EDITOR’S NOTE: This article has been amended to reflect the following clarification: StarCast Auditions has not received the official endorsement of any performing arts schools. Rather, StarCast has offered some students at the schools free access to its site on a trial basis.
The age-old practice of cattle-call auditions, where Hollywood hopefuls line up around the block, may be a thing of the past as Internet companies increasingly corral those actors online.
Last month, a startup called StarCast Auditions launched a website that allows unknown actors to audition in front of veteran casting directors without waiting on the curb.
The Hollywood company is the latest twist on Internet casting sites, which generally focus on established actors – those with credits, agents and professional reels. StarCast is trying to digitize the discovery process for hopefuls looking to land that first acting role.
“People break through, but it’s so difficult for the average aspiring actor,” said StarCast co-founder Jules Haimovitz, a former chief executive at MGM Networks, the TV division of studio MGM Inc. “We wanted to create some kind of tool to automate the process.”
StarCast is specifically whittling the audition process down to a minute-or-so self-submitted video that is evaluated by in-house casting directors, who offer feedback to the actors and nominate a few performances to the site’s best-of section.
From there, StarCast hopes the featured actors will be picked up for specific roles by outside casting directors, who have free access to the site. The actors pay for each video submitted.
But StarCast isn’t the first site to target aspiring actors.
Cast It Systems in Hollywood, a service used by major studios, is best known for lining up professionals who have scored past gigs, but also attracts those breaking into the business by posting links to so-called cattle or open calls, many of which take online submissions.
About a dozen other startups have tried to create Internet destinations for emerging talent as well, said casting director Tammara Billik, whose work includes 1990’s sitcom “Married With Children,” and who is now casting “The Protector,” a drama on Lifetime.
Billik even tried to launch one herself, called AreUaStar.com, which was focused on providing actors with feedback on their performances. But she recently shut down the site, noting the aspiring actors were mostly interested in landing roles.
“I don’t know if (StarCast) will get people to pay money unless there is a real direct line to a job,” Billik said. “What I found was that people didn’t want evaluation. They just wanted the job.”
Call back
Haimovitz got the idea for StarCast after watching decades of actors struggle to find a first gig. He held various positions at MGM from 1999 to 2004 and served as vice chairman of Dick Clark Productions until 2007, after which he became a media consultant.
Last year, he brought the idea to Gary Beer, a former colleague from the Sundance Channel, as well as David Hope, another former exec and media consultant.
Haimovitz and Beer had planned to fund the startup with their own money, but after talking with a handful of industry contacts who were interested in investing, raised about $1 million. Current investors include “Two and a Half Men” producer Mark Burg.
The general idea is to provide a centralized site for aspiring actors who now often post their clips on personal websites or YouTube.
It breaks down actors into 24 demographic categories, such as women in their late 30s or men in their early 50s. The actors can submit new 60- to 90-second clips every two weeks in either the comedy or drama genre for all adult roles. Children read from slightly shorter scripts.
The actors choose from about 300 scripts acquired by the company that aren’t tied to films in development but are in various genres to showcase an actor’s versatility and strengths.
The first round of submissions will end Dec. 8, after which three in-house casting directors will pick best-of performances that StarCast hopes will attract casting directors or producers needing actors in upcoming projects.
The company plans to generate revenues entirely from the fees paid by actors. The site currently charges actors $10 for each video, but plans to raise the fee to $15 in the future. It is expected that actors will post multiple videos and update them with some frequency, paying the fee each time.
Some of the largest casting sites host some half-million actors. StarCast is planning to attract a fraction of that, aiming for about 5,000 submissions a month in its first year. At that pace, with the introductory fee, the company would generate at least $600,000 in annual revenue to start.
Film school marketing
The company is marketing the site in film schools and theater organizations. StarCast has offered free trials to students at four performing arts schools, including the New School in New York and the University of Michigan.
The company also is buying theater- and film-related mailing lists for direct marketing, and is considering buying ads on Facebook.
“Over the next few months we want to gauge the performance and understand how much more money we need to invest for growth,” Beer said. “It’s really going to be based on the cost of reaching those actors.”
StarCast’s fees are modeled similarly to Breakdown Services in West Los Angeles, which was founded in 1971 and is one of the largest casting services for actors. The company developed a website in 2003 that charges actors fees for uploading a reel or posting photos to the site. However, the site is geared to actors with agency representation.
Last year, Breakdown expanded with Eco Cast, a service that allows casting directors to invite individual actors or agents to send in preliminary audition footage online. Still, at some point, no matter what the method of online casting, the search usually leads to a person-to-person audition and an old-fashioned sit-down.
“The whole idea, especially for that first interview, is, ‘Why have 80 to 100 actors come in when 80 percent have to take time off work?’ It saves everybody time to do virtual auditions,” said Breakdown Chief Executive Gary Marsh. “When the actor is asked to come in, they know that they really have a chance of being considered for the job.”
