Arizona 2008:02

SOME LIKE IT HOT
By Lucky Hayes,
Arizona Branch President

We all must like it hot to some degree, or we wouldn’t hang around Arizona. And I don’t mean just the weather.

Consider that we have:
• the Grand Canyon
• scenery ranging from gorgeous mountains to pristine desert
• small country towns to cosmopolitan cities
• shady dirt roads to six-lane super highways
• cozy mom-and-pop motels to five-star resorts
• run-down neighborhoods to mansions
• working cowboys to stock brokers
• Indian reservations to tribal casinos
• fast food drive-throughs to posh restaurants

No wonder the film community looks at us when they are seeking locations. We have just about everything they could possibly want as background for their projects. And professional actors and stunt people to populate them.

That would be us SAG-types: as diverse as Arizona itself, every ethnic group, every age, every height and every degree of skills.

Plus some great professional crews and equipment suppliers.

And some darned good tax incentives to help cement the decision to come to Arizona.

You bet Arizona is hot. And we want to keep it that way. So we’re reminding all of you to make certain you stay on top of your skills so you can be ready when the calls come. Stay in contact with your agent. Keep your headshots and voice tapes current. Get involved in your union, so you’ll know what’s going on first-hand. Participate in every way you can to help bring ‘em in: attend membership meetings, support legislative efforts to entice new film work, encourage non-union actors to join the ranks of the professionals and be proud to be a Screen Actors Guild member!

That’s how to turn up the heat.

SCREEN ACTORS GUILD WELCOMES
New members:
Travis Caldwell
Mike Goldberg
Drea Pruseau
Tara J Schneider
Shari Wiedmann
Rolando Zee

Transfers-in:
Nick Campisano
Rebekah Chaney
Curtis Johnson
Karen Saltus
Rose Valdez

And welcomes back to:
Lori Schlanger

RECYCLE AND HELP THE SAG CONSERVATORY
By Betsy Beard,
Arizona Executive Vice President

I know that some of us have neat, uncluttered, minimalist lives. This missive is not meant for you. There are others of us out there, and we know who we are, who have, shall we say, more than we need. Sometimes we have more than we need to the point of tripping over stuff.

Here's a way to help yourself clear a path to your uncluttered future, and help all of us who attend SAG Conservatory to preserve our workshop performances. Donate your old camera.

You know, the one on the shelf in the closet that stopped recording three years ago, but still has a fine picture. We can mount any old camera on a tripod and record to a simple digital recorder and everyone gets a DVD of their work at the end.

VCR and a small monitor would help too, if you've got this extra equipment, but never use it.

Contact Don Livesay at the SAG office and let him know if you have any equipment to donate. He can be reached at (602)383-3780, (800) 724-0767 or by e-mail at dlivesay@sag.org. Then come to Conservatory, and we'll make you look good for posterity.

FOCUSING OUR PASSION
By Don Livesay,
Arizona Executive Director

When it comes to jobs, actors tend to sharpen their focus on what they need to do personally in order to maximize opportunities to work. Many times that involves toning up skills with classes or having new pictures taken. With Screen Actors Guild, it means organizing. In a right-to-work state, jobs don’t fall into our lap. We need to create an environment where, in order for producers to hire the best actors, they first need to become signatories to our contracts. Our track record is pretty good in turning non-union projects into union ones, but even when we do, producers don’t necessarily hire members.

Are you aware that more than twice the number of non-members acquired SAG earnings in 2006 than active members of the Arizona branch? In fact, two out of every three performers who had SAG checks delivered to their mailboxes, for either session fees or residuals, were not members of Screen Actors Guild.

Does this incite a certain passion in you? It should. It means that when you work, the chances are good that many – if not most – of the actors you work with may not be members of SAG. And, of course, some will not be joining our ranks any time soon.

Here’s how to focus that passion:

1. Members need to be actively involved in encouraging non-members to join. We covered this at our last membership meeting. On your next job, make a point of introducing yourself around. Find out who isn’t a member and tell them that the best move they can make is to join, and give them the office telephone number: (602) 383-3780 or Web site www.sag.org. We are hoping that newly printed material will be available soon to members that will specifically assist them in sharing with these non-members the advantages of carrying a SAG card.

2. Make sure your contact information is current with SAG. We sent a casting notice for a big industrial project recently via email. Our records show that only 49 percent of our active members have good email addresses listed with the Guild. That means about half of our people heard nothing about the audition. If you know someone who knew nothing about this casting notice, get them to update their SAG profile by logging onto www.sag.org. When producers can’t find what they need within our union membership ranks, guess who they are inclined to hire?

