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Acting Industry … Dead???

I would like to explore with other actors what they may feel is happening with the acting industry at the moment. Though I have had a good start to the year, I have notice the infamous ‘quiet spell’ has struck again. Black actors are phoning their Asian actor friends and vice-a-versa, to see if it’s a categorical reason or to do with the industry on the whole. And when asked, white actors and our agents confirm that there is a drought. The main idea is for us to share our opinions.

When we do have these spells that are no different from the British weather, you can almost imagine a factory where the mill has just stopped and all the actors are saying “it’s just dead at the moment. It’s just dead.” But why? No one at this factory is on strike. Not that I know of.

I think to understand what might be going on, is to break down the type of work that’s out there and explore the usual peaks and troughs of work. Looking at what I like to call ‘general’ factors where we usually find it slows down and why and then more ‘specific’ factors that could explain what’s happening now. For example, Christmas. This would be a clear general factor as we know that this is a point the industry quietens down. This is a period that your agent doesn’t mind you going on holiday. There are too many bank holidays here for anyone to actually work. Agents, casting directors and other members of the profession go AWOL and all we have left are pantos that have been planned from months ago.

In theatre we have a large number of venues and a range of theatrical genres. From a West End musical to a kitchen sink drama by a small scale theatre company on tour in Bradford. So what’s the main difference and what may be affecting us here.

If you look at the West End scene, you have high ticket prices and foreigners that have come from across the world to see the London’s West End. Theatres here are usually full where the front row generates enough money to pay the leads generous weekly wage. They also have funding from private companies with large assets. On the opposite end we have small scale touring companies that rely on arts council funding. They also have to meet certain requirements set by bodies such as Equity. Paying an actors wage, for props, set, costume, stage management and so forth doesn’t leave the company into much of a profitable position. I think this is where we meet a factor or rather a general factor for our drought.

You could have at one stage employed up to eight actors for a touring performance without breaking budget. Now it proves a little more difficult. To meet previously discussed requirements, a theatre company that does not have such generous funding may only employ four or perhaps if lucky five actors. Though the minimum fee for an actor has gone up over last few years, it still doesn’t leave an actor with much after deduction of N.I. and agency fees. Not to mention the cheeky VAT they put for the ‘service’. So before I conclude in this section that it may be about wages, perhaps the real answer is more to do with another question. Why are so many plays so under funded?

I went to see two plays towards the end of last year that were similar in production values. However, one play had one actor for each character who would appear just once for their only scene. The second play had actors doubling up as other characters. The former seemed a waste but the gig was employing more actors and allowed the audience to follow the story putting a clear face to a character name. The latter had to cope with a smaller budget and the reason to why was perhaps to do with the venues. One was higher in profile but had the same number of bums on seats and reviews in the papers as its contemporary.

As we know, there are also the Olympics to come. And I think it is here we start to look at a more specific factor. Though as above, funding may depend on scale and venue, you can’t help but believe that funding will drop as we come closer to the games and that this specific factor starts to become more of a general one. There is only so much money the government will put into the arts and whether that goes into theatre or elsewhere can never be completely certain. You only have to switch on the news to see the cost of the games is going up. However, I don’t want to blame another’s interest and profession as an evil cause. Sportsmen and actors are similar in many ways. Both perform in front of others and both are dream chasers.

We also have the film industry. If we were being honest, not many of us would turned down a role in a Universal or Warner Bros. film, even if we thought it was shit. And even if some movies don’t get released we have still made connections, can obtain footage or indicate the authenticity through IMDb for future work.

So what are the opposite ends here? Of course you have your higher profile pictures such as Love Actually or Notting Hill, but you also have your low budget, micro budget and no budget independent films. And thought there are many festivals you can take your indie flick to, don’t forget that you will face costs at some point. E-mailing your friends won’t raise your movies profile to a distributor.

So the general factors if you asked me would be the obvious one. Sunlight. Features are usually made in the summer if being filmed in the UK. Unless it’s a Bond flick, then you’re in Pinewood studios whenever you want to be.

In winter you may only get five hours of sunlight a day however, in summer you can have up to fifteen. That’s three times as much. With the right scheduling this is far more cost effective.

A few years ago I was seen for four feature films round about at the same time in late spring. They were all independents. Last year, I was only seen for one. This was a large scale film with a heavyweight director and a major distributor. And so far this year it has also been just the one. But this time it wasn’t British, it was German. So where have the indie Brit flicks disappeared too?

I uncovered a fact a couple of years ago that in that year only 72 movies were made in the UK. I would love to know how many were made last year and the year before that. I don’t think the numbers would have dropped so much but I am a little concerned about this year.

In-between gigs I temp at a property company so you can imagine the talks in the office about the current climate with the credit crunch and the market and economy in general. Though this may not affect TV and Radio that generates funds from advertising, my theory is that it will affect our movie industry.

Here is the ‘specific’ factor. A British feature I was in was made from the producer and director mortgaging their homes to get access to funds for their low budget motion picture and I am aware many other independent flicks have the same source of money. Now we are at a time where house prices are falling so any inflation made in the last few years will prove difficult for a film maker to release equity from his or her home or to re-mortgage for that matter.

And like with the Olympics, I hope this does not become a general factor. Perhaps it’s a little far fetched for a theory and hopefully not on the money but I do think the current economic climate of Britain is the specific factor for this ‘dead’ period we are or maybe experiencing.

A rapper in America concluded that ‘Hip Hop just died this morning’ and the response from his industry was unanimous. Nearly every rapper responded with their comments and opinions. Songs, mixtapes and albums were made around this subject. The artists were motivated to raise their level and prove their peer wrong. Hip Hop found a way as has music in general. It has found a way of combating poor sales affected by illegal downloads. As we approach summer, hopefully ‘things will start to pick up’ for us and in the mean time, let me know what you think.

Am I completely wrong? Have I missed out an obvious point or ‘factor’? Or is the industry treating you really well right now and others that you know?

Please feel free to comment back. I look forward in hearing from you.

You can comment back at the following places:

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Or under my blog here at www.britishtheatre.com