About

One Foot in the Door was set up by Ruggero Dalla Santa in London in 2011 to provide quality showreels for actors. In 2019, we also began offering screen acting workshops to help actors learn the skills needed for acting for camera.

Where it Started

As an actor at the start of his career, Ruggero regularly auditioned for short movies, web series and music videos in order to gather material for his showreel. He knew that he needed a showreel to boost his career and get him noticed by the right people. Six months and a lot of unpaid jobs later he realised that what he had wasn’t good enough. Either the overall quality was bad, or he wasn’t playing the characters that he wanted.

Does that sound familiar to you? After speaking to friends and colleagues in the industry and finding that many were having the same problems, Ruggero decided to do something. He put his passion for filmmaking to good use and set up a new company: One Foot in the Door Showreels.

Ruggero started with himself: he wrote some scenes, bought equipment, and roped in a couple of friend to act opposite him. He put together a solid acting showreel with footage that showed a range of characters. Within a few months of sharing this new showreel, he was receiving much better offers more regularly.

Finding a calling in the work, creating showreels from scratch became a full-time occupation for Ruggero. Having seen lots of fantastic actors miss out on the chance of a great role because they didn’t have a good showreel, he was inspired to offer the best quality at the most affordable price.

Through making showreels and directing hundreds of actors, Ruggero realised that there are key skills to screen acting. He also realised that these are skills that aren’t often taught through conventional training. This led him to start teaching screen acting workshops for trained actors who want to improve their effectiveness on camera.

One Foot in the Door Today

Several years and hundreds of showreels later, One Foot in the Door is known in the industry as offering some of the highest-quality showreels. Recommended by actors, casting directors, and other industry professionals, we are proud to be one of the best in the industry.

Ruggero now works alongside a friendly and dedicated team to provide actors with the showreels they deserve. He also continues to run screen acting workshops that are highly recommended.

Find out more about our showreels and workshops, check out some example showreels, or get in touch to find out more.

Directors

Ruggero Dalla Santa Directing

Ruggero Dalla Santa is an award-winning writer-director and the founder of One Foot in the Door. He has directed over 800 actors, shot over 300 showreels, and has over twelve years of experience directing, working with actors, and creating showreels from scratch. He is still heavily involved both creating showreels and running screen acting workshops.

Mark Joyce is a filmmaker and editor from London. He has spent most of his life wrapped up in the pleasures of cinema like a warm, fuzzy blanket. This eventually led him to a degree in film and screen practice. His passions may have had detrimental effects to his social skills and a deteriorating effect on his parents' love but Mark would say it was very much worth it. His likes are: cookies, the 16mm aesthetic and The Evil Dead (1981). His dislikes are: no cookies, writing about himself and Evil Dead (2013).

Hair and Makeup Artists

Karolina Bartnik started her career as a makeup artist while studying Character and SFX in The Makeup Dept in Belfast and continued her training in Delamar Academy based in Ealing Studios, London. She has experience working on big budget TV shows (Netflix, HBO) and films but she also enjoys working on independent features and shorts. As well as film, she works in fashion, beauty and theatre.

Editors

Barbara Formella, editor for One Foot in the Door

Barbara Formella was born in Poland and studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk, where she was selected to present her diploma, Beautiful Deformations, at The Best Diplomas of 2015 Fine Arts Exhibition. During her studies, she started freelancing and working as a wedding video editor before moving to London in 2016, the same year which she began collaborating with One Foot in the Door alongside her other work. See her editing showreel.