3. For the same reason, become an iActor. See the article in this issue.

4.Keep your skills as sharp as they can possibly be. The difference between a professional and one who is not a professional should be stark. The product we sell to producers is the high quality of your performance. Please keep that in mind.

5. Always be on the alert for projects that are non-union. Let the office know so that we can follow up and help the producer learn about us, find out how easy it is to go SAG, and most importantly, discover the true value in hiring the very best performers around.

Let’s all be working for more work in 2008. It’s worth our passion.

ARIZONA BOOKPALS TRAIN FOR THE CLASSROOM
Happy New Year! Here’s a New Year’s resolution to add to your list: Brighten a child’s life by reading aloud as part of the BookPALS program. You can keep your acting skills sharp by using your talents to read for one hour each week to classrooms of children who will be delighted by your ability to bring a story to life.

The Annual BookPALS Training Workshop took place on Saturday, January 26. Attendees were educated and entertained with “Giving Books a Voice,” a presentation about using different voices during story time and how to augment a story using music. Sue Cohen, a 25-year veteran teacher, told us how to pick stories that spark the imagination in her talk, “Pancake, Bubbles and a Big Blue Spot.” Thanks to our speakers, we all learned a lot to carry back to the classroom.

BookPALS (Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools) is a program of the Screen Actors Guild Foundation and is staffed by you, our community of actors. Arizona BookPALS has been going strong since 1998, serving more than 30 schools in Metro Phoenix and Tucson. All we need is you. We provide the training and support, you volunteer your time and talent, and the children provide the most appreciative audience you will ever perform for. Call Ellen Dean (602) 750-2923 to sign up. Visit the BookPALS web site to see what fun we’ve been having. Log onto www.bookpals.net.

If you missed the training, you can still volunteer and have a small group orientation with Ellen Dean, BookPALS coordinator. Use the same (602) 750-2923 to sign up for orientation. If you don’t have time to read each week, you can donate money for books, conduct a book drive at work or church, or read on our telephone story line. There are many ways to get involved. Make it your New Year’s resolution to have an impact on children’s literacy.

ARE YOU AN iACTOR?
If one of your 2008 resolutions is to market and promote yourself, register with iActor today.

Available only to SAG members, iActor is an online casting directory with many special features. You can display your résumé, headshots, audio clips and video reels. You can even email a copy of your résumé to anyone. Best of all, it's free!

Unlike other online casting services, iActor features exclusively SAG members, making it the only site casting directors need to find professional actors.

Go to www.sag.org and sign in to put your résumé, headshot and multimedia clips on iActor today. Don't miss your next gig, get on iActor now!

Just sign in as a member at www.sag.org. Questions? Call our helpline at (800) 724-0767, or e-mail webhelp@sag.org.

ARIZONA'S MEMBERS-ONLY LIBRARY OFFERS CAREER RESOURCES FOR ACTORS
The Grace Etchen Library at the SAG office continues to benefit actors who need published acting resources to enhance their craft, get those call backs, and land those jobs. Members may call to set up a time with our executive director to come in and browse. Checking out books and tapes is easy. Just show your paid-up card, sign the registry promising to return what you take, and you are out the door.

Give it a try. The office phone number is (602)383-3780, or you can e-mail Don at dlivesay@sag.org.

Here are some featured items from our shelves of books, tapes and DVDs:

• Plays By and About Women, edited by Victoria Sullivan and James Hatch. Included are plays such as "The Children's Hour" by Lillian Hellman, "Calm Down Mother" by Megan Terry, and "Wine in the Wilderness" by Alice Childress.

•Searching For John Ford, a biography of the great director, by Joseph McBride.

• Screen Actors Guild Foundation "Conversations",a DVD featuring Rod Steiger, September 4, 2002

• To The Actor on the Technique of Acting by Michael Chekhov.

• That’s No Way to Act! The handbook for commercial and film actors, by our own Lucky Hayes and Elayne Stein.

• The Dynamics Of Acting by Joan Snyder and Michael P. Drumstra.

MARK YOUR CALENDARS
The Arizona Branch will celebrate Screen Actors Guild's 75th Anniversary in a very special way on June 21, 2008. Keep this date open. Plans are underway to make SAG's birthday a not-to-be forgotten event for our members and many others from our Arizona film industry. More later.