Before you jump into acting, brush up on your acting basics. Learn about the many film crew positions and the people who work them as they are vital to your career.
Understand who's who in showbiz and what these people do. Discover the casting process, the importance of casting calls, and learn about casting directors, talent agents
and managers.
| Show Biz Basics |
Who's Who in the Acting Biz
There are many different people in the entertainment industry who are
essential to an actor. Here are a few. |
About Talent Agents
A good agent will be available, often twenty-four hours a day, seven days a
week, to discuss your career in terms of: visual presentation (packaging),
what types of roles you're interested in and/or best suited for, who your
competition is, how best to sell you, prioritizing goals and suggesting what
you need to be doing for yourself to achieve them. |
About Managers
Many people assume that agents and managers are pretty much the same thing.
However, managers are prohibited by law from negotiating contracts (at least
in California). So even if you have a manager, you will still need either an
agent or an attorney familiar with contracts and the entertainment industry.
A manager's main focus is on guiding the actor's career and making
connections, and although most of the best managers out there are former
agents, the two have very different roles. |
About Casting Directors
A Casting Director is a person hired by the producers of a show to find
talent (or "cast") for the show. These are the people who the agent will
send photos and resumes to, and the actor will audition for. Casting
Directors ("CDs" for short) have to find the best possible cast out of
thousands of available actors, and must always keep up to date on the newest
and hottest faces. |
Casting Directors Defined
Essentially, a casting director is the person or company that hires all of
the talent in a performing arts production. Casting is always conducted
pre-production and most casting directors never see the final product until
release. |
What are Casting Calls?
Casting calls belong to a wide spectrum of productions. From a student
filmmaker to a heavyweight production house, any one can publicize for cast
requirements. The notices are made public via different medias such as
industry trade journals, online bulletin boards, production lists,
word-of-mouth, and agent notification to name a few. |
Casting Calls Yell Be Discovered!
Casting calls are quite varied in the way that they can be announced.
Casting calls can come directly from the Director of a popular main stream
film, to someone simply holding an audition for a school play. |
Understanding the Importance of Casting Calls
As a beginning actor, the importance of casting calls is huge. This is
primarily how you will go about getting work. Later on, after you have
worked on several jobs and have a strong acting résumé, you might be able to
sign with a talent agent or talent agency who will locate all future work
for you. |
The Casting Process Explained
Performers are hardly ever hired by the production company directly, but are
instead hired by a casting company or by a casting director working for the
production. A casting company or individual casting director is hired to
fill all of the roles in the production with the necessary talent. Typically
there are two types of casting on every project, a principal casting
director and a background casting director. |
The Casting Process in Action
Many new actors have misconceptions about how the casting process works. To
alleviate some of this confusion, here is a hypothetical example of how a
guest-starring role on an imaginary daytime drama may be cast. |
A Star Is Found
Casting is a complicated, delicate, and almost alchemical business. To be a
good casting director, you need instinct, patience, and the ability to
remember hundreds of diverse faces, voices, and performances. You also need
the kind of empathy that enables you to know, almost before he or she does,
what your director wants in a particular part, as well as the sympathy that
allows you to put a nervous actor at ease or to help a potentially stellar
actress find the great audition that you sense she can give. |
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