What Can An Actor Achieve With Youtube?

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seunosewa

Well-known member
There's a comic actress on a web series I used to follow whose mannerisms I really like. I'm a fan. But she's not yet broken into Hollywood and the web series she acts in seems to have gone downhill, so I don't watch it anymore.

Could such an actress have gained a large following and maybe attracted more eyes in Hollywood by creating her own one woman show or standup routines, acting them out herself and then posting the videos on Youtube?

Might producers be happy to be able to discover great actors through youtube?
 
Definitely. If someone can put quality content up on the web and break through the barrier and become well known, that can definitely lead to big things. Just like what bands are doing with MySpace, etc...
 
I, personally, wouldn't waste my time with youtube. It's just not how a very professional approach. If you want to put a reel together and put it online, then use something like vimeo.com. Putting a reel or anything on youtube reminds me of business people who use yahoo accounts for email, like "email: super_duper_films@yahoo.com"
 
I dont think he was talking about reels, I think he was talking about just getting discovered from random YouTube vids.


While there have been a couple people "discovered" from YouTube videos, it is SO not the norm. I literally mean a couple people have. Out of 78.3+ million videos on the site. You have slightly better odds of being discovered doing cartwheels in you basement with no cameras present. (That's how I was "discovered" by my creepy neighbor.)

As a general rule, Hollywood projects are cast through agencies and open calls. I'd surprised if even one casting director has perused the vast poo of YouTube to find their next star.
 
There were talk of giving that "Leave Britney alone" kid a show of some sort, and then some fat kid that used to do stuff with Jimmy Kimmel - I dont remember his name. That may have been pre-YouTube, though, and just random internet vids in general.

Also, Tay Zonday got the Dr. Pepper commercial, however that was just an internet commercial and not a TV commercial.
 
The "leave Britney alone" moron is a freak show. He doesn't count.

I don't consider some kid doing Jimmy Kimmel bits to be a success either...

And Tay Zonday... ummm... yeah...


I'm saying if you want a serious career, then doing youtube shenanigans will most likely discredit your attempts for a serious acting career.
 
I never said they were "successes", I think this illustrates my point very well. Done expect to be "discovered" on YouTube, and if you are, people will still have no idea who you are.
 
Regarding the OP's mention of a webseries, I think that is a decent way to build a quality reel - IF DONE WELL - and I think it wouldnt hurt to put it on YouTube for people to see. BUT... I dont think you'll get DISCOVERED that way. It'll just add to your reel.
 
And I think that's all the youtube stuff would be good for, building a reel.

There's been a few people who have tried to build a following and move on to bigger things, but it hasn't worked. The one girl that comes to mind is the one that did the 300 parody with the dolls or whatever it was. Also, that "lonelygirl 15". I've never seen any of it, but I've heard of it. I ran across an actor's resume the other day and saw "lonelygirl 15" as one of the roles and just thought to myself... "Hmm... yeah, ok... next..."
 
Only person I know that got youtube fame was Soulja Boy, but he does music lol. As far as actors, I dunno, if I was to host a web series, I'd open a website with decent bandwidth and put it on there. A domain specifically for the series, with actor profiles, things about the series, the producers...a message board all kind of things, with good production value as well.

See the bad thing about youtube is the video compressing makes everything look like ****...EVERYTHING..so it looks amateurish, even professional movie trailers. So if you're doing a series on there, you probably have little to no budget...now, if you can find talent on there, then it's there, point blank, you can find it in Mcdonalds if the person is good enough, it's just that most people don't even LOOK there for talent period.
 
Some fame can be achieved on youtube if you're good at acting and show you got skill. It's all about getting your name out there but it's definitely not the norm. Though directing wise, there have been successes, namely David Lehre with the Myspace movie. He's gotten commercial work and a deal with Fox
 
Brandon Hardesty was the kimmel kid. His spots on Kimmel landed him an agent at endevour and got him cast in "Bart Got a Room" with William H Macy and "Cannabis Kid" with Aaron Yoo and Christopher Marquette. Also it got him an audition for Transformers 2.

He has done tons and tons of youtube videos where he does movie reenactments. But even then it was just a foot in the door. He still had to audition for the parts in the movies he got. Also he got in at the beginning of the youtube machine. He was right there with lonely girl. And he is the exception, not the rule.

Just sharing.
 
It always amazes me when actors think they are going to get DISCOVERED. Would any other profession act this way. No one gets discovered. You train, train hard, train often. Then you network, take evey independent film without pay you can find, work in black box theatres of some note, build a ligitament resume and demo reel, train more, voluteer to work as a PA or tech for film projects, network, train, build a business plan that should include obtaining an agent, train, see the agents as often as you can. When all else fails, start over. Getting discovered is for new species of fish not actors!
 
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