Opening Doors For Working-Class Actors By Patricia Jones

There has been a push to get more working-class people into actors but with that, there has been little to no attempt at providing any information or support, which is why we at the lost creatives were very happy to be able to talk to Patricia Jones, a working actress of note, and the author of the book “Opening Doors for Working-Class Actors.” 

Opening up to her readers about her own journey from her Northern English roots, and struggles, her honest and upfront approach to the art of acting offers up hope for those who want a career in the arts and shows that it can be done. 

The book itself covers the basics of starting out and takes you through the process, offering advice based on experience, anecdotes about people she has met, and how her own life shaped her journey. 

Each chapter sets out a map of the craft and puts you in a position to set a clear path from starting out to finding yourself an agent, with a series of current options that are designed to be researched and cross-referenced to fit your plans, budget, and aspirations. 

Something that stood out for us was the reference to theater as a learning platform, we are big advocates of working on stage as an actor or backstage as a crew member, you will learn a huge amount about time management, voice work, character development and working to the constraints of the stage, another plus is the short and student film market, both of which can give you a chance to build showreel material and network (a very important part of the job of an actor). 

The *book “Opening Doors for Working-Class Actors.” is a book that has been needed for many years and in a content-hungry age of digital downloads, shows that the craft is not just for those with financial means, it is a journey that can be made by anyone with the determination to do it. 

With the full support and endorsement of The Lost Creatives, the book “Opening Doors for Working-Class Actors” is something we highly recommend to anyone looking to delve into the world of acting or to expand their knowledge of the working world of actors. 

To learn more about Patrician Jones or discuss bookings see:

Patricia Jones Twitter.

For further details of the book which is available in Kindle, hardback and paperback format see:

Opening Doors For Working Class Actors Amazon UK.

Talking About An Agents Life With Louise Gubbay

There are so many talents in the creative industries and we are lucky enough to be able to talk to Louise Gubbay about her work as an agent, and how she has built her talent agency and a stellar reputation with production companies as well as actors. Offering insights into the world of casting, Louise brings a fresh perspective to the world of film and TV sharing the journey with us.

Can you tell us more about yourself and your agency?  How you started out and what do you do as an agent in the social media age? 

Firstly, thank you for inviting me to do this Q&A! I sincerely hope everyone that reads this will find it of use.

After spending many years in different parts of the industry, my passion was to eventually become an agent and when the kids came along, I decided it was the right time to set up Louise Gubbay Associates back in 2006.  I have always been a boutique agent representing actors across the board.  

A few years later, I decided to set up an LA side to the agency! This certainly was not an easy task and took many months before I eventually became a US taxpayer! That was a hugely proud moment in my career! The only reason I eventually closed it was because six years of working from 9 am – 3 am Monday to Friday started to make me a tad tired! But it was a very rewarding time! 

”I never trained as an actor and as I occasionally put out on Twitter, that was a good thing as, to be frank, I would be utterly shockingly bad but envy every actor who does their job brilliantly.  When I see my clients on stage, I am like the proud mum in the audience and generally fighting back the tears! “

I believe social media is important for any business.  It helps you connect with others, support others and promote yourself.  The power of social media is extraordinary. For me though, the way I use social media is to announce confirmed castings of any of my clients and support other actors the best I can.

You have become something of a sensation on Twitter for your motivational Tweets and posts about your client's achievements.  Can you tell us what is your thinking behind this and why you feel it is important to show support across the network? 

I am not sure I would go that far but thank you! I didn’t use my Twitter that much until Covid hit us although I would always shout my client’s credits from the rooftops on it. It is a fantastic feeling when they get cast as we all know this is not an easy industry! There is a lot of rejection for actors, so when we get positive outcomes, I need to let the world know! 

When the entire industry shut down back in 2020, I read many tweets of uncertainty from actors, some of who were the ‘class of 2020’ and others who were left with anxiety as to when and how the industry would reopen, much like we all were and I wanted to give support which has carried on to present day and will continue to carry on.  I was (and still am) inspired by my actor John Craggs who runs The Actors Support Network (@network_actor ) and thought that if I could also offer support, then maybe it would give actors additional hope.  At the best of times, the industry is not an easy one but actors need to keep believing in themselves, do what they need to do to market themselves and keep plugging away.  Good things do happen in the biz and whilst some of the time, actors may feel negative, as I always say, a negative will turn into a positive at some point!

