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A note to actors about casting directors, intensives, auditions and audition workshops, etc
Acting, ethics and proper etiquette of casting directors
Date: 7/3/2006 11:12:26 PM ( 19 y ) ... viewed 2685 times I am in Austin, Texas and here some casting agents local and some who come to town only to audition those who come to their casting workshops and intensives. I have talked to many NYC Agents and L.A. agents who believe as I do, that intensives are a bunch of crap and a waste of money. If any agent requires you to take their workshop or audition intensive or workshop in order to audition for them. They are being unethical. Please subscribe to magazines like http://www.backstage.com either in paper or on line. Read the articles and learn what you should and should not be doing
If a casting agent will only see you if you take their class. They are being unethical and practicing a form of payola. If you know of casting directors that will not see you unless you take their workshop or intensive. Report them to the producers who she works for on projects. The TV Network executive, AFTRA Actors Equity and most importantly to SAG, The Screen Actors Guild. http://www.sag.org
some casting agents are charging fees to actors that want to be in their office casting files. The sales pitch is that, if you are in the files, you stand a better chance of being called in for auditions. The truth is that the casting files themselves are a revenue stream for the casting agents and have not much to do with casting. Anyway, the practice of charging file fees is illegal and, sooner or later, it will be challenged in court. Staff attorneys for the California State Labor Commission say that, when actors pay to be in a casting agent's photo file, he is in effect asking the casting agent to function like a talent agent. The hope is that the casting agent will go out into the world and find acting roles for the actor to audition for. That's what agents do, and according to both of the legal opinions I have read, this practice makes fee-charging casting agents de facto talent agents and puts them under the arm of the law. In California, it is illegal for agents to charge up front fees to actors. In other words, even if a casting agent is calling himself a casting director, he may be functioning like a talent agent if he is charging file fees. If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck.....
My strong advice to new actors is that your primary short-term goal be to build a resume, get some decent training and gain experience. Secondarily, get an agent. If you are having trouble getting an
agent, then you need to re-double your efforts, perhaps change your appearance and market yourself differently. Whatever you do, it is not a viable career strategy to stop pursuing agents on the premise that you can cozy up to casting directors who will have you in on auditions anyway. They may lead you to believe that this strategy might work, but it won't. The business does not work like that. The casting directors will take your money to be in their files and will still call talent agents when money-paying acting work is up for grabs.
When pursuing agents, put yourself in the agent's shoes and ask yourself how you would make money on yourself if you walked in the door, picture in hand. Make certain that you are marketing yourself type-wise. Remember that most agents make their money from commercials, so the best thing you can do is fit into a commercial category. Watch TV shows that are aimed at your demographic age. Go to the bathroom during the shows. Watch the commercials. Those actors are your competition. Note how they dress, their energy, the way they are presenting themselves. Then do the same. When you get your photos taken, try to fit into a viable commercial category so that agents know what to do with you. Show them where the money is.
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