“Ask A Casting Director” – recap
Great information at the Utah Film Festival “Ask a Casting Director” panel yesterday. I took a few notes and here are points I found very interesting.
– If you want a speaking role in ANY major production outside of Utah, the auditions are going through Breakdown services.
– Utah talent has become more on the radar of casting directors in the past few years primarily due to to large productions filming in the state.
– Casting directors will remember you from previous auditions and will reach out to you if they come across a role they feel you would be a perfect match for.
– Dress like your character would dress if they were going in for a job interview. A firefighter would not show up to an interview dressed in firefighting attire so you should not either.
– If the audition indicates you are in the middle of an action scene, don’t pantomime. Instead bring the energy of the scene, be out of breath if you should be out of breath. Don’t start doing random stunts.
– Add real abilities to your skill sets. If you want to work on westerns, learn to ride a horse. If you want to be in action movies, Lear martial arts, etc.
– Good enough headshots are not good enough to get the attention of a casting director. It must be a GREAT current headshot.
– Reels are very important and need to show off your acting ability. Don’t submit a montage of 2 second clips showing what celebrities you have worked with. Casting directors don’t care.
– People of all abilities should audition. Directors are more open now than ever to hire actors of all abilities for various roles. They just need to know you are auditioning.
– If you feel uncomfortable performing in productions with nudity, sex, drugs, violence….tell your agent before they sign you so no one wasted their time on auditions you are uncomfortable working on.
– The turnout of actors from Starz & FX Management was awesome! They showed up in force getting plenty of facetime with top national casting directors. They will definitely have an edge when submitting for larger leading and supporting roles.
The next Utah Film Festival event is this Thursday. It is our “Film Speed Networking” event at the Megaplex Valley Fair Mall starting at 7pm.
Participants and this event will have 30 seconds to introduce themselves one-on-one with each other in the room. You will meet actors, directors, producers, agents, editors, cinematographers and so many more talented people in our film industry.
This event is free and light snacks will be available.
