Casting?

[cameronproductions]

Hi all!

Ok so this is a question about casting - something which I have very little personal experience in undertaking. This isn't relevant to my current production, though.

As quite a general question, what are peoples routes for the casting process, and at what time do you ideally do this?

Do you advertise in your local paper, on the internet, perhaps a more time consuming route of scouting potential actors for a production?

And what about getting actors with some kind of 'feature track record' - dare I say, is it possible to get actors involved who have had roles, say, in TV series past or present, in limited budget productions? I'm not saying all actors are the same, but I guess the way I see it, is actors are not charities and they wont (and why should they) become involved in a project that is may not be financially rewarding? Does a lot come down to the strength of the script, and their potential role? Or am I just chasing rainbows with these ideas?!!

 

[NickClapper]

You're in the UK so I can offer some directly applicable advice.

Talent Circle and Casting Call Pro are your first stops because you can register a casting call there and actors will get back to you. And they're both free. I used these for my last short and for one, fairly small, female part I received almost 200 responses. They will email you a CV and that will have their past roles on it.

If you're willing to pay a wee bit you want to get signed up to Spotlight. A lot of the actors who contact you via TC and CCP will have Spotlight links but other than that it will give you the opportunity to directly email their agent. There will be faffing around involved, sending scripts...etc but you an get some quality actors through Spotlight.

I would avoid posting on Gumtree or Craigslist for actors, the same with local papers. You might want to directly contact a stage school if there's one local.

If you want

 

[cameronproductions]

You're in the UK so I can offer some directly applicable advice.

Talent Circle and Casting Call Pro are your first stops because you can register a casting call there and actors will get back to you. And they're both free. I used these for my last short and for one, fairly small, female part I received almost 200 responses. They will email you a CV and that will have their past roles on it.

If you're willing to pay a wee bit you want to get signed up to Spotlight. A lot of the actors who contact you via TC and CCP will have Spotlight links but other than that it will give you the opportunity to directly email their agent. There will be faffing around involved, sending scripts...etc but you an get some quality actors through Spotlight.

I would avoid posting on Gumtree or Craigslist for actors, the same with local papers. You might want to directly contact a stage school if there's one local.

If you want

Cheers NickClapper! Very helpful stuff mate. Will certainly be having a look at these sites. Theres so many scam looking sites, its good to know reputable ones which people have used

 

[directorik]

And what about getting actors with some kind of 'feature track record' - dare I say, is it possible to get actors involved who have had roles, say, in TV series past or present, in limited budget productions?

Yes it is.

Actors are working professionals. They get paid. If you can
pay - even on a limited budget - you can hire actors with
previous credits.