Amy Lyndon - The Lyndon Technique: The 15 Guideline Map to Booking

The 15 Guideline Map toBooking Handbook

Amy Lyndon

Copyright 2009 by AmyLyndon

SmashwordsEdition

Acknowledgements

With deep thanks to mywonderful Thomas for always giving me unconditional love, supportand fantastic notes. My life would be colorless without your humorand beautiful designs.

Thank you to Mom, Dad, Nunu,Michelle and Jen for your consistent encouragement.

To my dear students, whoencouraged me to write this book.

To Harry Mastrogeorge forteaching me that story always comes first.

Introduction

To Book or Not To Book That is the Question!

Get ready to learn a proventechnique to booking the job on the first take. This way of workingis for anyone that wishes to compete at a high level. My 15Guideline Booking Technique is a take no prisoners way of workingand any Actor at any level can use it. It is for those who wish tolearn how to break down a script properly and enjoy the ride in theaudition room without having a better audition in the car on theway home. Your goal is to go from the bottom 99% to the top 1% ofActors booking jobs. If you want your booking stats to go up, thenpay close attention. After perfecting this technique you will beable to pick up any script in any genre and always know what youare doing.

This is not an easytechnique, but once youve got it down, you will never forget it.In order for you to absolutely understand how this works, you needto get out there and practice. Audition for anything you can. Youdont need to take the job, but you must learn how to book it. Thisis not an overnight fix. Give it some time and it will all clickin. Learn by doing. Its a different way of working. Think of thisinnovative and practical technique like learning a whole newlanguage.

I believe that I present aunique approach to booking a job and building an acting careerbecause I am out there auditioning and working my business andmarketing campaigns alongside all of my students. I have owned andoperated a personal management company for nine years, cast severalFeature Films, Shorts and Pilots, and have won awards for Acting,Directing, Writing and Producing. I understand what you need to doto succeed. I understand how the energy in the outer casting officeand in the audition room can determine your success. I know howdifficult it can be. There was a period in my life when I had threesurvival jobs at one time just to pursue my acting career. Ivesold t-shirts at swap meets, waited tables, had an Amway business,made flower arrangements for bar mitzvahs, sold advertising door todoor and even got up at 4 oclock in the morning to sell toner forcopy machines from a boiler room phone operation. I know what ittakes to make it happen. I have made a ridiculous amount ofmistakes along the way and I am thrilled to share my experienceswith you to save you the time and heartache.

I moved to Hollywooddirectly following my college education where I received a BFA inDrama from Syracuse University. When I graduated, I had all thisjuice flowing and I was so psyched to get out there, but the peoplein the audition room terrified me because I didnt know what I wasdoing. I didnt have a technique or a map to figure out the wholeprocess. I was flying by the seat of my pants. I didnt know how totake all my fantastic training and apply it to booking a job.Slowly over time, I figured out how to book and the biggest thing Ilearned was that it was never my talent. It was my approach. Itsunfortunate, but no one will know how great an Actor you are ifyour approach is wrong.

These Guidelines will alsokeep you safe in the room. You will no longer pick up energy fromthe decision makers or other Actors at the audition because youwill be busy setting up your environment, making your openingmoment strong in the outer office, telling the story from yourpoint of view, and knowing exactly who you are relating to in thescene. Part of the reason Actors have issues booking is nerves andjudgment. You want to act because you have talent and want to beseen, but when youre seen, youre nervous and affected by thejudgment of the decision makers. Its sad to think that the mainreason why you became an Actor is the same reason why youre notworking.

The good news is; those daysare over! I am giving you a map to booking so you will always knowexactly what you are doing. You will get to a place where youll beso completely immersed with the story and the specifics that youwont have time to be nervous. It wont even matter whos in theroom at that point because youll be too busy. You will go in, hitthe audition hard, walk to your car and before you know it, you hadan amazing experience and you wont even remember who was in theroom. THAT is the ultimate goal we all strive for!

With this technique, you cannot skip corners and be lazy. Answer the questions in the order that it is laidout in this handbook. Remember, you are only going to be as good asyour homework. Write the answers to the questions directly onto thepages of your script. If its not written all over the pages, thenits going to be in your head. The more homework you do, the morespecific youre going to be, and the more youre going to be ableto completely let go and perform at the top of your game. This is atedious and logically straightforward technique that requires greatdiscipline, but it is worth it when you see the results. You canliterally turn your career around today. It really is true that,Success occurs when preparedness meets opportunity.

First Guideline: What is theScene About?

When you receive yoursides also known as a scene or script for an audition, readit 10 times and ask yourself, In one sentence, what is this sceneabout? Write it on the top of your sides. The sentence needs to befrom the storytelling point of view. The more time you spendoutside of the scene, as a reader, like youre seven years oldreading a book for the first time, the better off youre going tobe. Describe the scene in one sentence. For example, A man andwoman argue about the wedding of a close friend. If you jump intoo quickly, then youll have no perspective on whats really goingon in the story. Youre only going to be playing what you think youshould be playing instead of understanding the whole story from theWriters perspective. A great example would be a catchphrase on amovie poster that says, She conquered, he made love mercifully,they were a frightful pair. Make sure the sentence is not fromyour point of view. It needs to be from the storys point ofview.

The Story ALWAYS comesfirst. The Writer is the captain. Respect the Writer. You dont getthe opportunity to re-write the script to fit your needs. Whateverthe Writer tells you to do, do it. Youre the Actor, not the Writeror the Director. The sides will tell you everything you need toknow. DONT MAKE ANYTHING UP. What you are reading is the truth. If thecharacter says that they hate the other person, then they hate theother person in that moment until it changes unless theres anaction line or a parenthetical suggesting otherwise. Dont makeanything up to make your read stand out to impress anyone. You willstand out if you read it exactly as written. THE WRITER MAKES YOUR CHOICES FOR YOU. Believe me, making random choices is the biggest mistake anActor can make. You want the Writer in the room to say, That Actorread it exactly as I wrote it thats the character! Its not amystery when the Casting Director says, Thats the girl! Shesexactly as I need her to be. That is what happens when you read itexactly as written. Take the time to figure out the Writersintent. THIS IS THE KEY TO GETTING INTO THE1%.

Remember when we were littlekids in school? The teacher would point to each kid and say,Youre going to be a gum tree, youre going to be the fairyprincess, and youre going to be the pumpkin and we wouldexcitedly say, Okay. There was never an argument; there was nevera thought about it. If the Writer wants you to do something, do it.Always ask yourself, What does the Writer want me to do today? Doit as written. Stop making decisions. Stop deciding how you aregoing to do it when the script already told you what you aredoing.