Speaker 1: Hey actors, so a lot of times when people come to my office in LA and they want me to manage them, I'm looking for certain things. I'm looking at their resume to see if they have good acting training. I'm looking to see if they've been working as an actor in their own market, building their resume with theater work, or independent films, or student films, or short films, web series, or commercials. So those are all the things that I'm going to teach you how to get in the area that you live. I'm also looking to see what their headshots look like and if their headshots look like them. You might think that's a really strange thing to say, but the bottom line is sometimes I can see a great headshot and the person that walks in the door looks five years older than that headshot. And the reason I called that person in is because I was interested in the age of the person in the headshot. So your headshots need to be reflective of who you really are. Looking good, but who you really are. So your headshots should not have a whole ton of makeup on, but you should have light makeup on. And if you're a child, you don't really need any makeup, just a little lip gloss. But if you're an adult, not a heavy, heavy, heavy makeup. That's very, very rarely going to be seen on commercials for sure. You don't see that. And on television. Most people don't wear all that heavy, heavy, heavy glamorous lipstick and dark, dark eyeshadows and all that stuff. That's for magazines, not for television. If you watch TV, you'll see how people are made up. Yes, they have makeup artists that make them look good, make their skin look even, make their eyes pop, but they don't put an excess amount of makeup on that makes them look, you know, like their lady of the night. And same with men. When you're taking your headshots. You know, you want to have your skin look good and look coverage, but you don't want to look nothing like your, like you really look. Your pictures should look like you. It's hard to explain, but I have seen it so many times. You know, you have blonde, frizzy hair, yet you come in in the picture with short black hair that is spiked up. The reason they picked that headshot and pulled that look in is because they wanted to see that blonde, frizzy haired person, not the black spiked up hair. And even though you say, oh, but it's still me, the casting director is trying to fit certain roles and your headshot fit a certain look they're looking for. So now you walk in and you don't look anything like it. If you change your hair color, you need to change your headshot. So if you were a brunette and now you're going to red, you need a new headshot. If your hair was long and now it's short, you need a new headshot. You've got to look like the person you really are when you walk in the room. Okay. Now let's talk about what casting directors are looking for. There's something called the breakdowns. You may or may not be familiar with those. But every single script that is written has a list of characters that are in that script. The old man, the young lady, the store clerk, the mother, the father, the cop, the criminal. Those are the breakdowns of the characters. A casting director, I'll teach you how it works. A casting director talks to a director or a production company. The production company says, I want to hire you as a casting director. And the casting director reads the script, writes down all the roles that would have to be filled, and then starts thinking, okay, who could I put in those roles? Based on who they already know, based on who they've seen before, they start coming up with ideas. And they go to the production company and they say, these are my ideas for who I would put in these roles. And if they like the idea of the casting director, they say, I like the ideas you're going with. You have the job. But if they don't like those ideas, they ask other casting directors as well. They listen to what other casting directors have to say. Well, this is what I would do with that script and this is who I would put in those roles and this is the kind of thing I would do. They pick the casting director that most understands the vision of the director. Okay, so now the casting director has the job. They make their list of all the characters that are required. They create a breakdown for every single character. Age, 20 to 25, male, Caucasian, attitude, Harvard graduate type, rebellious, bucks the law. African American woman, 30 to 45, social worker with an attitude, but a kind heart, tries to help this main character. Nine-year-old girl, all ethnicities, has been injured in a serious accident, cries on cue, determined little fighter, doctor, all ethnicities, 30 to 40, anxious, nervous, fast talking. So all of these descriptions are in the breakdowns. The job of the casting director is to find someone who fits that energy of that character. So if they want a fast talking, nervous guy who could look like a doctor, that's all they're looking for. The people that walk in that room need to look like that, need to look like that doctor and they need to be fast talking, nervous, energy kind of people. Can't be someone slow and laid back man, hey, can't do that, doesn't fit. The casting director takes that list of all of the jobs that are available and sets them online on the breakdowns. The breakdowns are an official list that all managers and agents get and we pay for it every month, a couple hundred dollars, in order to get access to all those jobs. The casting director will call people in they already know by reaching directly out to those agents and saying, you represent so and so, I'd like to see him for this role. The casting director will also call agents they know that have great clients and say, I'd like to see any of your clients that fit this description. And the casting director will receive submissions from agents and managers suggesting actors for those roles. And casting directors will bring in people they might have seen at workshops or people that they have seen in plays or they have seen on television or in commercials. And they will schedule those people to come in every five minutes. So a schedule will go out and they will see people every five minutes. Now the only people they're going to bring in are people they feel have the essence or the look of that character. So no, you can't play everything. Let's say it's a doctor with a bad attitude who's rebelling and doesn't follow directions. That's the breakdown. The guy needs to look like a doctor, but he also needs to look like he has an edge and he doesn't really follow directions and he's kind of argumentative and has a bad-ass attitude. That doesn't mean he goes into the interview with an attitude. It means when he starts doing his role in his lines, he has an attitude and he's a bad-ass. But he's polite when he walks in the room, he's polite when he leaves the room. He's a professional. It doesn't matter, you know, a lot of times people say, well how did I do in the room? If you don't fit the essence of the character, it doesn't matter if you've given the greatest audition of your life. You have to fit the essence of the character. And when they're casting for projects, if they're casting a brother and sister, they need to look alike. If they're casting families, they need to look like they came from the same family. So a lot of times you might be in an audition and do a really good job and they give you a callback and that means they liked your work, come back in again, do exactly what you just did because now we want to show the producers what you did. Wear the same clothes, wear your hair the same way, and do the same work. If you get a callback and they love it, then the producers are going to look at it. And if they like it, you're in the running, you're being highly considered for the job. But if they have to match you to a family, you've got to look like whoever else they're going to cast. Or if they pick you, everyone else has to look like you. So there's a lot that goes into the casting process. Your job as an actor is just to go into the room and be really prepared and do a great job. Okay? We'll talk more about casting in the next video.