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Today I mailed in my ballot with two YES votes on the SAG-AFTRA merger.

I have been skeptical about the process, even speaking up in a membership meeting to ask the AFTRA board to release a minority report from dissenting board members. Both union boards chose to do that, though there were not obligated to do so. That is a good thing.

Though appreciative of the huge time commitment the Unite For Strength folks have made, I have not been part of their bandwagon, but have been independent and skeptical. I don’t like the logo on the merger website. I have read everything the merger opponents have to say, and have pondered their concerns. But in the end, most of their concerns don’t sway me. Why? A few themes emerge: They insist on utter certainty with the future, ignoring the uncertainty of the way things are right now. They say that Bad Thing X will happen if we merge, and fail to mention the fact that Bad Thing X is already happening. They yearn for the impossible, as if we could go back in time or alter federal laws. They sometimes present false or misleading information.

Now I do not believe this merger is 100% perfect or will be 100% painless, but I have decided that merger provides the best chance at a decent future for middle-class working actors, so I am voting YES.

Things have changed. The status quo is problematic. We must adapt. Clinging to the past is not the answer. This merger strengthens our bargaining power. This merger paves the road to a lessened split-earnings problem. It paves the road to a place where we spend less time fighting among ourselves and instead fight for more from our employers. It increases the likelihood of organizing work that is currently non-union. It will bring about a better situation in terms of the process of joining the union and paying dues. To name a few reasons. So I am voting YES.

When I started acting professionally, one of my first questions was, “Why so many unions?” I clearly remember blurting out that question in a SAG / AFTRA / AEA informational meeting in Boston. That inclination toward thoughtful merger has stayed with me, and now is the time to act on it. I am also open to other performer unions merging when the time is right for that, and I hope this merger paves the road for that, as well.

I have voted YES, and I hope you will, too.

Another limerick, this one composed for the folks at Desperate Housewives. At the start of this its final season, Felicity Huffman said, “All bets are off.” I tweeted this to Jeff Greenstein, and he hit me back with a “Well done!”

Enjoy:

Pilot season has started. Some actors behave differently during this time of year. Some businesses that make money off of actors push their wares more heavily this time of year. I say the thing to do for most of us non-famous folk is keep your head down and work hard 365 days. Thus, I have composed a limerick for the season.

There once was a season called pilot
That raised actors’ hopes way up high a lot.
I calmly proclaim
That unless you’re a “name,”
A different approach should apply not.

Stay tuned for more gems. I’m composing limericks these days.

SAG Award nominees (announced today) will not receive my vote if they pertain to one of these shows:

Damages
The Good Wife
Harry’s Law
Hot in Cleveland
Modern Family
Nurse Jackie
Spartacus: Gods of the Arena
Suits

It’s not because of the quality of these shows, which is generally quite high, but because they are not SAG projects! SAG Awards go to SAG projects, in my opinion. But considering how the new shows are overwhelmingly AFTRA these last few seasons, it’s interesting to note that the nominations are not overwhelmingly AFTRA. (Not yet.)

See that information on the right side of my IMDb page? Watch me in CSI: Miami episode #10.11 on 12/11 @ 10 pm.

Though I hope you’ll watch me, you’ll probably hear me more than see me in the opening sequence of this cuh-razy episode all about pageants for little girls. See a preview on the YouTube.

I’ve been asked to create a list of acting resources. So I’m looking for beloved web sites or applications that you find useful in your acting career!

Do you have a favorite acting resource or three? Care to share?

A few things to consider before you email me your top few favorites:

• Priority will go to cheap resources. The freer the better!
• Not the very most obvious things. We all know about Actors Access and Twitter, for example.
• Stuff you’ll use again and again more than time-sensitive info that served you awesomely this last week and now it’s done.
• And if you can, tag it: is it commercial or theatrical; is this resource more for the actor new to town, or the actor who’s been here a few years; any other label you can think of.

Please share! Add a comment on this page. Or tweet it. Or via email. I’ll compile your suggestions and share the results.

Thanks a zillion!

Examples, to prime the pump:

Stage Agent is a handy way to research the basics on roles in a play you might be auditioning for. I’ve used it a lot over the years. THEATER, REFERENCE

We Make Movies is a great org that gets actors and writers together for readings and good times. And they sometimes make movies! The site has lots of articles for filmmakers and producers, and occasionally for actors. INDIE FILM, ORGANIZATIONS

Map of commercial CDs. Some genius made a Google Map for people new to commercials. Not comprehensive, just the key places. COMMERCIAL, NEW TO TOWN

I recently saw a weekend workshop being advertised. An established casting director says you’ll spend 4 hours exploring, unlocking, discovering, learning; your auditions will improve markedly; etc., etc. Also, because this CD is well established, you know you’ll be on the coveted short list if you impress him. Learning plus access! The flyer explicitly says the opposite: the usual disclaimers, this is no promise of anything. But 25 actors will see the name of the CD and sense that the disclaimer doesn’t apply to them and/or that this block of time will unlock that one last lock. So they attend.

Let’s do the math. CD Bob brings in 25 actors at $200 a pop, for $5,000–not bad for half a Saturday’s work. And you get to spend 4 hours with CD Bob. 4 hours. That’s a deep connection there. Except.

Except there are 24 other actors there, of varying caliber. The teaching is likely to cater to those of lesser talent. And even if not, they’re all there networking away, too. So you paid $200 for 1/25 of Bob’s attention for 4 hour, so you hired an expert at the equivalent rate of $1,250/hour.

That’s pricey.

One alternative: take some material to CD Bob (on your own or with an appropriate acting partner of your choosing). If his coaching rate is $100/hour, for the same two bills you could get 100% of his attention for 2 whole hours, and both the learning and the networking sides of things are likely to be higher.

To me, it’s a no-brainer that the workshop is overpriced. Furthermore, if you’re dying to give Bob $200 for some reason, this alternative is far better. But I fear 25 actors out there will behave differently, every time.

Less than an hour ago, I got email from SAG announcing the results of the most recent election. I took their numbers and prepared a graphical representation of the Hollywood division results. You can see how well Unite For Strength did. That slate ran 34 people and 31 of them were elected. Only Scott Bakula, Valerie Harper and Esai Morales got elected without being part of UFS. Click the thumbnail for a bigger image.

Sometimes you see comments like this in casting notices: These roles require strong ability to express emotion through facial expressions. These comments from casting directors can appear in high-level projects or no-budget backyard shoots.

There’s a trap here. Actors, beware!

The potential problem here is that actors might go for face-oriented results, after all, they’re asking for expressive facial expressions. But I want you to watch a few seconds of the following video. It’s a shot-by-shot homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark. Just watch the first moment when our young fanboy actor looks out into the forest, from 0:46 to 0:52.

We are watching the back of this guy’s head as he comes into frame, surveys the forest and puts his hands on his hips. In these 6 seconds, we can tell it’s not good acting. (If you watch further, you’ll see many imitations of Harrison Ford that are inauthentic human experiences. Hey, it’s tough to imitate Mr Ford!)

The amount of his body that is in the frame for these few seconds is the same amount that would be in the frame if we could also see his facial expressions. What if from the front his facial expressions were perfect? Beyond his face, we’d still see the same inauthenticity that we see in this shot. It’s never just about the facial expressions! You always want an authentic full-body experience, perhaps even more so when they say they’re looking for a “strong ability to express emotion through facial expressions.”