By: Carletta Hurt
January 2015 Talent Roundtable
The first month of 2015 was a busy one for Women in Film & Video. With a host of activities and events, members and friends had a variety of industry related opportunities to network and learn. The January Talent Round Table proved to be both a great time for learning and networking with a featured presentation on Strategies for Finding Acting Work (while staying sane) lead by Bjorn Munson.
The Big Picture is to do what you can to make the casting job easier. Read the notice and following the instructions are key.
Here are 7 tidbits from the presentation:
- Should you bother to submit…is it worth it/do you truly qualify. Give it the smell test – no real details about the project…squishy. Quality casting directors don’t want to answer your emails so the important things will be there
- Research everything – dig deeper, visit their website…Do you know someone who has worked with them? People hire who they know – find someone if you can.
- Ask for clarification and know your baseline- from pay to travel distance. Put these questions in your submission email.
- Pay (4 basic opportunities)
- Commercial
- Visiting National Project
- Upfront and copy
- Varying levels of entitlement
- Pay (4 basic opportunities)
- Read what they’re asking for, 2 types of submissions
- Pre-existing materials
- Project specific material (aka Audition)
- Don’t forget to check for oddities
- When to submit?
- Optimal time is one hour from seeing the announcement, definitely within 24 hours
- Half a day before the deadline
- The “Before I Submit” Checklist
- Headshot – does it look like you, is your name on it
- Resume- spell check, fact check the crew (the world is small)
- Email address (keep it simple)
- Separate headshot and resume
- Move on with your life – you’ve done all you can do
