Casting a low-budget comedy is fun but tough.

Actors I would obviously go to are usually too expensive, not available because they are so busy or booked or just not interested in working for scale. I have to be creative, resourceful and think outside of the box. I research online and look at comedy blogs and webisodes. I go to the comedy club websites and research new talent or old talent who haven’t had a break. I search for talent who are looking to be found. The Internet has made this search much less complicated. It is still hours of work, but I no longer have to go to a comedy club and sit through bad comedy in the hopes that I find someone. Every stand-up comic or improvisation group worth their salt has an on-line presence and I bookmark them.

I must understand my director’s sense of humor. There are all different types of humor and actors with different backgrounds my have different senses of humor that do not match the director’s take on what is funny. Not only do actors have to understand the comedy beats in the script, but I do as well, because usually I am explaining the beats to actors during pre-reads.

Actors who have been on a sit-com for several years tend to come into an audition and rely on their persona as the character they played on television. This can be great if that is what I am looking for but if it is not, the role goes to someone else. An actor trained in improv can be really quick on their feet but be “too big,” and not subtle enough, not real or not listen to direction very well. A dramatic actor can often be, well, too dramatic and not come out of their shell. A stand-up may not be funny outside of their act. So, once again, a lot of auditions have to be held in order to find what I am looking for.

I want the best actors for any film that I am working on. If there are financial limitations in the budget, I need to focus the production team on realistic choices and bring those options to my director. This does not mean that you don’t offer the role to someone outside of your financial range. Casting is like applying to colleges. You have your 1st choice, safety and reach actors. The important thing is to feel like you have had your choices presented to you and that all of the possibilities have been explored and explained to you. I explore those possibilities. I target actors and try to be smart about who I recommend the production to go out to.

Producers have to be realistic about the financial burden an actor brings to a low-budget film. For example, recently, I made an offer to a well-known actor for 10k for one day of work. The actor liked the film and the role but said he would only do it for 25k. The one day of work was really 2 days of travel, one day of rehearsal and one day of shooting. That is 4 days, plus per diem, first class travel/hotel/above-the-line to/from airport/set etc… In addition production has to budget for the actors health/pension/welfare contributions. All totaled up, the actor was now going to cost the production 35k. Suddenly, a great expense when money is tight.

Getting a recognizable name into a film isn’t always the hard part; the financial ramifications of travel alone make a line producer nervous. On a film I am casting, the producer is fine with the negotiated salary of an actor we want to hire, but the first class travel, dietary requirements and accommodations are enough to make the producer rethink his choice and ask me, “can we get a name for scale?” I just smile. I know where this is going. More auditions…

Casting For Three Films!

For the past month, my partner and I have been casting three films: two features and one short. My brain is going to explode. I have seen for pre-reads over 300 actors and brought to the directors approximately 100 actors. As always, there are all of the lists (the lists!!!) for all of the roles and the negotiating and the setting up of offers and selling the films to agents and managers. I have a lot of stuff going on up there in my noggin and if I don’t remember an audition, it is probably because the actor didn’t make an impression on me. Granted there are casting directors who remember everything – I just have to assume they have nothing else going on in their life. Me, I got bills to pay, an office to manage, I have to make sure my producers are cutting our checks, paying our union dues, buy the office supplies, fix the printer… When an agent calls me at 7pm on a Friday to ask for feedback I want to reach down through the phone, grab their neck and say, “are you serious?!”

In my previous blog I said that 95% of actors who audition will do the same audition and of the remaining 5%, 2.5% will just be bad and 2.5% will be original. Just assume that if you didn’t get a call you are in the 95% (because being in the 2.5% crappy percentile is just too depressing to think about) and figure out why you may have not been as unique as you thought you were being.

