Casting Calls?

C

Carcaridon

Hey everyone.
When doing casting calls for your low/no budget films/shorts, where do you have the best success with setting up your casting calls?

I have a demo I'm setting up and am going to be needing two 20's girls and one guy and am wondering where I'm going to have the best success. I've checked out aguamatrix.com which has quite a few actors on it.

Thanks.
Heath
 
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I ambush people at my local acting school.
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Excellent success there, as almost everyone is looking to build a reel.

Lots of people use CraigsList & Mandy.com. Big circulation.
 
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I would often say that casting is the hardest part for me. I live in a small southern town that is to say the least not all that open to filming movies. I try to get my friends to do it but dedication always lacks when doing that. I absolutely hate casting because in my experience people often back out and you can never count on anyone. It is very frustrating.
 
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Just to help out anyone else following. www.nowcasting.com has been a choice place to use. You can setup your own filing cabinets for casting calls and lump individuals into any cabinet you want. You can also submit your posting on there and people can respond right from the site. Great place and will use it again in the future.
 
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megatom0 said:
I would often say that casting is the hardest part for me. I live in a small southern town that is to say the least not all that open to filming movies. I try to get my friends to do it but dedication always lacks when doing that. I absolutely hate casting because in my experience people often back out and you can never count on anyone. It is very frustrating.
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I have very found that working with friends is always a problem. They are never as good as pros, they also think they are doing you a favor, aren't as committed and it can be just plain weird trying to "direct", say, a girlfiend who can just as easily tell you to piss of as do what you want.

People who want to act, on the other hand, are there for the same reason as you, they WANT to work. It's a world of difference. Oddly, you'll get more respect from people that may have more experience and know-how than you on a set if you are in charge than you will from people who may not have a clue as to how a set is run.

If you have any community theater at all, check with them. Meet the directors, meet the actors, plug into that community. Same with any local college or community college. Beat the bushes but find strangers that want to act, not friends who are helping you out.
 
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I remember casting for my very first film school short . I decided to use friends and lets just it was a nightmare nothing went right. None of my friends took me seriously as a writer/director. It was the worst thing I have ever filmed . It is this reason why I have never and will ever use friends in a film
 
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Thirdrailbe said:
I remember casting for my very first film school short . I decided to use friends and lets just it was a nightmare nothing went right. None of my friends took me seriously as a writer/director. It was the worst thing I have ever filmed . It is this reason why I have never and will ever use friends in a film
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Same thing happened to me in a sense. My friends didn't take me seriously at all. Here I am trying to get them to simply be quiet and chill "on set" and they're goofing off and stuff. "You guys wanted to help me out and your not!" Simply put, unless your friends are actors, don't use them! Usually it's a waste of time. Use real actors. Most of the time, actors just want to be in a film no matter how small it is. Even if you don't pay them, feed them on set and have a realistic plan for your film and what you want to do with it. There's a 98% chance your film won't be heading to Sundance so be realistic, and you'll find that everything will come easy.
 
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I agree with everyone who said "acting schools"

If you're near a big city there is almost certain to be an "Actor's Centre" which offers support for people in the profession. You can always find willing and sometimes quite good actors there.

If you're not near a big city I would check out the local amatuer theatre companies, there are always people there who would get a kick out of doing a film.

If all else fails, get some local press/radio/local TV station interest and have an open casting call. I once held an open casting call in the middle of the Highlands of Scotland, in the middle of a blizzard and had over two hundred people turn up. The tapes of that session are still by and large the funniest thing I've ever put on tape.
 
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I actually do better with my friends than I have done with actors. No offence but all of the ones I have delt with were sorta stuck up to me. Granted I was slightly younger than them, but they often wound'nt listen to what I was saying and other times would back out right before actual shooting started. I think this has to deal more with the "actors" I was dealing with, as they were all tempermental as hell and needed to be put on some aderol. In short they were amature as an amature could get.
 
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