Bon, I have limited on-camera work on my resume but I recently did a game show (and won!) and wondered if I could put that on my resume. It’s on there right now because I figure I was “on-brand” and I had fun and I did win, so until I have more on-camera work, it’s okay.
But the more of your amazing articles I read about having a great resume, the more I wonder if this actually belongs on there.
Thanks for all you do for us actors!
Judith
Hiya Judith and thanks for writing.
Absolutely, in the reading you’re doing, you’re getting a sense of how important it is to build up on-brand footage and to treat your resume as a recipe for how to cast you next rather than a list of everything you’ve ever done.
So, while the goal is to get more on-camera footage and credits that are in line with the next tier of your acting career, we all understand that everyone starts somewhere. So for some, that will mean there are industrial or non-broadcast projects or reenactments listed until there’s that first student film or low-budget indie or self-produced webseries episode.
In your case, it’s an appearance on a game show!
Once you start building other credits, here’s the filter I would run *every* decision through, as the resume is concerned: “Is this how I want to be cast NEXT?” If the answer is yes (meaning, you WANT to do more game shows), you absolutely keep that on your resume because it teaches the buyers that you CAN do that, you HAVE done that, and you WANT to do that again.
If the answer is no (meaning, you did the game show but it’s not your life’s goal to do more of that), you leave it OFF your resume and treat it like a survival job you did, which happened to give you some exposure or maybe connect you with some people who work in the industry and who MIGHT see you as an actor later… but it’s not your goal. This is especially the case after you have more acting footage.
And if it’s somewhere in between, like you said, in which you did an on-brand appearance, had fun, and won some money (yay, you!), it’s not awful to keep it on the list for now, knowing the goal is to shave off credits that don’t represent the type of work you WANT to be known for doing, as you add more credits that do represent exactly that.
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/002003.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.