I am in my 17th year as an agent and like everyone has good days, bad days, frustrating days, and positive days but I still look forward to starting work on Monday mornings! The best part about our industry is anything can happen in the next five minutes and sometimes, it does exactly that! 

My motivational tweets are usually thought of when I am walking Mr. Sweetface (aka Zeb, the double terrier) out in the gorgeous areas of rural Devon where I am lucky enough to live. It gives me a chance to think about actors who I do not represent and how I can help, advise or support them but predominantly, give them positivity.  It is so important to me. Not every actor will have representation and those are the ones that need guidance to help make that happen.

What advice would you offer someone looking for an agent to represent them and if they are looking to join your books what would be the best approach? 

It is so important for actors seeking rep to keep reminding themselves they too, are a business. Agents get a huge amount of representation requests throughout the year and so it is important to make sure you stand out.

There is no point in sending an email saying simply ‘Hello, I am an actor and looking for representation but I am working on my showreel’ for example.  That is not selling yourself.  I’m not saying many do but the occasional one does come in.

All actors need to have a showreel.  Agents need to see if they can act.  It might sound daft as they are an actor who is approaching an agent but if I had an email such as that with the actor wanting to meet up for a coffee, why would I take time away from my own clients as well as spend money on travel to meet that actor when I have no idea if they can actually act! It may sound harsh but it is reality.

Actors need to be happy with the package they are sending over to agents which would ultimately include headshots and some kind of reel.  If they are starting out, it won’t be a professional reel with clips of scenes they have done on a professional level but they can create their own scenes and that is perfectly acceptable as long as the sound and quality are at a decent level.  Something is always better than nothing! Actors are creatives, so create!

Also, and importantly, actors need to research the agents they are interested in. We don’t expect any actor to just pick one agent to approach at any one time but look and see which ones you think you could be a part of.  Working with an agent is a two-way street.  Both are after the same goal so it is imperative that both sides can work together.  I cannot guarantee that I would get any new client seen tomorrow, the next day, or the next month.  I am not psychic (sometimes I wish I was!) but the most important factor is for any of my actors to have that trust in me knowing that I am doing my job, which thankfully they do but also for me to know that those that who are also starting out are being proactive too.  A saying I have had for years is to never wait for the phone to ring….

This industry is all about selling yourself so actors should pinpoint the highlights of their career achievements so far. This could be that they have just graduated or they have just been cast in a short film or that they have just finished in the West End.  It doesn’t matter how big or small the credit is, it is simply about selling themselves.

Can you tell us what would you say to aspiring agents out there?  Is there any advice you can offer to new and potential agents to help them grow? 

If they really want to become agents, then do it! I feel absolutely blessed to have a job that I am so passionate about and feel the same enthusiasm today as I did on day one.  

I have advised a couple of new agents recently who have got in touch and am very happy to do that as I was a new agent once.  It is not the easiest career to get started but it is doable! Like any business, again, it’s all about marketing yourself, making contacts, and not giving up. When I see new agents on Twitter and see how passionate they are, I will always happily re-tweet them. Support goes a long way for any new business! Make it happen!

To learn more about Louise Gubbay and Associates or to get in touch see:

Louise Gubbay and Associates Website.

Louise Gubbay and Associates Twitter.

Louise Gubbay and Associates Facebook.

Louise Gubbay and associates Linkedin.

Creating a Story and Building the Brand

When Lost Creatives was first started it was about a journey and finding a path, in that time we have covered a wide range of people’s stories and given a voice to some amazing filmmakers who have helped bring our creative narrative as well as their own, to the public domain.

Over the next few months we plan to add to the stories in a more visual sense, with so much of our work having to be held due to publication terms, it will be fun to finally be able to showcase the work that has been done in the background by our creative director and head of makeup JamesC. Some new portfolio pieces are being finalized with the JamesC portfolio site (frustratingly) taken longer than planned we will be reverting back and reworking the current site with the new content and bringing in a much more cohesive workflow across the sites we already have with the additions of showcasing his work as a photographer into the bargain.

