Tisch School of the Arts (New York University)

NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts is renowned for having produced some of the nation’s best and brightest actors, performers and writer/directors.  The reason this film program is so special is that the professors stress the importance of not just technique and technology, but of the art of filmmaking.  Anyone can aim a camera and press record; the ultimate objective is to make something worth watching, and this the Tisch Film and Television Department offers its students in spades.  The program stresses the importance of real world experience and requires students to create their own films with their own hands, utilizing their own tools and creative powers.  The school also offers a very strong internship program for its students, allowing them to get their foot in the door that so many others want to storm.

USC School of Cinematic Arts

The USC School of Cinematic Arts is another program renowned for offering students a unique learning experience as future filmmakers.  It holds the distinction of the oldest and largest film school in the United States, accommodating an average of 1500 students each year, nearly two-thirds of them undergraduates.  The school also holds the distinction of having had Alfred Hitchcock on its faculty as Professor of American Film.  The school has expectedly turned out a large number of famous and award winning filmmakers, among them the following: Judd Apatow, Ron Howard, Jay Roach, and John Turtletaub.

UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is currently ranked the top film school in the nation out of nearly 500 schools in the nation.  Expectedly, admission is considered highly competitive, with open seats going only to the most qualified applicants.  The school has ample resources which it taps to educate its students, among them the Geffen Playhouse and the UCLA Film and Television Archive.  The school’s film and television archive is the largest of its kind at any American university and contains more media and film than any other institution after the Library of Congress.  The school currently enrolls about 400 students in both its undergraduate and graduate programs, with a faculty of about 140.  Among its most prominent programs apart from Film and Television Production are Documentary, Screenwriting, and Animation.  Its most famous alumni include Jack Black, Lloyd Bridges, Carol Burnett, Nicholas Cage, Francis Ford Coppola, James Horner and Rob Reiner.

University of Michigan

Michigan’s premiere film school is located at the University of Michigan in Dearborn under the Department of Screen Arts & Cultures.  As you may have surmised from the program’s name, the courses offered place a great deal of emphasis on the study of actual images, including their meaning and significance.  The program’s approach is both practical and analytical, encouraging students to apply their own ideas of meaning to the production of media and film.  The program also encourages students to hone their writing skills as this facilitates their ability of communicate as filmmakers.

Vancouver Film School

Often touted as the best film school in Canada, the Vancouver Film School offers world class programs for just about any career in film.  Its wide roster of available courses of study include the following: 3D Animation and Visual Effects, Classical Animation, Digital Character Animation, Acting for Film and Television, Acting Essentials, Digital Design, Entertainment Business Management, Film Production, Game Design, Makeup Design for Film and Television, Sound Design for Film and Television, Writing for Film and Television, and Foundation Visual Art and Design.  Clearly, no matter what you are hoping to study, this is the place to forge your skills as a filmmaker and artist!

One question all aspiring actors eventually have to ask themselves is: How Do I Become an Actor? The truth is there are many avenues to becoming an actor, each individual actor carving out his or her own path depending on their own strengths as a performer.  Below, we will outline the most common routes to break into show business, thereby answering that complex question of how do I become an actor? You may be surprised to learn that there are several avenues to establishing yourself as a paid performer, some admittedly easier than others, but all of them equally valid and equally as likely to help you land the career of your dreams.  So let’s explore the various answers to that befuddling question of how do I become an actor?

Theatrical Training

Perhaps the most ‘classic’ route to becoming an actor is the simplest: study it.  Many of the world’s finest actors spent years studying acting in their formative years, performing everything from Shakespeare and Chaucer to performance pieces and improvisation popular in little black box theaters.  Once you have acquired sufficient training (this can include everything from acting in school plays to earning a Master’s in Fine Arts or even a PhD in playwriting), you can begin to work your way into theatrical productions where you can do everything from acting and writing to directing and lighting.  Many of Hollywood’s top actors started off working stagecraft jobs, such as Tom Hanks who once thought he would spend his life building sets and painting backgrounds.  We all know how that worked out, don’t we?

Modeling

Another common route is to begin by modeling, not just on the runway, but in catalogs, commercials and even live events.  A great deal of Hollywood’s most recognizable names started off as models, including Michelle Pfieffer, Rene Russo and even Matt Damon.  Currently, Spanish supermodel Jon Kortajarena won a lot of notice for his performance in A Single Man opposite Colin Firth.  You can expect to see him in many more film roles in the future.

