A director in the making

When Billy was 19 years old an associate asked him if he could produce a television commercial for his business. Billy wrote, directed, cast, and edited the television commercial himself with no prior experience accept for what he had taught himself as a young boy.

The method of 'Watch and Learn"

Billy was 6 years old when he taught himself how to play his father's guitar. By the time he was 12 years old he could play exactly like Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton and many other great guitar players. He was able to accomplish this by playing along with record albums. He also invented a way to learn every musical note so he could compare himself to the recordings.

With an old record player he could slow the speed down from 33 rpm to 16 rpm's. This slowed the record down enough where he could study every single note. Then he learned and practiced the guitar licks note for note. Next he recorded himself with a small cassette player playing along with the record. Last, he listened to his recording listening closely and comparing his playing to the guitar playing of his heroes.

This is the method Billy has incorporated into his acting.

Billy becomes an actor

Billy put that same passion, desire, hard work and creativity into his own acting. Afterwards he bought a camera and took his friends and other actors out to locations and started writing and directing his own scripts and scenes. The actors would study themselves on a screen. Thus opening "The Acting Factory" in 1999. This was a studio where actors could train using this creative method of acting taught the same method that turned Billy into a great guitar.

Writer/ Producer/Filmmaker/ Composer/ Actor

Last year Billy wrote produced and directed 'A Perfect Song".

He composed and scored all the music for the film playing every instrument. His intention was to cast an actor for the lead role. He didn't find what he was looking for and time was running out on the production schedule. So Billy decided to gain the extra 30 pounds required and also shaved his head partly bald and acted and directed the film something that only a handful of actors/ directors can pull off.

1 month before the weight gain and shaved head he also played the part of Lloyd's brother performing 2 parts in the film.

The film can be purchased worldwide on the filmbaby.com web-site. It has recently surpassed sales records of 10,000 units.

Watch and learn Method

The difference of taking just any acting class and our method is hands on experience with a director on a film set. Billy continues to produce and direct films and pushes the envelope for himself and his actors. Billy; "You can get really confused about all the different kinds of methods that are taught. Acting has become complicated and shouldn't be.  

  There is only one way. "The one that looks the best".

Donna Eldridge

Donna Eldridge is the acting coach for the kids division /television commercials and young adults television commercial acting. Born in Nashville Tennessee Donna pursued a musical career but soon realized on stage that she had a gift and a certain charisma. She was scouted by many talent agents for years and finally decided to pursue acting on the advice of an actor. She studied full time at The School of Acting with Stella Adler in New York City. She also took private coaching lessons with Stanley Harrison. Donna lived in New York for 15 years working in films, television commercials and soap operas. She is recognized specifically for her roles on the television shows "All my Children" and "One Life to Live".

Donna; "When I was young and growing up in the business I realized early on that casting directors knew instantly what and who they were looking for within the first 15 seconds of an audition. I pass this knowledge along to all of my students I work with. There are tricks of the trade and by working on camera you can see for yourself what works and what doesn't. In 2005 a professional actor in New York only trains on camera.  

Gary Brice

Gary Brice teaches on camera film acting for the young adult division ages 18 to 21.

Like Billy Gary also grew up on film sets. At the age of 20 he was producing and directing films.

In 1974 he met Steve Sipek who is known worldwide as Steve Hawk who played Tarzan. The two became friends and soon Steve was training Gary Brice to be the next Tarzan to take his place. For the next 4 to 5 years they both produced their own film versions of Tarzan. They built their own film sets, created and designed alligators to film underwater fight scenes.   They also filmed with Steve's tigers and elephants on Steve's ranch.

Gary Brice with Steve Hawkes

Gary and Billy met when word spread about The Acting Factory in 1999. The two of them had the same passion and have been producing and directing films since. Gary is also a cinema photographer and films most of the classes for the Reel Film Acting Studio.  

Gary also had a feature role in the film "A Perfect Song."   Gary has just finished filming "The Maize" in N.Y. where he also had another feature role, which was just released in July 2005.

Gary; The method of "watch and learn" is so simple yet it makes sense. I am still amazed at the improvement in my acting and I can see the difference. All of us at the studio continue to train. We should never think we have arrived somewhere.

We teach, but we also teach what we learn, and we keep learning, which makes us, superior.