How to Become an Actor in the age of Electronic Submissions
This was a questions I recently received from an actress in LA:
QUESTION: I was wondering when you used to send out headshots to production companies and Casting directors what mainly did you mention in your cover letters?
MY ANSWER: I have heard casting directors say that if you just put a short post-it sticky on the picture and write something like
“Hi, I’m submitting for the roll of Veronica. Looking forward to hearing from you. Thanks, Leslie”
That should do it.
I don’t think they have time to read all of that stuff.
When I was casting my projects, I didn’t. I think electronic submission is the way to go now anyway. Cheaper and faster.
Let me know if this helps…
And just to elaborate on the topic of electronic submissions, if you are an actor in Los Angeles, LA Casting and Now Casting are the way to go.
I believe you need an agent to be on LA Casting, but actors can submit themselves on Now Casting.
I also like using the electronic submissions from a producer point of view because you can submit your project for free and with great ease, schedule actors for auditions without having to construct emails or call everyone, you can notify everyone of schedule changes all at once, and you can let the actors know they’ve been cast through these sites.
Additionally, many sites have performance reels (that’s what they’re calling demo reels now) of the actors
And the best feature is that I can make notes in specific actors’ profiles… So if I call someone in to audition and they do a great job but aren’t right for what I am casting right now, I will put a note in their profile letting me know that I should seriously consider them for something they are appropriate for and that they won’t have to audition next time.
Also, I’m the only one who can read the notes I put in their profile, which is good because sometimes I write things like “late for audition” or “didn’t read full script… only prepared scene” and this is important for me to note to myself because these are factors that effect my casting decisions.
There third site that is used a lot is Actor’s Access, but I never use them. I think their interface is pretty confusing, and on the acting side, they were spamming me for a while with roll (like 2-3 a day) notifications. I know that that was a setting that I just needed to shut off, but sometimes I just want one notification every few days, not several per day.
If you have the notices going to your phone and you are really interested in submitting through Actor’s Access, these notices can be a good thing, though, because you have an advantage if you are one of the first people to submit to the project. Your profile/reel will be looked at first, I believe.
I know that many people really like Actor’s Access, it allows the actor to self-submit without an agent, and it’s national, which means there are posts on there for many cities in the United States; not just Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.
However, keeping with the theme of this site, when asking how to become an actor, my overall advice would be to skip electronic submissions all together and put that time and energy into making your own projects and movies. Easier, more fun and more fulfilling. 
Just my 2 cents.
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