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September 19, 2020 By 1 Comment

Here’s What’s Happening Behind the Scenes After You Leave the Audition Room

Photo Source: Margaux Quayle Cannon

The ins and outs of a casting director’s process can often be a mystery, but I’m here to break it down for you.

As CDs, our job is to collaborate with the filmmakers to bring their project to life by finding the perfect ensemble of actors. Sometimes, projects are simply offered to me directly; other times, I have to do the same dance that you do and audition for the job! I read the script, research the filmmakers, and come up with a few lists of casting ideas to give them a concept of how I’d cast their project. There are so many talented casting directors out there; in the end, it comes down to who you want to spend the next three months with going into war, tied at the hip.

For films, I get a script and break it down by the characters. I sort out which are the leads, and which are the day players. Those determinations are usually made by the size of the role and how long they work in the schedule. Because so many movies are shooting out of town due to various states’ tax incentives, I usually cast only the leads and co-stars out of Los Angeles, New York City, or London. The supporting cast and day players are cast on location. I used to go on location and do the casting myself, but it’s become much more cost-effective to hire a local CD, whom I oversee. They do their auditions in their town and upload them to my website. Similarly, when I’m doing a talent search for a role, I can have up to 10 CDs working in various locations and reporting to me.

When casting leads and co-stars out of the major markets, I go through my database and come up with a list of possibilities: wish lists, reality lists, and thinking-outside-the-box lists. Then I meet with the filmmakers to assess their needs and wants. For the larger, “star” roles for which we want a name, I make lists of suggestions and edit them down based on availability, salary, and interest. From there, we start to make offers to set our lead actors. Simultaneously, we start having auditions for the remaining cast.

To set the auditions process in motion, I send the project’s script out to all of the agents and managers around town to ask for their submissions. Immediately, thousands of ideas flood my inbox, and my staff and I meticulously go through each one to narrow down our possibilities. Actors we’re familiar with and like will go straight to producer sessions, and others whose work we don’t yet know will have a pre-read with my office. In the pre-read, the actor auditions for the role and we work with them to direct them toward what we’re looking for. I like to read opposite the actors so I can get a feel for their process and see if they’re listening to me and truly interacting authentically. These days, we’re solely seeing self-taped auditions. Meanwhile, my office is besieged by agents and managers with pitches and suggestions. (It’s a symbiotic relationship, and we need to maintain good relationships with the agents and managers as much as they do us!)

The audition process can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months. Those we like will get a callback with producers and the director. We also tape all of our sessions and upload them to our website, so the creative team can weigh in.

Depending on the project, between my team, the filmmakers, and studio and network executives, there can be as many as 20 people viewing the auditions.

After auditioning, we narrow down our choices and have final callbacks or tests. For most tests, we negotiate the actors’ deal ahead of time. Business affairs usually does test deals, but the CD usually negotiates the actors’ deals for the project, depending on how big the deal is. We work with the production manager to learn the schedule of the actors and the needs for the deal.

Once we’ve done all the testing, we begin the process of setting the cast in stone, which consists of trying to get 20 people to agree on one ensemble. It’s not just a single person who has the ultimate casting decision, but a group of people coming together. Our job as CDs through that process is to oversee the final selection of talent to make sure the cast comes together in a cohesive, organic, and authentic way.

No project is the same, but as you can see, there are a lot of moving parts! Casting is a team effort; hopefully this gave you a peek behind the casting table’s curtain.

Make sure to check out my online course “How To Audition For Film and Television: Audition Bootcamp”. You can view it on your laptop or your mobile device and your subscription gives you lifetime viewing privileges for this course. I’ll be adding lectures throughout the year.

Warning: I grant permission to share my blog as written with no additions or deletions. Posting my blog is in no way an endorsement of another site unless you obtain my written consent.

Filed Under: acting, acting class, actor, Actors Access, actress, audition, auditioning, auditions, casting, casting director, demo reel, network, tv Tagged With: , , ,
August 22, 2020 By 1 Comment

A Step-by-Step Guide on How Your Favorite TV Series Get Cast

Photo Source: Margaux Quayle Cannon

By Marci Liroff

In light of the pandemic, I am offering special pricing for my private coaching (remotely of course!) You can buy a steeply reduced package now and use it later (must be used before the end of 2020) Check out the info here.

