13131: How Quickly Does Casting Abandon Your Audition?

Raw transcript:

okay a really quick number crunching
question for you
how many seconds
do you think
a casting person listens to your mp3 or
watches your MP4 of an audition
before they hit the stop button and move
on to the next audition recording that
they need to listen to or watch
let’s find out we’ll do that in this
episode of the vo Heroes podcast
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so I feel like you need to really be at
peace
with the numbers involved in our
business
the average
professional audition
whether it’s on camera or
recorded on mic for a voiceover
the average number of auditions per role
in a production any idea what that
number would be
well would you be surprised to know that
it’s around three to five hundred
depending upon the role smaller roles
fewer larger roles maybe even more
um unless they have an offer out but
imagine that and and note that for
commercials there may be three four five
people in the commercial certainly a lot
of them are one person but still when
you think about 300 submissions for that
one role
and then the casting director or the
casting entity if it’s a direct to
client thing they have to figure out how
to line those all up and get ready to
listen to them imagine the rights
holders on ACX where there are well over
600
000 viable narrators that could possibly
be submitting for a particular title
I’ve heard rights holders tell me that
they get over a thousand submissions for
their for their titles if it’s a really
worthwhile project so these are numbers
that are mind-boggling that one person
has to sit there and imagine
an audition can be two three minutes
long multiply that by 300 and you’re
getting 600 to 900 minutes that’s
an hour day’s worth of hours
these here’s why I’m asking you to to
consider all this
the notion that a casting person is
going to listen to your entire audition
if it’s clear from the first and here’s
the answer to the question the first
five seconds of the audition if it’s
clear from that first five seconds
you’re not a fit for this recording
they’re going to move on
they’re simply going to move on there’s
nothing you can do about it and no
amount of teeth gnashing and no amount
of raising your fists to the heavens and
no amount of complaining to the union if
that’s what you want to do or to your
representative or to your agent or to
your manager or to the casting Community
via social media none of that is going
to make a difference at all all the
while
they want you to be the solution they’re
hoping and praying that you’re the right
one you are the right one for this part
they’re sad when that’s not the case and
they have to move on unfortunately to
somebody else to the next one in the
list of three to four thousand tapes or
or or recordings that they have to to
review
the numbers are not in your favor and
here’s why I’m making this podcast
episode because you have to be at peace
with that you have to understand that
that is the reality of our business and
because we’ve all begged for the
democratization of access
that very thing that very notion of see
more people be more inclusive be more
diverse understand that just adds to the
numbers
and with a limited amount of time to
make the decisions on casting and the
fact that they have to provide
selections to the directors and the
producers of the projects they’re
working on
they have even less time for each one to
consider and so just know that all the
work that you put into your audition it
just might be for naught now why am I
being so viciously uh uh Frank with you
about this
because we have chosen to be in a very
weird profession very weird profession
what we do for the most part is what
other people wish they could do from
time to time oh you’re an actor really
you’re a voice Talent huh you know
we have to understand the relationship
of the numbers in this business and if
you don’t you’re in for a world of
disappointment in a world of hurt that
is layered upon not being able to get
the job most of the time because you’re
just not as good a fit as somebody else
you’re not the choice
so now that you know these numbers if
you weren’t familiar with them from
before now you are if you were familiar
before I’m just simply reminding you of
reality now that you know these numbers
how do you feel how do you feel about
the math of our business
let me know in the comments below do
that on veoheros.com I would love to
know what your thoughts are about how
long
a casting person will actually listen to
your stuff
now if they like the first five to ten
seconds
they may listen to the next five or ten
seconds or pop around in your recording
to see how you make your choices
so the numbers can work in your favor
but 99.9 percent of the time they don’t
and it’s just a reality that you have to
be at peace with you have to be
you get to be at peace with it but you
have to be this is one of those moments
yeah let me know what your thoughts are
in the comments below you can also hit
the like button if you kind of like what
you’re hearing I don’t know uh you hit
the Subscribe button and the
notification Bell so you know when these
new episodes come out each week I’d love
to have you forward this to an actor who
you’ve heard complain about how awful
the casting process is and how unfair it
is yeah okay I’m David H Lawrence the
17th I’ve done my part to to ruin your
day with the numbers but
hopefully you can be at peace with those
because it’s still an awesome business
to be in it really is
I will see you thank you for listening
and for for watching and I will see you
in the next episode of the video Heroes
podcast
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(from YouTube)