Hi has anyone used the The Actors Market for a Demo Reel? If so can you please share your experience and is it worth it.

I went to a seminar once hosted by The Actors Market, and everything they were offering seemed awfully expensive. I've seen a lot of offers for promotional tools and theirs just seemed to be much pricier than similar services than other groups offer. As far as building a reel, go to craigslist.org (look in gigs:talent-best, and jobs:film, a few there) and nowcasting.com and get involved in a few student productions. They'll take people with little or no experience, they're passionate about the film they're making, (as opposed to it being their day job to make it for you) and the only cost is your time. Nowcasting.com is a paid site, but the cost is nominal considering the options you get and there are multiple price/subscription levels. If you register there, scroll all the way down to find the student projects. Get involved in a couple of those, it will be a better learning experience for you, you'll save some money, and you'll gain some contacts. All the while you'll be creating something real instead of rattling off a couple of minutes for a camera with an inorganic script and a crew that doesn't care. Go to holdonlog.org, get copies of the contracts for a copy of your work-don't wait until you end up in a protracted battle with a student for a copy of your hard-earned work; trust me, it sucks. Get your copies, sit down at a computer and teach yourself (get help, if you can) to edit your own reel. You'll end up with a product you're much prouder of, you'll be a more complete filmmaker, and you'll save some hard-earned ca$h.

I love the Actors Market and their Sizzle Reels and I've had a really positive experience with them . I had a demo reel full of student films and every agent and professional I showed it to said it looked amateur and I looked amateur. So I looked into TAM. We figured out what scene I was PERFECT for and now I have a really professional looking reel. Since then I've had very positive responses from agents. My advice is if you want to look like a pro and advance your career, you have to pay a pro to do it. And really it's not that expensive. Some headshots cost more.
So sorry Doug, but I disagree completely.

Oh Wow! Yet another poster who just HAPPENS to sign up the same day as they defend the Actor's Market or one of its programs.

Taste and compare:

Another out of the blue poster

quote:

Originally posted by JimChevallier:
Oh Wow! Yet another poster who just HAPPENS to sign up the same day as they defend the Actor's Market or one of its programs.

I really miss one feature from the old BBS here.

That was the one which showed the IP address of the poster.

Ditto. Oh so ditto.