Acting coaches talk about “emotional truth” and use words like “objective, super-objective” or some Misner/Uta Hagan-esq technique that they teach you but really, I think acting boils down to sustained energy. Actors do not realize how much physical energy it takes to sustain a character moment to moment. Developing a character takes every thought of every breath of every second of believing and manipulating your psyche into thinking you are someone else. It is already difficult to sustain energy just to be you, but to dig deep down and find within yourself the equal amount of energy to create and sustain another character is — exhausting. And to make it look fresh and natural, takes focus, spontaneity, creativity and fearlessness.

I am not easily impressed. If I like an actor, I believe in that actor’s potential to bring to a role what I believe makes an incredible performance. So, forgive me if I don’t give feedback, because what I am looking for in an actor, whether it is for one line or an entire film is often impossible to find.

I learned this week that the Casting Society of America decided to remove (again) the “excellence in short film casting” category from this year’s ARTIOS Awards. The ARTIOS celebrates excellence in casting achievement to those who are members of the C.S.A. Two years ago I was one of the people instrumental in having the category added to the ballot. But last year the C.S.A board took it off without discussing it with the membership. (I love my peeps, but try to imagine what it is like to be in a hotel ballroom with 400 casting directors eating rubber chicken and sitting through a 4-hour award show surrounded by agents. There is not enough alcohol in the room to make the time pass by fast enough.) I was saddened by the boards decision to not include the category again, because it seems to me that short film casting at its essence, is one of the purest forms of casting. If one were to argue that there is any skill in casting (as I believe there is) one would see it in the short film, where originality, resourcefulness and determination are what get actors into a film that they most often do for little or no money. The boards reasons for not including the category are lame and too boring to go into (there were plenty of potential nominees and a lot of support from the membership for this category), but let’s just say it seems like a political issue and only the upper echelon of the board seems to know why. I say include it in the ceremony. What’s an extra 5 minutes to an already laborious ceremony where the outcome is usually that you are still hungry or drunk…

This year I ran to be on the board and was not elected. I admit my ego was bruised. I believe I have a lot to contribute to the casting community. I was social vice-president of my freshman class in high school, maybe someone did a background check on me and found out it was my idea for the Hawaii/hula-themed freshman mixer? I mean it was a purely innocent suggestion to have the water polo team show up in their uniforms…

If you would like to know more about me go to www.lessallcasting.com. Until next week…M

DEAR ACTORS,

Below are my top ten tips for auditioning for me. I say, “for me” because as you probably have experienced, we casting directors have many different types of personalities. Some are always grumpy, some are always happy, some are always stressed, and some take a lot of Xanex. I like to think I am a mixture of all of the above. An audition is a job interview. It is your chance to shine. Figure out how you are going to own those 15 minutes you have to make us fall in love with you so that we want to use you in every film we do. Remember, casting directors want to hire actors.

1    Turn off your phone and anything that beeps.

2    Always be prepared for an audition: Read the sides and practice (a lot) before you audition. Read the script and know the context of what the role is within the film. If you think you are being original with the sides you are given for your audition, THINK AGAIN! 95% of actors who audition for the same role will have the same take on a character. Of the 5% who don’t, 2.5% will be totally wrong and 2.5% of those who audition will be unique, fresh and original. What does it take to be in this top 2.5%? Practice, luck, talent, & the right look for the role.

3    Ask questions: Ask a smart question to the director. This will show that you are interested in the film and that you are flexible to notes and changes in your performance. Don’t just ask, “Do you want to see me do it differently.” Ask a question that will lead to a considered response by the director.

4    Dress appropriately: If you look like crap, you are not going to get the part (unless the character is a homeless person). Be sensible and wear clothing that does not distract us from your face. Remember the eyes are the windows to your soul: not your pecs, boobs, butt crack, arm pit hair, mid-drift or gross disgusting feet in flip-flops. You are not auditioning for a commercial when you come to see me, therefore I do not need to see you dressed as a doctor, lawyer or whatever! I just need to see you and your ability as an actor. Do not wear white, it washes you out on camera, wear a solid colored top, but not blue, in case there is a blue backdrop…more on this another day.

