13218: Casting Calculus: Yep. Sometimes Casting Only Needs 4 Seconds.

Raw transcript:

I’m going to apologize in advance this
episode is filled with some tough love
it’s also filled with logic and math and
yet a sensitivity to your feelings and
what I’m talking about is the way
casting does their job in this episode
of the vo Heroes
podcast listen what I’m about to talk
about applies not just to on camera act
and voice Talent audiobook narrators it
also uh appeals to and uh is pertinent
to
anybody who goes to a potential
employer and says I’d like to work for
you I see you have an opening here I’d
like to work for you here’s what I’m
capable of
doing and that employer then gives them
the opportunity to do a sample to do an
audition to do a spec piece
uh even to you know if you’re going for
a customer service job you know take a
potential call you know some you know
interviews for jobs
include a test a quick test of of your
ability to do things they used to do
typing tests when you would go in for uh
you know a secretarial job so this is
nothing new but I want you to understand
something that deadline
article um that deadline article should
not be viewed as something horrifying
and it has been if you don’t know uh a
casting director in Atlanta spoke the
quiet part out loud and said yeah
sometimes we know after like 4 seconds
that the person that we’re watching on
the screen isn’t right for the
part and you know the poor sensitivities
of some very very emotional actors were
very much attacked
and I I sat there and I thought I don’t
understand why it’s pretty
obvious and it’s
partially our fault if you want to look
at it that way let me tell you what’s
going on here so it used to be back in
the day like when I was interning for
udk which is a a casting uh entity here
in Los Angeles way back when I was
learning about how the business
worked this was in the days of everybody
coming in no self-tap this was the mid
2000s um they would gather anywhere
between 20 to 100
150 uh submissions um and recordings and
I would watch the principal casting
directors the associate cast casting
directors the assistants watching videos
and I would watch them make gross
decisions and by gross I don’t mean
disgusting I mean large
uh you know not very fine decisions on
an actor very quickly they’d start the
thing and they go yeah to not right for
any number of
reasons so what this casting director in
Atlanta said is nothing
new it’s been going on
forever you know and likely when you
would go in to uh to do the audition uh
and you’d be recorded the person doing
the session the session Runner whether
it’s the associate or the assistant they
likely had a a decision within moments
of you
starting your skill
level uh your uh eyelines your
appropriate use of the space I mean any
number of reasons just your physiognomy
your your voice your height uh your
coloring it it not as a racial thing but
like you know if you needed to be a
Ginger and you weren’t a ginger but you
thought you were and you just wanted
your your okay but the decisions were
made quickly
by uh demand you know they they had a
lot of parts they continue to have a lot
of parts to cast and here’s the part
where it’s kind of your fault and my
fault and our fault because we demanded
that there be more access to the
audition process that they look at more
actors right we wanted there to to be
more opportunity for us to prove what we
were able to
do great so now they see 200 300
500
submissions for one rle that’s what
comes in
right so just do the math let’s just say
200 and let’s say that you know and this
is fast because if you were to time your
self tapes you’d find them being long
than 2
minutes but let’s just say that every
tape that comes in is an average of 2
minutes long and there are 200 of them
that’s 400
minutes and doing the quick math if
there’s no stoppage time for hitting the
stop button and opening a new video and
hitting the start
button 200 * 2 minutes is
800 minutes worth of tape worth of video
you can divide by 60 and see that that’s
more than 10 hours worth of watching for
one part there may be a dozen or more
parts in an episode of Television
certainly more in a movie they simply
don’t have the time never have had the
time that’s why assistants and
Associates were the ones that were often
running those live sessions because the
actual casting director didn’t have time
to do all that
and
so in the interest of
time if it
is clearly not a fit clearly not a match
they are going to see that in some cases
right away and this applies to uh a spec
script you know they can tell the
writing quality fairly
quickly a spec
article uh a Voice audition a vo
audition an audiobook narration audition
I’m begging
you please check your righteous
indignation about the workflow of a
casting
office at the door be
realistic and instead of screaming about
how unfair it
is get better at your job raise your
skills increase your ability to judge
whether or not you should be auditioning
for this at all if you truly are a
match you may end up saying hey David I
don’t care what you say I’m going to
submit for everything I want to submit
for you
should but you can’t turn around and say
okay with increased activity the math
still works for them to watch every
single reel that’s sent in every single
audition that’s sent in from stem to
stern it just doesn’t work you have to
know that what that Artic look they
don’t care that you’re upset about this
they don’t care how much time you’ve
spent preparing your audition and how
difficult it is for you to set up your
stuff how nervous you are when you do an
audition and how much thought and heart
and talent and time spent learning the
acting skills that you have they they
don’t care what they care about is
finding somebody to
play The
Neurosurgeon finding somebody to play
the creepy evil villain finding somebody
to
play the caring Mom that’s their job
their job is not to make sure that your
feelings haven’t been hurt because you
don’t fit the
part and you should hope that they
figure out and be glad that they have
that this is how it should go that they
maximize the number of things that they
see and give potential moments to but
that they look for the best they look
for the right one they’re not even the
ones making the decisions in the end in
the mo in most cases they’re providing
selects to a director or a writer or a
producer or somebody involved in the
episode or the film or the the the
article the publication you know they’re
providing it to that
Editor to make the
decision you cannot you cannot waste a
moment more of your time raising your f
to the heavens in righteous indignation
that 4 seconds isn’t long
enough because it is in some cases it’s
too
long I’m I’m just telling you having sat
on that side of the table the math
doesn’t work out for your feelings not
to be
hurt and I insist that you continue to
to prepare and to pour your heart and
soul into your efforts to get work
but don’t waste a moment of
time on the notion that they don’t care
enough about what they do for a living
because they
do I’m going to leave it at that I’m
sure you have some feels and I’d love
for you to leave them in the comments
Below on vooh heroes.com where this
episode lives go
there engage in the conversation if you
feel like you need to tell me off you
feel free and tell me off off but in
this case I urge you to consider my
point of view as it is the industry’s
point of view and there’s nothing you
can do to change it nothing no Union no
screaming no crying no logic it just
doesn’t work and if you don’t like it
I’d urge you to change your approach
please please I’m looking for your best
success I really am
and it hurts when I see
actors posting things on social media
and talking to each other in in person
like over lunch whatever about how
unfair this business is you’re
absolutely right it is totally unfair as
are all creative Endeavors and
businesses they just
are please let me know what you think
give me a comment tell me tell me how
you feel about this vent feel free on
vooh heroes.com hit the like button if
you like what you’re hearing subscribe
to the channel I’ll continue to give you
tough love I promise you can even click
a notification Bell and you can be told
when the next episode that you can
scream at and raise your fist that comes
out I’d be great I’d be so happy and
send this to an actor that you may have
had this kind of conversation with or a
voice Talent or a writer or a or a
somebody who has to say would you
consider me for this
role pass it
on they may thank you I’m David H
Lawrence the 17th I thank you so much
for watching and for listening and I
will see you in the next episode of the
vo Heroes podcast

(from YouTube)