Casting Tips

With every job there are the fun things and the dull things; the things that you love to do and the things that just need doing.

And while I’m sure you’d all rather be talking to Sam Mendes about your character arc, treading the boards at the RSC or even filming a commercial or doing a panto, sadly life can’t always be so. There are other things you need to do.

There are some obvious things that you need do that I’m sure are in your radar like keeping fit, working to pay your rent, and even doing your tax return, but the one thing that is often not considered by actors is marketing. And just to be clear by marketing I don’t mean updating your Twitter feed about the lack of kale in your superfood salad or re-tweeting other actors bitching and moaning. I mean MARKETING!

Something that cannot be stressed enough is that you are a business and like any other business you need to promote yourself in a positive light. There are lots of great resources on the t’interwebs about marketing for freelance creatives, graphic designers and web developers, (and no doubt some about marketing for actors too) but I thought I would add my thoughts on this too.

Marketing Plan

So if I was in business and I had a product to market, the first thing I would do is sit down and write a plan for a marketing campaign and you’re no different.

I saw you do a double take didn’t I? You just thought I said you should write a marketing plan didn’t you? By the holy Saint Leo of Di Caprio. WTF!

No, your eyes didn’t deceive you. I did indeed just say you should write a Marketing Plan.

Even if you are not a confident writer please don’t skip this. It doesn’t have to be War and Peace it can be a paragraph and some bullet points, but you do need something to refer to on a DAILY basis as you push forward to achieve your goals. Please don’t just rush in. You need to spend a little time strategising and asking your self some key questions so you are not wasting your efforts on something that will not further your ends. Then write it down and keep referring back to it.

The first questions I would ask are:

1. What is my product?
2. Campaign Goals: What do I want to REALISTICALLY achieve in this campaign?
3. When by?
4. What marketing assets do I need for the campaign?
5. What channels should I use to market ‘the product’?

1. What is My Product?

Obviously in your case the product is you.

2. Campaign Goals

In traditional business and product marketing there might be loads of reasons to embark on a marketing campaign: brand building, sales and education amongst others. And guess what? You are no different so you have to ask yourself what you want to achieve from your campaign – but please bear in mind this has to be REALISTIC!

Don’t give yourself an impossible target of being the lead in the next Wes Anderson movie or starring in a play on Broadway. This has to be ACHIVEABLE and within the time frame of your campaign. If not you will just set yourself up to fail and then beat yourself up and lose confidence

Some ideas for your campaign goal could include getting:

• An agent,
• Your first role,
• On Spotlight,
• A role in a film or a short
• Or making the transition from a supporting role to a leading role.

Only you know what this goal can be, but ideally it needs to be the NEXT step up in your career. Just to nag, and this bears repeating, don’t be too ambitious and make sure it is achieveable.

3. Campaign Length

How long should your ‘Campaign’ last? It needs to be short enough to keep you focused on achieving it, but long enough that it is possible to do so bearing in mind you have a life to lead and often another job to do. Again only you will know what this time is, but 3 months feels like a good time to me! J

4. Marketing Assets

Before you set off on your marketing campaign there are certain marketing ‘assets’ that I think are vital in this current climate if you are to succeed:

Web Site

Make sure you invest time (and money if possible) in a professional looking site that shows you in your best light. If you can’t afford a professional web designer consider services like wix.com that offer really great templates that are easily customisable without being a programmer. And all for less than the cost of one Skinny Latte a month! Which ever route you go down make sure that the site is ‘responsive’ and scales smoothly to different screen sizes without breaking the design.

Head Shots

This is IMPERATIVE. Whatever else you do invest in some great headshots. Nothing more to say really.

CV

Make sure that this us up to date and is laid out in a manner that is both clear and appealing to the eye. I do understand that if you’re at an early stage in your career getting a compelling CV can be difficult to achieve. But if you are at this stage, then the goal of your current marketing campaign becomes crystal clear. Get more work. Even if you have to work on student films do what it takes to get some experience.

Show Reel

Again very difficult earlier on in your career, so the same caveat applies as for the CV, but if you are starting to get more roles then get permission from the rights owner to include all your work in a show reel.

This can be on Vimeo, You Tube or a quicktime movie hosted on your website it doesn’t matter to me, but whatever please do your best on this it certainly makes a difference. Sometimes I will look at a show reel before I cast and sometimes even after the casting session. If you’re not quite right for the role you have read for then maybe I will be able to see something in your show reel for one of the other roles.

