How to Find More Casting Notices - 10 Tips for Searching for Auditions
Thousands of casting notices are posted on BackStage.com every month, with updates being made daily. Follow these 10 casting-search tips to save time and make sure you're not missing out on any awesome new opportunities:
1) Cast a Wide Net: The more categories and states you search, the more casting notices you'll see. Although you might be more interested in some categories than others, you should still select ALL of the categories and states that you're even a little bit interested in, or else you'll miss out on some very cool stuff. Click here for help with searching for casting notices.
2) Customize Your Search: Use Back Stage's Advanced Casting Search options to narrow down your results using personalized search filters, including age-ranges, pay-ranges, ethnicity, and gender. To see more casting notices, choose multiple Advanced Search filters. We recommend choosing ALL of the pay ranges. And instead of just choosing your exact age-range and ethnicity, choose all of the age-ranges and ethnicities that you can realistically play (keep in mind that the search filters are based on the character descriptions of the ROLES being cast, not the exact ethnicity of the actual actors). Click here to learn more about Advanced Casting Searches.
3) Take Care with Keywords: To see a lot of casting notices, make sure to leave the keyword field BLANK. Keyword searches are super-specific and will dramatically narrow your search results, so you don't want to use keywords for most general searches. Use the Advanced Casting Search filters to personalize your search instead. However, the keyword field is incredibly useful if you're searching for casting notices that contain a very specific word, like the name of a casting director or production company, or the title of a particular project. Click here for keyword search tips and learn how to sort casting notices by audition-date.
4) Know Your Categories: Each casting/job category in Back Stage contains a unique set of notices. Understanding the types of casting notices that fit into each category will help you to perform smarter searches. For instance, the Union categories contain casting notices for projects that are primarily seeking only union talent; the Union/Nonunion categories are for projects actively seeking both union and nonunion performers; the Nonunion categories are for projects primarily seeking nonunion actors; and all of the other categories are likely seeking both union and nonunion talent but might not be operating under a union contract (unless otherwise stated in each individual casting notice). So if you're interested in union projects, then you'll want to search the Union categories and the Union/Nonunion categories and maybe some of the other categories as well. And if you're interested in Nonunion projects then you'll want to search the Nonunion categories and the Union/Nonunion categories and lots of other categories too. Click here to learn more about all of Back Stage's casting and job categories.
5) Save Time with Saved Searches: After you've set up a great Advanced Search for yourself, use the Saved Search option to save your search criteria. The next time you visit BackStage.com, simply visit your Saved Casting Searches page and you'll be able to run your Saved Search with a single click — saving you a huge amount of time compared to having to fill out the Casting Search form from scratch every time you want to look at casting notices. You can create as many Saved Searches as you'd like, and you can update the search criteria (categories, advanced filters, keywords, etc.) for each Saved Search anytime you want. Your Saved Searches will always show you the NEWEST casting notices that match your search criteria. Tip: Give your Saved Searches clear, descriptive names so you'll remember what each of your searches is looking for. For instance, if you've created a search looking for casting notices for films in NY, call it "My NY Film Search" instead of just "My Search" — that way you'll know what each of your Saved Searches is for when you go back to run them later. Click here to access your Saved Casting Searches.
6) Save Even More Time with Alerts: Use Back Stage's Casting Alert options to automate the search process for you. Your Casting Alert agents run your favorite Saved Casting Searches for you every day, and then your Casting Alert agent emails you the list of new casting notices that match your Saved Search criteria. You can create as many Casting Alerts as you'd like, and you can base each Alert on a different one of your Saved Searches. Tip: Give your Casting Alerts clear, descriptive names so you'll remember what each Alert is looking for. For instance, if you've created an Alert looking for casting notices for musicals in L.A., call it "My L.A. Musical Alert" instead of just "My Alert" — this way the Casting Alert emails you receive will be conveniently labeled for you (the name of your Alert will appear in the subject-line of the Casting Alert emails you receive). Click here for 10 essential Casting Email Alert tips.
7) Update Your Searches & Alerts: Visit your Saved Searches page to adjust and experiment with your search settings and try out new Saved Searches, to make sure you're getting the best possible range of casting notices. If one of your Saved Searches is being used by one of your Casting Alert agents to email you casting notices, then any updates you make to the Saved Search will automatically update the associated Casting Alert as well. Also, you should periodically visit your Casting Alerts page on BackStage.com to make sure that your Alerts haven't expired, turn off old Alerts you don't want anymore, and create new Alerts to send you more casting notices. Click here to visit your Career Center Toolbox and manage your Saved Casting Searches, Casting Email Alerts, and Saved Casting-Notices Inbox.
8) Sometimes Browsing Is Better: Click on the Browse Casting option on BackStage.com to get a great overview of all the types of casting notices available on any given day. Back Stage's Browse Casting page contains hundreds of convenient one-click searches that will immediately show you all of the current casting notices for all sorts of different categories, states, companies, keywords, age-ranges, and more. Click here for help with browsing for casting notices and more one-click quick-searches.
9) Check Out Our Casting Highlights: Visit Blog Stage for weekly round-ups of new casting, job, and workshop notices of note. Plus view convenient "Auditions at Glance" casting calendars that organize this week's upcoming auditions by day and date. Visit www.BackStage.com/Auditions to get started.
10) Wake up with a Jolt of Espresso: Click here to sign up for Back Stage's free daily e-newsletter, "Espresso," which is filled with entertainment-industry news articles; interviews with casting directors, agents, directors, producers, and actors; notifications of new production listings and Auditions at a Glance postings; and casting notices hand-selected by our editors.
And don't forget to check Twitter.com/Casting_Notice, Facebook.com/BackStageCasting, and Back Stage's casting-notice RSS feeds to quickly find out about casting calls the minute they're posted.
— Luke Crowe, National Casting Editor, Back Stage
To Whom It May or May Not Concern:
Is there a comedy site and do you BACK STAGE except stand up,sit down, roll over comedy acts. Where can I go if I want to audition and or make use of my inability as a moron idiot,fool would be, wanna be.I.e. So call Comedian! Can I submit a video of my act to you. And or BET,Vh1,Comedy Central etc...
Thanks!
p.s. What's a URL
Posted by: Re-Hab Comedian | September 17, 2011 at 05:07 PM
Back Stage has articles and casting notices for comedians. To get started, visit http://backstage.com/comedy
Posted by: Luke Crowe | September 19, 2011 at 04:56 PM