Christopher Renaud Media

Well hello all.

This blog is now dead. I have a new blog now called Christopher Renaud Media and a facebook page coming soon. Please is your a fan follow my new blog as I will no longer be posting here.

MAC

Hello all,

I know it has been awhile since I have posted a blog, and for that I am sorry. Life has gotten busy and well to be honest I've had a hard time deciding what to write about.

So today I will write about my new laptop my Mac Book Pro!

So why have I decided to go from PC to Mac, well the answer is very simple Mac is amazing and is by far superior then PC. And now I know what your going to say. But Chris they are so expensive I could buy two computers for the price of a Mac. And yes your right you could do that, or you could buy a really great computer that you wont have to update every time you turn around. Not to mention your average PC laptop really lasts you about a year maybe two before you lose your cd/dvd player or a usb port etc. So your spending 600+ every year to two years on a new laptop. or spend 1300 on a Macbook that in average lasts up to 5 years before you need to get a new one.

The operating system is very simple on a Mac everything is easy to find and easy to use. Now that said after being a PC user for so long it took me awhile to figure it out, and that was only because I was thinking it had to be way more complicated then that.

I have also found my Mac is amazing for photo editing, the screen is a lot crisper then my old laptops and I don't have to adjust the angle every ten seconds to get a clear view. Another thing I found itunes always ran so slow on my PC where on my Mac it runs super fast. Along with countless other programs.

Now back when I worked full time in film for Capital Productions everyone had a Mac and everyone told me how great they were. And I refused to see it I even made fun of them for buying over priced crap. Well now I am one of them a Mac Panther so to speak. And will I ever go back to PC? no I doubt it. I'm now Mac for life.

So yeah that is my little Mac rant. And I promise I will try to be more vigilant with my blogs. Does anyone even read these?

Contacts

In this industry it is important to make contacts. You wanna try to do this in many different ways, websites, work, social events, random and chance encounters.

Working is more then likely  one of your best chances to meet people. Where better to meet film people then on a filmset. My first indie film was crewed and casted pretty much entirely by people I had met on the set of Paul Gross's H2O. Now you might be asking me  how do I get work on a filmset, no movies are made where I live. Well check your local Kijiji or Craigslist ads, there is always some local indie film maker looking for people to help on his film. Theses Indie film makers are tomorrows big names so help them out now and they might help you out in the future on your film.

Random encounters are always good as well, I have met many people in coffee shops,  and the like. You might over hear a conversation, or the person you are with might know the person you run into. If this is the case you might want to be prepared for this situation.  Make yourself up some business cards, this is easy and cheap to do. You can ether do it by making them yourself on your computer at home or going to Staples and having them made up. You don't need to have anything fancy mine simply reads my name, that I'm a film maker/writer/photographer, and my contact information.  Handing out a card is much better he writing your contact info on a scrap of paper and giving it to someone.

So those are just a few ways to make contacts there are more but theses are the easiest ways. And don't worry once you get some work on real film sets you'll make even better contacts it all takes time and effort don't give up on your dream, if you do it'll only ever be a dream.

Other ways to follow me

Hey all

If you are looking for other ways to follow me check out Twitter: @cren82 and there is also IMDB where you can check out my film credits from Acting to Crew. I also have a few videos up on youtube my id there is crentube

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1944699/

Hope you all have a great day.

Finding or getting an Agent

            Well I have been trying to figure out what my next blog should be about and after much thought I have come up with is subject finding an agent. So if you are looking to become an actor or actress depending on your gender you’re going to want an agent, why? Well having an agent is very handy really, you see whenever a film or television series comes to town they often contact agents and tell them what they are looking for. And then your agent contacts you and you go off to auditions. Now I am not saying you can’t get an audition without an agent because you can. And that is called self promotion and I will touch on that later.

            Now how do you go about finding an agent, there are a few ways really.

1. You check out agents in the yellow pages they are listed and you send off a copy of your headshot and resume.
2. You go on the web and find that that way, you will find most agents have a website.
3. newspaper ads (I don’t recommend those)

Now after you have contacted an agent and they have contacted you back and ask you to come in there is one important thing you should know. NEVER NEVER pay them fees!!! You don’t pay an agent until after they find you work this can be anywhere from 10 to 15% of what you made on the film. If they are asking you for fees please stay clear of them. Now after you have signed on with an agent get a set of decent headshots. Headshots are your calling card, it’s one or maybe the only thing the casting agent will see of you so do not have crappy head shoots. Your agent maybe able to suggest a good photographer or you can often find one on the internet.