Social Media

This isn’t a deal breaker and although some producers favour casting actors that have a social following to help promote the project I am not suggesting that this is the reason to participate in social media. IMHO when done right active instagram and twitter accounts become great shop fronts to promote your talent and I can understand a little bit more about the actor and suitability to the role. But BE AWARE that whatever you do post can come back to haunt you later, so think before you post

5. Marketing Channels

Now you have decided what your goal is and you have your assets you need to find out the best channels to further your gains. These can be online and offline. If this is to get your first role in an independent film then maybe you need to be networking with filmmakers and getting on their radar, if it is to get some traction with a casting director maybe you should attend some casting workshops.

Start to create a database of contacts who can help facilitate your goal: casting directors, filmmakers etc and deliver short, targeted emails with a call to action. Make sure you keep notes as to when and where you have contacted them. Bizarrely there are free CRM software packages used by professional sales companies to track sales calls and customer interactions that the more techy amongst you could even try and use to be really Ninja. If not a Google Sheets spreadsheet would work nicely.

Use all your marketing assets to help promote you, but be SPECIFICALLY focused on achieving the goals of your marketing plan.

Bear in mind that not all your activity should be online. Consider attend Film festivals, networking events and as I mentioned workshops

Hold Marketing Meetings

Another weird one. Just like a company you should hold a marketing meeting with yourself every Monday morning (or whenever) to track your progress and amend where necessary. Make yourself accountable to your boss –  i.e. you!

Personally although I would use something like Google Docs to keep track of who I have contacted and when, here is an important tip.

PRINT OUT your Marketing Plan and stick it on your fridge or somewhere where you can’t fail to see it to keep you focussed on achieving it.

The End Goal

Hopefully when you have succeeded in this current marketing campaign and achieved your goal then you pick another goal up your ladder of success and then create another marketing campaign and rinse and repeat ad infinitum.

By being focused and methodical you can progress your career one step at a time, then soon you’ll be able to spend more time talking with Sam about character motivation and polishing your performance for the RSC.

And when you finally get to do your performance of Malvolio you can then say “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have… a marketing plan.”

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We all want to look our best, but for those of us whose careers depend on it it is vital and for none more so than women. Sadly this is not the time or place to enter the wormhole of a gender debate, but women are still judged largely on how they look and god forbid that any female of the species should appear in front of the camera if they look over 30.

Yeuch! Who in their right mind wants to watch a film or TV show with some ancient crone in their mid 30s or even worse some female fossil who is maybe 50 or 60 – unless of course they are playing a downtrodden wife or grandmother. And this is not just the angry rantings of a woman who is only just out of her twenties (tee hee). As a side bar check out this fascinating report by Polygraph that backs up the apocryphal stories that women have less dialogue and roles as they get into their 40’s.

Anyhow I digress. So what do women do? They often “do a Cher” not just lyrically but actually and try and “Turn Back Time”  and have “a bit of work done.”

“But surely that is their choice isn’t it Nicci?” I hear you cry. “Who are you to judge what people look like and what they do to their bodies? If they want to enhance what God gave them then why not?”

Well thank you for your comment and I agree  – apart from when they’re an actor then often I AM the person who will judge what they look like and whether I think they are appropriate for the role. After 20 years as a Casting Director I have seen more Frozen faces than a Disney executive and more fillers than that bloke on the Polyfilla counter at B&Q.

I’ll stop being flippant; in reality a little tweak here and there never hurt anyone, but please keep things in moderation.

Here are some of my Top Tips for things actors should avoid.

Botox – the prevalence of botox treatment has reached an all time high, but before you partake please ask yourself whether this will impact on your ability to deliver an emotional performance. From my perspective I won’t hire you if your face doesn’t move enough to tell me whether you are happy or sad and might even start dropping a hint by singing “Let It Go.”

Fillers – if you’re going to have fillers please avoid that bloated bland look. Personally I love to see interesting faces that have seen a little life – so don’t flatten your face and remove all your character.

Lips – Two words. Trout Pout. I think you catch my drift!

Teeth – white teeth are great, but be careful with over whitening and with veneers they can look too perfect and very false. You don’t want to look like a cheshire cat

Implants – again don’t go crazy with breast augmentation and however you justify it remember a bum implant never got anyone an Oscar!