When it comes to production, there is some light at the end of a long tunnel, we have chosen two TV shows to produce along with two short films that we will use as entry back into the market, and with our work with some Amazingly talented filmmakers when it comes to cost, we have been able to work the angles and find additional avenues of marketing, sales, and of course open up our team to different potential projects outside of horror and thriller.

Naturally, we will be working with vshowcards who have been fantastic and are rapidly gaining ground in the production realm and have even got Bollywood on their side which is an amazing coup for the team.

In the next few weeks, we will be making a return to social media with the Lost Creatives and Lost Agency Instagram being updated with new work and some experimental shots we have been playing around with as part of a planned concept.

More news and updates on The Lost coming soon.

Talking Youtube and Politics With That Preston Journalist

As a social and political commentator, That Preston Journalist Channel has become a go-to for a grassroots style of social and political commentary, as the journey continues we wanted to talk to founder Ashley Karmanski about his motivations, plans, and the future of the channel. 

Your Youtube channel is growing in numbers thanks to your quick news bite style of work and narrative approach to the work. Can you tell us more about what motivated you to start this channel? 

I have been in politics and political campaigns for many years now, but I myself have become disillusioned with the way British politics is conducted, the tribal nature of it today seeks to prevent any meaningful debate or sensible discussion. I believe people can, and should be able to disagree with each other without resorting to personal insults.

I wanted to create a channel that provides common sense, from the mouth of a working person in the UK. Too much of the media, especially the mainstream media, comes from the rose-tinted spectacles of the London metropolitan bubble, but the views held by people in wealthy areas are rarely those held by the wider public. 

I try to say things as I see them. Members of the public have bigger things to worry about than what the latest political correctness crusade is, I believe they want the truth with no hidden agenda behind it, I believe they want to be aware of how government policy will impact them without being talked down to by the BBC, Sky or ITV news. Most of the mainstream media are privately educated and do not know the daily struggles or concerns of working people in this country, but I do, that is my world as well, I want to be, and am slowly becoming the go-to place for unedited news, and the truth about how our lives are being impacted by the politicians in the UK.

I do not do this for profit, I work full time as well as running my channel, it may sound cheesy, but I really do it to bring simple, to the point, effective news to all the millions who no longer trust the mainstream media anymore. When I first started the channel, I had three or four subscribers, and to see it reach over two thousand in just a couple of months, is hugely rewarding and I enjoy every minute of it.    

Watching your videos, you have a very grassroots style of working with a simple, clean background, talking about political scandals in a fact-based manner adding your own thoughts to the piece, are you planning to stand for election or will you continue to focus your energy on the channel?  

I have no plans to stand for any elections, but as for campaigning, I am very open to getting on board, and try to campaign in the hope that common sense will once again prevail in this great country of ours. 

I keep the videos and backgrounds simple because that’s how I want the channel to be. A trustworthy source of news, I do receive negative feedback for my background to the videos, for my northern working-class accent, but that only strengthens my resolve and keeps me going. In fact, it proves to me that what I believe to be true, that working-class people are looked down on by the metropolitan elites, is the case in the UK today. Free speech has been on the decline for some time, people are no longer allowed opinions that don’t go along with the “be kind” brigade, who, by the way, is the first to call somebody a “racist”, or a “fascist” for not having the same opinions as them, and that is completely wrong, and that isn’t democracy. 

There isn’t a political party out there at the moment that really represents working people, there aren’t many media organizations that do either, so it is up to people who still hold common sense and traditional values to bring that news into the public domain. I believe it is the overwhelming consensus within the UK, but the elitist minority pressure groups get all the air time, telling people what to think, rather than actually providing news and letting people make their own minds up. We see it time and time again, every time there is a vote, be it a referendum, or a general election, the media get it wrong every time, and that proves how out of touch they are with the common man and woman today.

I do try and keep my personal opinions out of my videos where I can, but I am only human. I am unapologetically passionate about the UK and my belief that we are all better together as one country. On the other hand, many people on my videos ask about my political allegiances or asking how I vote. This tells me that I am doing a good job of being reasonably impartial on most issues. 

