ACTORS
ACTORS
The Role Of The Casting Director
|
|
|||||
|
ACTORS
|
ACTORS
|
||||
|
|
|||||
| Last updated |
|||||
The Role Of The Casting Director |
|
||||
The casting director’s responsibility is to find actors who are right for the parts of a particular production and arrange to audition them. To do this task, the casting director might go through a personal file or rolodex of actors; contact one or several agents to search for actors, and for projects large enough, putting a notice on a breakdown service.
A Check List For What You Need to Know About The Casting Director’s Job |
|
|
|
Generally, the casting director can be thought of as a prescreener. In the end, directors, writers and producers make the final decisions on who to hire. Naturally, there can be exceptions to this. |
 |
Among the sources that agents tap for actors are: agents they know, to a lesser degree agents they don’t know, managers, their own files of headshots, personal recommendations, actors they have seen perform in various venues like Off-Off Broadway. |
|
Casting directors will look at your photo and resume and then ask you to read. If they like the reading they will then go ahead and schedule a time for you to come back and audition for the producers and director. |
|
Casting directors use a combination of intuition and experience to send candidates onto call-back auditions with producers and directors. Many casting directors were actors early in their careers; others were stage managers, and/or assistants to various producers or casting directors before moving into casting themselves. |
|
Some casting directors work in-house, but nowadays many are freelance hires with their own businesses that have to be licensed. |
|
Once the director and producers have decided which actors they want to hire, the casting director is the one who then negotiates money, schedules and billing with the actors or their agents. |
|
Since they want you to do your best, which in turn reflects well on their job performance, casting directors have been known to impart subtle signals, helpful hints and conventional wisdom while escorting a prospect into a reading. Therefore pay close attention to what they might have to say. |
|
Use our communication tools (chat room; message board; messaging tools etc.) to reach others who can provide you with more help and information |
Casting directors, many of whom belong to the CSA (Casting Society of America), work for producers and directors with the main task of finding actors to audition for a production so the client (producers, directors) can determine which actors will best fit the roles for the production. Once the director and producers have decided upon which actors to hire, the casting director then negotiates money, schedules and billing with the actors and/or their agents.
Most casting directors are freelance or independent contractors and have learned their trade through an informal apprenticeship since there is no school that teaches the skill. The Casting Society of America, located in Hollywood, is a nationwide professional organization of casting directors, but is not a formal union for the group.
There are several types of casting directors. As mentioned before, there are independent casting directors who are hired for a particular project by theater, television, film, or commercial producers. Most of these independent casting directors have offices, but others travel, depending on the location of the project they have signed on to.
Another category are the casting directors who work for advertising agencies.
It’s their job to find actors for television commercials, radio spots, voice-overs, and print.
In contrast to the first group mentioned above, there are in-house casting directors, such as daytime serial casting directors who specifically work for the studios and networks.
|
|
|
Terms To Know |
|
Audition. A formally arranged session (usually by appointment through an agent) for an actor to display his or her talents when seeking a role in an upcoming production of a play, film or television project, usually to a casting director, director or producers Callback. A second audition where an actor is either presented to the producer and director or, in the case of commercials, is filmed on tape again for final consideration. Casting. When a casting director puts out the news that he needs to fill a certain role that requires an approximate age range and appearance such as a certain ethnicity, height, build or look. Cold Reading. Delivering a speech or acting a scene at an audition without having read it beforehand. Concept Meeting. A gathering of the producer, director and casting director to reach an agreement about the look and quality of each character in a script. Image. The casting type or quality you wish to convey and portray to the theatrical community. Pre-reads. An advance reading by a casting director who is unfamiliar with an actor’s work prior to taking the actor to meet a producer or director. Reader. Another actor who is paid, or volunteers, to help the casting office by playing all the other characters during an audition so the casting director can concentrate on the actor being screened. Screen Test. A recorded audition to determine a person’s suitability as an actor for film or television. Type Casting. Assigning a role to an actor on the basis of his or her surface appearance or personality. Typed-out. The elimination of an actor during auditions because of such obvious features as height, weight or age. |
Some known ways in which casting directors go about the process of finding talent for a production include:
When casting directors hold preliminary auditions, they eliminate those actors whom they feel are not right for that particular production at an early and predictable stage. Usually actors are “typed out” or lose out because of a poor audition. When they’ve narrowed down the playing field to the most likely candidates, the casting director will then bring in the producers, director, and playwright to the audition where the decision as to who will be cast in roles is now made.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| Getting the Part: Thirty-Three Professional Casting Directors Tell You How to Get Work in Theater, Films, Commercials by Judith Searle 367 pages; (September 1995) Limelight Editions; ISBN 0879101946 |
||
Click the titles of the above books for their availability, or enter the title of a book not shown in the above listing in the search box below. |
||
Search for magazines by entering the title or keywords in the search box below. |
||
|
|
|
|||
|
|||||
|
|
|||||
Homepage | Index of Shopping Choices | Contact Us | Communicate Your Thoughts to Someone | Research With Google Tools | Site Index | Post Your Photo/Send an eCard | Legal Disclaimer and Terms of Use
Copyright © 2004, Cool Fire Technology, LLC, all rights reserved