Guys – much of these other points apply to men too, but specifically guys be subtle with your hair dying. Looking like Peter Stringfellow or a reject from a Grecian 2000 advert is not a good look.

Cosmetic Surgery – for those of you with bigger budgets for more radical surgery, when you go shopping for a new nose and before you sign on the dotted line ask yourself whether this new conk will really get you more work or whether going on a Meisner course or something similar would be a more sensible investment. If you want a new nose by all means get one, but don’t justify it with a spurious argument that it will get you more work.

And most importantly please DO NOT go into debt for cosmetic surgery. Any enhanced feeling of overcoming those deep-seated body issues you have would soon be negated when the credit card companies or bailiffs come knocking at your door

In summary if you get the cold shoulder for a job it probably wasn’t that you didn’t look young enough so follow Elsa’s advice…

Let It Go. The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway.

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Many people struggle with nerves ahead of a performance or casting audition so here are my top 10 ways to smash your pre-audition nerves.

1. Have a Gin and Tonic

After all one can’t harm can it? Errr Hello! Do not on any occasion. Under any circumstances. Ever. EVER have any alcohol, a spliff or any other form of mood enhancing drugs, to help with audition nerves.

However confident you think a cheeky Baileys might make you feel, the smell alone, never mind your performance, will be enough to ensure that the only place the casting director will calling will be rehab and not your agent.

2. Do a short meditation to start off the day

These days you don’t have to go on a retreat to an Ashram or camp in a Yurt on a Welsh commune to find yourself. Meditation has become a part of many people’s lives; everybody can benefit from some inner calm and focus whatever type of person and whatever the age – and nobody more so than actors.

There are various flavours of meditation from Transcendental Meditation (for the truly dedicated with deeper wallets) to more simple mindfulness techniques, but whatever you do chose it will help promote calm, confidence and a feeling of being centred. There are plenty of great resources online, some of which even cover mindfulness for actors, so inhale deeply grasshopper and let Google be your guru.

3. Get there in good time

There is nothing worse than being late and dashing into an audition hot, sweaty and not able to perform your best, so I’m going to paraphrase Oleta Adams’ musical advice from 1991. “I don’t care how you get here, just get here…” nice and early.

And whilst I would not recommend that you take her advice and travel “…by sailboat, climb a tree or swing rope to rope.” I do recommend that you do ensure that you plan your journey carefully.

Check then double check your timings and then add at least 30 minutes for good measure. If you’re early… meditate!

4. Feel The Burn

Nobody is expecting you to do a ‘Mo Farrah’ style 10k, but some gentle exercise an hour or two before you go in for your casting session will release those endorphins and get you feelin’ pumped and energised. And if you can’t manage a short walk, run or swim then why not retire to a cubicle in the Ladies or Gents at the casting studio and do 30 seconds of squats and 30 seconds of running on the spot.

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins gets into a “Peak State” for his presentations through forms energized movement that he says can change your state of mind. Robbins will get himself in the zone about ten minutes prior to taking the stage getting his body “awake and alive” by jumping up and down, spinning around, fist pumping and standing with his arms outstretched – you might want to avoid his use of trampolines though.

5. Be like a Boy Scout…

…and be prepared! Make sure you have a look at any script at least 24 hours prior to your casting, providing its been sent to you in good time. Have a recap a few hours before your casting.

6. And breathe…

Tied closely to tip 2 don’t forget to breathe. Just before you go into an audition take a moment to centre your body, standing with your feet apart and remembering to breathe 4 counts in and 8 counts out. Do for 5 minutes.

The next 3 tips to beat your audition nerves come courtesy of legend that was Bing Crosby. In fact he was so smart that Microsoft named a search engine after him (unlike Google who named themselves after another rat-packer Google Davis Junior.)

But I digress. Bing told us we need to…

7. Accentuate the Positive…

So why not speak to a positive friend on your journey to the casting – someone that makes you laugh and will distract you from being nervous.

8. …and Eliminate the Negative

Try not to over think things. Don’t focus on what might go wrong, what will they think and who will be there – just be yourself and remember at the end of the day we are all just people. There is that bizarre trick of imagining them naked, but depending on who is on the panel, that might either repulse you or make you blush! In any event some centred meditation and breathing will help you Eliminate Bing’s Negative.

9. Latch on to the affirmative…

Think about all your good points and all your achievements. You must have got something right to even be there!

