Just back from a real job interview in Orange County where I found a sterile environment of strip malls and office buildings, bugs, bees, and toll roads.
During my drive a ton of casting opportunities surfaced on my smartphone. New recruiters called regarding new jobs in the Bay Area, too. I fielded them all, returned calls, even did applications via telephone. Felt good about not missing a beat.
I also quickly responded to a few casting calls, including one for a business video. A remarkably low-budget buyout for a major brand. In my quick response to the audition call I missed a very important fact: the casting director wanted the actors to submit videotaped auditions. From these auditions she would then decide whom to call in for a live audition.
I got called for the audition today. Now that I'm home at my desktop, recovering from the round trip, with salve on my painful bug bites, I read the details and realized that there was no way I could develop this videotaped audition in the time required (ASAP). It would mean either borrowing a camera or doing another trade with a videographer, or.... Now, my readers know I have done this before, for what seemed like big deals and great opportunities at the time: a commercial for a giant computer company where I was to be a woman walking a dog and reacting to its deposits on someone's lawn, which I drove down to Silicon Valley to shoot, and then that Agnes Varda movie that seemed so promising, as they needed a French speaker, and so, while driving home from the play rehearsals in Long Beach, I memorized the script, did a trade with a French actor to work with me, and made a pretty good scene of it, shot in front of my house, in a car. I totally put myself out for these two auditions, hired a director, did my hair, make-up, and wardrobe, and ended up with professional-quality clips, to no avail.
So, this morning the timing and opportunity and my level of ambition for a low-budget buyout just did not match the current offer. I wrote back to the casting director in the form provided and declined the audition, apologizing because I just can't get the thing taped this time.
Well, my dears: she called me back a little while ago, asked why I declined. I apologized for having read the original casting call too quickly while on the road, etc., and she proceeded to ball me out for not adhering to the rules. She explained that this was bad for many reasons, including that I had displaced other actors in the audition list, etc. I could tell I was not the first one to disappoint her.
You know what? She's right. Absolutely. Mea culpa. From now on I will not apply for any gig without reading the fine print, and slowly, and thinking long and hard about what is required.
I should also come up with some basic and logical parameters for myself, rather than winging it: is it a major feature film? OK, I'll go all out. Is it a buyout for a company that would own my likeness in perpetuity, all for several hundred dollars? Probably not.
I have an audition just down the street today. I am preparing now for the role of a mother from New Jersey.
No comments:
Post a Comment