The industry is all about access. Think about it. What if you could walk into any casting office and ask “what do you have for me today” and have everyone scramble to find your next role?
Before you start telling yourself that something like this would never happen, do this... Think of your favorite actors. Choose 3.
Would any of them be able to walk into a casting office and pull this off? While I’m not actually encouraging you to do this (at any point in your career) what I want to point out is what is possible when someone has access to industry decision makers.
Why do you think so many friends of successful actors are able to break into the industry as well?
It’s because they had a direct way to get in front of casting directors and industry decision makers.
If you’re reading this, you probably don’t have an A list actor friend you can call and ask them to get you something in their project.
The good news is, that it doesn’t matter as much as it once did. See, today, casting directors and industry decision makers are easier to get in front of than ever before.
If you want to build a professional acting career, putting yourself in front of CDs and decision makers is something you should actively be doing, instead of just hoping that someone “discovers” you.
Here’s how...
I’ve always said that you shouldn’t be afraid to pick up the phone and call someone. You can have very good luck doing that but getting in touch with them on social media is what you should be doing and it has some significant advantages.
For starters, you are reaching out to them directly, without anyone filtering or managing the decision maker’s accounts.
That means you have a good chance of getting through to them directly. Typically, there are no assistants filtering things or managing the accounts.
Also, CDs and decision makers often search through social media when they need to find an actor with a particular skill set.
Whether casting directors find you on social or whether you reach out to them, they have a way to see what you’re about.
So, let’s talk about what they are looking for.
Believe it or not, one of the first things that will catch their attention (not in a good way) are red flags.
Those are things like polarizing posts that would alienate audiences.
I don’t really want to get into it, so let’s leave it at the world has changed. There are billions of people with billions of opinions on a countless number of topics.
You don’t have to agree with anyone and you don’t have to disagree with them either. If you want to improve your acting career, you have to look at social media as a tool. Nothing more, nothing less.
Like I said, I don’t really want to get into this topic because it can be polarizing just bringing it up, but in just the last few weeks I’ve seen more than a couple actors be negatively affected by the opinions they put out on social media.
CDs won’t rush to hire you just because you share a similar view on a particular issue, but they will rush the other way if they don’t. So, the risk is not worth the reward.
They want to see signs of you being a professional actor that is working on their craft. They want to see you training, working on other projects and keeping busy, as you actively build your career.
You want to load your social media with things like this, so that anyone who even glances at your social media knows you are an actor, and that you take your career seriously.
So how do you find those decision makers?
This is kind of obvious, but most actors never think about doing it. Watch the credits of your favorite movies or tv shows and write down the people involved.
You will literally be able to get the names of the producers, directors, casting directors and even their assistants.
Then it’s only a matter of finding them on social media and making contact.
Here’s how...
First rule of thumb is don’t be creepy. While CDs and industry decision makers don’t get as many messages as you would think, since most people are afraid of reaching out, that doesn’t mean you should just message them and ask about whatever they are casting for.
Even if it’s the only message they receive that day, it will almost surely be ignored. Your goal when reaching out, is to start a conversation. Then, to move that conversation along to a point where they want to hear more about you and your career.
The problem most actors make is trying to start there, and they try to impress the casting director with their credits.
This is going to sound harsh...if the person you are reaching out to hasn’t heard of you, you’re not going to impress them with your resume and they’re not going to watch your reel and jump to hire you for something.
When you are building your career, it’s important that you get people in your corner who genuinely care for you and want to see you succeed. So, when you reach out to them, start with a compliment about their work.
That’s much more effective than just asking for something. Whatever the compliment is, it should be genuine.
Don’t try to move on too quickly from there. Just complement their work, wait for a response and then continue moving the conversation along. Don’t over complicate it.
If you're talking to a casting director, you could start by complimenting them on the cast they built for a particular project and make a memorable comment.
When they respond, you can continue the conversation by asking an easy question about their work. It could be something like “how did you come up with the idea to pair those 2 actors? It doesn’t seem like a natural pair, but it was actually a genius move!”
Of course you won’t get a response from everyone and that’s ok.
It’s not always intentional. Things come up. Sometimes, people intend to respond and then simply forget about it.
If you don’t hear something back, follow up with another message after a week or so.
Even then, not everyone will respond but those that do are the ones that you want to keep in your circle.
If you’re having trouble getting anyone to respond to you, it could be that they don’t see a reason to.
Here’s what I mean by that...
Your message will be kind of a shock, since most casting directors and industry decision makers are not used to receiving them (at least not from actors). That’s actually a good thing, but it will cause them to dig a little deeper.
When they get your message, they want to find out who you are and what you are about, so they will click on your profile and check out your feed.
If your feed doesn’t make it clear that you are a professional actor, that’s where their search will end and they are unlikely to respond in any way.
What you want them to do is click to your profile, scroll through your feed and immediately know that you are an actor.
When that happens, it will cause them to look into your history as an actor. They will look at your industry reputation, so make sure that it always matches your goals. I built this to help that.
In a perfect world, it would always happen this way but that doesn’t mean you should rely on this as the only way to put yourself in front of industry decision makers.
Sometimes they may just come across you, when they are building a cast. This only happens if you make sure that you are visible where casting directors are looking. This will help.
Still, you don’t want to just sit back and wait for them to find you. Doing what we’ve talked about today, reaching out to CDs and decision makers consistently, can do wonders for your career.
You can also use this method when you’re auditioning. Find out who you are going to be reading for and reach out to them beforehand. Follow the same sequence, and when you show up at the audition you would be a “familiar face” and stand out from everyone else.
If you have an audition coming up soon, do this now.
If you don’t then do what I mentioned earlier. Watch the credits to some films or tv shows that are similar to things you would like to work on and make a list of who was involved. Reach out to them and make contact.
I know this is probably something you’ve never done before so feel free to shoot me an email or leave a comment below if you have any questions. I’ll help however I can because I truly want to...
See you at the top,
Scott