I do not, and will not ever tell people how to think, I simply wish to present the news in a simple, easy-to-understand format, and people can make their own minds up about what is best for them, and their lives. Politicians and the media seem to have forgotten that people have their own brains, and their own common sense, they know what is best for them. This means people disagree and agree with me at times, and that is healthy for any democracy to function.   

In creating That Preston Journalist you have tapped into what could be called “the working class” experience and focus on the dangers of political blindness to the people outside of those enclaves.  Do you think that Youtube has allowed you a greater platform to air your views and what challenges have you faced with tackling the subjects you do? 

As I’ve said before, I am a working-class person, which qualifies me to talk to a working-class audience, unlike many in the public eye who don’t talk to their audiences, but down to their audiences. YouTube has been an excellent outlet for me, if anything I did or said was discriminatory YouTube would shut me down, but it isn’t, and although I do tackle tough subjects, I do it in a way that I believe brings balance and common sense to the table.

The vast majority of the wider public in the UK do not subscribe to the views held by the mainstream media, if you ever wanted to see evidence of this, you only have to look at their audience viewing figures, and their short, sharp decline. 

Personally, I haven’t found any major challenges as of yet, sometimes you get negative feedback from people, but that’s part of the course, if you are going to read positive comments about your work, you have to accept the opinions of people who disagree, that is why I don’t delete negative comments from my videos unless they are personal attacks upon me. Personal attacks are what I am trying to stop, and open up sensible debate, so I can’t allow it on my channel as it defeats the overall message I am trying to get across. The message is that we all have opinions, and we all have the right to disagree in an assertive, yet polite manner. Politics does not have to be the toxic cesspit it is at the moment.  

 If you could offer advice to someone starting out as a political or social commentator what would it be and why? 

The most productive piece of advice I could give is to keep it simple and stick to your principles. With today’s world being what it is, you will come up against trolls who wish to close you down, you will receive abuse, but you must not let that stop you. 

Nothing in life worth doing is easy, and getting involved in politics, or political commentary certainly isn’t. But if you truly believe in what you are doing, you will succeed. 

Patience is also very important. Don’t expect job offers or subscribers to start appearing immediately. Share your content to as many different social media sites as you can, post the link to your website/YouTube channel, etc… everywhere you can. 

Once you start getting more and more followers, your content will grow much more organically, but the initial hard work is all down to you, and it can be a hard slog. 

To learn more about That Preston Journalist or to subscribe to the channel see:

That Preston Journalist Youtube.

That Preston Journalist Twitter.

Talking Film, Scripts, and Starting a Business With The Champ Films.

We have been watching the indie scene for a long time and a name that pops up frequently when talking about scripts is Tom Reynolds (AKA The Champ Films) who has become a go-to for monologues, film scripts, and with plans now in motion to produce we wanted to talk to Tom about his background and motivations.

Can you tell us more about yourself and your background? 

Born and raised in Reading, Berkshire, I grew up obsessed with films & sport. I studied English Literature for 4 years and enjoyed writing my own stories & plays which were always great fun to perform. When the lockdowns started, I decided I would get back into writing and when I started, I couldn't stop. 

As someone who writes scripts of varying lengths and styles, what is your favorite genre in terms of creative potential? 

At this moment, it is definitely horror scripts. horror allows you to tell a story without necessarily being limited by facts or reality. if you can imagine it, you can write it in a horror film. having said that, where I am right now in terms of available budgets for films etc, I am limited to what I can actually write in order to keep the script realistic for Production. 

What is the plan for your business as you go forward: TV? Film? Commercial? Documentary work?

The plan is to focus entirely on Films right now. As of today, I have 10 feature film scripts completed and the goal is to produce projects one after the other in a conveyor belt style system. Each script is more ambitious than the last and the whole business plan is geared towards progression.

As we move further into 2021 what is your strategy and goal set for the coming months? 

