Dropping out???

<p>Come on out and join the party! Are your parents going to spring for this? If not, you’d better start saving your money because it usually takes newbies awhile to get decent paying survival jobs. Got your own car? It’s possible to get around town without one, but not too practical. Plan on between $400-600 for rent if you live in a two bedroom apartment with three roommates in a not-too-seedy part of town. It doesn’t get much cheaper because you’ll be spending the difference on Kevlar if you do otherwise. </p>

<p>You’ll need classes in on-camera theatrical and commercial auditioning which are usually done in month-long to six week intensives that run from $300-500. You’ll need improv, too, which I believe is around $200 per month at the Big 4 schools one of which you’ll need on your resume if you want to get decent commercial rep. Of course, the theatrical audition intensive is for if you’re already acting on a professional level which you probably aren’t. If not, you’d be better off starting in a technique/scene study class 'til you’re ready to start auditioning for real jobs which will most often be in around two years or so. Those run between $200-$350 per month. And you do usually get what you pay for with those, so plan on the higher side. Decent headshots will run you between $300-600. And once you manage to get a Taft-Hartley either through a real job or the New Media Agreement, the initiation fee to join the union is now $3,000.</p>

<p>There are about a million other little expenses that add up, too. Here’s a link to an old thread the contents of which I blocked and moved from another forum. The parts regarding the union are outdated and some of the expenses may be SLIGHTLY exaggerated, but not by all that much …</p>

<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/706040-post-graduation-expenses-settling-into-la-nyc.html#post8030941[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/theater-drama-majors/706040-post-graduation-expenses-settling-into-la-nyc.html#post8030941&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>That came from the Backstage.com message board, btw. You’d be better off hanging out over there than on a college board if you’re really gonna go for this now. </p>

<p>Just watch out for the sharks. They’re numerous and fierce. Hell, I’m 26 and pretty successful and I still come under attack every now and then. Lesson number one is that if somebody claiming to be a producer starts chatting you up, it’s really just some old dude that wants to get in your pants. Or as one person on Backstage put it, “Some of the producers that will approach you are real producers. They produce porn.” Lotsa clowns like this running around … [Criminal</a> Con-Artist & Sexual Predator In The Phx-L.A. Film Industry & Online Community: Cyrus Lassus (Aliases: Josep Pep Lassus IV & Pep Lassus III) | ananyamongi](<a href=“http://ananyamongi.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/07/16/criminal-con-artist-sexual-predator-in-the-phx-l-a-film-industry-online-community-cyrus-lassus-aliases-josep-pep-lassus-iv-pep-lassus-iii/]Criminal”>http://ananyamongi.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/07/16/criminal-con-artist-sexual-predator-in-the-phx-l-a-film-industry-online-community-cyrus-lassus-aliases-josep-pep-lassus-iv-pep-lassus-iii/)</p>