ACTORS
ACTORS
Relocation to the West Coast, East Coast, Living at an Artists’ Community, and Other Strategies On Where Actors Can Live
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Relocation to the West Coast, East Coast, Living at an Artists’ Community, and Other Strategies On Where Actors Can Live |
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The film, and to a lesser degree, television industries are some motivating factors for actors contemplating a move to Los Angeles. It is in Hollywood and the surrounding area that all the major studios and independent production companies form the hub of activity, producing thousands of feature films, television programs, commercials, music videos, and more recently digital features such as video games based on live/animated characters. In addition to this, there are to be found opportunities in theatre and dance throughout the vicinity. There are over 240 performing arts theatres in Southern California alone. There is also to be found a significant presence of the art, music, and modeling industries as well.
"Hollywood" refers to both a general vicinity (with no defined boundaries) in Los Angeles and to the entertainment industry as a whole. In 1910, the motion picture business was born in what is now considered Hollywood, and for many decades it served as the center for all show business-related activities. Today, studios and entertainment firms can still be found in the Hollywood area, but many have expanded into neighboring areas. But the term "Hollywood" is still used to refer to the industry which in actuality has little to do with Hollywood the area.
Beyond Hollywood, there are several other well-known regions that make up Los Angeles. Some of these include the cities of Beverly Hills, Malibu, Santa Monica, Burbank, and Pasadena to name a few. In all, there are eighty-eight incorporated cities and over one hundred unincorporated areas linked by more than a dozen freeways within the five districts that comprise Los Angeles County, an area encompassing 9.5 million inhabitants. Further highlighting the "sprawl" of the Los Angeles region are the many different telephone area codes, including 213, 310, 323, 626, 818, and others, Despite this, it is not considered a long-distance call when dialing a different area code, as long as you're calling within a twelve-mile radius. Beyond that, the phone company charges a local toll call rate, usually somewhere between three and six cents a minute.
For actors, the entertainment industry is somewhat localized in Hollywood, West Hollywood, the Westside, and the Eastern San Fernando Valley, though these areas are still barely within walking distance of one another. But it's still difficult to pinpoint exactly where the boundaries of the entertainment industry are. In days past, Hollywood would have been the right answer. But with the aforementioned expansion of the industry, there are actually several major regions where actors and other industry people can be found around town.
There are essentially three areas where the vast majority of studios, talent agencies, and casting directors are located: Hollywood/West Hollywood; the Westside, which includes Beverly Hills, Century City, Westwood, West L.A., Brentwood, Santa Monica, Culver City, Venice, and Marina del Rey; and the East San Fernando Valley, specifically Burbank, Taluca Lake, Universal City, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, North Hollywood, and Van Nuys. While the Valley is clearly defined, the Westside merges with Hollywood and West Hollywood.
The San Fernando Valley (commonly known as "The Valley") is separated from Hollywood and the Westside by the Santa Monica Mountains, which are commonly referred to as the Hollywood Hills, or the Hills. This mountainous region is dotted with homes in the sprawling canyons, including Beachwood Canyon, Laurel Canyon, Coldwater Canyon, Nichols Canyon, Benedict Canyon, and Topanga Canyon, to name a few.
