Monday, September 24, 2007

Getting the ball rolling

So a friend of mine and I are shooting a TV pilot. We have been trying to put this together for a while and it's finally getting moving. I'm really excited, but stressed. And I have been so busy the past few days that I actually haven't really had time to listen to much music. So today's post is going to be film related, since that is all I have been doing the past few days. I'm going to post on the subject of casting. Actors, pay attention.

Here are some rules that I thought were very obvious that actors are supposed to follow when they are applying for roles, but apparently I was wrong and some people don't know this stuff:
1. Send your headshot. If you don't, you're stupid. We need your headshot. And the only reason I can see for not sending one is if you know you don't fit the role or if you are dumb. In either case, I don't want to work with you.
2. If you know you don't fit the role, don't even apply. We don't appreciate our time being wasted and you shouldn't want to waste your time either applying for jobs you know you're not right for and you're not going to get. For example, if it says "white/caucasian" then don't apply unless you're white. It's not that we're racist but sometimes (like in my case) we already have some roles cast and my white, blonde actress' fraternal twin brother can't be Indian. Sorry. If it says the character is 26, don't apply if you're 60. Even if you're 30, unless you look younger, don't apply. We're not going to change the age of our character for you. If someone puts that the character is 26 they have something very specific in mind. If they put that the character is 30-50 then clearly the age of the character is more flexible and then maybe you can apply.
3. Send professional, clear headshots. We don't want to see pictures you took in Photo Booth, we don't want to see pictures of you that you photoshoped all sorts of weird effects on, and we want to be able to see what you look like so the picture had better not be grainy or blurry.

Now, hopefully all of you reading this are thinking "duh." Because that's what you should be thinking. But I am really honestly appalled at some of the submissions we've been getting. I would've thought people who wanted to be professional actors would know better. We've especially been having trouble with guys. The girls actually seem to get it for the most part and have only been applying for roles they fit. But we haven't gotten a single guy that fits the description we posted.

I guess it's because we made the mistake of posting to Craigslist. We posted a bunch of other places too - slightly more exclusive casting postings - and Craigslist was kind of "well, we might as well just in case we get one or two gems." But seriously actors, if you use Craigslist that doesn't give you the right to be stupid or lazy or unprofessional.

share this post on de.licio.us / facebook

No comments: