The Audition Process in South Florida 2013

In the blink of an eye and we're already moving towards the end of Jan of this brand new year.  How did the first 21 days go by so quickly?  And more importantly what have I done in these 21 days to push my new acting career forward?  Well...mostly I've been perplexed and a bit concerned as to why things seem to be moving so slowly and when I say things I mean castings or rather actual auditions.  Given I am new to the industry and this is my first January (I signed with my first agent 8 months ago in May of 2012) I thought January would be pumping and jumping. :)  It is busy but not as busy as I thought or hoped it would be.  I thought it would be moving as fast as a NY second. It's not.

To be realistic, let's look at the hard, cold facts; to date, in these first 21 days I've been on one, yes one measly audition for City Furniture and that's despite the fact that I've been submitted to 7 other castings.  Hence the concern.  And no I didn't get a call back or book the job.  More concern.  ANDDDD it does feel a little like it's only me.  Meaning it seems my other model/actress gf's are getting submitted to many of these same castings as me and while my submissions go no where they are getting selected again and again to go on the auditions for these castings.  WTF!  How/why is my head shot is being passed over again and again????  The truth of the matter is I will never know for sure and can only speculate the reasons.  And as sure as I write this the tide will change and I will be inundated with auditions.  That is in fact the very nature of this industry.  It can change on a dime.  I remind myself that no two actors will travel the same path AND as the saying goes "when the going gets tough, the tough get going" hence my brand new blog!  :)  I've got to put myself out there for the all the world to see!  

So let me be real for a second and tell it like it is.  I do recognize I need better head shots which I will get as soon as I have an extra $500.  LOL  Well...ok it will be a long time before I have an EXTRA $500 but seriously though, I will come up with the money somehow because I am determined to make this happen for myself and knowing it's the head shot that the client sees when they are deciding on who they want to attend the casting means I MUST get better head shots ASAP!  I really don't think my current one is so bad (posted above) and in my mind I should be getting more requests to attend castings but I do recognize having a better head shot will only serve to help me.  I just dyed my hair to this Auburn color from my grey so maybe that will make the difference.  My expectations are that it will. 

Anyway to give you an idea of how it works here in South Florida, here's a break down of the process from start to finish which by the way usually takes place over the course of about 5-10 days at least for the jobs I'm being submitted for:

• After clearing it with you that you are available for the job on the shoot dates specified your agent submits your head shot for the role (business executive, girlfriend, mother, grandmother, fitness person etc)
• the client ( a car company, a furniture company, a pharmaceutical company etc)  sees your headshot and decides you have the right look and wants to meet you in person
• you go to the meeting aka the casting and sometimes you'll just stand in front of a video camera and or digital still camera, state your name, height, agents name, a little bit about yourself, maybe do a 360 turn and then other times you'll have a few lines of dialogue or maybe do some improv (although not usually-more on this later)  and then you leave.  Short and sweet.
• If the client likes what they saw out of the hundreds of castings they will ask you to come back for what's known as the "call back" which means you are now one step closer to booking the job-yea!!!  You can get excited but not too excited because things could die after you go on the call back so you keep things in perspective.  I've been on very few call backs, actually only 2, yes you read right only 2 that I can recall immediately since I started 8 months ago so I'm thinking it's more of the same as the first audition.
• If you've made it through the call back step and the client is now really liking you, you are then placed "on hold" meaning essentially the client is deciding who they want and you will be notified within about 3-4 days but in the meantime you cannot accept any other jobs for the dates that that job shoots.  The client is essentially reserving you for those dates.  Now you can get a little more excited because it's usually between you and one other person so you now have an excellent chance.  Now that's what I'm talking about!!  :)     
• And then you either get the job or you don't.  So you're either jumping for joy calling all your friends and family, bragging on Facebook, paying some over due bills, buying yourself something you wouldn't normally buy yourself OR you are drowning in your sorrow, eating your favorite comfort food and crawling under the covers watching reruns.

And that's the long and short of it.  That's how it works.  The types of jobs I am being submitted for down here in the South Florida market are local TV commercials, web videos, cruises, extra work (which I usually turn down), testimonials, print work etc.  And by and large that's what's being cast down here for everyone no matter how long they've been at it.  Once you've done those there's no place to go except more of the same stuff.  Whereas in LA or NY you could hope to book larger, better paying roles after paying your dues.  My bigger plan is to stay here in Florida for about another year, get my SAG card and my demo reel together and then move out to LA.  My target date to move is April 2014.  I can hardly wait to get out there already!!!!

In my next posting I'll get into how/why I decided to do this and talk more about castings for speaking roles.

Until then...may the force be with me.