Before you start to contact actors you have to make sure you have all of your information together and ready to go.
Here are some questions to ask yourself:
- How much time do I have to devote to casting?
- When/where will the casting session take place?
- When are the shoot dates and any other rehearsals, wardrobe fittings, meetings and/or anything else the actor must be available for in addition to the shoot dates?
- What is the compensation for the actors for providing their services?
How much time do I have to devote to casting?
There is no set amount of time that is best… It really has to do with your schedule, the amount of money you have to rent a room (if you are using one in which you have to pay) and the number of rolls you have to cast.
I would give each auditioner 3-5 minutes. In fact, 5 minutes can often be too long, though sometimes you get into cool conversations with the actor. But there are often no-show that will balance out the long conversations, so I would schedule each actor for a 3 minute slot with a10-15 minute break at the end of each hour to catch up/go to the bathroom/have a snack.
I like to bring in approximately 20-30 people for each roll. If you still don’t find anyone for a roll, you can always hold another casting session.
No sense in holding a 5-hour casting session for one roll if the first actor who walks in is perfect for the part.
When/where will the casting session take place?
This is when you contact the location where you will be holding the casting session and let them know how much time you need. At the studio I use, I rent out the smallest room because we don’t need much space for a camera audition, and I don’t need pianos or space to dance or anything like that (unless your movie has singing and dancing).
In LA, it’s easy to find casting rooms. I was tipped off about Marilyn Clark Studios in North Hollywood by a casting director at Disney, and find it to be an economical choice that is usually available weekdays, even at the last minute.
If you’re not in Los Angeles, any quiet, public space with a private room will do. As an actor, I have been to auditions in school gymnasiums, movie theaters, outdoor parks (that was a bit distracting), private offices, photography studio, classrooms and common rooms of apartment buildings. Anything will do as long as your actor can show you their work without too much distraction and you can hear, see and communicate with the actor while they are auditioning.
I also like to have a legit waiting area for the other actors.
I have no recommendation for the best time to cast, just keep in mind that those with 9-5 jobs are only going to be able to come in later, and those with evening jobs (like servers and bartenders) are probably only going to be able to make it in the daytime. If you’re going to cast for a few hours, you might want to schedule something like 3-6pm, since most people can either finish up their responsibilities earlier and leave early, or arrive a few minutes late to their evening job and catch up before their shift gets busy.
Weekends also might be good, but book the space early because rooms tend to fill up on the weekend.
When are the shoot dates and any other rehearsals, wardrobe fittings, meetings and/or anything else the actor must be available for in addition to the shoot dates?
If you haven’t read the Pick a Date page yet, go back and do it. The shoot date is the foundation for everything else you set up. Figure out all of your scheduling as best you can. And, yes, it is possible that things may change, but it is the fastest and easiest way to determine if an element (like an actor or a location) will fit into your plan.
What is the compensation to the actors for providing their services?
The typical no/low independent short will post the following: “Compensation: copy, credit and meals.” Sadly, on a low budget where every cent counts, there is rarely compensation for the actors. But there are so many other benefits to actors like the opportunity to get material for their reel, networking, creative expression, bragging rights via postcards to industry professionals on their mailing list, education and experience, legit IMDB credit (as opposed to just posting their resume), opportunity to possibly be involved in award winning project, etc, that to say that all they get is a copy of the movie, a credit at the end of the movie, and a free meal really is a limited perspective, in my opinion.
By the way, independent producers of short projects are renown for “forgetting” to send a copy of the completed project to their actors and crew. Please don’t forget to do this. If you are an actor, I’m sure you have done projects that would have been a great addition to your reel, but they changed their phone number, moved to Germany, and you never heard from them again (that’s what happened to me once). DON’T BE THAT GUY.
Of course, I have also had actors get out of contact and so I mailed the completed project off and it came back to me. So encourage your cast/crew to stay in contact and update their info with you.
I really like plaxo.com for this reason. If you’re on Plaxo and the cast and crew is on Plaxo, the contact info is updated automatically when they change what they have posted. I never have to go in and change it myself. Actually, there are a lot of online networking sites that have this feature (a couple of other favorites are facebook.com and linkedin.com). Pick one (or 4, in my case) and work with them and keep them updated. They are also a great way to keep everyone posted on what you are up to.
Here’s my myspace to add me: www.myspace.com/leslielello
And in terms of the copy, if there is an actor that you got great footage from, but end up not using in the final copy, I’m sure he/she would really appreciate getting the outtakes of his/her acting, if possible. I wouldn’t promise this in your post, but if you feel like being generous (and you should, generosity begets generosity) and you have the time (this might be more of a challenge – things get busy in post-production), this might be cool thing to keep in mind.
