PO Box 1071, Ellensburg, WA 98926 | www.ellensburgfilmfestival.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

April 22, 2009

Pre-register for Tools 4 Actors Go Pro Workshop with Lana Veenker

ELLENSBURG, Wash. – The Ellensburg Film Festival is currently seeking input on pre-registration interest for the Tools 4 Actors Go Pro workshop, to feature one of the Northwest's most successful casting directors Lana Veenker. It will be hosted in beautiful downtown Ellensburg, Washington this fall. Please visit www.ellensburgfilmfestival.com and click on the “Demand it!” button located under the news section of the home page to confirm interest in attending this special event.

A beginning and intermediate workshop, along with the possibility of private coaching depending on demand, is tentatively scheduled for the second weekend in October. Depending on interest, the workshops will either be a half-day or full-day of intensive instruction. This is not an acting or auditioning workshop. Veenker will share tools and advice to help develop the mindset of a professional actor utilizing simple, proven techniques that she is very confident will advance an actor to the next level in their acting career, whether an amateur or a professional.

“I’m passionate about showing Hollywood that regional actors have got the goods. But sometimes actors blow their chances, because they don’t understand that it takes more than talent to book a job,” says Veenker. “It takes developing the mindset and focus of a pro. It means upping your game, wherever you are in your career.”

Veenker will discuss the following topics:

• How to evaluate yourself and where you are in your career

• How to determine what you really want as an actor and set goals accordingly

• What it means to go professional

• How to develop a strategy for success

• How to market and brand yourself

• How to take your career to the next level, whether you're just starting out or have been acting for years

Here is an example of some of the things you will walk away with:

• A blueprint for achieving your acting goals

• Effective strategies for leveraging time and money and allowing for more of both to devote to your acting career

• Things you can do today to jump-start your career

• An understanding of your perceived roadblocks to success and your real roadblocks

• Tools to change your mindset from "How can I get them to hire me?" to "How can I create so much

value that they'd be crazy not to?"

Lana Veenker holds a BA Magna cum Laude in Performing Arts and has worked as a stage actor, director and producer on four continents learning what it means to be a professional in the entertainment industry. For almost ten years Lana Veenker Casting, located in Portland, Oregon, has worked with directors such as Gus Van Sant, Robert Benton, Gregory Hoblit, Guillermo Arriaga, Catherine Hardwicke, Tim Robbins and Sean Penn. Some of the latest projects include: “The Untitled Crowley Project” staring Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser, “Twilight”, “Management”, “Untraceable”, “Feast of Love”, “Into the Wild”, “Coraline”, and the television series “Leverage”.

The Ellensburg Film Festival is committed to the film education, exposure and enrichment of our local community. The EFF offers a wide spectrum of local and global cultural, artistic and innovative diversity through educational programs, forums and entertaining visual experiences. For more information on events such as this and the film festival held from October 2-4, 2009, please visit www.ellensburgfilmfestival.com.

Media Contact: Tami Sawyer, EFF Public Relations & Marketing, 509-607-1485, press@ellensburgfilmfestival.com

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