my team, etc. I have to take actions and vibrate at the same frequency level of my postulates.
So I tackled the same list of actions again from my October 16th blog entry. Again, some of these actions are already a part of my everyday routine. A few other actions are a little more challenging and I need to lean into them more. That being said, I had a little more ease with tackling the challenging actions in the second week than I did in the first week. Moving forward, I have to continue tackling these challenging actions until they become a way of life for me, a part of my routine.
So without further delay, here are the list of actions I took again. This is not a final, comprehensive list of all the actions I take for my life and career. This is just a small sampling of my career administration, with a focus on challenging actions I need to step it up in. The asterisk (*) indicates a challenging action.
To sit in the front row. (Yes. In both of my acting classes)
**To speak my mind immediately. (Yes. Better. Improved.)
**To follow my impulses and instincts. (Yes. Better. Improved)
To lead. (Yes. Taught my ass off in the PDP 1.0 and PDP 2.0 classes.)
To dance while in the passenger seat of a car when a good song comes on or when the driver dances. (I did not ride shotgun this time.)
To spice things up. (Yes. Sunday night.)
To dance in the streets. (Yes.)
To make extra money. (Yes. Two times.)
To be myself without apology. (Yes. In terms of the way I laugh, the things I say, the jokes I say, the way I dance.)
**To hold my own space. (Yes. Much better. Improved)
To dance without consideration at the top of acting classes. (Yes.)
To continue administering my acting and writing careers. (Yes! Yes! Yes!)
To engage in conversation with a new person (Yes. I engaged with a customer at the smog check station, with the tech assistant at the smog check station and with two people at a Halloween party.)
To ask various industry people for something I want. (Yes. I reached out to two TV showrunners to be their assistant.)
To excite my agent again with a new piece of administrative evidence that will push my career forward. (Yes. I sent them my commercial headshot template.)
To be submitted on 3-5 TV series and 3-5 feature films. See below:
TV Series: The Fosters, Silicon Valley, Counterpart, Grey’s Anatomy.
Feature Films: Happy Anniversary, Willie and Me.
To impinge! (Yes. I stood by my Halloween costume concept and didn’t yield from it at the Halloween party. Also posted my concept on Facebook. I also impinged when I taught PDP 1.0 and PDP 2.0. I impinged with an audition I did. Etc. Etc. Etc.)
Chasing The George 