ACTING BLOG - The Importance of Getting IMDb Pro Account for Actors

Unlock the Secrets of the Entertainment Industry: Get an IMDb Pro Account Today!

Are you an actor looking to make it big in the film industry? Do you want to network with the right people and get your name out there? If so, then getting an IMDb Pro account is a must. IMDb Pro is the go-to resource for actors, filmmakers, and industry professionals alike, and it can be a powerful tool for anyone looking to make a name for themselves in the film industry.

From discovering new projects to networking with industry professionals, IMDb Pro offers a range of benefits that can help actors take their career to the next level. With an IMDb Pro account, actors can access contact information for industry professionals, find out about new projects, and even get their own IMDb page.

Having an IMDb Pro account can be a great way to get your name out there and make connections with the right people. With IMDb Pro, actors can easily search for new projects, contact industry professionals, and even create their own IMDb page. Plus, IMDb Pro offers a range of other benefits, such as access to exclusive industry events and discounts on film festival tickets.

Introduction to IMDb Pro and its Benefits for Actors

IMDb Pro is an invaluable resource for actors looking to take their career to the next level. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services that can help actors get noticed by casting directors, track their career progress, connect with industry professionals, and manage their online presence. In this article, we'll explore the many benefits of getting an IMDb Pro account and how it can help actors reach their goals.

How IMDb Pro Can Help Actors Get Noticed by Casting Directors

One of the most important benefits of having an IMDb Pro account is the ability to create a professional profile that can be seen by casting directors. With an IMDb Pro account, actors can upload their headshots, resumes, and reels, as well as list their credits and awards. This makes it easier for casting directors to find the right actor for the job.

How IMDb Pro Can Help Actors Track Their Career Progress

IMDb Pro also provides actors with a comprehensive dashboard that allows them to track their career progress. This dashboard includes a list of their credits, awards, and reviews, as well as a timeline of their career milestones. This makes it easy for actors to stay on top of their progress and make sure they're on track to reach their goals.

How IMDb Pro Can Help Actors Connect with Industry Professionals

IMDb Pro also provides actors with access to a network of industry professionals. This network includes casting directors, agents, producers, and other industry professionals who can help actors get their foot in the door. With IMDb Pro, actors can easily connect with these professionals and start building relationships that can help them further their career.

How IMDb Pro Can Help Actors Manage Their Online Presence

Finally, IMDb Pro provides actors with the tools they need to manage their online presence. This includes the ability to create a professional website, as well as the ability to post updates and photos to their IMDb page. This makes it easy for actors to stay connected with their fans and keep them up to date on their latest projects.
Conclusion
IMDb Pro is an invaluable resource for actors looking to take their career to the next level. It provides a comprehensive suite of tools and services that can help actors get noticed by casting directors, track their career progress, connect with industry professionals, and manage their online presence. With an IMDb Pro account, actors can easily take control of their career and start reaching their goals.

IMDb

This is the go-to research tool for film & television pros.

Discover the wonderful tool that is IMDb and all the info you can find there.

The Basics

What it Is

IMDb, The Internet Movie Database, is just that: a movie database. IMDb lists films, television, and webisodes, but does not list theatre (for that check ibdb.com), commercials, background work, nor modeling.

IMDb also lists agencies, managers, production companies, as well as various other information on projects such as estimated film budgets.

IMDb Pro is the premium version of the site, and where the real power for actors comes in.

Who Uses It

The general film-and-tv-watching public (read: fans) uses IMDb for looking up actors’ work and information about film and television projects.

In the industry, almost everyone uses IMDb Pro. Actors use it to research projects, agencies, people, and contact information. Casting, producers, and agents use it to look up actors.

We’ve heard numerous stories of casting directors looking up an actor’s IMDb profile within seconds of receiving a submission, or even while on the phone with an agent who is pitching said actor.

Why It's Important

First of all, agents, managers, and casting directors are very likely to look up your IMDb profile before anything else.

As such, it's imperative that you have a completed, professional profile (see below).

IMDb is also considered the gold standard for an actor's resume. To the top people in the industry, a project you've done that isn’t on IMDb essentially doesn't count. Because you have to go through some (very minimal, see below) effort to get a project listed on IMDb, there is a certain legitimacy that comes with having projects listed on the site. It’s not the be-all and end-all, but let’s just say that the more (and higher profile) things you have on IMDb the better.