10. … and don’t Mess with Mr Inbetween

Don’t do too much before you have a casting, so pick and choose from the above and see what works best for you.

Today’s blog is part two in a series of blogs focused on helping filmmakers cast low budget feature films.

In the first post about Casting Low Budget Feature Films  I talked about keeping it real. Today I am going to elaborate with 6 more tips that will ensure you don’t have to use hair technicians as casting directors on your film!

1. Are you Gong Fodder…?

Firstly I am going to issue a “License to Ignore”  –  kind of like a License to Kill, but with less car chases and no Timothy Dalton.

So, please ignore my last post  about keeping it real if your last low budget feature film blew everyone away at last year’s Sundance and you had Harvey salivating over his cheque book. Also ignore me if you just had a sell out run at the Royal Court?

If so then you should probably go straight to the conference call with Leo Fassbinder’s agent and Mira-versal Pictures. You could well be what everyone is looking for, you could be the next “annointed one.”

Everybody in the industry wants to be associated with the next new SUCCESSFUL thing and theatre directors…? Well there is a well trodden path from British stage to screen and with good reason. Although the acting process is often different, theatre directors have a reputation for understanding how to help actors really get under the skin of characters.

When stars do lower budget movies it is often on projects that could position them for awards – Gong Fodder if you will. Being seen as a “proper actor” often means that it gives them kudos, credibility and PR and ironically give them more firepower in bigger studio movies.

2. Without great actors you have nothing.

Bear in mind that actors are not commodities – they perform jobs that many of us just cannot do. They put themselves out there and expose raw emotions and go to places that literally make grown men cry. And they do it take after take after take.

Show some respect for their craft and process – they are not just names to use as a marketing tool with a drunken sales agent in the Carlton Hotel bar at the Cannes Film Marche. I meet SOOOO many incredibly talented actors day in and day out many of whom would act not just their socks off, but some of their most loved body parts too. so if in doubt…

CAST. INCREDIBLE. ACTORS

Just because they have not had the lucky break yet does not mean that an unknown actor is any less capable than many stars who have been fortunate. Some of them are… incredible. You should also consider TV actors. The pressure of TV production often means that TV actors are capable and very quick to pick up parts and deliver flawless lines and might give you some degree of the “knowability” that your financiers might need.

3. Think Locally

If you are a regional filmmaker then the temptation again might be to use bigger names many of whom could be living in that there London, but before you do you should do a Geography Test.

Whereabouts are the actors based? Can your casting director help you source local talent? In addition to great regional locations there are also great regional actors – and remember not everybody in the North speaks with a Geordie, Scouse or Yorkshire accent. Also with less to spend on hotels and train fares your budget can go further.

4. Arrested Development.

When budgets are tight there is often either temptation or pressure to expedite the development process and “get on with it.” I would argue that this is the LAST thing you should do.

The more time you can spend honing the script during the development process the better. Sometimes I receive scripts that definitely need more work, and it might sound obvious, but it’s vital that the script is ready before you go out to cast. There are a lot of projects out there vieing for attention – make yours stand head and shoulders above the rest.

The better the script with credible realistic dialogue and interesting character arcs then the better the cast you will get. Simples. Pixar’s development philosophy is legendary in the industry and should be emulated. So sayeth Nicci.

5. Are you Preppy?

Make sure you have enough time to workshop the project during prep. When you are on set is not the time to be talking to the actor about what his motivation is in this scene. Again give the actor some respect for the process and the time this takes to get right.

Workshopping will allow your director time to work with the cast so you are all on the same page and therefore save valuable time and money on set. This then allows both your director and cast to try different nuanced approaches in different takes when the camera is rolling.

6. Employ a Casting Director

I would argue (well I would wouldn’t I!) that one of your important investments is in a Casting Director. Yes you might want to spend all your budget on hiring an Arri Alexa and the latest gimbal-less stabiliser, but don’t be a gear junkie, your films will be NOTHING without a great cast.

Keep some budget to employ a PROFESSIONAL casting director. I am of course available (see niccitoppingcasting.com… tee hee!), but my colleagues at the CDA will also do you a fantastic job. A professional casting director will be invaluable: their experience and on-going relationships with agents will help you get to the talent you want quickly and with integrity and they will be able to advise you on up and coming talent that you would never have known about. They will also help you…

CAST. INCREDIBLE. ACTORS

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