how it works (part 1)
 
So, I booked a commercial and I am on avail for another one!  I am stoked.  
 
I thought I would describe the whole casting process, at least from the actor’s point of view.  This will take at least two entries...
 
Around 6:15pm, you get a call on your cell from your agent (or, if you went to spinning class, you find the message on your phone at 7:30), telling you that you need to be at a casting agent’s office the next morning or afternoon.  If you are really lucky, you’ll need to be dressed in a suit or some other item of clothing that has nothing to do with what you normally wear. Thankfully, you are used to this, so you always have a dress shirt and tie in your trunk, and you’ve realized that you can pretty much get away with “just’ the shirt and tie for most of the auditions.  So, you have an audition, you know where and when it is, and you kinda forget about it.  Sometimes you will get another voicemail or even a call the next day telling you you have another audition.  This audition will almost always be in a completely different part of town (the best is when you have to go to Studio City or something, which can take forever to get to!) about 2 hours before or after the first audition.  It’s cool though--the second one will probably just want you in casual clothes, so you’re set.
 
So you run out of your house or your office and head toward the audition, and you’ve kinda realized you have no idea who it’s for.  You know what you are supposed to wear, but...was it for RoadRunner? BudLight?  Burger King?  
 
When you finally get to the casting office, you look at the board, where it lists the various spots being cast and which room the casting is taking place. Ah, right--Honda.  Right, Honda dealer spot.  Sure, of course.  You get to the sign in sheet, put your name in, check the box with the appropriate age range (what will it be like when you have to click the “Over 40” box?) and your racial category.  Then you grab a size card, and, if there are lines, the script.  You glance at the script while you fill out your sizes, making a mental note (for the 100th) time to make sure you get your sizes checked next time you go to Nordstrom or something.  What size is your neck?  Do they really need that?  Once you are done with the card, you walk up to the person running the casting session, where you give them your size card and your headshot (if they want one) and then they usually take a polaroid of you.  You have long since learned that no one takes a good polaroid shot--it’s impossible to look good, no one knows why--so you put on a bit of a “look” and boom, it goes.  For this spot, the one eyebrow raised, looking kind of surprised look should work fine.  
 
Then you sit and wait.  You can wait 5 minutes or you can wait an hour.  There really is no way to know how long this will take. Sometimes they bring in 3-4 of you at once, and that can either go very quickly or take 3 times as long--each person does each part.  No matter, no matter, this is fine, it will be fine.  Just breathe and look at the script and check your email and check the news and look at the sign up sheet and look at your script and look at yourself in the mirror and look for a magazine is this one from last august oh well i guess i can read about swimwear i dunno what is taking so long it’s just the first audition, this is ridiculous I have to be somewhere in an hour and i wonder if i should put money in the mirror
 
oh, thanks--you are “on deck”--you’re going in next.
 
despite everything, you get a flush of stomach acids in your stomach and your hands go just a bit clammy.  you wipe them on your legs and wonder why you get nervous but then realize that you are always telling people it’s good to be nervous, that nervousness means you have energy and oh, thanks, great--it’s your turn.
 
So you go into the room.  These rooms always have a camera, a mic and lights.  Sometimes they have tables and sofas, computers, some monitors, etc.  You say hello and check the large white clipboard that’s right next to the camera to make sure that the lines up there are the same as the ones you have been looking at for the past thirty fifty ten minutes.  They are not, they changed one of the lines and killed the last one, which is fine, no problem.
 
the casting guy is nice and explains the blocking and provides some initial direction. he warns you that the director wants real deadpan delivery and not to be too “funny”.  Don’t make faces, just be kinda flat.  If you have a lot of blocking, they let you do a rehearsal.  If not, you just go.
 
(camera rolls)
 
Okay, tell me your name
 
Hi, I’m [me].
 
Hi, you, can ya give me profile?
 
(you turn to the left, then to the right glancing at the camera as you do so, then face the camera.  you see the camera travel up and down your body and you wonder if you buttoned your khakis (it’s an office spot).)
 
Thanks, you.  Okay.
 
The camera stop and you get into first position.
 
Okay (camera goes), and, action
 
And you do the piece.  
 
And, cut.  Thanks.
 
Then you are either given some direction and another try, or you are done. If you are, you instantly think--while you’re still in the room, talking to the guy--that you must have blown it or just not been right or done it so badly that there’s no hope.  If you redo it, you are frustrated that you didn’t nail it the first time but are happy to get another chance.  If after the second take you have to do it again, you feel like you are totally screwing up and that you don’t even know why you bothered to show up in the first place, unless they are changing the blocking or they actually say they liked what you were doing, just push this one aspect or the other and we’ll be set.
 
So, regardless, about 1-5 minutes after you enter, you are done.
 
Thanks, see ya later.
 
Thanks, see ya.
 
And then you go back in your car and head back to work or home or wherever.  You think, a few times, about how it went, often saying the lines outloud...could it have gone better?  Perhaps, but it’s just a first call.  
 
Regardless, there is absolutely nothing you can do to “get” the job.  You’re on tape, you showed up, you did the work, now it’s 100% out of your hands.  Unless you get a callback.
 
(to be continued)
 
 
 
Tuesday, February 27, 2007