IMDb probably won’t get you a job, but if used properly it just might help get you in the room. The more and better projects you have officially listed on IMDb the better. The lower (or closer to #1) your starmeter the better. Again, you still have to deliver in the room, but all of this adds legitimacy to your credibility as a professional actor.

IMDb Pro

IMDb Pro is one of the must-have investments for actors.

The name of this game is research, and IMDb Pro allows you to do just that. You can view the directors of films, who's producing your target TV shows, the budgets of movies, what agencies actors are with, contact information for people, and more.

SAG-AFTRA members use the code SAGAFTRAdiscount for 30% off IMDb Pro.

To apply the discount, you can click this link to renew your membership then enter the above code.

If you're looking to book more work or get representation, you will absolutely need IMDb Pro to do your research.

SIGN UP for IMDb Pro. If you're a SAG-AFTRA member use the above discount code.

Your Profile

Credits

The official credits listed on anyone's IMDb profile are almost always submitted by the production, and you will be listed once the project is completed and available to the public.

On a TV show, for example, once your episode airs you should show up on the IMDb page for that episode within a day or two.

Pilots that don't end up going to series are listed as "TV Movie" on IMDb.

If you are not listed on a project and you should be, you can go the page for that project on IMDb, scroll down and click the "Edit page" button at the bottom, and follow the instructions to add your name to that project.

Note that this is absolutely not a guarantee IMDb will list you, but as long as your name shows up in the credits you should be fine.

Do not list your background work on IMDb, it is seen as amateur and unprofessional.

Pictures

Because the industry is so often going to look you up on IMDb, one of the most important elements of your profile is the profile picture.

By signing up for IMDb Pro, you can upload 100 photos to your account. It is absolutely unnecessary to post that many photos. However, we recommend posting your 3 best, most up-to-date headshots. It makes your profile look that much more professional, and people are far more likely to click on your profile from a movie page if they see your picture.

Word to the wise, however, don’t go uploading a bazillion headshots. A few will be fine. Use the extra photos to put up pictures of you on the red carpet, talking with industry folks, or pictures of you on set. You might also put a picture of you with your puppy. People love puppies.

UPLOAD a handful of photos to your IMDb page. Ideally, you would have publicity type shots in lieu of headshots. If headshots are all you have for now post 3 of those.

Resume

There are the actual, listed credits on your IMDb page as mentioned above—those are what we want.

There is, however, a separate "resume" section you can fill out yourself that will show up below the official credits on your page.

In general, we don't recommend doing that. We have heard from some legitimate casting directors that listing your full resume on IMDb is an amateur thing to do. So do your best to get whatever you can listed on your actual page.

That said, if you have some really impressive theatre credits, awards, or even lots of student films that aren't actually listed as full credits on your IMDb page you could add them to your resume for now to establish credibility until you have more official credits.

Reel

You can also upload your demo reel if you have an IMDb Pro account, and if you have one we highly recommend doing so.

UPLOAD your demo reel to IMDb on this page.

Because IMDb is probably the first place other professionals will look you up, it is extremely beneficial to have your reel on IMDb (as long as your reel is good of course). The latest updates to IMDb also feature your reel at the top of your profile next to your picture.

Vanity URL

We're huge proponents of vanity URLs (ex: www.imdb.me/BenWhitehair + https://imdb.me/gedaly), as it makes it easy to find you. It also makes it a lot easier to use the URL as the link on your Instagram profile, on business cards, email signatures, etc. It’s very rare for someone to type in a lengthy or confusing URL from a business card or other printed media, and an easy-to-remember URL increases the likelihood someone might do so.

To get your vanity URL, follow these steps:

1. Log in to IMDb
2. Go to your own IMDb Pro page
3. Scroll down and click the "Edit your page" button
4. In the box that appears, click on "Vanity URL & other external website"
5. In the "Vanity URL" box type your FirstNameLastName
6. Click "Save" and voila!

CREATE your vanity URL on IMDb Pro.

Linking Your Blog and Twitter

If you are active on twitter or have a blog you can also list those links on IMDb. Follow the steps above, and in the same box that comes up to enter your vanity URL you can list your twitter and blog links.

