I was going to say, sounds like the area in which youre studying. youd be barmy not to with your experience!

Figured Id post this here, but if anyone here applies, and actually defies the odds and gets the job, I will personally hunt you down and kill you  

Hmm, one of my brothers lives in Western Australia, close enough I guess.

/applies immediately...

Yarr, all pirates on board! Get ready for them to try and repel boarders!!!

You are better off not being too optimistic, there are probably going to be loads of people applying for that, from environmentalists to surfers.

Good luck and I hope you get it, bring me back some dubloons

BTW that link doesnt work, crafty sod...    

And here I was, thinking you had used your 1337 hakzoring skillz to torpedo the thing so nobody else could apply.  

The site wont load for me. Do you have to stay there on your own? I mean can you take some hunnys?

have a practise go in front of your web cam stick it on youtube and post it up here first... we can help you vett it :-)

remember that youre really into surfing, hiking, bunji jumping, rock climbing etc. etc..

OK, heres the informative pep talk...

On average most people underestimate their acting ability, although a few who cant act still get there because of good looks/right personality.

Just because someones acting ability isnt there doesnt mean they dont make good actors, in the right situation. Example, Firefly, most are good at acting, but have a close look at Jewel State when she gets shot early on in the series, it looks like shes pretending to be drunk, not wounded. Otherwise shes pretty much acting identical to Stargate: Atlantis. Effectively shes stuck as herself, but Im not complaining.

Acting ability isnt what its all about, especially on blogs. Its all about being yourself. Look at some of the keynote speeches made at conferences, these people almost all register a 0 on the acting ability scale. It doesnt matter because its the information they are giving thats key.

Most people who end up as models/actors have a low regard of themselves. Ive done training to rooms full of people, that isnt a problem to me, providing I have my material prepared and I know what I am doing. On the other hand I hate being videoed. IMO my voice is terrible on recordings, although my looks arent too bad.

Know what you are best/most comfortable with. I dont like doing presentations to groups without having prepared my material beforehand, I can and have done it, but it isnt right for me. Im really best on 1to1 training, where I excel. Thats not just me but the people who I have trained and other trainers. OTOH Ive also known people who are the reverse, they prefer large numbers of people, because its not personal for them.

So dont judge yourself through the floor before you start - simply because it can guarantee failure. If you fail once with that mindset it will reinforce itself and the next time it could be worse. Everyone is human, sometimes you are going to fail, even the greatest of us. Its not making minor mistakes that matters as much as recovering from them and learning.

Couple of suggestions. If you want a good video of yourself, get someone to do the video, once its running get the person to look at you directly. Then do your presentation to the person, not the camera. If you have positioned yourself well then you will always be in the cameras view. Eventually you might even stop thinking of the camera as such, its just someone whos going with you on your journey.

If you dont want yourself included then do the filming but staying silent. After you have accomplished that and you are back at base do the narration sound track. Now combine your vocal soundtrack with the actual one on the film. This is basically how they do major documentaries.

i dont think 8000+ applications is a lot given the publicity of this, then again 8000+ is a bit vague and it could well be much more than that.

on the camera part, i think they want people to be on the film itself, otherwise they could just ask for an audio recording? just my thoughts on it tho