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The Casting Process

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Acting Lessons for
Everyday Life
a poem by John Lehman

The Woman:
Feed his ego, laugh at his jokes, order something expensive from the menu. You're a prize worth paying for.

The Man:
Act handsome and clever, as if you and she were both young, and it's you who are the desirable one.

The Scene:
Create something that transcends the sadness of this bar. It's Last Call, folks, what's so hard?

Casting roles for a professional production is a process that essentially requires casting people to:

  1.  Read and analyze the script.
  2.  Breakdown each speaking role into concise, descriptive profiles.
  3.  Notify agents of the roles that need to be cast.
  4.  Comb through files of actor pictures and résumés to find those actors who meet the breakdown descriptions and who have the training, talent, skills and appearance needed to fill each role.
  5.  Contact available actors who meet the breakdown descriptions and arrange for auditions.
  6.  Hold auditions, possibly taping each actor's performance for later review by the casting director, producer, director, and, as for a commercial, advertising agency people and their client representatives, or for a feature film, studio representatives.
  7.  Review auditions.
  8.  Notify actors who make it through the first round of auditions and arrange for "callback" auditions.
  9.  Hold callback auditions, probably taping each actor's performance for later review by the casting director, producer, director, and, as for a commercial, advertising agency people and their client representatives, or for a feature film, studio representatives.
  10.  Notify actors who make it through the first round of callbacks and arrange for another callback audition.
  11.  Repeat the above process until all the speaking roles are cast to everyone's satisfaction.
As you see, this is a rather time consuming process. Agents, casting directors, directors and producers are busy people. Depending upon the project, the entire casting process for a commercial, film, play, video, etc. takes from a week up to a few months. With only a few days to a few weeks to complete the casting process for all the roles, it is no great surprise that casting people first turn to the actors whose work they already know and trust. It is faster and easier to call upon familiar actors, those who are tried and true, instead of spending many days and many long hours contacting and auditioning new actors whose work is unknown, who might turn out to be difficult to work with, or who might do or say something that creates problems for the casting people.

An Actor's Chance

Casting people like to work with actors whose work they already know. However, sometimes new actors do get a chance to audition for professional roles when:

  •  There are many roles to be cast
  •  Known actors are unavailable
  •  Known actors cost more than the part is budgeted for
  •  Known actors aren't right for a role
  •  A casting person feels a new face is needed for a role
  •  A casting person is impressed with a new actor's work, professionalism and personality and wants to give her/him an opportunity
  •  A new actor is recommended by someone whose judgment the casting person trusts
It is the above situations that give new actors a chance to be discovered. These opportunities happen quite often. How many actors do you see on TV or in films or commercials that you did not see a year or two ago? If you kept a list, you would find quite a few new faces popping up every year; in both starring and supporting roles.

It is your job as an actor to be ready when one of the above opportunities presents itself. This preparation involves the following:

  1.  Find out who the important casting people are
  2.  Establish relationships with these casting people
  3.  Establish relationships with other people in the industry
  4.  Develop those relationships
  5.  Study and develop performance skills
  6.  Develop a professional attitude
  7.  Learn about the entertainment industry
  8.  Don't give up
Getting discovered isn't something that just happens. It is the result of a process. It is the result of intelligent planning, preparation and persistence.

If there is acting work in your area, there are important casting people you need to know. The first thing you have to do is find them.

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