5    Smell neutral: Avoid heavy perfume, deodorant and cologne. (If you are European use half the amount of cologne you would normally spray yourself with.) This is about distraction. You do not want to leave an audition room with the producer only thinking about your body odor or the heavy amount of cologne you piled onto yourself.

6    Introductions: Make eye contact with everyone in the room. If you are introduced to someone shake his or her hand. If there are a lot of people in the room, just say, “It is so nice to meet you all,” and don’t feel pressured to shake hands. Some people don’t want to shake your hand. It’s not personal. Make sure you have something to say. Have some small talk ready that allows everyone to feel at ease with you.

7    Listen: When you are given a note, take your time to understand what the director is saying to you. If you need clarity, ask for it.

8    Always carry a hard copy picture/resume with you. If you have a reel, have a DVD copy with you and let us know you have it.

9    When you are finished, thank everyone and leave. Always be polite. If you are pissed off because you had to wait a long time for the audition, don’t let that show. Breathe your frustrations away, because “agro” does not look good on camera.

10    Do not audition if you are having a bad day. If you are having a bad day and are too stressed out to audition, call your agent and ask them to see if you can come in on a different day. If you can’t come in on a different day, sort yourself out, don’t let on that your boyfriend dumped you or that you ran over a squirrel on the way to the audition. Be professional, do your best, leave, go back to your car and cry. You will probably get the job.

All actors should make sure their IMDB page is up-to-date and the contact information is correct. Also, make sure your picture is there as well. Actors should be registered with, Breakdown Services/Actors Access, Now Casting and LA Casting. Your up-to-date picture, resume and reel should be on all of the services. If you have a website make sure your reel is on there. Your reel should be no longer than 3 minutes, it should contain your strongest scenes and you do not need to have a montage at the beginning of the reel.  Make it easy for us to cast you and you will have more of a chance to book the job.

If you would like to know more about me, please go to www.lesssallcasting.com.

Until next week…M

HOW TO CAST A FILM:

OR - WHY EVERYONE IS WRONG AND I AM RIGHT.

If there is one thing I know, I know about talent. If an actor is right for a role, I know it to be true. If an actor is not right for a role, this too I know to be true. Interestingly, actors don’t always know if they know they are right for a role and part of my job can be to convince them otherwise. I wish that casting were as easy as finding the right actor for a role and having everyone involved see the brilliance of the casting director’s wisdom. Sadly, this is not the case. Casting actors is (no matter what anyone else tells you) the most difficult job in entertainment. Ok, maybe I am slightly exaggerating, but it is darn important. If the cast sucks, the film sucks – end of story.

Deciding on whom to put in front of a camera involves several steps. I must share the director’s vision. Hopefully, the director has the same vision as the producer and so on…once I know what we are looking for I make lists. (A lot of friggin lists!) Lists are ideas of who may be right for the role. In general these lists are my first choices for the role, because they are the names that pop into my head right away. I then check that actors on the lists are available and by doing the lists, I begin to form a picture of the potential cast. I also begin to figure out who is a pre-read, who is going to be seen by the director and who is “offer only,” as well as finding out which actors are not interested and not available. The lists form their own personality; by thinking about who is right for a role, you actively begin to paint a picture of what the film is going to look like.

Getting the information for the list requires a lot of phone calls. Hours of good phone to my agent and manager friends, pitching the film, getting them to read the script. Getting scripts sent to the actors I like to have read for the director. I create a buzz about the film – I try to at least. I am competing with a lot of other films and television shows (with bigger budgets) who are all trying to get the actors I want, because to be honest, the lists are similar all around town and the competition to get actors into your project is great.

Names of actors on a list will undoubtedly have similar traits and one name may lead to a random idea so out of the box that this idea is the one everyone responds to - and that is when I am at my happiest. An idea for an actor in a role that was not thought of by anybody else except for by me gives me a lot of satisfaction and creates a lot of excitement (inside my head). While it may seem like no big deal, deciding on the right actor is not as obvious as it seems. Matching up the desires of the production team and the reality of getting certain actors for a particular role is often complicated and fraught with obstacles: mainly, money.

