debor009

Actors Access , the casting section of Breakdown Services , has an important new feature for actors that is likely to fundamentally change the tools we make available for casting. Each headshot on your Actors Access profile can now include a 7-second clip of you slating to camera and in effect creating a "moving picture" of you for casting purposes. Another option, however, and one that I've taken instead, is to take a 7-second clip from a past film and simply slate it on screen in print. You can actually grab quite a bit of dialogue and convey what you really look like in different roles and from moody interiors to sunny exteriors. If you have a profile at Actors Access you should take advantage of this. They charge $5 per clip (first one is free) but you can upload but yourself, which is a big improvement over their arduous process for reels.  (My Final Cut Pro X editing software is again proving invaluable.) I wonder if the broader pool of actors available because of v...

Amy Jo Berman, former VP of casting for HBO had an article in a recent issue of Backstage listing "26 Reasons Why You Didn't Get the Part."  Her point: a lot of what goes into the decision to cast an actor in a certain role is simply out of your control.  So don't agonize over it. In looking back over some of my own auditions recently I've come to the conclusion that there are a couple of other factors to consider that are in my control, and correcting them might get me moving a little faster along my career path.  Here's what I've been doing wrong: 1.  I try to second-guess the casting director.  What I hear again and again is that casting directors are not casting for range, they're casting for type. But instead of going in with my A game - i.e. a clear understanding of my type and how to best present it - I go in and try to figure out what the casting director wants, which puts my auditions all over the place.  Only a handful of actors are true c...