By Ajay Jhaveri
I’m not in the acting business, yet I see more actors than anybody else in the business via Argentum Photo. This gives me insight into what actors are talking about and the word on the street and the biggest change we’re seeing in the business right now is virtual auditions.
Castings are online. We are seeing people submitting themselves for virtual casting, even though they were not asked to audition for a role. They find out about the project and see they are good for the role, they download the sides from their Showfax account, they come to Argentum’s Casting Suite and they take the audition and they have their agent or manager or themselves send it directly to the casting director who is casting the project. They were never asked to audition for the project, but they are getting their stuff out there on their own.
Acting is pro-active, not pro-passive!
The word on the street is casting will look. Casting has staff, two or three assistants. They want to find the best talent for the role. And so being limited to six agencies sending them their people, they are not opposed to getting six hundred people submitting for a role and they can very quickly have assistants go through it and look at… save this, delete this, save this, throw this away… and in effect the actor got in the room and got their face in-front of casting.
Virtual casting is going to be huge. You can audition for a role anywhere.
Start finding out who is casting what roles, start getting the sides, start taping your audition and send it to casting. If you have an agent or manager tell them to send it to the casting director. Do not wait anymore to be sent. There’s tons and tons of auditions going on that you can be sending stuff on, on your own. Get your face out there.
Traditionally actors have always waited for their agents to tell them where to go for their audition. The waiting game is over.
ABOUT ARGENTUM
Since 1987, Argentum Photo has been the leader in providing headshot printing and promotional services for actors in the entertainment industry. At the core of Ajay Jhaveri’s company is an authentic love for their actor clients and the entertainment industry, plus a dedicated desire to stay ahead of the curve. Expert printing and great customer service have helped grow Argentum into the leading headshot lab in North America. For more information, visit http://argentum.com.
