Reality of Doing

Inside the Room (part 1)

Posted on 06. May, 2009 by sethcaskey in Posts

**(The following posts come from my experience during the last few weeks working as an intern in a busy casting office. While some of the stories/observations will be based on the particulars of the office itself – I feel there are many, many, many take away points from which any actor can benefit.)

First up – Mailed Submission: RESUMES

FACT: Headshots are 8×10.
FACT: Standard size paper is 8.5×11.
FACT: These two items are not the same size.

You can fight it, think it’s unfair, refuse to succumb to the standardization of submissions and march to the beat of your own drummer; and I will be the first to applaud artistic individualism, but in this case – it’s KILLING YOU.

Just TRIM the paper. It doesn’t have to be expensive linen resume paper, fancy cardstock or PaperDirect’s finest - but it does have to fit on the back of your picture. That simple. If it doesn’t, it goes in the trash. (Seriously.)

Next: ATTACH the resume to your headshot. It doesn’t matter how you do it. Four staples, two staples, gluestick, double-sided tape, homemade paste. Whatever your pleasure. Just stick the two together! (paperclips don’t count)

In this particular office, any headshot to which the resume was not attached – IMMEDIATELY gets put in the trash. So think about it, you’ve spent however much on postage (a topic to be covered in a later post) only to have your picture pitched before it can even cross the Casting Directors path. What a waste.

There are so many things that actors do to take ourselves out of the running even before the door of opportunity cracks open. I know this may sound harsh, but there were a couple of pictures that came in the mail that I thought, “hey, this guy is so [show].” only to find the resume not attached to the headshot and then promptly filed in the circular file.

Of the hardcopy submissions that the office received last week, a MAJORITY of them were thrown out for this (or other reasons to be discussed later). By taking small, simple steps – you dramatically increase your chance of looking professional. (And if you’re going to ask a production to pay you almost $800 a day – show them that you are the professional that they need to hire.)

There are SO MANY aspects of the casting process that the actor has NO control over. Trimming and attaching your resume to your hardcopy submission is one that you can completely control. Do this. Please. I don’t want to throw out your picture next week.

Tags: casting, headshots, resume, sethcaskey