How do you find actors for your films? I live in Dallas!

L

Leo7

Member
I live in Dallas and need to find actors for a film I want to shoot. What do you do to find actors? And what do you think about randomly approaching people that have "the look". :)
 
Put an ad on Craigslist for Dallas. Put casting notices up at the theatre department of SMU, TCU, etc. Go see theatre and meet actors.

And Breakdown Services is more for agent submissions. Actors Access (www.actorsaccess.com) is the part of Breakdown that will be more useful to you.
 
tommyinla said:
Use Breakdown Services. Look 'em up on Google... :)

And as far as randomly approaching people... bad, bad idea.
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Why is it a bad, bad idea? I saw this girl who works at a pizza place who seems like she would be good in a short. If I offered $100 for a day of shooting, she might take it. I would have to coach her through the scene but it wouldn't be any different than anyone else.

Has anyone attempted this approach. Thoughts as to why it would be a bad idea? Maybe if I handed them a business card and had a website I could establish some trust. Especially after I have a few shorts to preview on the site.

Thanks for any feedback!
 
chris24 said:
Put an ad on Craigslist for Dallas. Put casting notices up at the theatre department of SMU, TCU, etc. Go see theatre and meet actors.

And Breakdown Services is more for agent submissions. Actors Access (www.actorsaccess.com) is the part of Breakdown that will be more useful to you.
Click to expand...

Put an ad on Craigslist and you'll attract amature actors.

Breakdown services are for anyone that's casting a role. Which is exactly what you need. You're not an actor, so actorsaccess.com wouldn't make sense. That would be the wrong side. Breakdown services is used to post casting notices so that members of actorsaccess.com can submit to. There are 3 different levels to Breakdown Services. The free account (and free to post casting notices) only goes to members of Actors Access. There are also paid tiers in which you'll reach more professional actors - and agents. An agents isn't going to waste his/her time reading casting calls for Actor's access because there usually isn't any pay involved (copy / credit only). I doubt that's what you're looking for right now anyway.

As far as paying someone 100 bucks or so to be in something when they have no acting experience is a bad idea because, well, they have no acting experience.

It really all depends on what you want to do. If you're just doing something for fun and don't really care how the acting comes off, then you can cast any way you'd like. To get good results, find someone who knows how to act and has experience acting for the camera.
 
Yeah, sorry, I meant you wanted the notice posted on Actors Access instead of Breakdown Services. You post it at www.breakdownexpress.com.

And Tommy is right, you want actors, not some person you think has a cool look. Post a casting notice and hopefully you'll find someone who can act that also has the look you're going for.
 
I checked out breakdown services, the only problem with them is they cater more towards people living in LA. I went to there Texas section on the acting side and all the locations are mostly LA there also. So actors in Texas who view it would be frustrated to find things locally and see all are in LA.

So I doubt many people outside of LA would come back to view it again. Plus there is very little on there for the TX area only a page and a half, with 90% of those being old postings that have already passed.

I probably would be better off with craigslist I would think. Or to check out local theatres for performers or theatre art classes/programs. The only thing is I am again back to the walking up to random people and saying they have "the look" type of recruiting.

Don't know how people would respond to that. I plan on paying the actors but at the same time, if I ever shoot and don't pay but offer credits, it may seem like a scam to someone who doesn't have acting experience. Basically I come up to them randomly and ask them to act for free.

I would think most would pass. I don't see how any of you guys cast for anything sometimes! Seems like it's more work than actually filming! :)
 
i'm writing the characters for people i already know. they're not actors, just friends and relatives.
 
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