Ask the Experts: Skills Needed to Act in Radio and TV Commercials
Question:
I am interested in acting in TV and radio commercials. What qualifications and personal skills do I need?
First Answer:
Acting in television and radio commercials can be an exciting, challenging and creative career with virtually unlimited potential. Although some view the competition for such positions as fierce, many who are in charge of hiring such talent complain that there there are not enough qualified individuals to feed the industry’s needs. Both groups are correct: there is a lot of competition but much of it is from people who are not well qualified.
Just because you have the interest in acting and the right values doesn’t mean that you have the right competencies and few producers are willing to hire people without the right experience. A key factor in determining your success then is whether you have good experience and, if not, how to get it. One option is to pursue an internship with a local commercial radio or television station. The problem there is that they rarely, if ever, provide interns the opportunity to practice their talents on the air. Internships at such stations tend to be for behind the scenes positions. A better option would be to intern for a community access or college station. They tend to be very poorly funded and see providing such opportunities as part of their mission. You will probably still need to audition and face competition, but they will be much more likely to offer you the training that you will need than a commercial station.
Another option is to get your experience by attending an acting school. While you may not be able to immediately break into radio and television acting, the skills that you will learn from acting in plays and other such productions will transfer to the skills that you will need to act in radio and television commercials.
Finally, some organizations specialize in providing on-the-job training for those who are interested in working in in radio and television. One such company is Film and TV Connection, which provides on-the-job training through a nationwide network of film and television production companies.
They select and hire professional, working film and television Producers, Directors, Editors, Cameramen and others to be both mentor and counselor to their students throughout their training course. Because their students are actually assisting in a real production environment and learning in a hands-on situation, they are becoming that “known quantity” and are in an ideal position to move into a paid production job with the company they’ve trained with.
I applaud you for knowing that you want a career in an area that interests you and, more significantly, for understanding that in order for you to succeed, that you first need to acquire the skills needed by your prospective employers.
— Steven Rothberg, President and Founder of CollegeRecruiter.com