            Now I was talking about self promotion a moment ago, this is when you represent yourself; it’s doable but can be tricky. You have to do a lot of searching and make sure you find auditions. Now that said even with an agent it is a good idea to do self promotion. Your agent has a ton of clients and can’t always be focused on you. So it’s up to you to promote yourself at all times. Easy ways of doing this are sending copies of your headshot and resume to casting agents. Now you might ask how does one do this? It’s easy and you don’t need to sign up for any acting sites that you pay 50 bucks a month for just to get the names. Use IMDB, then use the net to get the address. IMDB is a great resource to find casting agents.

            Now you might come across this scenario were the agent you are contacted says you need more experience before they take you on. Well one way to get that is to do extra work, and to get cast in independent films you can often find these casting calls on Craigslist, Mandy.com, or Kijij or at your local coffee shops, Acting classes etc. And if your in a small town, make your own indie films. Anything like that will help you gain experience.

            So yeah that’s all the tips I can think about giving you for finding or getting an agent. If you have any question or can think of something I might have missed please feel free to ask or let me know and I will answer you question or add to this blog. As always have a great day and good luck.

Sincerely,

Christopher Renaud 

British Columbia

Mmmm I need a catchy opening to start off all my blogs any ideas??

Well here I am in a motel in the great British Columbia town of Port Alberni, home of some of the best cold water diving in the world. For those of you who don’t know when I am not working on films and such I work in the Communications Field. So for the next 20 days I will be living on Vancouver Island working. Now for those of you who have never been to the island let me start off by saying this….it’s amazing!!!! I feel like I skipped winter all together. It’s so green here and warm it’s more like spring then winter really. I can’t wait until summer I am sure this place will be amazing.

Now let me start by saying I love British Columbia for many reasons really. They film a lot of movies and television shows in the City of Vancouver. Things like Tron Legacy, X Men, Supernatural, Smallville, Battlestar Galactica and this list could go on really. I would love to live here just so I can work on the many movies and shows made here. It’s safe to say I would like to call Vancouver my home, why’d I stop in Calgary I have no clue. The other reason I love this province is …. well I love to camp, hike and go off roading with my truck. And not to mention the roads are amazing and well awesome for riding motorcycles. So it’s safe to say the life style here fits mine, all I need to do is learn to snowboard. So yeah it’s safe to say I love this place.

Another thing about this place I love is that it’s a change of scenery for me right now, which is just what I needed. You see I was having some serious writers block in Calgary. I knew what I wanted to write but just couldn’t write it. Once I was sitting in the airport in Vancouver waiting for my next flight to the island the words just started flowing onto the page. Another thing I don’t have a lot of distractions here so I have a lot more time after work to write and well work out for that matter. And the weather is so warm I think I will start jogging in the mornings.

So that’s my blog for the day, stay tuned in the next couple of days for a new blog and pictures from the island. And like always feel free to follow me on twitter @cren82

Sincerely,

Christopher Renaud  

Photo Shoot and picking out my wardrobe

Well greetings again all and happy Sunday. Well today is a big day I have a photo shoot, but this time I am not behind the camera I’m in front of it. The reason for this my new agent wants me to have a headshots. So I’ve grown a beard and have my wardrobe all picked out which is the subject of this blog.

So as I am not a student of fashion and my biggest fashion sense in jeans and a t-shirt, I recruited the help of KD or as some of you may know her here as www.thegirlwiththemessyhair.blogspot.com/ . So we went through my wardrobe and found one outfit to wear, and we had to go to the Mall to find another. So a big thank you goes out to KD for all her help. Funny story to this I kept leaving the room to change my shirt. Out of respect to KD, she thought this was funny as it’s what she would have seen at the beach. Not sure why but I was a little bashful, and she said most guys would have just ripped there shirts off. Maybe I am a gentleman and I just didn’t know it. Now that being said apparently all my hard work working out is paying off, cause I was told by my new stylist to wear more clothing that shows off my body.  So I guess I am looking good!

            Now I have to say I was really impressed that we found the one outfit in my wardrobe. I figured we would have to go out and buy a whole new wardrobe but luckily I spent a total of 50 bucks at the mall. Got to love sales 2 ribbed shirts for 20 and an awesome casual shirt for 30 which KD and the girl at the store said I looked great in so thank you ladies. 

            So now it’s time to workout and get a good swell on before the shoot. ( I’m pretty sure I just ripped my buddy Wolfgang off with that line (www.imdb.com/name/nm2776361/) who will be the star in my new script.) Got to keep this body in shape, and the comment from KD is encouragement as well.

 So yeah that was my day yesterday before I went to the lacrosse game. Which was amazing by the way, box seats are awesome! To bad we lost though but still a great evening with a great friend thanks Joe. So I’ll write more later when I’m done the shoot and let you know how it goes.

Oh and if you are reading this and are entertained you can follow me on twitter @cren82

Sincerely,

Christopher Renaud