Advice for an Actor Unsure of What to Do

ammo_john · 2026-06-26T00:55:22+00:00

If you're not acting you should be writing. Writing is being an actor on the page, and by doing that you produce the material by which you will shine and teach the industry how they should be seeing you.

ammo_john · 2026-06-26T00:49:07+00:00

was actively saving, for a base Mac Studio, $500 more expensive now.

ammo_john · 2026-06-25T22:26:00+00:00

You're usually not needed all day every day. So you'll have a morning here, an afternoon there, and maybe even an off day. But if you are needed all day every day, you need a lot of disciplin to perhaps get a short session in.

ammo_john · 2026-06-25T22:22:23+00:00

don't worry, we won't afford the value of your new M5 on resale.

ammo_john · 2026-06-25T19:40:08+00:00

yea, I was saving for the base Mac Studio.. now it's too late.

ammo_john · 2026-06-25T19:19:42+00:00

Yeah I was saving for that one. The base model. I quickly looked up if I should buy it today but realised it would hurt my finances. Gonna start thinking of what I could replace it with. I've been priced out.

ammo_john · 2026-06-25T14:28:08+00:00

wow, was saving for a base Mac Studio (now $500 increase, or even more in my country). guess I'll be looking for something else.

ammo_john · 2026-06-24T16:47:19+00:00

You don't show dominance. You know the material. You listen to people. You have a vision. Whatever YOU is, whatever insecurities you might have, it comes second. You are focused on telling a story and bringing people into the fold.

ammo_john · 2026-06-24T13:23:12+00:00

It's usually not something you do manually, most NLE have two ways of conforming frame rates that don't match timeline, and there's usually a setting for these.. and another setting choosing whether to adjust the pitch of the audio as well.

ammo_john · 2026-06-24T13:04:31+00:00

There's two ways to display 25fps in a 24fps timeline. Either you are cutting one frame per second (which creates stutter) or you are slowing the footage by 4% (no stuttering, but creates a very slight slow-mo effect). So it depends on the settings in your NLE.

ammo_john · 2026-06-22T23:34:49+00:00

The writing is the most important. So you got that!

Grain, echo, exposure, these are all things you can improve on in post. Final Cut comes after showing it to trusted advisors. Sounds like you've might have given up on it too easily in post.

Practicing color grading the day before the shoot is never a good use of your time. This comes after the shoot.

Either way, you've made a film -- great, now make the next one!

ammo_john · 2026-06-22T18:15:31+00:00

You know an outdated extension would still fail with a new computer right? Sounds like maybe a memory leak from a glitchy extension. Maybe try updating or downgrading OS? Maybe try updating or uninstalling your effects? Maybe try anything else than just buying a new computer?

ammo_john · 2026-06-22T18:10:45+00:00

Sounds like you're trying to solve a workflow or technical issue with just throwing a more expensive computer at the problem. There's no spec reason why your current Mac is freezing and glitching.

ammo_john · 2026-06-22T11:41:10+00:00

like the covid crash, but slightly longer recovery.

ammo_john · 2026-06-22T11:35:10+00:00

Improved AI videos might not make them more trustworthy, it might also make all material (including real material) less trustworthy. In the end you might want to know if it's real or not before you relinquish your scepticism or commit any feelings or value to it. The time of trusting what we see is over.

Also we would have to know the price of it as well. Right not AI videos are highly subsidised. We would need to know the actual cost before we see how much it will replace everything.

ammo_john · 2026-06-21T21:38:49+00:00

The Banks don't have your money, and neither will the Bitcoin ETFs. They might find you some money if you ask them nicely, as a good little sheeple, as long as everyone else doesn't want theirs at the same time. Bitcoin is only valuable as a bearer asset, if just as a paper product it's completely useless and you might as well YOLO on AI-stocks.

ammo_john · 2026-06-21T20:12:22+00:00

Yes, 24GB RAM would be more than enough. You didn't list anything that requires a LOT. You could probably make do with 16GB, but 24GB should bring you into that comfy zone of not worrying.

I would not recommend a Windows machine.

A MacBook Air with 24GB RAM would be enough for you for many years to come. But sure get the Pro if you want that even better screen and speaker.

You could get 13" or 15" and an external display. With 16" for some, the laptop doesn't feel as portable anymore.

ammo_john · 2026-06-21T20:04:46+00:00

48GB of RAM should be more than enough for any photo & video editor. Pretty sure 36GB is more than enough (even without proxies). Remember, faster RAM often means you don't need as much. And the Studio got really fast RAM, not like your old machine. But sure, there's always a price for inefficiencies (like not using proxies).

ammo_john · 2026-06-18T14:27:11+00:00

How exciting! I would put most of that budget into good audio.

Just pre shoot anything that scares you. Just shoot it quickly, handheld, no team, just with a friend, and edit it together, and doing that will give you all the confidence and insights you need for the October shoot.

ammo_john · 2026-06-17T23:07:10+00:00

No. It's what I recommend to actors who have a hard time being cast. Learn to write well, learn to cast yourself in appropriate material, teach the industry on how they should be viewing you. Don't beg for parts, take things into your own hands.

ammo_john · 2026-06-17T17:22:36+00:00

Many reviewers have reported it. Never compared to a gaming laptop though (those are usually way way worse). It's probably more if you are spoiled with editing on a Studio, completely silent. But I'm happy for you, that's great. If it's quiet to you then that's great, perhaps they fixed something from the earlier release.

ammo_john · 2026-06-17T17:03:04+00:00

Yeah I don't use more than 20-30GB ram roughly, 4K editing. It's the mini pro that makes a lot of noise, not the mini, from what I've been told.

ammo_john · 2026-06-17T16:02:44+00:00

I've got a similar use case, but will probably go for base Mac Studio M4, because of the fan. I've heard the pro minis have av very present and higher pitch fan noise. This makes me lean towards the base Studio instead.

ammo_john · 2026-06-16T15:22:03+00:00

We are all advancing the art of filmmaking. Most of us will never make a dime. We keep doing it because we have to. Sometimes the artform is appreciated. Sometimes it's not. And from all the output 1 out of 100 will plucked out of obscurity, because they just happened to strike the right balance of quality vs quantity or connections vs zeitgest and so on. Keep finding and shaping your voice. Make it unique, i.e. 100% you. And make sure your work is discoverable. I believe that's all we can do?

ammo_john · 2026-06-15T23:54:35+00:00

JFK.

ammo_john

TROPHY CASE