A quick story for you, hero.
There’s nothing quite as exquisite as getting your first on-camera booking. For me, that was on Heroes, as the Puppetmaster, Eric Doyle. He was a creepy, evil villain:
And on the second day of shooting my first episode, the director took me aside and quietly asked, “Why are you lying to people?”
He didn’t believe that this could possibly be my first episode, ever. “You’re doing things that it takes actors years to know how to do – you’re even asking the right questions of the right crew members. This can’t be your first time on-set. What gives?”
It was then that I realized the power of my “secret” weapon.
I’ve said many times that one of the biggest reasons I booked that gig was because of one book on acting I read that changed my life, Secrets of Screen Acting:
So I pulled out my dog-eared copy and handed it to him.
“A book??” he said. He began leafing through it, and his amazement growing as he reviewed the content.
“Well,” I said, “I also did a podcast with him. That whole thing was like a private masterclass for me.”
(The full story is in the Introduction to the third edition of SOSA.)
And that brings me to why I’m writing: I’m going to give you both the paperback and the audiobook version of Secrets of Screen Acting.
This book is immensely useful, not only to on-camera actors, but to voice talent as well. If you’ve ever wondered how series regulars do what they do so well, or you’re struggling to figure out how to take your acting proficiency to the next level, this book is for you.
Read it. And listen to it. For free.
You’ll get both versions as free bonuses when you grab, at a Black Friday/Cyber Monday super low cost, the Secrets of Screen Acting Podcast Archive of almost 300 episodes of the interview podcast I did with Patrick Tucker, the British director that wrote Secrets of Screen Acting.
(I’d read the book, was blown away, called him in London, and convinced him to do a podcast. Later, he hired me to narrate the audiobook version.)
A total of 292 episodes, 5 minutes each, diving deep into an individual aspect of what skills are needed to really work a camera and/or microphone at a professional level.
We even found 20 episodes that we’d recorded but were lost…and are including them in this archive.
Normally, the podcast archive alone is $399 (a little over a dollar a lesson – any one of which can be career-altering), but I’m making it available for the holiday weekend at just $199 – and I’m including the paperback and audiobook versions of the book itself.
I’m only going to be able to offer this special package for the next few days – this all ends on Wednesday, November 30 – and then the price goes back up to $399 for the Podcast Archive alone (no copies of the book included as bonuses).
So…act quickly, save $200 and give yourself this gift. Just click or tap on the button below to hear some sample episodes of the podcast, and to grab this offer while it’s still available:
And I know that you also do voice over – and if you’re wondering if this book and podcast series will help you on-mic as well as on-camera, the answer is yes. I even built a course myself around how getting better at one helps you get better at the other.
I hope this helps.
David