Auditioning

Another thing you can do to have a career as an actor is to simply go out on auditions and see what type of roles you are able to land.  Some people simply have a natural capacity to perform and can land roles without much training or professional experience.  It isn’t unheard of for people with little to no experience to land roles that launch big careers, especially for young children.  After all, everybody has to start somewhere . . .

Dancing/Special Skills

If you are someone with a special or unique skill, it may help give you an edge to land roles that lead to a career in acting.  For example, many producers look specifically for singers, dancers, acrobats, athletes, martial arts experts, etc. when casting certain roles.  The performer’s unique skill is more important than their acting ability and producers will be eager to sign someone who can contribute to their project.  Don’t forget that Jennifer Lopez got her start as a backup dancer.  If you have something else that no one else does, use it to sell yourself!  This is especially true of international and foreign productions such as Bollywood films which love to cast foreigners as background artists and dancers in nearly every project shot overseas.

Comedy/Stand-Up

Another somewhat common route to becoming an actor is to be funny!  And by that we mean you spend time doing stand-up comedy or improv at your local comedy club.  You can even do it at local colleges and high schools that sometimes pay comedians to perform for students.  You don’t necessarily have to be at Second City in Chicago to build your comedy and improve credentials.  It also helps if you can write comedy material: look at Tina Fey!  She spent years working as the head writer on Saturday Night Live, ultimately being rewarded with her own series (30 Rock) on NBC for which she now has multiple Emmys.  Not bad for a comedy nerd with glasses!

Insults, not the most mature side of our personality, but it is better than biting the ears off of people we don’t like.

While Insults are not generally considered part of the pantheon of great literary works, in the cinema a great insult is…great!  Allow us to prevent 100 of our favorite.

Here is a List of Movies Cited in the Above Video

0’00 – Roxanne, Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Gleaming the Cube, The Princess Bride, A Fish Called Wanda, Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, Casino, Three Amigos, A Clockwork Orange

1’05 – Dolemite, Glengarry Glen Ross, Bad Santa, The Witches of Eastwick, The Big Lebowski, In Bruges, Full Metal Jacket, There Will Be Blood

2’05 – Toy Story, Casablanca, Encino Man, The Women, Predator, Army of Darkness, They Live, Uncle Buck, Big Trouble in Little China, New Jack City, Billy Madison

3’00 – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Departed, Carlito’s Way, In the Loop, Glengarry Glen Ross, Stand By Me, Grosse Pointe Blank, Duck Soup, Caddyshack, Planes Trains & Automobiles

4’00 – South Park, Napoleon Dynamite, Mean Girls, The Breakfast Club, As Good as It Gets, The 6th Day, Step Brothers, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Full Metal Jacket, City Slickers, Road House, True Grit, Shot Circuit

5’00 – Raging Bull, The Usual Suspects, Snatch, Caddyshack, The Last Boy Scout, Ghostbusters, The Sandlot, As Good as It Gets

6’00 – 48 Hrs, In Bruges, Silver Streak, Glengarry Glen Ross, A Fish Called Wanda, Goodfellas, National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, The Mist, Trading Places

7’00 – The Warriors, Point Break, Gangs of New York, Reservoir Dogs, The Breakfast Club, The Cowboys, Full Metal Jacket, Dodgeball, Donnie Darko, Scarface, The Good the Bad and the Ugly

8’00 – Anchorman, Tropic Thunder, Sexy Beast, In the Loop, Get Shorty, Blazing Saddles, The Way of the Gun, Blade: Trinity, Clerks, The Boondock Saints, The Exorcist, What About Bob?, Weird Science

9’00 – Con Air, True Romance, In the Loop, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Lake Placid, The Front, Gone with the Wind

Recently our friends over at RedPillParents.com wrote an article entitled “Movie Rating – Half the Story or More Like 5%” exploring this topic.

Being a parent has always been a hard job and apparently it is not getting any easier.  We appreciate the work that Jamie and his team have put into their blog and hope our audience finds the information helpful as well.

• Today, I went to the movies with the girl I liked. She kept on eating my popcorn so I whispered in her ear “Pretty soon you’re going to have to repay me with kisses.” Then she looked at me and walked out the theatre. She came back with a bucket of popcorn and said “Here, you’re repaid.”