Have you ever wondered how a TV series gets cast? Well, I’m here to give you the 411. This is a long one so grab your favorite beverage and buckle up buttercup!

The casting department is usually one of a small handful of department heads who are hired right after a project is green-lit and goes into pre-production. A huge difference between casting for film and TV is the pacing. Casting a TV pilot and series is like jumping on a moving train and praying it doesn’t run you over. At its very best, between scheduling, writing, scouting, and more, casting for TV is a constantly moving puzzle that runs like a well-oiled machine.

On TV projects, there are many cooks in the kitchen. We have the studio that is producing the project and the network that will air it. Each has a group of executives that weighs in and add to the number of hoops an actor has to jump through to get the coveted role. That means when my deal on a new TV project has just been closed and my butt has barely hit my office chair, it won’t be long before I receive a call from my casting executive at the studio asking me for lists. Lists are the casting director’s preliminary suggestions for the series regulars, along with the availability of the actors.

Early in the process, casting meets with the creatives—usually the showrunner and executive producer who has, in most cases, created the show, along with various other producers. This is a creative meeting to go over the script and assess our needs. Some of my frequent questions are: Do we need a “name” actor for this role? Do we need to do a worldwide search? Should we hold open calls? I also emphasize the need to cast inclusively and with diversity in mind to make sure we are including everyone in our continued search.

After meeting with the showrunner and other creatives to assess the series’ needs, we release our breakdown of characters needed and brace ourselves for impact. My office becomes inundated with calls and emails from agents and managers pitching their clients. As we gather actors who pique our interest, casting becomes the first stop on the auditions trail. During pilot season, the casting time frame is accelerated because of the amount of talent to be seen, but also because every casting director is trying to get “Joe Star-of-the-Week” into their offices first. We’re all competing against one another for the same talent pool. During this time, we move swiftly to gather our ideas and set up auditions for “producer sessions” where the producer(s) and director sit in on the auditions or watch them on our site, where we’ve uploaded the audition clips.

Now, here’s where it gets tricky: If we see someone we kind of like, we immediately have to get a test deal going on them. By closing a test deal for the actor, we have the right to “hold” them for five to seven business days after the network test until we decide whether we will cast them. This keeps them from testing on other projects; we effectively take them off the market for conflicting projects. The reason it’s tricky is that we are usually testing actors way before we have seen all of our choices, so it’s very hard to make decisions. With this process, it’s a miracle that you ever get a cast like those on “Friends” or “Will & Grace” that are so dependent on the chemistry between the cast members.

If the actor makes it through the first testing process at the studio, we’ll then take them to the network to test. This is adding yet another group of executives into the decision-making stew.

Testing has changed so much over the years. On some shows, we test the actor live in the room in front of a small audience of executives and creatives for the show. It’s usually a small screening room or a large conference room that is often very cold and uninviting. The casting director usually reads with the actor, unless it’s a chemistry test audition, where we’re looking to see how the testing actor lines up with an actor we’ve already cast. The tension is thick in the air, and it’s usually a very nerve-racking experience for the auditioning actor.

Actors are left in a waiting room with two other actors faced with the prospect of signing a contract to cover the next seven years of your life. We call you in one by one and you audition, then go out into the waiting room with your remaining competition. Sometimes, I stick my head out of the room to say, “You guys can leave, but we’d like Tim to come back in and do it again.” This is where things get even trickier. Just because I’ve told you to leave and asked Tim to come back in doesn’t mean you didn’t get the part. You may have done very well, and we don’t need to see you read again, but we want Tim to do it with a different pace to the scene. Your goal is not to overthink this disparity in treatment.

Lately, more shows are doing a “work session,” wherein we work on the scene together (casting director, director, producer, and actor) and videotape it. This work session becomes your “test,” and we show that to the studio and network executives instead of hosting a live audition. I prefer this way because we’re finally comparing apples to apples. We’re casting for television; it makes sense to be seeing someone on tape rather than seeing them live and imagining what they’ll look like on a screen. We can also do the scene multiple times until we get it right and then present that at the test.

