Spotlight?

[MammaD]

Apologies if this is covered elsewhere, but what's the deal with Spotlight?

Does my DS need to be registered with an agency first and then Spotlight, or could I ask Stagecoach to add him (or would they do that anyway if he goes onto their books?) It seems to be 'the thing' to be on if you want to get noticed?

Apologies if this seems a random question... new to all this and want to give DS whatever opportunity I can without falling foul of scams/dodgy agencies!

Cheers

[aliceinwonderinc]

Hi!

Well as far as I know, children can only be on Spotlight if they have an agent or they are in a stage school. So if you are in the Stagecoach agency then you could ask them to add your child to Spotlight, but if you don't have an agent then you need to get one before you can be on Spotlight.

But as you say, Spotlight is definitely 'the thing'. It's not considered a scam, I mean, the question as to whether £88 is reasonable to pay for it is debatable, but you definitely need to be on there if you want to be viewed as a serious actor and to be easily seen casting directors.

Hope that helps, good luck!

[islandofsodor]

All children who join the Stagecoach agency are entered into Spotlight.

[igloobabe]

Personally I'm not impressed so far with Spotlight. When I put my dd on it, I did not realise how much it costs to have a showreel uploaded and how fussy they are about how professional these must be. I have dozens of video clips of my dd singing and they're good enough for Starnow, through whom she has had countless opportunities. But absolutely nothing so far has come our way since joining it.

[geordiegirl]

I may be wrong but I suspect "less is more" with Spotlight. It is for sure the Casting Directors Bible and a must if you are serious about the business but I dont think CD's will bother looking at numerous photos and showreels when they are trawling through loads of profiles. In our experience, Casting Directors ask agents first for recommendations. The agents then send the CD their clients Spotlight link. If the look and brief fits, the client will be invited to audition. Hope this helps

[giniscanlan]

DD is with Spotlight, through her Agent, but we live in the North East, just on the border of Scotland and although the Agent puts DD forward for various things, she's only had 2 auditions since May through them, we think it might be because of the travelling/accent as we're so far away... both times we've had to travel to London at our own expense for a 30 min audition

[Irishdancer]

I no for sure that CD and Directors do look at showreels as when ds has gone to auditions the cd and director have said someing about the showreel. showreels should only be about 3 mins long and have been told by the man from The Showreel Shop who did ds showreel that should have mostly yr dc on it if they are in a few things its best to get it edeted to just show the bits yr dc is in as cd want to see yr dc not 5 mins of some one else then yr dc and its better to have close ups, if its too long cd will only watch the first few mins and not bother with the rest any way

[pg]

I think Spotlight works a little bit like Yellow Pages for plumbers. You might have a brilliant plumber in mind but his prices are too high or he's not available. You'd probably ask people you know for recommendations for plumbers, you'd want to know a bit about their experience/qualifications, how reliable they were, how expensive they were likely to be, did they do a good job last time. You might take their number there and then from your friend or, it wasn't convenient or you didn't have a pen, you'd know you'd be able to find them in the Yellow Pages. You would expect to find their number there. If you found that plumber's number, you'd probably contact them and see whether they were available. If you didn't find their number, you might go back to your friend or you might start looking for an alternative plumber.

Spotlight is like a Yellow Pages for actors, it's where the people doing the casting expect to find your contact details. You might want to find a local plumber without asking round for recommendations - in which case, you'd browse through Yellow Pages and might be more interested in those with a CORGI registration and you might discount any that didn't have this. In the same way a CD might discount anyone who doesn't have a showreel or doesn't have credits which include a director's name they recognise - just as a way of cutting down the numbers of people they need to consider.
There are more actors than plumbers...

This is what casting is often like. CDs will tend to consider people they already know first (because it's less of a gamble), they will then go to agents they trust and ask for suggestions (often via the Spotlight link, because that's really easy). They might do this as a second course of action, or they may well do it at the same time as considering those they know. The only time CDs are likely to browse Spotlight, or send the casting breakdown to everyone, is when they have the time to consider including a few new faces in the audition line up OR when they don't know anyone - or don't know enough people - who quite fit the casting brief. In this case they have to cast their net fairly wide. This might be searching for a very specific look or skill. It might be enough to look through Spotlight or they may also put out a wider casting call. If they are considering including some new faces, then Spotlight is the best place to be because they won't miss Spotlight out in their search - whereas they might not cover other directories. It is unusual to put out a public "general" casting call unless they are after a lot of publicity or they really feel that they need a very wide choice of (as yet) undiscovered talent or they are actually looking for non-actors for some reason.

You only have to look at the queues for X factor and Dorothy type shows to see why CDs would think long and hard before putting out a public casting call!

I do know some casting directors who say they never look anywhere else other than Spotlight. Every CD I've ever spoken to has underlined how important it is to have a Spotlight entry.

Spotlight is expensive - and it's amazing that they manage to persuade people to pay to use it from both ends! Consequently, there will be a few employers who do NOT use Spotlight. This might include people who make corporate training films or only hire actors very occasionally and will almost certainly include people who are not offering any payment (eg. student film makers). For these kind of jobs it might be worth subscribing to the many services that don't charge the "employers" anything to advertise their casting requirements. (e.g CCP)

Even Judi Dench has a Spotlight entry!

[MammaD]

Wow Pg, thanks for that view of it! It's certainly very helpful and puts it into perspective.
I guess what needs to be decided is if it's worth putting DS on there immediately once he gets an agent/via Stagecoach or if I take a chance on him getting some experience via agency/stagecoach and then upload with a showreel or at least something on the CV...

[Behind The Scenes]

Just some information about The Stagecoach Agency and Spotlight. My dd was with the agency a couple of years ago and had a listing on Spotlight. Unfortunately, the listing is controlled by the agency, and the only photograph they allowed was the headshot taken at the audition session. Also, I don't think anyone could load showreels.

This may have changed but it might be worth checking it out with Stagecoach.

[aliceinwonderinc]

There is a way to take charge of your spotlight account. If you email the spotlight people then you can ask to have your update pin which means that you can edit your profile as well as your agent being able to edit it. That's what I did.

[nextinline]

In my experience (both dd and ds with agent) the agent give us the spotlight pin to update ourselves as and when necessary.