"Casting fee" via talent agency:

H

Heisenberg

Guys,

I'm preparing a shoot for a short film and still have to fill a small role.

I found a couple of potentially interesting actors on a "talent website/agency" that I though were worth a try.
After contacting the agency, I was surprised they asked for 400 dollars just to send the talent to the casting...

I guess, if anything, I imagined something much smaller
Is that something you have an experience with? Is 400 dollars "reasonable" for a "casting fee"?

(note that the "shooting day fee" for the talent is 1200 dollars)

Thanks for your input on this!
 
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The only agency I worked with sent actors for free. They actually sent me a list of 20 or so actors with age range and headshots and I picked the ones I liked, then they gave me contact info. Agencies are supposed to get paid a percentage or whatever of each gig they book an actor, from the actor. Some small agencies require a monthly fee or similar, especially if you aren.t a big enough or good enough actor to get enough work.

Ditto craigslist. Actually, the agency I did work with contacted us based off a craigslist posting.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
The only agency I worked with sent actors for free. They actually sent me a list of 20 or so actors with age range and headshots and I picked the ones I liked, then they gave me contact info. Agencies are supposed to get paid a percentage or whatever of each gig they book an actor, from the actor. Some small agencies require a monthly fee or similar, especially if you aren.t a big enough or good enough actor to get enough work.

Ditto craigslist. Actually, the agency I did work with contacted us based off a craigslist posting.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for your input Paul, it seems that the practice of imposing a fee for the casting is not a systematic one then... Good to know!
 
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There is a difference between a talent agent and a casting
director/agent. An agent earns their living by taking a
percentage of their clients earnings; a casting agent/director
charges a fee for their services.

Is sounds like you have contacted an agency that charges a fee to
the producer to handle the auditions and casting of a movie. $400
is quite reasonable. I have never heard of a “shooting day” fee. I
can’t imagine what that might be.

A talent agent will send out their clients to auditions in the
hope a producer will hire one. You only get their clients. A
casting agent/director will pull from many talent agents; opening
up your possibilities.
 
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Under "gigs"? The job classifieds have been paid for a loooong time, but the gigs section is free to post. At least in DFW, unless it's changed in the past month or so?

If it did change, as much as I wouldn't want to pay $25 haha it's not much and it would really cut a lot of the clutter.
 
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PaulGriffith said:
Under "gigs"? The job classifieds have been paid for a loooong time, but the gigs section is free to post. At least in DFW, unless it's changed in the past month or so?
Click to expand...

Oh dude you're totally right! I never saw that gigs section. I went straight to jobs (https://post.craigslist.org/k/iNEbmz104RGOB6DsYO38-A/KQQK3?s=cat). Hahaha. Great catch man! I wished I knew that a long time ago. It would've saved me A LOT of time. Oh well. Now I know, especially when I start casting...

One word. FAIL.
 
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Haha, yeah. Stick to the gigs section. IMO, it's the more appropriate section anyway since you're not offering a permanent job.

Oh, but for casting, don't do gigs. In the same subsection you can select 'Talent' which is also free and better for casting calls. I only use 'Gigs' for crew.
 
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We used a number of different casting websites to cast our production. Ironically all the submissions from an "agency" were a bad fit and not used. We also used craigslist ("gigs" Section for free in LA). Also, a really cool owner of a casting website let us use his office for auditions totally free of charge. All we had to do was leave out some brochures about the site. I think I would skip that $400 deal.
 
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directorik said:
There is a difference between a talent agent and a casting
director/agent. An agent earns their living by taking a
percentage of their clients earnings; a casting agent/director
charges a fee for their services.

Is sounds like you have contacted an agency that charges a fee to
the producer to handle the auditions and casting of a movie. $400
is quite reasonable. I have never heard of a “shooting day” fee. I
can’t imagine what that might be.

A talent agent will send out their clients to auditions in the
hope a producer will hire one. You only get their clients. A
casting agent/director will pull from many talent agents; opening
up your possibilities.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply directorik.

It was really an "talent agency", the actors I had picked belong to their online listing... that's the reason of my surprise. I would have definitely understood a casting fee if a search/selection had been done on their side.

The "shooting day fee" is the term the agent used, as opposed to a "rehearsal day" (which appears to be invoiced half the standard "shooting day"....)
 
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