The Next Big Thing
The next great star will surely come from the humblest of origins. This is a truism that is particularly apt in the entertainment industry. The actor that comes from an MFA program or carries PhD credentials is the actor doomed to play the FBI section chief or the bumbling father in a Doritos commercial. No, the great stars are never academic, and are always a generation removed from the blue-collar toil their parents were burdened with.
To act, one must commit oneself to a life of toil obscurity. It is never as simple or straightforward a process. The days of being scouted whilst lounging at Schwab’s Pharmacy are long gone – if they ever existed. To be sure, this may have worked for Lana Turner’s publicity (she was not scouted, much less while sipping a milkshake at the counter), but an actor must work in order to be seen and he or she must be seen in order to garner the attention of the gatekeepers positioned strategically about the walls of Hollywood.
It is a strange process, but a time-honored one. To make it, you must make it past the studio lot gate. Even then, less than 10% of card-carrying Screen Actors Guild members make more than $1 million a year. The majority of SAG actors will have to content themselves with pretending to enjoy high fructose corn syrup products whilst beaming maniacally at their commercial family. Ah, showbiz.
Sadly, a green screen foray may be the closest some people ever get to starring in a major motion picture. This is where companies, like Yoostar, allow the meager of means to taste a thimble-full of fame. Positioned by proprietary software, the green screen allows you to be grafted into any of the two dozen clips or so, playing opposite the icons of film.
Save for serving these icons their Cobb salad at Musso and Frank’s, most would-be actors will only come as close as the green screen allows. While this may seem rather cynical, it could very well be the one tool that helps the would-be actor become the gainfully employed actor. The magic of the green screen isn’t merely proximity to film icons, it’s an opportunity to hone one’s acting chops.
Any tool that can improve your chances of becoming the next “star” should not be neglected. To that end, the technology pioneered by the likes of Yoostar would be a apt tool for any actor.