Actors say “no.” That is what I tell producers all of the time. They may pass on a project for so many reasons that it is impossible to even think about why. I try to come up with an immediate short list of who to go out to next as if to say to production “move on,” it’s not worth pursuing a pass. However this is not always the case.

Recently, on a film I was casting, a huge Hollywood star passed on a role offered to her. The offer was for $65,000 for 3 weeks of work on a 3 million dollar budget with a 2nd time director, whose first film did no business (This actor makes over 10 million per picture). After her pass, I was instructed to see what she didn’t like about the film. Upon further investigation, it was relayed to me that her agent didn’t read the script. The pass was based on the fact that the agent’s client does not want to work on low-budget films and that if she did, it would be a film that she would produce or direct herself. At this point I found out that she did have a film she wanted to direct but the financing was still coming together. The producer I worked for is a very wealthy man, so I suggested to him that he offer to help finance the star’s movie and in return see if she would re-consider our offer. This fell on deaf ears.

Production wanted me to call a meeting between the agent and the director so that the director could convince the agent about why it was so important to have his client in his film. I tried to persuade my director and producer that this was not a good idea. The agent had already explained to me thoroughly the reality of getting his client into ANY film, not just ours. So, when I called the agent up and asked for a meeting, he did it for me because of our relationship, but I knew going into the meeting that this was a bad idea.

Our film had no distribution, no money to pay the actors (above 65k) and was being directed by a director with a questionable track record. In short we had no leverage as to why this actor should be in our film. (I tried to create leverage by suggesting my producer finance her other film.) If our film had guaranteed distribution or an A-list director or writer involved or even an executive producer with some clout, getting the named talent they wanted could have been an easier process. I had a good script, with excellent actors interested and when I say excellent actors I mean Oscar nominated and named actors who would bring a lot of attention to the film. I also attached a major international young American teen star to the picture and this was still not enough to convince the producer to green light the film.

Back to the agent meeting: We get to the agency and I could see the producer and director starting to look intimidated. I was not intimidated, I deal with this situation all of the time. Agents and managers are part of my process; I deal with them every day. These guys do not and so it was with great pomp and circumstance that the star’s agent came into the meeting and said, “With all due respect, I like your script, but my client is not interested.”

A blank look arrives on the director’s face as if he is saying, “how could this be?” I immediately try to spin the conversation into, “Well, since you like the script, who do you think would be interested?” Some names were thrown out, names that were pitched to me weeks before and with their heads hanging low we left the agency. To be honest, I suspect that they also lost some respect from the agent. This is important because when the time comes to make your next film, you want to pick up the phone with confidence and know that your pitch to an actor’s representation is being considered seriously. If they think you are a schmuck, it’s just another hurdle to climb.

The point is, I was right, they were wrong. I wanted to say, “Look guys, you hired me to guide you through this process. Please believe me when I tell you that I am doing everything in my power to get you the named talent you want but if after reading your script the actor isn’t interested, move on to the ones that are!” But in reality, this is not how it happens. A lot of time gets wasted on making offers to actors who I know will not be interested. This is because the reality of who would be attracted to the film does not match with the expectations of the production team. I am here to manage expectations. But it is really hard to manage expectations when agendas and politics are involved. Some situations are just not resolvable and ultimately in the case of this film, it did not get cast, because the reality and requirements of the producer did not match up to the type of script he was financing. It was as if the producer had never read the script and didn’t understand the obvious obstacles that were in his way from securing A-list talent to the film. Like I said, if I told you who was attached and interested, you would not believe that for a 3 million dollar budget, the film was not shoved into production.