• Today, I went to the movies with my boyfriend. We went inside the theatre and he saw a couple of his friends. Instead of saying hi and coming back to watch the movie with me, he ditched me for them. When I reminded him he was forgetting something, he grabbed the popcorn out of my hands and left.

• Today, I went to the movies with my boyfriend. We went inside the theatre and he saw a couple of his friends. Instead of saying hi and coming back to watch the movie with me, he ditched me for them. When I reminded him he was forgetting something, he grabbed the popcorn out of my hands and left.

• Today, I was on a first date with a girl at the movies. Trying to be polite, I held in a fart until an intense, loud action scene came on. As soon as I let go, the scene went silent and my fart was clearly heard to everyone in the movie theatre. My date went to the bathroom. She didn’t come back.

• Today, I got the courage to ask my mom if I could go to the movies alone on my first date with my new boyfriend. She said ok, which was surprising because she never lets me go anywhere alone. When I got to the theater with him I saw my mom. She had saved seats for us.

• Today, this guy and I went on a date to the movies. We got up to the desk and I asked for one ticket for ‘Jennifer’s Body.’ The guy moved his way in front of me and said, “make that two tickets.” He then walked away to look at movie posters and left me with the $22.50 charge.

• Today, my best friend and I went to the movies. There was a hot cashier, so I thought it would be cool to talk in a British accent to try and be sexy. I walked up and started talking when he interrupted me and said in a very heavy British accent, ‘I know you’re faking. You can stop now.’

• Today, I went to the movies alone after the boy I was seeing told me he was busy studying for exams. I found him making out with another girl whilst in the queue. When I confronted him by text he denied that it was him. I saw him check the text and reply.

• Today, I was at the movies. All of a sudden, the woman next to me starts laughing uncontrollably and talking to her friend during the movie. This continued throughout the movie, ruining it. I turned and whispered to my friend. The woman then taps me on the shoulder and yells, “Shut the fuck up!”

• Today, I went to the movies. After it was over I got up and noticed a designer purse sitting on the ground in the back row. I opened it to look for anything that could give me a address so I could return it. The owner came back, assumed I was robbing her, and punched me in the nose.

• Today, my sister told my mother how she saw our neighbor’s son at the movies with a girl and that they were kissing. My mother proceeded to say that any girl willing to date someone so ugly must have self esteem issues and they laughed. I’m his girlfriend, my sister didn’t recognize me.

• Today, during the trailer at the movies, my boyfriend elbowed me in the ribs and smiled during an ad for a weight loss institute.

So, how was your day?

