Back Stage 411 - Casting FAQ

Visit our all-new FAQ

Visit Backstage.com/Help to view the new FAQ for the all-new Backstage.com.

The following posts are from our old FAQ and may not always apply to the new Backstage.com/Casting site's tools and current functionality.

Reality TV Casting - iPhone App FAQ

Back Stage's Reality TV Casting app provides you with access to casting notices for reality TV shows, game shows, talk shows, competitions, and more. The listings are updated daily, and the app is compatible with the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. You can download the app from the iTunes App Store at www.tinyurl.com/RealityCastingApp.

You can use the app to browse through casting notices for projects calling for submissions from real people, models, and performers  in Los Angeles, New York, and across the U.S. You can run keyword searches to narrow down the results; and quickly star the items you're interested in so you can find them again later in the app's Favorites screen. Plus, the app provides access to news articles and advice columns from Back Stage, and links to hundreds of additional casting notices via Back Stage's Twitter.com/Casting_Notice feed, so you'll always know about the latest auditions and casting opportunities available.

For more details, please see the FAQ below:

Call Sheet - iPhone App FAQ

Considered an invaluable resource for actors, models, and performers, Call Sheet is the most up-to-date and trustworthy entertainment-industry contact directory of it's kind.

Call Sheet is now available as an iPhone app, called Call Sheet: Casting & Agency Contacts by Back Stage. The app is available in Apple's iTunes store (www.tinyurl.com/CallSheetApp) and is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. The app includes contact details for casting directors, talent agents and agencies, talent managers, production companies, and acting schools.

iPhone App FAQ:

Jumpstart Your Acting Career - Get the most out of BackStage.com

10 Tips to Help You Get the Most out of Back Stage

The following 10 tips will help you unlock the full potential of BackStage.com and jumpstart your career in the performing arts. Find out how to get your resume more exposure; how to search for casting notices faster; where to find contact info for casting directors, agents, and major feature films; how to find insights from entertainment-industry professionals; how to receive casting notices by email; how to create your own projects; how to avoid scams; and more!

Scam Alert: Beware of Casting Scams!

The Back Stage Casting Department puts great effort into stopping scams from being published in Back Stage; blocking spammers, scammers, and other bad guys from using the BackStage.com Multimedia Resume Talent Database for illegitimate purposes; stopping acting scams and modeling scams; and removing scams from Back Stage whenever a casting notice turns out to be bogus.

However, sometimes con artists still slip through the cracks — so we depend on our readers to let us know if they run into a problem. If you report a scam, we'll quickly investigate and remove any fake casting notices and scammers.

Here are five casting scams and suspicious situations to watch out for:

Call Sheet FAQ and Abbreviations Guide

Call Sheet (formerly known as Ross Reports) is a digest-sized directory published six times a year.

Call Sheet contains details about hundreds of casting directors and talent agents in NY and CA (including contact info for their companies). And each issue also contains additional details, listings, and articles about other regional areas and aspects of the entertainment industry, including spotlights on films currently in preproduction; TV series casting; casting directors and agents in other states; directories of talent managers; opportunities for comedians;  nationwide directories of modeling agencies; and more. Visit Amazon.com to subscribe to the print edition.

Considered an invaluable resource for actors, models, and performers, Call Sheet is the most up-to-date and trustworthy entertainment-industry contact directory of its kind.

And with Call Sheet Online, you can search through an extensive database of casting directors and talent agencies to find contact info for CDs and agents across the U.S. To get started, visit BackStage.com/CallSheet. (If you have a BackStage.com subscription, then you get FULL ACCESS to Call Sheet Online for no extra charge!)

Call Sheet is also available as an iPhone app, called Call Sheet: Casting & Agency Contacts by Back Stage. The app is available in Apple's iTunes store and is compatible with the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. The app includes contact details for casting directors, talent agents and agencies, talent managers, production companies, and acting schools. To learn more about the app, visit our Call Sheet iPhone App FAQ.

You can also purchase pre-formatted PDF Call Sheet mailing labels (downloadable PDF files that you can print out on mailing-label sheets so you can easily send your headshots and resumes to casting directors and talent agents).

To access additional listings and industry resources, visit BackStage.com/Listings (this page includes Production Listings with casting-director contact info for major film, TV, and theater projects; acting-market guides; lists of acting schools; guides for getting started as an actor in New York and Los Angeles; and much more) and YellowPages.BackStage.com (a searchable directory of products, services, facilities, and training opportunities for actors, models, singers, dancers, models, and comedians. The Back Stage Yellow Pages includes info about headshot photographers, video demo reel editors, rehearsal spaces, and over a dozen other categories to help you find what you need).

If you find an incorrect listing in Call Sheet or need to update your listing, contact Call Sheet editor Pete Keeley at pete.keeley@backstage.com. If you need assistance with the Call Sheet iPhone app, email callsheetapp@backstage.com. For help with your subscription and other questions, click here to contact Back Stage.