The goal right now is to find other like-minded filmmakers to join the team in order to move into Production. Specifically, I'm on the lookout for an ambitious Producer to join the team. The industry has been hit hard over the last 18 months or so and I want to do whatever I can to help bring it back stronger than ever. By bringing in the right people to join the team, I'm hoping we can all work together to create good quality films with the sole goal of providing entertainment and a bit of escapism for the viewer. In addition, I am looking to gain investment and have launched an early crowdfund for my 1st feature film in order to build a pot as big as possible to cover all film-making costs including wages for all those involved.

What has been your biggest challenge to date as you build your business? 

So far, the biggest challenge has definitely been finding other like-minded people to join us.  This is completely understandable as obviously, I am new to the industry, and thanks to covid canceling all in-person festivals, I've not been able to meet like-minded people in person. Not knowing anyone in the industry or having any good contacts has also been a real challenge but hopefully, this will all change in time, particularly if I'm able to move my 1st script into Production. People will then realize this is a genuine venture and will hopefully want to be a part of what I am hoping to achieve.

What has been the best part of the journey so far?

Without a doubt, the best thing has been all the amazing people I have met so far through Social Media. The response I have received from the various networking tweets I have sent out has been really incredible. The Twitter entertainment community has welcomed us with open arms and we have made some awesome new connections. We have made contacts with so many incredible Actors and Actresses and have worked directly with some of these people to develop characters that have found their way into scripts that I have written. Indeed, some of these performers have even performed monologues which I have written, and that has been fantastic. This has helped raise our profile and has enabled some people to see the sort of writing I am looking to do. The feedback, both positive and negative that I have received from the Twitter community has been invaluable.

If someone wishes to donate to your debut film crowdfund, where can they go to donate?

We currently have 2 crowdfunds collecting donations for our first film:

Gofundme The Champ Films Campaign or here on buymeacoffee,

Thank you in advance to anyone who decides to help us out!

If people wish to keep up to date with what you are doing, where can they follow you on Social Media? 

Here are all of our current links,

Twitter.

The Champ Films Twitter.

Thee Tom Reynolds Twitter.

Savage The Film Twitter.

Instagram.

The Champ Films Instagram.

Thee Tom Reynolds Instagram.

Fundraisers.

The Champ Films Set up Gofundme Campaign.

BuyMeACoffee Link

Profiling Talent with Alistair Smith Actor

Can you tell us a little about yourself, your career, and how you came to be part of the acting community?

My entry into the acting community was somewhat of a Covid epiphany.  I’ve come from the corporate world having graduated with a business degree. Over the last 20 years, I built a pretty successful career, starting my own consultancy business about 5 years ago.

I wanted to go to drama school when I was in my late teens but at the time was persuaded to go down a more secure route.  I’ve always been creative and looking back I was very frustrated in my choice of work.

At the start of lockdown, with work having dried up, it gave me the headspace to start thinking about what I wanted to do and came to the realization that I’d never given myself the chance to actually pursue my dreams.  

I called up a good friend who works in theatre and he put me in touch with my first acting coach.  My passion is film and television and so I decided to dip my toe into the water at “an introduction to film and television acting” with Actors Studio at Pinewood studios.  I loved it.  I immediately signed up for the 1 month intensive diploma course and knew this is what I want to do.  Since then, I have joined my local theatre group, taken numerous acting classes, and started to build my network and credits.

 So far in your career has there been a milestone that you want to share or a project you are particularly proud of?

 My current high-point is being cast in a feature film.   It’s filming in the next couple of months and am really excited about it.  I’d say the other high point is just experiencing the kindness and generosity of the creative community as a whole.  Having come from the corporate world it has been a refreshing and welcome change. 

If you could choose any project to tackle what would it be and why: a film?  A TV show?  Theatre? 

I feel I was made for a chunky role in Line of Duty or a gritty drama. A period drama would also be an amazing experience.

What are your goals for this year in terms of your career?

To get on Spotlight, to get an agent and appear on a mainstream TV show.

To learn more about Alistair Smith or to discuss bookings see:

Alistair Smith Showreel.

Alistair Smith Mandy.com Profile.

Alistair Smith Twitter.

Alistair Smith Instagram.

Alistair Smith IMDB.

Alistair Smith Starnow.