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Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Where Do You Cast Your Online Videos?




Movie Studios and TV Networks hire production companies and those production companies pay casting directors thousands of dollars to use casting facilities where actors come in to audition for movies and TV shows.

Well, online videos only cost thousands of dollars - some even less. Where can you cast your online videos so that you don't look like some sleazy producer with a casting couch in your apartment?

If you're in Hollywood you can give the guys at CAZT a call or email and see if they have time available in their casting facility for FREE. That's right I said FREE. I'm using them now to cast new episodes of French Maid TV. Check out the above video for the deets.

CAZT enables casting directors, producers and directors to securely view audition videos online. CAZT profiles allow actors the opportunity to showcase their talent to casting directors, producers and director. AND with a CAZT premium membership (this is how they make their money) actors can watch their own audition video(s), read private feedback from the casting director, and post a "re-take" directly to the screen the casting director, producers and director use.

The CAZT model is different but it is allowing actors additional marketing opportunities that didn't exist before. It will be interesting to see how this works out and it it becomes a standard.

If you don't live in the Los Angeles area you might think about striking deals with local bars or churches that are closed during the day or offices with conference rooms that are closed at night.

Some people are even using the Internet and live webcams to audition people.

Where do you cast your online videos?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I cast them at my house...or I lean on other Web stars! (But I do news reports, so maybe I should be disqualified from the question)

Anonymous said...

Great service! (...though I don't think I'd go so far as to call a clamp lamp "theatrical lighting" ;-)

I'm wondering if there's any similar space in NYC.

chrismccaleb said...

This sounds like a really cool service! We typically cast our actors in a small theater (professional setting yet extremely affordable), in person, and we find them through the different casting websites (LA Casting, Now Casting, Actors Access, etc.). But with really hard to cast roles - like the lead in "Foreign Body" - we scoured the earth, and we finally found our leading lady in Chicago. She sent in a DVD, and we did a live callback via Video iChat (which worked really well). I think we will look into this new service on future projects - you should never leave any stone unturned when looking for new talent!!!

1 Tim Street said...

Thanks for the comments.

Very cool that you used the iChat AV.

Moses Kagan said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Moses Kagan said...

(Sorry, deleted the last one)

Hi Tim (and Tim's readers!)

Thanks for the kind write-up.

We'd like to invite all filmmakers in the LA area (of whatever level / type) to check out our space.

We'll help you find the talent you need while letting the actors learn something from the process. Everyone wins!

ghee99 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.