Casting Director David Vaccari Advises on Auditions
David Vaccari, a casting director at Telsey + Company, offers Back Stage readers advice about auditions, both inside the room and afterward. (Hint: Don’t send a generic thank-you card.) On commercials: “Eighty percent are comedy spots. That’s a trend. So subtle, funny performers who have improvisational skills are in demand.” On costumes and props at an audition: “Creative people in the decision-making process often critique an audition much like they would personally judge a piece of art. While some people appreciate Diane Arbus, a few like paintings of dogs...
Read MoreCasting for the CBS dating show Excused
Looking for hot, singles, around the LA / OC area. Ages 21-30-ish Must have SS# and no felonies on their record Looking for TV friendly faces/bodies Looking for outgoing personalities/competitive people – whatever they may be: fun, flirty, funny, quirky, air heads etc .. as long as they can talk and have fun in front of a camera and not be a deer in headlights – this is a fun, light hearted show! Great exposure Great way to get in with CBS network execs Professional set / amazing producers – also get to work side by side with celebrity comedian host Iliza Shlesinger Good...
Read MoreAudition Tips & Tricks for Actors
What do I mean by audition tips & tricks? I mean the small stuff. Stuff you may never have thought about. But it makes a huge difference. Over the years, I’ve been to hundreds of auditions. And every time, I’ve made a mistake. But every time, I learned something new. So shave a few years off your learning curve by following my advice. Read more…
Read MoreAnthony Michael Hobbs … Got the Part
“I think this was the first job that I ever got to work with puppets,” posits Baltimore native Anthony Michael Hobbs, “and it was awesome. You get to meet the people who play the puppets, and you can see how the puppets talk and play and all kinds of stuff.” About to celebrate his seventh birthday, Hobbs can easily be forgiven for forgetting a credit or two, given his steady streak of back-to-back gigs, one of the most recent being “SkWids,” an educational web series. Fittingly, Hobbs’ casting was online from start to finish, beginning with a...
Read MoreSAG/AFTRA Merger Passes – It’s Now SAG-AFTRA
After two failed attempts and 80 years of on-and-off efforts, the members of SAG and AFTRA have voted to merge. The new organization, called SAG-AFTRA, was born Friday afternoon. The crowd at SAG headquarters in Los Angeles broke into song after the announcement, singing, “We have overcome.” The vote among SAG members 82 percent in favor – a stunningly high number — and among AFTRA members, it was 86 percent in favor. Sixty percent approval by each union was required. SAG-AFTRA national co-presidents Ken Howard and Roberta Reardon announced the results at 1:35 p.m....
Read MoreActing Audition Tips & Advice
Ready to become an actor or become an actress? Here are some great tips to get you started. An acting audition is a job. You have to get that in your head. Doing well at an acting audition is the only way you will get the actual job and get paid. While you never know what you might be doing at an acting audition (especially a commercial audition) there are some things you should never do. These are things that may just get you blacklisted from a casting director so they’ll never call you in again. Try explaining that one to your agent. Read...
Read MoreSAG/AFTRA Merger Vote Announcement to be Live Streamed
The results of the SAG/AFTRA merger vote will be announced Friday at 1:00 PT / 4:00 pm ET and live streamed athttp://www.sagaftra.org/ – a campaign website that will presumably become the online home of the new union if the merger passes. Ballots were mailed to 131,000 members of one or both unions on Feb. 27 and are due back at the Seattle-area offices of Integrity Voting Systems tomorrow morning. The merger process began in late 2010 – or mid-2008, if measured from the initial formation of the pro-merger Unite for Strength slate . . . or in the 1930s, if measured from the formation of...
Read MoreAvoiding a Common ‘Actor Trap’
Congratulations, you got the part! The character experiences the gamut of the human condition: love, hate, pride, etc. It’s wonderful on paper, but there’s a problem: An actor is prejudiced against the experiences and emotions she is responsible for conveying through the character. We are taught to validate some experiences while invalidating others—”Women are to be seen and not heard,” “Men don’t cry.” This is just one example of an “actor trap,” a phrase I’ve coined after close to 20 years as the exclusive New...
Read MoreHeadshot Tips:
When looking for a photographer for YOU, DON’T base you decision solely on whom other people used (especially if they DON’T look like you) nor use a photographer based solely on name. What might be awesome for other people might suck for you. Go to http://reproductions.com or other photobooks such as Argentum’s and find photographers that photograph people like you well ie. Skin tone, hair color, eye color, ethnicity, age range, physical structure, etc. Choose your top 5 and meet with ALL of them! You want to get their philosophies and their personalities. You certainly...
Read MoreActors: Don’t Make These Common Mistakes
1. Putting your address on it. 2. Listing your home phone number 3. Listing Non Union under your name. It’s a waste of ink! It’s assumed you’re non union if you have no unions listed. 4. Listing extra work and saying you’re “featured”. Durrrhhh…did someone not tell you about IMDB? 5. Saying it’s a student film. Why list yourself as a minor league player? Your goal is to play the major leagues. Film is film as long as you get good footage. If it’s not a studio production, it’s INDIE! 6. Leaving your old agency logo on and crossing it...
Read MoreAFTRA Basic Cable Deals Better Than SAG’s ‘TV Land’ Pact
For a number of years, AFTRA basic cable deals paid lower residuals than SAG’s, which was one trigger of open warfare between the unions in 2007-2008. The conflict led to a breakdown in joint bargaining and a year-long period where SAG worked under an expired contract. At the time, AFTRA said the point of doing such deals was to organize productions and then later raise rates. There was no way to know how the strategy would play out, and SAG leaders at the time, who are anti-merger advocates today, scoffed at that explanation. Read...
Read MoreSAG-AFTRA Merger Opponents Outline Their Concerns
In a 1,000-word statement that will be sent to members of both unions along with merger ballots next week, opponents Scott Bakula, Joe d’Angerio, Elliott Gould, Valerie Harper, Ed Harris, Anne-Marie Johnson, David Jolliffe and Martin Sheen ask members to vote no “and demand that our union leaders conduct the necessary due diligence to create an agreement which will not harm actors.” Also read: SAG, AFTRA Release Details of Proposed Merger Opponents express concerns about how a merged union will govern itself, and note that while the current SAG constitution prohibits the...
Read More
PageRank
Alexa Rank
Backlinks Google
Backlinks Yahoo