Not all actors are SAG actors. They're independent actors and they're SAG actors. Independent actors can act on whatever show, movie they want. SAG actors can only act on SAG films unless SAG gives them permission to do an independent film. And that's the only way they can do it. So yeah, you know, there's a lot of ins and outs to acting. You just have to know what you want.
Interesting facts. Light is not light sometimes. I was just watching a film I did, a short film, and I'm sitting in a living room and there's beautiful light streaming through the window and it's diffused because there's a curtain there, but it wasn't the sun. Many times in movies the thing that you think is the sunlight isn't the sun because you can't rely on the sun to be there all the time. You film all day, it's not going to stay there the entire time obviously. Dark is not dark sometimes. They manufacture it through filters and camera techniques or what have you. Dubbing. Sometimes an actor, actors will be outside and it'll be noisy or this or that, or there'll be a flubbed line that didn't sound right, so you have to go back in and say the lines that you said in the movie, watching your lips move and saying it, and then they tweak it to fit in. It's just an amazing bunch of technical stuff. Fog machines, they use haze machines all the time to give it an atmosphere. You don't even know it's a haze machine. It's pretty incredible. The technology is amazing.
Interesting facts. Movie making is all smoke and mirrors. It's all lies. You already know this. But I find it so fascinating. I'm never not fascinated on set when I watch the art department. For example, I did this prison break drama set in the 1800s. I'm playing the jailer with mobs coming and we've got to do exterior shots over here and the exterior shots were shot on a different location miles and miles away. And then we have to do the interior shots and the jail is two levels, top level and bottom level. And we shot it in a barn and the barn is only one level. So art department comes in and builds the bottom level and we shoot all of the scenes for the bottom level of that jail. Done. Our department comes in, switches everything around. Boom. Now we're shooting the top part of that jail. Boom. We're done. Editor comes in, puts it all together and the audience will never know that that was the same location. I just find it fascinating. These people are brilliant and so talented.
Every major motion picture actor you've ever seen is a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Every actor who's auditioning pretty much has to audition for 10, 20, 30 projects to get cast in one. A lot of people think, you know, you may get every other project. That's extremely rare and unlikely because they're casting all different kinds of things. IMDb is the best place to go and look up what actors have been in. Again, you can look me up, link in Hope with two Ps. Go to imdb.com. It stands for Internet Movie Database. You can look up every actor who's ever been in anything and it's pretty amazing. I got to get one last fact. It's really hard. Acting is hard. It's a hard profession.
One interesting fact is actually not a fact about me, a fact that actually keeps me going. You are not going to get booked on most of the projects that you submit to as an actor, even filmmaker, if you submit to to be a filmmaker on projects that they're looking for, you know, directors or assistant directors. Mark Ruffalo, the Hulk, he was in an interview and he had said that one of the casting directors had told him, like, how, you know, have we, you know, not seen you, you know, where have you been all of our lives? You're perfect, you know, for that project. And he's like, I have been submitting to you like 800 times already. You guys have seen me time and time again.
I find it interesting that if you become a member of the Screen Actors Guild, SAG-AFTRA, AFTRA is American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, so those combined a few years ago, they're two labor unions that represent talent in, well, in all of those fields. And if you work enough annually, you actually can qualify for health care and other benefits through the union. Also, the union, they're the ones who house and distribute funds that are owed you through, many of you have heard of royalties or, you know, other money that's owed you from your movie or your television show. And so you'll get checks anywhere from, you know, thousands of dollars right down to a check literally for three cents.
Interesting fact, I have never gotten a role from a taped audition, ever. I've only ever landed a part in a, um, in-person meet the director, work with the material across from other actors, or just reading with him, like that, or the casting director, like, and which is a bummer because in-person auditions are, seem to have been less common, but to any filmmakers out there, please, please hold them more because you get a better feel for your actors that way. I mean, sure, if you're, if you're testing them on their ability to self-tape, cool, but I think you should be finding your actor.