Last Wednesday I had three auditions–two for commercials, and one for a play. Recent advances in technology have made the methodology for commercial auditions as such:

1. you walk in and sign the audition sheet

2. You get a Polaroid or digital shot taken

3. You fill out an info sheet with aforementioned photo attached

4. You audition.

This breaks the otherwise common practice of bringing a headshot and resume with you to commercial calls–a thing that is absolutely required for all other forms of auditioning. In my 7 years of reading for commercials, I have only once given a Casting Director a headshot, and she asked for it in advance. That all changed last Wednesday. I had to not only give them a headshot, but give them all of my headshots ie. the two I had on me. After this unusual Robbing of my last headshots, I had to run across town to catch another audition for a play that absolutely required a headshot. I was screwed. I had no way of getting another shot before the play reading.

“Can I have your headshot?” she asked.

The only thing I could do was shrug and give her a toothy smile.

That evening I sent an apologetic email about the situation, and she responded with a curt “did you get your callback time? It’s tomorrow at 3.” When I got to the callback I was greeted with a “Did you bring two headshots?” I gave them to her and she went into the other room, instructing me to wait. As she returned, she produced an 8×10 sheet of paper, handed it to me and said “I just want to let you know what I had to go through yesterday to keep you in the lineup.” I followed her into the audition room. She sat, and instructed me to “hold the drawing up for everyone to see the uncanny likeness.”

The recent move by United Talent Agency to establish an online division has moved Backstage to take a closer look at what it is they want. Advertised as a place “for actors to submit”, UTA left a lot of us hanging. The initial thought was that they would be looking for actors to represent in an unexplained new method, but it now looks more like a search for content providers with established followings. It’s an exciting bold move on the part of UTA, but at the end of the day it looks like a first step towards driving a wedge between content providers and their audience. Though only touched on in the article, the more dire question for actors today is how to deal with online content production, what our role is in it, and how to choose between going to open calls or creating our own content? I was at least able to get my 2 cents in.

PDF of the article

I’m sad to say that the shoot ended today, but it was all made better by a trip to the ice cream shop. Seriously, look at this thing! Tipper had a $50 gift certificate, and she put it to good use!

I like Chicago, what a great place. So far the shooting has been brilliant and the hanging out has been a lot of fun. An added bonus was the 3 inches of snow that dusted me on the way in. I could see myself coming here often.

It looks like I will be breezing through the windy city in the next 10 days to shoot a few episodes of Young American Bodies. I’ve been looking forward to working with Joe Swanberg for a few years now, and am excited to be colaborating with him.