A Note to Actors!

Not being an actor myself, the rumors about how difficult it is have always been just that: rumors. Now having posted an actual casting call, both to craigslist and on the professional industry site Mandy.com, I see just what it is actors are up against.

I posted my casting call about a week ago. I have received approximately 250 interested applicants. That’s 250 people vying for 2 roles – in an unpaid student film! And many of them have incredibly impressive experience.

I’ve begun the arduous task of sorting through all these hopefuls, and figured that I should share some of what I’m figuring out about what makes an actor’s request for an audition great. This is not just for those of you looking to cast your own projects in the future, but also for the benefit of all you actors out there, so that you may better “apply” yourselves, so to speak.

1. This is obvious, but reply to the actual casting call that was posted. I don’t just mean hit reply and apply for the job – but actually reply to what you see in the post. I’m looking for dramatic actors in their 20s who are non-union, and am surprised to have received several applications from dancers (who only write about their dancing experience), folks way beyond their 20s, and stand-up comedians. Also, actors who are in unions. It’s a pain in the butt for me, and a waste of their time to apply. The moral: only apply for what actually fits you.
2. Along those same lines, I’m more drawn to people who have submitted a photo or reel that show the same emotion I’m looking for in my character. For instance, my female character, Jenna, is pretty but insecure, longing for approval. I was more likely to move applicants with somewhat shy expressions on their headshots into my “Audition” file. The moral: as actors, it’s a good idea to have a few headshots, showing different emotions, available, so you can submit the best one for the job at hand. I gave character descriptions on my post.
3. Reels! I loved anyone who sent a reel since I could just watch and get a sense of whether or not they’d work in my project without even really needing to look at anything else. It’s way harder to judge someone from a headshot and resume. The moral: put together a reel!
4. Resumes. Just to give you an idea how I read these: first, I quickly scan to see if you’ve acted for any company that is “known.” Unpaid student film notwithstanding, I still got actors who had worked for NBC, CBS, Discover Channel, and more. If there was nothing like that, then I looked to see if they at least worked for real companies, as opposed to only working in high school plays. The company didn’t need to be famous – I’m sure a lot of these ‘production companies’ are little film school operations, like me – but it still looks better than school plays (unless it’s a famous acting school or you’re earning an advanced acting degree). Finally, what roles were they given? I searched for plays I was familiar with to judge what they’d done. The moral: highlight any impressive companies you worked for. If you can, leave the high school plays off, since they’re not impressive. (Listing good acting schools is ok.) If worse comes to worse and you don’t have any experience with legit companies, put together a reel so we can see you’re not a flake.
5. Write me something! I don’t want anything huge, because it would be a pain to read it all – but a few lines, at least, preferably about why my project interests you. I was waaaaay less likely to be interested in anyone who emailed me a resume and headshot alone, leaving the body of the email blank. The moral: write a personal message pertaining to the project.

There are my thoughts on applying for acting jobs, although I might come up with more as I continue this process. I’m back to sorting through my many applicants (and in the time it took to write this post, I got 5 more.) Hopefully by next week, I’ll be ready to call in my top picks – I’m aiming to pick just 20 to audition out of 250 and counting.

Happy auditioning!