Love,

Mrmovietimes.com

1. No matter how much blood is lost, no one can die by a nosebleed.
2. (The same theory above applies to vomiting.)
3. The girl with the curly hair is always the seductress.
4. If a sister falls in love with her brother, somewhere down the line you will discover that they’re not blood related.
5. The guy in the baseball cap is always more powerful than he seems.
6. All demons/monsters have enormous genitalia.
7. All young children can pilot mecha, you just need to give them a few days.
8. It is possible to incorporate martial arts into any aspect of life.
9. All high school kids in Japan have parents that are away on extended business trips.
10. The oldest sister is the nice one, the youngest sister is the brash one.
11. You can do anything to the human body as long as you hit the right pressure point.
12. Consuming enormous amounts of alcohol daily will never have ill effects.
13. All major villains either want to take over the world or blow it up.
14. When someone paints up their face, they mean business.
15. Everyone in Japan has excellent singing voices.
16. No matter how many times you rebuild, Tokyo keeps getting destroyed in a massive fireball.
17. The martial arts expert is always defenseless against a slap from the girl who loves him.
18. TAKAHASHI’S LAW 1: Food is a powerful motivator.
19. When women are sent out to fight the bad guys, there’s always a hunk busily watching over them, often in secret.
20. The longer it takes to say what your punch is called, the less effective it is.
21. “Baka” does not mean a student going for his baccalaureate degree.
22. The more possessive a woman gets, the less likely she will end up with the man of her dreams.
23. TAKAHASHI’S LAW 2: The two-foot-tall old geezer is someone to be feared.
24. No matter how big the mech/labor/mobile suit is, if it runs around the corner, the guy chasing it loses the trail.
25. Extraterrestrial, demons, time travelers, etc. all want to alter the course of history by letting Oda Nobunaga win.
26. The fate of the planet rests in the hands of the seemingly normal high school student.
27. The heroine must shred her clothes while transforming into something to fight the bad guys.
28. True evil can never be destroyed, only banished to some nether realm where it awakes after a few hundred years.
29. TAKAHASHI’S LAW 3: When being hit on the head, it’s the most natural thing in the world to tuck your third and fourth fingers in while keeping the others extended.
30. Even the bravest souls can be made weak and helpless by the sight of a cute little puppy or kitten.
31. Never love a Gundam pilot : you’re just destined for disappointment (or a funeral).
32. All persons under the age of 50 can do a ten foot vertical jump from a standing position.
33. Never trust a guy with shiny teeth
34. ESP causes more trouble than it solves
35. The vampire isn’t _always_ the bad guy
36. Nice things can come out of video stores that appear from nowhere
37. Idiot captains win battles against impossible odds
38. Order takeout at every opportunity–you might get lucky with a wrong number.
39. The police are never anywhere there is a large amount of property damage.
40. All high school principals in Japan are clinically insane.
41. All people with esper powers give off multicolored auras.
42. Just about any outer space villain has his sights set on destroying the Earth.
43. (in conjunction with #92) No other planet in the universe will be able to stop said villain except the Earth.
44. Any character can make a leap of 300 ft or more if given a good running start.
45. A samurai sword can cut through anything.
46. All characters over the age of 60 shrink in height in direct proportion to their age.
47. When uncovering a fabulous treasure, the thing will be large enough to completely destroy any surrounding structures.
48. TAKAHASHI’S LAW #4: An anti-climax is a good climax.
49. Anime villians have the best deaths.
50. Any love interest will always be possesed by a demon.
51. Mallets can be stored anywhere on anybody.
52. If the anime has the word “idol” in the title, then you know that it has to be good.
53. Takada Yumi really does sing that bad, and people still buy her CDs.
54. If you make enough porno movies, eventually you can get famous enough to star in commercials. “Iijima Ai desu! ‘Manga manga no mori mori!!’”
55. There is no such thing as a public anime showing without heckling.
56. You can spot how popular a show is by looking at the number of H doujinshi it has.
57. The smartest people on r.a.a. never post, which is why the conference’s overall IQ is so low.
58. If the lyrics to the OP song are printed on the screen, then you’re watching a show that’s not for your age group.
59. The sexiest girls are drawn by artists whose last names start with “U”.
60. The English words in Jpop songs are put there only because they sound good, since they don’t make any sense with the rest of the lyrics.
61. If you post on the MLs more than Hitoshi does, then you probably post too much.
62. The hero always loses the first fight with a new enemy.
63. The guys with two earrings are from the Negaverse.
64. Don’t trust the guys with two earrings.
65. Any truly evil person who changes sides for the woman he loves will die in that episode.
66. You CAN do it, but only when it’s funny or REALLY important.
67. You can never have too many carrots.
68. Hair comes in every shade of the rainbow – and we do mean pink, purple, blue, green….
69. The song “Cry Me a River” takes on a whole new meaning.

Sadly we all know that times are tough these days, but when we see a brave Mandalorian warrior and skilled bounty hunter like Boba Fett asking for change on the street then we know the economy is really in a nose dive.

As entertainment executives we thought watching movies would be the best way to get tough, but somehow we still found ourselves getting swirlys in the bathroom of Le Deux.   We spent hours saying “you talking to me” in our best Deniro voice, but when some thug from The Weinstein Company responded “yes” we were suddenly mute.  Bruce Lee movies made us look like Jerry Lewis, and the gats’ we bought after watching Boyz in the Hood leaked water all over our pants.
We soon decided that a combination of movies AND actual lessons in martial arts would be the way to go, with the choice of martial arts being decided by what was most effective in the movies.  After all, if it kicks ass on the big screen it should do just fine in real life, right?  It is not like we needed to take out scores of terrorists with a bow and arrow – we just wanted a little respect from the local hoods at Nobu Malibu.  We spent the next few days frantically compiling an even bigger selection of martial arts movies (we decided guns were impractical) and prepared to watch them over the weekend as we decided which martial art we were going to study.
Naturally a weekend of blasting endless fights on our DVD surround sound system attracted the complaints of our neighbors, including by some stroke of dumb luck Roy Elghanayan, the founder of Krav Maga L.A. Although we would like to refer to him as a Los Angeles version of Zohan, Roy is well known a hand to hand combat expert, and somehow even morons like us knew that despite his skinny 5’9” 160 pound frame, this was one dude we should not mess with…sort of.
We explained our situation to Roy, and drawing on his years teaching hand to hand combat to elite units of the Israeli army, he agreed to let us know which martial arts would be even remotely practical.  Roy loves movies, it is rumored he personally trains Hollywood stars in his Santa Monica gym, so we resumed watching our DVD’s, this time with the volume way up.  What we learned was an amazing eye opener, so much so that we have decided to share our knowledge.
MovieTimes.com Presents:

The Five Rules of Movie Real Life Self Defense.