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Welcome to New York by Michael E. Brown 8 pages; (June 1998) Streetwise Maps, Incorporated; ISBN: 0935039309 |
| Smooth Moves: The Relocation Guide for Families on the Move by Ellen Carlisle 107 pages; (April 1999) Teacup Press; ISBN: 0966782704 |
Writer's Resource The Watson-Guptill Guide to Workshops, Conferences, Artists' Colonies and Academic Programs by David Emblidge; Barbara Zheutlin 224 pages: (April 1997) Watson-Guptill Publications; ISBN: 0823076512 |
A Place of Beauty: The Artists & Gardens of the Cornish Colony by Alma Gilbert, Judith B. Tankard 144 pages; (June 2000) Ten Speed Press; ISBN: 1580081290 |
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Soho: The Rise and Fall of an Artists' Colony by Richard Kostelanetz 250 pages; (June 2003) Routledge; ISBN: 0415965721 |
| Moving & Relocation Sourcebook by Nancy V. Kniskern, Dawn Bokenkamp Toth 1100 pages; (December 2000) Omnigraphics, Incorporated; ISBN: 0780804317 |
Moving & Relocation Directory 2004 by Nancy V. Kniskern 1200 pages; (October 2003) Omnigraphics Inc.; ISBN 078080662X |
Rural Artists’ Colonies in Europe, 1870-1910: Places of Nostalgia (Issues in Art History Series) by Nina Lubbren 288 pages; (August 2001) Rutgers University Press; ISBN: 0813529778 |
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Possessions: Indigenous Art/Colonial Culture (Interplay Series) by Nicholas Thomas 304 pages; (May 1999) Thames & Hudson; ISBN: 0500280975 |
Newcomer’s Handbook for Los Angeles by Joan Wai, Stacey Ravel Abarbanel 296 pages; (April 2000) First Books; ISBN: 0912301430 |
| Los Angeles (Let’s Go Map Guides Series) by Daniel A. Zweifach (Editor) 28 pages; (March 2001) St. Martin's Press; ISBN: 0312272448 |
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Click the titles of the above books for their availability, or enter the title of a book not shown in the above listing in the search box below. |
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New York is one of the most expensive cities to live in in the United States. Finding inexpensive housing, especially in recent years, has become nearly impossible. If you network with other actors, you can find out where the best apartment bargains exist. Rent will be one of the greatest expenses to bear. Depending on where you live, the costs will vary a great deal. In New York apartment dwelling, heat and water are included with your rent, for the most part. Gas and electricity are separate, however.
Beginning a career in New York has its own unique motivating factors. The stages of Broadway, off-Broadway, and off-off-Broadway serve as the impetus here by offering many opportunities for actors to hone their craft, and hopefully "shoot for the stars" in a city that can provide abundant media exposure. There are always stories of actors opening in plays in New York, getting rave review, being "discovered" overnight by agents and casting directors, and then having their careers take off. Stage-experienced actors seem to make the transition to film and TV more easily than actors going the opposite route. Certainly most people in the industry have a great respect for actors experienced in theatre.
Other advantages to being in New York include a reputation for having some of the best acting teachers and schools in the country; a deluge of commercial advertising opportunities on Madison Avenue and elsewhere; voiceover work; daytime television opportunities and gameshow opportunities as can be found on the West Coast; getting into filmwork, although not as plentiful as the West Coast, are said to be less stringent on the requirement of having representation by an agent; as like the West Coast, there is a thriving digital media/animation/gaming industry that will use acting talent in one form or another.
Artist communities or colonies are organizations that provide time, space and support for artists’ creative endeavors. Artists’ communities seemingly operate under a charter principle that art stimulates new ways of thinking and new ways of seeing. Usually focused on the needs of an artist conceiving an original work, artists’ colonies and other residencies offer space, time and solitude for the pursuit of this creative work. Artists can apply for residencies at a community by submitting materials illustrating their work to the community’s jury or panel. Upon acceptance they can then arrange the details of their residency with the community’s staff. They may receive a stipend as well as other material needs that may be provided for. Residencies may last anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.
The field’s origins go back to the beginning of art. Records indicate ancient Greek and Roman writers and artists retreating to the countryside to places where they could work free of outside influences. Throughout more recent eras, artists’ work places were typically organized by wealthy patrons who would provide a studio and a haven for the artist to create a work the patron had commissioned. In the United States around the end of the 19th century, several country estates were made into artists’ communities by their owners, and in order to take advantage of the opportunities they offered, one had to know or be a member of the owner’s clan. Oftentimes, as a way around this, artists banded together to seek out their own communities of like-minded and enlightened peers.
New artists’ communities, for the most part, tend to serve emerging artists. As the organization becomes better known, it serves artists at more advanced stages in their development. Certain organizations focus on particular art forms or offer specialized facilities, such as filmmaking, computer graphics, sound recording, printmaking, or even ceramics. In recent years, there has been increased dialogue about a support system for artists. Maybe as a result of this artists’ community founders and directors joined together in the early 1990s to form the Alliance of Artists’ Communities, which has gone on to become an advocate for the field.
Artistic Communities for Writing, Music, Dance, Performance |
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Talent tours are junkets with groups of actors that go to specific cities (Usually Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Miami) where actors are likely to find substantial work opportunities. There they meet with and showcase their talent for casting directors and agents who work predominantly in that area. These tours primarily serve the purposes of actors who have decided to move to a particular area and want to get all the information before going and so the tour can serve as a way to minimize uncertainty about most aspects of a move. During the outing the actors get an opportunity to network with people who are working within the industry. There may also be sessions to meet with local photographers and real estate agents who are there to advise on housing.
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