Commercial Acting I

The Maggie Flanigan Studio believes in providing our students with more than solid craft and technique. We also want our graduates to have as many skills as necessary to turn their passion into sustained financial security. The ability to earn money as an actor is far more appealing than waiting tables and bartending.

Commercials are the working actors bread and butter.  SAG/AFTRA, the actors union, published numbers that said commercial income is comparable to the earning of film & television combined. Many actors naively turn their nose at commercial work, finding it demeaning, or beneath their artistic sensibility. This is absurd. Earning $10,000 for a days work is worth it. And, you will gain valuable experience about collaboration, improvisation, on set protocol, and relationship building. Commercial Acting, taught by commercial veteran Bill Coelius, is the product of his extensive experience acting in over 50 national commercials, and auditioning and working professionally for over twenty years.

Bill shares a carefully crafted game plan that will help you book and shoot that national commercial, always with a focus on the craft of performance. The class prepares you for the moment you walk through that audition door, to when you walk off set after shooting. Is commercial acting good acting? Are there things you can do while walking off set to ensure a future job? How do the acting skills you’ve learned at the Maggie Flanigan Studio help you book a national commercial? How do you consistently work fearlessly, truly enjoying every audition while operating from your enthusiasm and charm? This class will answer all of these questions so that you can maximize your skill set in order to establish financial security for years to come.

This eight-week, 8 class intensive will teach you valuable skills while challenging you to put those skills into practice. All of the work is on-camera with scripts from today’s commercial auditions. In the eight weeks of class you’ll learn how to slate perfectly, how to recognize and analyze all the different kinds of commercial scripts, how to immediately and spontaneously take notes and adjustments from a director, and ultimately be prepared for every second of the audition. And at the end of the eight weeks, a top agent from the Paradigm Talent Agency commercial division will visit class for a Q and A and workshop.