1)    Stay away from weird things like Steven Segal:  After watching Above The Law we were sure we would study Aikido, which loosely translates from the Japanese, “the art of divine harmony,” to make some divine ass kicking on the punks at CAA.  Given Segal’s ratings about working for the CIA, alleged mob ties and some badass scenes in Above the Law that are almost good enough to make up for the 20 crap movies that followed, we figured this stuff is the bomb.  Unfortunately Roy pointed out that the problem with Aikido is that it would probably take us a good 5 years of constant study before it would be helpful on the street.  “Studying Aikido is like learning a new language” is how Roy politely explained it.  “Aikido will require you to learn a whole new way of moving” Roy continued, “if you want to learn to defend yourself quickly you need to utilize simple moves that are instinctual by nature.”

2)    Jean Claude Van Damme is an aerobics instructor: We figured that any martial art that gets you a nickname like ‘The Muscles From Brussels’ kicked ass, and the fact that Jean Claude showed so much of his vulnerable side in JVCD demonstrated real courage to us.  We liked JVCD so much that we bought the DVD, but when it came to kickboxing lessons Roy nixed the idea by pointing out that most kick boxers barely close their fist when they punch.  Apparently trying to throw a roundhouse kick at someone is a good way to find yourself lying on your butt.

3)    Pat Morita is old, and so is Karate: Roy explained to us that Karate is an ancient art that has not been updated in several centuries.  While it looked like a good way to mess up a perfectly good 80’s haircut it is not cut out for modern unarmed combat situations.

4)    Mamet Speak is all talk: We figured if David Mamet, the academy award nominated screenwriter and director who has a reputation for one of the smartest intellectual types in Hollywood made a movie about Brazilian ju-jitsu (Redbelt) then this stuff had to kick ass!  Just thinking about how tough Mamet made Alec Baldwin sound in Glengarry Glen Ross when he pulled out his infamous brass balls made us feel more confidant.

Unfortunately, hat we learned is that despite generally good reviews Redbelt feels like an incomplete movie, and Brazilian ju-jitsu is dangerously incomplete martial arts for defense.  “Brazilian ju-jitsu will teach you many locks and takedowns that emphasize on moving the fight to the ground,” explained Roy “and that is the absolute last place you want to be in a fight.”  At first we figured Roy avoided being on the ground because it is dirty and full of germs, even at the Beverly Hills Hotel.  However after watching a few episodes of Entourage we realized that even if we threw a ju-jitsu lock on Vinnie Chase and dragged him to the ground we would just end up with his whole entourage kicking our buts while we lay on the ground.
5)    Train with J-Lo – be a Badunkadunk: Like all Hollywood movies we made our most important rule the most mysterious.  What rule number 5 mean is that you need to learn self defense from someone who has been through hell and back, not just the Hollywood version that saw J-Lo learning a watered down version of Krav Maga for the movie Enough.  Sure Krav Maga is considered the best choice for self defense, but in the same way Hollywood takes brilliant foreign movies and turns them into crap (Vanilla Sky) you won’t learn effective Krav Maga from someone who was never in the Israeli Army.  What Roy said was “it was my responsibility to prepare soldiers for an environment where they could face an attack from a terrorist with a gun, knife, bomb, stick, etc. without warning at any moment.”  “I didn’t prepare my soldiers to win medals or competitions,” Roy continued “I trained them to survive.”
Reflecting for a moment on what real life was all about we took a break from action movies that weekend and spent a beautiful Sunday at the beach without anyone kicking sand in our face.
Editor’s Note. Roy Elghanayan is a very nice person who teaches Krav Maga in Santa Monica, CA, and as far as we know he has never killed anyone for playing their DVD’s too loud.  He has group classes and is also open for private lessons and seminars all over the US.
www.KravMagaLA.com