Another difference in casting a TV series rather than film is that for the series regulars, we have to think of long-term relationships and how they might play out over the years. We’re looking to hire actors who can grow through the coming seasons. We need smart, articulate, hardworking talent who can withstand the grind of a TV filming schedule week in, week out. I said before that casting for TV is like managing a moving train and you don’t want to get run over—but that’s essential to the process. It must run like a train schedule or it’ll fall off the rails; we need multi-taskers across all departments because we are simultaneously in pre-production, production, and post-production every day.

Once casting and creative have made a decision on an actor, we have the pleasure of informing them that they’ve got the role!

Calling their agent or manager and then getting the actor on the phone to tell them they’re joining our project is the best part of my job.

Then—oh, you thought we were done?—there’s one last hoop to jump through in casting the pilot: The table read. The table read is where we get all the actors we’ve cast together to read through the script while all the creatives and studio and network executives watch. We use this time to see how our full cast looks and feels together. Unfortunately, some actors don’t make it past the table read and can get replaced on the spot. Here’s a cautionary tale of a table read I did for a feature film I cast.

It’s an exhilarating process when we finally get the whole cast in place and start shooting. Then, we wait to see if it gets picked up!

During network pilot season, there can be as many as 100 pilots produced. After that, the advertisers and networks decide which shows will go to series. Casting is always anxiously awaiting the upfronts (where the advertisers and showrunners announce their yearly pick-ups) to see if their shows will go to series and they’ll have a coveted weekly job. It’s at this point that we see if our entire cast will be going forward. A show can get picked up to series, but the network can ask for recasting. In this situation, the casting director comes back to work before the series casting begins and brings in actors to replace the actor who’s being recast. Sometimes we have an obvious second choice and sometimes we start auditions all over again.

Once we’re officially back to work on the series, we meet with the creative team to talk about the show “bible,” which outlines the storylines for the show and each character. We talk about new recurring characters being introduced and the needs for each, along with the upcoming shooting schedule. The schedule is key, because it lets us know when we have to have actors in place for those roles. TV is more of a producers’ game than film, and the director is usually the guest for each episode.

Each week, we meet with the team to talk about the upcoming episode and brainstorm about casting. Casting will pre-read roughly 30-50 actors for each role (depending on the size) and usually bring the producers and director up to seven options. Then we discuss our top picks and come to a decision on who we’d like to cast. Casting receives the pages as they are written—sometimes up to the last minute.

Then, we run these choices up the flagpole at the studio first with the casting executive, then at the network. We even have to get network and studio approval on actors who only have one line. At first, I thought the level of studio and network oversight was a bit much, but I soon realized that these executives are casting about 30 shows each season and they have hired several thousand actors each year. They have a bird’s-eye view of actors who are doing great work and actors who gave them trouble on set or didn’t quite perform as expected. They also can see if a particular actor is getting a little over saturated within their network. I have come to depend on their advice and guidance.

Then we go back to our line producer and get their sign-off on the schedule and the days each actor will work. We negotiate the deal with the actor’s agent and get their paperwork underway. Once the deal is closed, we pass off the actor’s info to the wardrobe department, and they take it from there.

Once we’re cast, we go to the weekly table read for each episode. Again, it is here that an actor can be replaced, we have to recast, and the whole thing goes around and around again. Lather, rinse, repeat!

Make sure to check out my online course “How To Audition For Film and Television: Audition Bootcamp”. You can view it on your laptop or your mobile device and your subscription gives you lifetime viewing privileges for this course. I’ll be adding lectures throughout the year.

Warning: I grant permission to share my blog as written with no additions or deletions. Posting my blog is in no way an endorsement of another site unless you obtain my written consent.

Filed Under: acting, actor, actress, audition, auditioning, auditions, casting director, filmmaker, Hollywood, network, perfection, perspective, pilot, preparation, television, test, tv Tagged With: , , , ,