Casting

G

GrahamRobbins

Active member
Hey guys I had a few basic casting questions, I have my film registered on multiple casting websites, like La Casting, Now Casting, Craigs List and more. I have a space booked to hold auditions in on june 13th, and 14th. I have only casted once before and it was a small endeavor so I am still new to this. I have multiple talent going for each role and the number is increasing each day. The director has asked me to narrow it down by looks, So on casting days we dont have a million people. I have narrowed my list down, but more submissions still come in and some I am adding, and obviously some just dont fit the part.

Basically what I need to know is what do I do next, how long to I keep considering new submissions, and what is the best way to schedual the 2 casting day. The only days we have space booked to cast are june 13 2-7pm and june 13 9-12pm.

So how knowing that in those 2 days I only have 8 hours of audition time total, what is a realistic number of auditions that I should schedual? How long is the average single audition, for you guys, In the past i had about 8-10min auditions does that seem about right?

Thanks,
Graham
 
yep that seems right. we schedule auditions 5 or 10 minutes apart and with a couple no shows and people you don't ask to read a second time, it was never an issue. i think we typically see about 50 in an 8 hour day.
 
I don't know how it works in the US, but you should also find out if they are coming in for a straight read - i.e turn up, stand on an X and read their bit. Or if the director might want to work with them a bit i.e Read the scene, then give them a few notes etc and try it again. So you might want to take into account the length of the material they will be reading and if it's a one off chance or they will repeat.
 
right, i should say my schedule was for 2-page sides and allotting for adjustments by the director (me) and a second read.
 
my plan was to have them do a cold read of their characters side, and then a read with some direction. So for my first day its 5 hours long because this is only a 15 min short film and the characters sides are only about a page. Do you think I will be able to audition 30-40 in those 5 hours? I was planning on allotting each person 2 reads.
 
yeah, i think so. keep in mind some people are going to be so wrong that you won't need the second read. and you will have "no shows" as well. i think you'll be fine as long as someone is there to keep things moving.
 
Yea I am the casting director, and I will have the director, producer, and my assistant there, so we are well staffed I feel. There Is just a lot to go through still haha. I am probably just going to have a big thing of water bottles handy for the people auditioning, anything else I need? I am a bit confused when it comes to the actual audition what my job is, I know the director casts the key roles, and casting director generally casts supporting and such, so I guess thats something I will have to work out with the director.
 
well in terms of running the day. you want the following...

a space (hallyway, waiting room) outside the audition space with a table, water bottles, extra copies of the scene and clipboards and pens with blank audition sheets to fill out that asks for their name, sag status (dues paid?), contact info, agent's contact info, availability for the time period you intend to shoot. make signs in this area asking them to fill out the form. also have another sheet where they write in their name and arrival time so you know who to call and in what order. don't worry about your actual schedule at this point, just take them as they come in.

when they are called in take the sheet and staple it to the back of their headshot and hand it to the director or who ever is running the audition. quickly introduce the director, producer, yourself etc. ask if they have any questions then hand off to who ever will conduct the reading. at the end, verify their availability and thank them for their time. repeat 30 or 40 times. :)
 
Thank you Zak you are a big help! thats basically how I ran it in the past, I really do appreciate you answering all my questions.

Thanks again,

Graham Robbins
 
lol, I have to get better at that, I haven't actually done casting for a long time now because my co-producer / actress just cast the last short entirely with people she's worked with and knew, and I was happy with that, I trusted her judgment, they looked right for the parts, I knew they were going to be good because she vouched for them, and we got amazing results (plus a lot were working name actors with nice IMDb profiles, so I felt it was not a huge risk, and our lead I met with extensively before the shoot and he was perfect, so seeing as the rest had small roles I was not too worried).

I get too into talking with someone, getting to know them a bit, and the whole 15 minute auditions are tough for me. I guess you do that the first time, then the callbacks you can make longer, to see if they're really right for the role.

It sounds bad but I'm spoiled now and love the way we cast the last short, so much better than tons of wasted time combing through people, which in my experience is full of flakiness where you're lucky to get 50% of the people to show up. It's really... not fun. When I was a student, even though we were paying (!), one day we had 12 people scheduled to show up in a 3 hour period I think, and we ended up with 2. TWO! It was so pathetic.
 
JonathanLB said:
lol, I have to get better at that, I haven't actually done casting for a long time now because my co-producer / actress just cast the last short entirely with people she's worked with and knew, and I was happy with that, I trusted her judgment, they looked right for the parts, I knew they were going to be good because she vouched for them, and we got amazing results (plus a lot were working name actors with nice IMDb profiles, so I felt it was not a huge risk, and our lead I met with extensively before the shoot and he was perfect, so seeing as the rest had small roles I was not too worried).

I get too into talking with someone, getting to know them a bit, and the whole 15 minute auditions are tough for me. I guess you do that the first time, then the callbacks you can make longer, to see if they're really right for the role.

It sounds bad but I'm spoiled now and love the way we cast the last short, so much better than tons of wasted time combing through people, which in my experience is full of flakiness where you're lucky to get 50% of the people to show up. It's really... not fun. When I was a student, even though we were paying (!), one day we had 12 people scheduled to show up in a 3 hour period I think, and we ended up with 2. TWO! It was so pathetic.
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wow that's terrible. i guess i've been fortunate that the actors we've auditioned over the last three years have been very professional and serious-minded. we routinely see 50 a day during first-round casting sessions and on average only have 3 or 4 no shows.
 
I think most of it depends on where you are... and i'm talking about the "show up" rate.. maybe LA is a more competent ground for actors? and more serious actors? Here in Dallas, on the last few shorts I did, I received so many resumes and profiles, but when it comes to scheduling the audition... many didn't make it... very few show up at the audition... and on my last short, I decided to made a selection from the submissions and meet them one by one based on their schedule... more work for me but i know for sure what i'm getting into ..rather than waiting for them... not sure if it's the best way but i'm liking it so far :-)
 
Well this was all in Los Angeles for me, I think there is tons of flakiness here too. I've had people flake even on the shoots themselves, which is why now I require contracts to be signed beforehand, it's just a good idea.

Yeah I don't know, maybe the film school we were at (because it was so crappy, lol) doesn't command enough respect for actors to show up ;)

I would like to see about the casting process again, but I also like giving preference to people I already know / have already met, so that if they are a friend of a friend even, they are less likely to flake and someone is vouching for them. Casting from a huge pool of people I don't know is alright, but not always ideal.
 
one piece of advice is to forgo any online casting and work strictly with placing notices in publications like backstage west. my gut tells me that the sort of actor combing casting notices in the real world and sending out hardcopies of headshots and resumes are much more active in their career. My feeling is that online services make it too easy to simply click 'submit' for any project they see listed -- deciding later if its something they are truly interested in.
 
Zak wrote: my gut tells me that the sort of actor combing casting notices in the real world and sending out hardcopies of headshots and resumes are much more active in their career.
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Zak, your gut is right on the money; I canceled auditions yesterday. I'm only accepting HARD COPIES from now on. It's become a fad to have pictures on an online service for actors and just click submit as a sport. Most of them don't even want to audition. I called them on it: "Yes, we're shooting; I'm shooting the auditions." Oh, aaaahhhhhh..... Right.
 
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