Auditions/Casting Calls

Chat about any aspect of your child's Casting or Audition

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GoldieQ
Nominee
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:14 pm

Auditions/Casting Calls

Post by GoldieQ »

HI IM 15 AND IM A SINGER

I REALLY NEED HELP,,,ADUTIONS,,ECT

NOTHING SEEMS TO BE WORKING CAN YOU JUST GIVE ME ANY AUDITIONS COMING UP ,,ANYTHING ](*,)

WILL DO I HAVE PLENTY EXPERIENCE I ALSO ACT AND HAVE BEEN TO ITILA CONTI TO TAKE AN ACTING AND SINGING COURE


I WOULD REALLY LIKE A REPLY ASAP. THANK YOUU
Holland Park
BRIT Award
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:56 am

Re: Auditions/Casting Calls

Post by Holland Park »

Hi Goldie,

Let's start at the beginning - you've been to Italia Conti. Don't they usually put you guys forward for stuff?

Next off, do you have a CV and Headshot prepared? If not, that's your next step. Then you need to apply for roles. Don't sit around waiting on open auditions. They're rare and the opportunities they provide are extremely hard to get.

You'll probably want to start off here: http://mandy.com/1/cast2.cfm?country=GB ... es=75&zip=

Create an account, upload your CV and headshot and write a nice, polite covering letter for it all. And for the love of God, spellcheck it!

It may not necessarily apply with you, of course, but you'd be AMAZED at the number of cover letters I get that are barely legible. Picky? Maybe. But if I get that cover letter that says "I am a gud actr n I wnna b a supastar coz im awesome so u shld use me." I only have one next move: delete.
GoldieQ
Nominee
Posts: 3
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 5:14 pm

Re: Auditions/Casting Calls

Post by GoldieQ »

Thank You So Much
That Will Help So Much
Spell Check DEFINATLEY.
Yeah i Went To Itilia Conti But It Was Like a 3 Week Course Thats All So Not Much They Did For Me But Whats a Tipcial Cv Like I Have a Regluar One For a Normal Job
But Not One For Preforming Arts
Holland Park
BRIT Award
Posts: 54
Joined: Fri Jul 30, 2010 10:56 am

Re: Auditions/Casting Calls

Post by Holland Park »

Okay. Well your performing CV is VERY different to your normal CV. It should look like this:

Name

Address

Mobile Phone
Home Phone
E-Mail

Spotlight Pin (If you have one)

Physical Details (including)
Height
Hair Colour/Length
Waist/Chest/Hip Measurement
Build (Thin/Athletic/Muscular/Heavy/etc.)
Playing Age (You should note that this is different to your actual age - this is the age range of characters that you can play. For example, I'm 25, but can play 18-35, so that's what mine says.)

Experience - Many schools of thought on this, so here's mine. List your previous jobs from newest to oldest in the following format:

Year - Production - Role - Director - Company - Medium

So if you did a movie this year, you'd write this:

2010 - The Super Dog Adventures - Alice (Lead) - Dave McDirectorpants - FilmCo Movies - Feature Film

One piece of advice - NEVER just list the name of the character you play unless it was a main role in a major cinematic release. Tom Hanks can just write "Forrest Gump" on his - people know the character. I probably don't know how important 'Alice' was in "The Super Dog Adventures" because it wasn't a big hit. So you have to tell me if it was a lead role, supporting role, featured extra, etc. Likewise, I had a guy who had a line in a TV show apply for Holland Park. He just listed the character with no semblance of how important it was, as if he expected me to look it up. In any given week, there are THOUSANDS of shows on TV. You can't expect me to know how important 'Dave' was to that episode of Doctors; I couldn't name any of the lead characters.

In terms of "Medium" - that means things like Television, Feature Film (Generally anything over 80 minutes long), Short Film (Anything under 80), Student Film, Theatre, Musical Theatre (We do distinguish - doing "The History Boys" requires a different skillset to "Grease"), Voice-Over, Commercial, Radio Play, Music Video. Any doubts, just ask someone what you should classify it as.

Training - list each piece of training you've had with bullet points. For example:
  • Italia Conti - 3-week Singing and Acting course
Special Skills - these can make or break a job for you. I had a CV come in that included the special skills "Army trained" and "weapons expert" - if I'm making a Bourne or Bond movie, that actor jumps waaaaay up my list. It also listed "Medically trained" and "Midwife" - again, if I'm casting for Casualty, that's jumped up the list. The actress in question was, of course, a former Army medic before she took up acting.

What special skills do you have? Can you do accents? List all of them.

Singing? What's your range?

Trained in dancing? What styles?

What else can you do? Make a list: Cycling, Horse riding, football, mountain climbing, trapeze... - you never know when that hobby you had as a kid will make a difference.

On my CV, it mentions that I'm a stand-up comedian, I'm trained in martial arts, I'm a former professional wrestler, I played football at a semi-pro level and I'm an accomplished American footballer. Among the auditions that I have lined up for the near future are roles as a boxer, a cage fighter, a stand-up comedian, two football films and one playing a sports announcer. All because my skillset was unique enough for me to be of use to those productions. Likewise, I'm trained in singing Jazz, Blues and Gospel and I was trained by a legend of those genres, Lillian Boutte. You'd be very surprised how many eyebrows that raises and how much longer that's kept me in the room at some auditions.
pg
OSCAR Award
Posts: 2091
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2007 12:28 am

Re: Auditions/Casting Calls

Post by pg »

Hi Goldie

If you are really serious about working in the profession, I would suggest that you do some research into how the business works. Try reading some of the following:

An Actors' Guide to Getting Work - Simon Dunmore
Make Acting Work - Chrys Salt
So You Want to Tread the Boards - Jennifer Reischel

It's a very big subject to cover. Holland Park's advice on writing a CV is very useful, but I think it's important to understand how the casting process works too and these books will give you considerable insight.

Before trying to "make it" as a singer, try to do some research into the music business. The internet is a great resource. Find out what you can about record producers, consider further training (what type of music/performing are you interested in?), go to some Fringe events and gigs and see whether you can chat to some of the performers to see how they started.

You say: "nothing is working" - what have you tried?
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