Agents and managers want to know about the director, producer, crewmembers, budget, location, days worked, is the film financed and most importantly: HOW MUCH MONEY ARE YOU GOING TO PAY? Shocking, I know, but actors actually do like to get paid for work. Breaking this news to directors and producers is difficult. But when reality sinks in, somehow the money is there – or not.

I try to work on films I like. It makes things easier when talking to agents and managers. If I am passionate it shows, if not, I have to pretend. It’s my job. But in the end, the script is the real salesperson. The script sells the film, not the casting director. Film making involves filmmakers and filmmakers have investors and investors have needs and those needs need to be met or else there is no film. I see the big picture. I get what everyone wants. I have been doing this for a while now.

At the end of the day, one never really knows if an actor will be interested in a role, but over the years, I have a pretty good idea if they will or not. So, I make the offer, because ultimately, you never know. (Of course, saying that, I think I know!) I find that when a role resonates within me for a specific actor, a majority of the time, no matter on the offer or budget of the picture, the actor will be interested. Interested means they will consider it, not that they will do it. Of course, when I work with a producer or director who “gets it” and trusts the process of casting, guaranteed they will be my happiest customers and guaranteed, their films will turn out best.

If you would like to know more about me, please go to www.lessallcasting.com. Until next week…M

HOW I BECAME A CASTING DIRECTOR…

I was born in London, England on August 23, 1971 and moved to Chappaqua, NY when I was 6 years old. From a young age I loved music, art & theatre. My mom loved the Carpenters, so you will have to forgive me for any musical tastes that I have but I guess on some level I always identified with Karen Carpenter. I love music: ABBA, Prince, The Beatles, James Taylor, Pink Floyd and that was all before I was 13. I loved musical theatre. I remember going to Broadway seeing “The King and I,” “Oklahoma,” “Peter Pan (with Sandy Duncan),” “Les Miserables,” etc, etc, etc… When I was a kid, I thought that one day I would tread the boards and be a musical theater star. One major problem was that I could not dance - never could. I could sing and act but there was not a lot of coordination going on with my feet.

In 1997 I was living in London. I had moved to London in 1993 after graduating from a small school in Indiana. I went to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts for a one-year classical acting course and because I have a British passport, I decided to stay in London and live there for a while and try act professionally.  By 1997 I had been in the West End, been in a critically acclaimed off-West End play, performed at the Edinburgh Festival, modeled around Europe (I was thin back then) and managed various restaurants in the grater London area. I was asked by a friend of mine to help out in a well-known casting director’s office. I needed the money and I thought it sounded like fun. Well after my first day in the office,  I fell in love with the job!

It didn’t take me very long to see that I had finally found out what I was good at – casting. From there I worked with another casting director working on music videos and commercials and from there I went out on my own and tried to get work independently. By 2001, after a few years of casting projects on my own in London, I felt like it was time to return to the U.S. If I wanted to cast, LA was where I needed to be. The decision to move to L.A was a good one, and while I missed my friends in London, my new life evolved in ways that I never expected.

I have been fortunate to cast for some wonderful directors and I have worked on all different types of projects from short films to pilots to feature films at the studio and independent level. I do not miss acting. I think that my training as an actor, not just at LAMDA but the various courses I took over the years, makes me aware of what one should be looking for in an actor.

Some of what I will blog about will be about how casting is so much more than ones eye for talent. It’s about politics, being a good communicator, learning how to work with various different egos and managing crises. I am still learning about all of this as well.

Being an independent casting director also means that I have to be smart about running my business. I have an office, overhead and a need to be bringing in money and jobs constantly. I am a freelancer and this is exciting, crazy and stressful all at the same time. Every day I learn a new lesson. But most of all casting is fun - which is why I do it. If I ever feel like I am not having fun at what I choose to do, I will have to do something else (and I have had to make that decision at least twice. Maybe I will share these stories with you over the next year). So now you have the very condensed, G-rated version of my life in casting.

If you would like to know more about me, please go to www.lessallcasting.com. Until next week…M