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Introduction

On June 11, 2017, there was a casting call for the second season of Jolie East-Miji’s webseries “B-City”. The purpose was to audition actors that were not part of the first season.

A casting call is one element of pre-production. According to Production for TV and New Media, there are two major ways to cast talent. One is the Casting Director/Agencies method. A producer contacts a casting director about the producer’s project. The casting director reaches out to talent agencies, places ads, and/or posts notices for a casting call. “Guerilla Casting” is another method, which bypasses the formality of the casting director and talent agent. This is typical of low-budget projects. The producer does the work of publicizing the casting call.

My View of the Casting Call

For the B-City casting call, there were postings about the casting call on social media and in publications such as Backstage.

I was present at the meeting to observe and learn (NOT auditioning ), as I had never been to a casting call. I was part of the first season and will be continuing into the second season.

Casting Panel:

• Jolie East-Miji
• Maygin Saunders
• Michael “Hoochiemann” Dandridge (Casting Director)
• Morgen Whiteman
• Jae Mitch
• Scola

The casting panel sat at a table. A static video camera was mounted on the table. Actor was directed to stand at a position in front of the camera.

The casting panel asked some or all of these questions to the actor:

• How did you hear about B-City?
  • Some of the responses I heard were Dragonuk, Backstage, word of mouth, found out from someone already on B-City.
• Do you have a monolog?
  • A monolog was optional. The actor performed the monolog, which was recorded.
• For which character are you auditioning?
  • Some actors were trying out for more than one role.
• The read was recorded:
  • Actor introduces himself or herself and states the character.
  • Actor reads from script or recites from memory – a few did it from memory. Off camera, one or more panel members recites the lines of interacting characters.
• How do you feel about the character and plot line?
• Jolie discusses the shooting schedule.
• Do you have any questions?

Actor leaves resume, photo, and contact information.

Most auditions were pre-scheduled, but there was one walk-on that I observed.

There were also video submissions.

A callback will be held at a later date for those who performed well.

Conclusion

Finding the right actor to fill a role will being one’s script to life. It takes a lot of time but the results will be worth the effort. I learned a lot from attending this session. I will continue to document the second season of “B-City”.

For more information on casting calls, see Additional Information.

Do you have any questions about casting calls? Please provide your thoughts and questions in the comments. I would really enjoy hearing from you. If you have a topic in mind you would like me to cover, please let me know.

Additional Information

Reference:  Cathrine Kellison, Dustin Morrow, Kacey Morrow, Producing for TV and New Media, 3^rd Edition, 2013, Focal Press

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Originally published June 13, 2017.  Updated June 15, 2017 to correct some spelling errors and October 15, 2020 to adjust category assignments.

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