Commercial Acting- Auditioning for Commercials

By Wendy L. Vazquez 

This is my second article regarding Wilhelmina Rochester and it’s W Evolve Studios. In case you didn’t’ know this, W Evolve Studios provides a commercial acting class for aspiring actors. The class, which is taught by agency director Billy Powell, prepares students for the competitive world of commercial acting. Powell, who has a BFA in Theatre from Sam Houston State University, also attended Weist Barron and Bob Collier Commercial acting schools in New York. He teaches his students success strategies and audition techniques that will take the student to a professional level talent. Mr. Powell himself is no stranger in front of the camera. He is an accomplished actor who has worked in  TV Commercials, Film and Theater throughout his 25 year career.

Recently, I had the opportunity to sit down and audit the commercial acting class. I was given the chance to participate in an exercise, I was to audition for a spot in a commercial. For me, since I’m a student majoring in communications where reading is second nature, I readily accepted his offer to read. After all as a journalist, it’s what I do on camera. Easy peasy right?

Totally confident, I stood up in front of the camera on my mark, lights…camera…action and began to read the script that was my audition. So, I started  and completed my read. I thought I did okay. Even though it wasn’t a difficult script, Mr. Powell’s main objective in having me read the script in front of the students was to show them that just because someone can read well, does not mean they can perform the proper audition technique. Once I finished the read, he quickly pointed out my audition flaws. Yes…there were more than I thought. I was setting myself up for utter destruction. After he told me what I had done incorrectly, I wouldn’t have gotten the part for sure.

So, then he gave me instruction on how to perform the tasks and then gave me another shot at it. Using the technique wasn’t easy. As a matter of fact, even though I’d studied broadcast journalism, I was no where near this stuff. WOW! However, as time in the class progressed, I got more comfortable and more confident with this cool new technique and I started to feel the process coming together. And that was exciting! Whoa…more work here and I’m going to be a commercial actor!! Look out Flo from Progressive!

Some of the key things that were brought up in this class was the importance to memorize not all but key sections of the script and how to  prepare for changes. Saying the script out loud was another one. Another important thing to do with your script is to underline key words and remembering most importantly that the camera is your friend.

My experience auditing this class was an eye opener. You want to book commercials and open up a new career where big dollars are at stake?  W Evolve Studios is training actors to know what their job is on the audition trail, honing skills and to be confident in the process. But most importantly, they are giving actors the training they need to succeed and are providing their students with important skills and audition techniques to get work in TV Commercials. Check out the page and get registered! Class Schedule

by Wendy Vazquez

This semester I’ve had the opportunity of interning at Wilhelmina Rochester. I am currently enrolled at one of the more prestigious colleges in Rochester graduating with a Bachelor in Communications this December. As this is one of many internships per my degree, I was excited for the opportunity to work with such a brand name agency. In case you didn’t know, Wilhelmina was started by Wilhelmina Cooper some 40 plus years ago and has established itself as one of the biggest names in the modeling talent industry with offices around the world.

   So far, the “experience” has been a grand one. I have had the chance of filming the acting classes that Wilhelmina provides for anyone interested in becoming an actor. The class that I am filming is Acting Technique 1. This is one of the many professional training classes that Wilhelmina provides for a very reasonable tuition.

The acting instructor, Chris Dell, is a remarkable teacher. There are no doubts about his credibility because I learned that Mr. Dell is formerly from the Meisner Center in Los Angeles where he taught classes and now teaches the Meisner technique here in Rochester for aspiring actors. His passion for helping his students is evident from everything I’ve seen him work on with the students. He pushes the students until they are comfortable enough to do a scene on their own. If a student feels that he or she cannot capture the scene right, Chris, jumps in and helps them out. Chris main objective is to make sure the students feel at ease when performing. One of the exercises that Chris uses is the private moments exercise. The theory was considered by Konstantin Stanislavski but was made into an exercise by Lee Strasberg.

The private moments exercise emphasizes on the actors skill to be private in public. The actor has to create a private moment, on stage, that the public will understand is private. The audience is supposed to understand the moment by the way the actor plays it. In this exercise the actor has to act something on stage that they do in real life, but is also private enough that if someone walked into their room, they will stop doing it.

Another exercise that Chris teaches in his class is repetition. This exercise was developed by Sanford Meisner. This exercise is based on the moment, the truth of the moment, and the immediate and unplanned approach. This exercise is based on improv. The repetition exercises plays with the uneasiness of making it all up in the moment. How this exercise works is two actors have to face each other and place their attention on one another. The goal of the game is to make a connection with the person sitting next to you and to call out the person’s behavior in the moment. Without time to think about it, they name the behavior that they see in the other actor. As a director, Chris has produced and directed many films in the upstate area over the last five years. I think that his experience from that side of the camera really is an advantage for students.  You’re not just getting an acting instructor, you’re getting the directors eye as well; something which all actors will work with, and certainly want.

As a student who has taken acting classes at Monroe Community College, Wilhelmina, has a terrific understanding of how an acting class should be. While taking acting classes at Monroe Community College, I did not have the opportunity to learn the exercises mentioned earlier. Wilhelmina has taken the time out to teach their students a more professional method of acting. And most importantly, teaching them about the business. Something you don’t get in college. And in my estimation, this alone will help students be more prepared for professional work and be more productive in their auditioning skills.

In my next blog entry, I’ll be providing a video that I produced showing some excerpts from the class and interviews with the students. STAY TUNED!