I hear this “dilemma” a lot with new and prospective students: “I see you coach privately, and that you also offer on-camera and voice-over classes…which should I choose?” Ya know what I tell all of them? “SHAKE IT UP!” In my case, I don’t always offer on-going classes. They come up every couple/few months for anything  from 4 – 6 weeks at a time. That’s when I advise my private students to “hop out” of private lessons (unless they either can afford both and/or are so serious about getting their craft together to take it on the road, so-to-speak.) There are pro’s to doing both. With one-on-one – whether it’s for on-camera, scene study, or voice-overs - especially with beginners -  you get that well…one-on-one time for the whole lesson focused on YOU, YOUR  GROWNG SKILLS, YOUR ABILITY, and your PROBLEM AREAS. This is the place and time where if any bad habits were going to form, your coach would catch them, work on them with you, and zap! strip you of them. This is where you grow and get those tools. The focus is 100% focused on you, you, and no one else but YOU.

In a class setting, you get to learn not only by getting your time up in front of the camera, or behind the mic, but with a time limit, in front of a “safe” audience: Your peers. Your fellow actors. And it feels more like a real audition at a real casting session. Pressure’s on. This is the place where you can learn from watching them, taking ideas from them, and putting yourself in perspective. Where do you stand in the class?  Who would you like to be more like? Who inspires you to want to be better? Both situations rock, really. The point is to get out there and STUDY. Intensive one-on-one, and Watch-and-learn-and-get-up-there.  So, I guess it’s pretty simple:  Shake it up, baby.

Over an’ out.


Doriane Elliott
http://www.dorianeelliott.com