ABBREVIATIONS GUIDE:

Tips for Foreign Actors Needing a U.S. Work Visa

If you have acting credits in other countries (such as your home country) and a temporary job offer in the U.S., then you can apply for an O-1 Visa, which is the U.S. work visa for individuals that can demonstrate an “extraordinary ability in the sciences, arts, education, business, or athletics which has been demonstrated by sustained national or international acclaim and who are coming temporarily to the U.S. to continue work in the area of extraordinary ability.” The O-1 Visa is one of the most popular visas for actors and other performers that want to work in the U.S.

For more info, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O-1_visa and the excellent Artists from Abroad website, which calls itself “The Complete Guide to Immigration & Tax Requirements for Foreign Guest Artists.” You might also want to check out the visa-consultant and legal services at sites like http://www.hooyou.com/o-1/faq.html and http://www.actorsevolution.com/visa.php. And visit the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) website for a list of additional visas.

Alternately, you could become a student at an acting school in the U.S., and use a student visa or J-1 Exchange Visitor Visa to enter the country.

Extensive Casting and Job Tools Now Available

With BackStage.com, Actors, Models, Performers, and Tech/Crew can:

• View an unlimited number of casting notices, auditions, and entertainment-industry opportunities every month.
• Personalize searches based on state, age-range, gender, ethnicity, interests, and skills.
• Save and run an unlimited number of searches.
• Create customized Casting/Job Alert Agents to email you the newest listings that fit your needs.
• Apply to an unlimited number of casting/job notices.
• Build a professional Multimedia Resume featuring your credits, training, skills, video reels, audio clips, headshots, snapshots, comp cards, movie stills, links, documents, and more.
• Include your Multimedia Resume in Back Stage’s Talent Database, which is searched by over 20,000 industry professionals every year.
• Submit your Multimedia Resume to an unlimited number of projects using Back Stage’s online submission system.

Finding Open-Mike Nights -- Calls for Comedians, Singers, Musicians, Dancers, and Variety Performers

Back Stage lists a variety of Open Mike (aka, Open Mic) opportunities every week in the casting/jobs section of BackStage.com and the Back Stage print editions.

These opportunities are listed in various categories, depending on the type of talent being called for. And the opportunities being listed may vary from day to day and week to week, depending on what information Back Stage has available.

However, the two Back Stage categories where Open Mike Night and Club Talent opportunities are most commonly found are:

• Comedy & Improv -- this category includes calls for stand-up comedians, improv comics, and comedy duos, groups, and acts.

• Cabaret & Variety -- this category includes calls for singers, dancers, some comics, new cabaret acts, club talent, and variety performers

The following Back Stage categories are also  worth checking out for Open Mike, Club Talent, Variety Show, Burlesque, Cabaret, and Talent Showcase  opportunities, competitions, gigs, and jobs:

Advanced Casting Search — Customize, Personalize, and SAVE Your Search!

Create an Advanced Casting Search to quickly filter through the thousands of casting/job notices on BackStage.com by location, job category, character age-range, character-ethnicity, character gender, pay ranges, keywords, and more. 

After completing the following six steps, you'll be able to save and run personalized and customized Casting Searches from now on in just a couple of seconds.

CREATE A PERSONALIZED CASTING SEARCH:

1) After logging into BackStage.com, visit the Advanced Casting Search page to create and save your very own Advanced Casting Searches.

2) Use this search page to select exactly what type of casting call you're interested in (job categories, pay ranges, ethnicity/gender/age-range of the roles, the states where the project is casting, etc.).

3) At the bottom of the form, in the "Save Search" box, enter a memorable "Name" for your search (e.g., you might want to call it "My Union Film/TV Casting Search #1," to distinguish it from any additional Saved Searches you create later), and turn on the "Create a Casting Alert" option.

(Note: This Save Search/Alert box only appears on the search form if you're already logged into Casting.BackStage.com, so make sure you've logged in and see the Save Search options before filling out the Advanced Search page.)

4) Click the "Save Search Criteria" button to save your personalized search.

5)  From then on, you can simply visit your Saved Casting Searches page on BackStage.com to run your personalized search with a single click. Just visit your Saved Search page and then click on the "Run" button (it looks like a little arrow/triangle/play button) and you'll immediately see all of the newest casting notices that match your search criteria.

6) When you use Back Stage's Saved Search page to run your searches, you'll save tons of time – because you'll never need to fill out the search form again. You'll be able to see all of the casting notices that are "right for you" (based on the search criteria you entered initially) with just one click, 24/7. Plus, the Casting Alert option will email you the newest search results on a daily basis; the Casting Alert will just send you casting notices that match your personalized Saved Search.

ADVANCED SEARCH TIPS: