Ben Whitehair hails from Colorado where he spent time as a homeschooling cowboy, a web designer, and an entrepreneur. He graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado at Boulder with degrees in Theatre, Political Science, and Leadership. His favorite colors are blue and green, his favorite number is 13, and his favorite ice cream mix-in is heath bar.
Ben moved to Los Angeles in 2009 to continue his acting career, and has starred in numerous short- and feature-length films, webseries, and the like. When he is rich and famous he plans to solve global hunger, buy a toilet made out of solid gold, and try to wrangle a date with Natalie Portman. He writes the blog Playbills vs. Paying Bills, where this article was originally published, with fellow actors Joe Von Bokern and Emily Beuchat.
WTF is up with IMDb
Ahh, ye olde Internet Movie Database. If you don’t know what it is, then I’m very impressed that you’re reading this blog from a cave. In this series I will tell you what (I think) you need to know…
Who Uses It
The general film-and-tv-watching public (read: fans) typically knows that IMDb is the standard for looking up actors’ work.
In the industry, my theory is that actors are actually the primary users of it, followed by casting directors, then agents, then everyone else. I’ve heard numerous stories of casting directors looking up an actor’s IMDb profile within seconds of receiving a submission, or while on the phone with an agent who is pitching said actor.
What it Means
Honestly, a film on your resume that isn’t on IMDb doesn’t mean much. Because you have to go through some effort to get a project listed on IMDb, there is a certain legitimacy that comes with having projects listed on IMDb. It’s not the be all end all, but let’s just say that the more things you have on IMDb the better.
IMDb Pro
If you’re an actor and you haven’t signed up for IMDb Pro you should be ashamed of yourself. The name of this game is research, and IMDb Pro allows you to do just that. You can view budgets of movies, what agencies actors are with, contact information for people, starmeters, and the like.
What the Heck is a Starmeter and Why Did my Popularity drop 472%?!?
Here is IMDb’s explanation of the Starmeter, but basically it’s a measure of how many hits you get. A veritable (rather arbitrary) online popularity contest.
How to Raise Your Starmeter
- Get people to click on your IMDb profile (post the link on your Facebook or Twitter profiles, have it in your email signature, etc.)
- Get people to comment on your IMDb profile in the “Message Boards” section (this is worth much more than a simple click)
- Be in more things that get listed on IMDb
- Be in popular movies. The more popular the projects are that you’re in, the higher you get rated
- Get mentioned in news articles, social media outlets, and television guides
- Be the star in a once-every-ten-years-movies-like-this-are-crazy-popular movie like Paranormal Activity. (The actress in that movie was ranked #1 on starmeter the week it blew up.)
- Sleep with a celebrity. This will probably accomplish 1 and 2 above, and will give you the added bonus of caring less about your starmeter because you’re now getting freaky with Johnny Depp.
What do the Numbers Mean?
In short, nothing. Again, it’s a rather arbitrary measure of popularity. However, I know a number of casting directors who put actors’ IMDb starmeter ranking in their pitches to producers and such on what actors to get. Agents also look at it sometimes to get a sense of how bankable you are. Remember, the more popular you are, the more money people can make off of you.
To give you some (very unscientific) bars, here are my observations on different “levels” of starmeter rankings:
- 1,000,000 or below: Was probably in a family video that somehow made it on IMDb.
- 1,000,000 – 200,000: Just another actor
- 200,000 – 100,000: Just another actor who’s makin’ things happen
- 99,999 – 15,000: You might still be a waiter, but you probably take time for your career to do things like read this blog post
- 14,999 – 1,000: This is generally working actor territory
- 999 – 1: You’re working. A lot. Good chance you’re repped by one of the big 5 agencies…or are about to be. Alternatively, you were recently on the cover of National Enquirer (see: #6 above)
Again, the number is easily manipulated and pretty random, so please don’t go freaking out about your starmeter. Your time will be much better spent running sides or working on your reel.
Help each other out: Give your friends “a bump” in their starmeter by clicking on their profile or leaving comments. That karma will help you when you ask them to give you a bump when you have a bunch of important agent meetings coming up.
Helpful Tip on Using Starmeter to Find the Right Agency
I would recommend looking up an agency (in IMDb Pro, of course) and comparing the starmeter of their client roster with yours. This is a good initial-first-glance-kinda-unscientific way of seeing if the agency is the proper level for where you are in your career right now. (Note: the more extensive way to do this is go through their client roster and see if their clients are booking mostly co-stars, guest stars, etc.)
Other
The starmeter rankings refresh every Monday. They compare your ranking for the new week with the previous week to determine your “popularity.” Know that your actual ranking is probably more important than your popularity increase or decrease, but also know that if industry-types see a huge jump in your popularity, they might be curious as to why, and want to get in on the action.
Also note that starmeter is often an indication of the online presence an actor has. That’s why you see a lot of higher-up working-actor types with starmeters far below that of some of us youngins, because we have a gajillion friends who will click on our profile if we post it on Facebook.
How to Get a Project Listed on IMDb
Through IMDb
On most any page on IMDb you can click the “update” button near the bottom and submit changes, additional info, new movies, etc (or go here). However, this way rarely gets things listed, unless you can provide copious amounts of information and links to external sites verifying your info.
Through Withoutabox.com
For free you can sign up for an account on Withoutabox.com (you can also link it to your IMDb profile). Through there you can submit your film to “IMDb Qualifying Festivals.” As soon as that (IMDb Qualifying) festival receives your submission (it does not have to be accepted into the festival) they will send you an invite code you can use to get the film listed on IMDb. In talking to the various people I know who have gotten films listed on IMDb, this appears to be the easiest route.
- Note that you will probably have to pay somewhere in the neighborhood of $25 – $45 for the festival submission itself (though check into this, because I’ve heard from some filmmakers that some of the festivals–perhaps the American Artist Film Festival–are free to submit to)
- I think it might also cost like $35 to have your poster up on IMDb, but I don’t think that affects whether or not the film gets listed
This process generally take 4 – 6 weeks, but I’ve seen it take as little as 1 week and as long as…well, I’m still waiting…
Through Createspace.com
Createspace is a website where anyone can sell their creative work (movies, music, etc.). If you post your movie for sale there, you will receive an invitation to list it on IMDb.
Step-by-step instructions on this method can be found here, but basically you just sign up on the website, mail then 2 copies of your DVD, and you’ll receive an email link inviting you to list the movie on IMDb.
A Note on Webseries and TV Shows
It is much harder to get webseries and such listed as far as I can tell. However, it appears that the best way to get a web video listed is to have it on a legitimate site like FunnyOrDie.com, or otherwise published on the web (preferably on a web series website rather than simply youtube) so the powers at be can verify its existence.
Amazon
You might notice that IMDb, Withoutabox, and Createspace are all owned by Amazon. ‘Nuff said.
A Note to Filmmakers
Look, I know you’re busy slaving away getting me the color-corrected, raw footage for my reel, but if you’re not going to pay me then I would really appreciate you taking the 17 minutes to get the project listed on IMDb and linked to my account. Besides, it helps you out too. It’s a win-win!
A Note to Actors
Please, for the love of all that is holy, use this information! Send this post to all the filmmakers you’ve worked with. Heck, offer to pay the money to enter it into a festival. You shouldn’t have to do that, but paying a measly $30 to get a project listed on IMDb is so worth it for you. You know all those dinky, non-union projects you did that turned out like crap? Stop complaining about how you can’t use the footage for your reel and GET THEM ON IMDB! No one is going to see the project anyway, so you might as well make it seem like somewhat of a big deal by getting it listed. Thus ends my mini-rant.
Come back Tuesday for more from Ben on IMDB!
Love, love, love this article!
P.S. Click a girl’s IMdb why dontcha?
http://www.imdb.me/sabrinabolin
Actors who are using IMDB Pro, please take with a grain of salt the project information that is listed on there, especially if you haven’t heard about the project elsewhere. I was looking on IMDB Pro with an actor friend and she brought up the list of projects for a production company whose development slate I am very familiar with. At least half of the projects were either completely made up or long dead. Otherwise, it is a great tool and, as Ben says, it is an absolute must to get your projects listed on it if you want to be “on the map.”
Ben, can you talk about the vanity IMDB URL and whether or not it is another way to establish your brand or is it just cheesy?? Also, is it gross to grab a screencap of your highest Starmeter to date and put it on your latest postcard?? Let’s say you suddenly have a Starmeter spike- do you think it is legit to postcard that to CDs and agents??
Also, @Jenny Yerrick Martin – how do you get your headshot in the little box to the left of your name on this thing???
I’m not sure how reliable IMDB really is. I’ve attempted to get a short film I listed four times and still no luck. And it even premiered at a film festival. The link which I provided to IMDB with a ton of other info. However, I submit a small costar role on a high profile TV show and it’s listed within days. So, where is the logic there? Both were of “public interest”. To many people use it as the end all be all of verifying an actors resume. But I’ve found incorrect numbers for agents on IMDBPro. I don’t lie on my resume and anyone who does should just stop it because you’re making the honest actors look bad. So, any tricks to get this film listed with my fifth attempt?
Miki – Ben will be back next week w/some info about the vanity url – stay tuned. As for the little headshot-y thing, I believe Sarah & I used this – http://en.gravatar.com/…
First of all, thanks to everyone for reading my post! Hopefully there’s some helpful information here.
Miki: As for the vanity URL, I think I talk about that a bit in my next post, but I would DEFINITELY say to nab it for your name if possible. Definitely not tacky, just another way to associate your name with who you are as an actor.
As for a starmeter being noteworthy of a postcard, I would say probably not. Because starmeters can be fairly easily manipulated, it’s used as more of a guide than an accomplishment. If you have a big spike, then ostensibly it’s because of a project you did or something, that would be much more worthy of a postcard.
Christopher: I definitely understand your frustration, and do know that you’re not the only one who has had these kinds of issues. IMDb can be somewhat of a nebulous beast. I would recommend submitting it to an IMDb qualifying festival via the methods I listed above. I’ve never heard of anyone NOT getting a film project listed that way. They should give you a code to list your project on IMDb as soon as you submit.
[…] Part One of Ben’s article on the actors’ essential Internet Movie Database where he covered […]
Absolutely awesome advice, Ben. Thank you, and love the Part 2!!
Claire, I got my Gravatar to work!! Thank you.
Very Interesting article, being in the top 10,000 will raise your profile as an actor.