Most people are aware that the center of the entertainment universe is Hollywood. But in recent years major cities like Toronto, New York, and New Orleans have become entertainment hubs for television and film. As a Los Angeles based actress it can be extremely disconcerting when a role is being cast in New York. Granted, most times for larger projects, casting is being held on both coasts. However, I have lost out on several opportunities in the past due to distance. A key social media theme is connectedness. With distance being an issue sometimes, staying connected may feel difficult.
SpeedReels, a fully interactive service for actors helps solve this problem by allowing actors the opportunity to audition for projects being cast on another coast. Some casting directors will accept “self-taped” auditions. Every actor should take this opportunity but make sure you do it professionally. I can’t imagine some of the low-budget auditions some casting directors may see with actors recording their audition in their bathroom!
The process is very simple. They tape your audition, you quickly choose a take, you next-day mail it or SpeedReels will email the link to the casting director via a service called you-send-it. This way they can view it immediately. There have been times where I’ve ended up auditioning before they even held casting sessions. Unfortunately, not all casting directors are up to speed with what new social media has to offer. They end up refusing the link which is super fast, cheap, and convenient, and rather accept a next-day mailed package which is $35 bucks out of my pocket, plus the fear that it never even gets in their hands. Take a look at an audition SpeedReels taped for me so you can get the gist of what this service really has to offer. And REMEMBER… it’s just an audition, so be nice!
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July 19, 2009 at 11:49 pm
Laura Robinson
Kandiss, all of these tools for the entertainment industry that you are finding are so cool! A lot of the way the tools work reminds me of the groundswell videos that we learned about earlier in the class. All of these social media tools give unknown and lesser known actors/actresses a chance to audition for projects they might not have been able to get before. And like you said about casting directors not necessarily going with the easy online linked audition videos – I think with a lot of industries, not just the entertainment industry, people are having a hard time dropping the “old ways,” even if the new ways are much easier and more convenient. But times are changing and hopefully more casting directors will start using social media to their advantage, as well as yours!