Bio

It’s advisable for all actors to have a fairly brief bio that fits with their marketing and gives a sense of their personality. You can use the bio you wrote on the Defining Your Type page.

Age

If you submit your birthday to IMDb they will list it and your age. It is nearly impossible to remove it once it's up. The main issue with that is having your age listed can absolutely lead to age discrimination, as well as make it easier for people to steal your identity.????

Do NOT submit your age/birthday to IMDb! Once up it's nearly impossible to take down.

Ben in his roles with SAG-AFTRA was part of the group that fought to get a law passed in California that would allow performers to remove their ages on IMDb. After many years they got the law passed but Amazon (which again, owns IMDb) filed a lawsuit against the law, and it is currently moving its way through the appeals process.

Hiding Your Age

Again, once your age/birthday is up on IMDb they will not take it down. If it's the incorrect age, you can submit it to be changed to your actual birthday and they may do that.

All that said, you can kind of hide your age, at least for anyone looking at your profile who is signed in to IMDb Pro.

To change what is visible on your IMDb Pro profile:

1. Log in to IMDb
2. Go to your own IMDb Pro page
3. Scroll down and click the "Edit your page" button
4. In the box that appears, click on "Page controls" at the bottom
5. Toggle the options between "hidden" and "saved" to your liking
6. Click "Save"

These are the options you can choose to display or not:

Now, these things will still show up on the non-pro, public side of IMDb, but some industry people will be opening your profile in IMDb Pro, so it's better than nothing.

Never list home phone numbers, personal emails, birthplaces, or parent's names (think identity theft) on your profile.

Starmeter

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. In general, we don't recommend worrying too much about it.

However, we have heard of casting directors who put actors’ IMDb starmeter ranking in their pitches to producers as to what actors to go after.

Agents also look at starmeter 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.

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 the increase or decrease in your popularity, but also know that if industry-types see a huge jump in your popularity, they might be curious as to why, and want 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 higher than some of us youngins, because we are being smart and growing our Instagram, or have a gajillion friends who will click on our profile if we post it on Facebook.

To give you some (very unscientific) baselines, here are our observations on different “levels” of starmeter rankings as the industry sees them:

1. 1,000,000 or below: Was probably in a family video that somehow made it on IMDb
2. 1,000,000 – 200,000: Just another actor
3. 200,000 – 100,000: Just another actor who’s makin’ things happen
4. Less than 100,000: You might still be a waiter, but you probably take time for your career to do things like sign up for Working.Actor
5. Less than 15,000: This is generally working actor territory
6. Less than 1,000: 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 embroiled in a sex scandal

How to Raise Your Starmeter

1. Get people to click on your IMDb profile (post the link on your social media bios, have it in your email signature, etc.)
2. Be in more things that get listed on IMDb
3. Get mentioned in news articles, social media outlets, and television guides
4. Be in popular movies. The more popular the projects are that you’re in, the higher you get rated
5. 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.)
6. Get people to comment on your IMDb profile in the “Message Boards” section (this is worth much more than a simple click)
7. Die. We do not recommend this option, though death often leads to a tremendous number of clicks, press articles, and the like leading to an extremely low starmeter

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 Demo Reel.

Do not pay a service money to raise your starmeter. It's temporary, and not worth it.

How to Get a Project Listed on IMDb

You can submit a title to IMDb directly by going to this form. However, know that simply submitting a movie title to IMDb does not at all guarantee that they will list it.

As for what gets listed, a general rule of thumb is that the project should already be able to be viewed publicly. This means if your film is on a site like say, FunnyOrDie, it has a much better chance of getting listed.

In some instances, they will list a title even if it's not public, but if you're trying to do that be sure to submit as much information as possible (with links!), and you need to have an IMDb Pro account to do so. This route also tends to have more success if there are lots of people involved with the project who already have extensive IMDb credits.

Here is IMDb's page on the process and eligibility requirements for adding new titles to the database.

Because Amazon owns IMDb, a relatively surefire way to get your project listed is to have the completed film or series distributed on Amazon's "Media on Demand" service. Check out their FAQ here.

Obviously, this would have an impact on your sales, ability to get a project into a film festival, etc. so be strategic about this decision.

But, if your main goal is to get something listed on IMDb, distributing through Amazon would be a good route to take.