The owners of the world’s major Casting Directories and Online Casting Submissions Systems met in London last month to co-ordinate their efforts to facilitate the needs of casting directors and performers around the world.
The International Alliance of Casting Directories (IACD), whose members include Spotlight in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Showcast in Australia and New Zealand, and Breakdown Services in North America, spent several days developing and coordinating their efforts to simplify the process for casting directors to reach around the globe in order to solicit casting submissions, search for actors and hold Virtual Auditions.
The combined database of performers represented in the online casting directories of the three companies represents an unparalleled store of information. All three regions draw enormous benefits from sharing this information. Casting Directors are able quickly to locate high calibre, professional actors from overseas, as well as locally – and performers who are members of Spotlight, Breakdown Services or Showcast know that they are being showcased internationally as well as on their home turf.
Danelle D’Costa, owner of Showcast, felt that the alliance was especially helpful to showcase Australian talent to the world’s entertainment industry. “Given that we are, to some degree, isolated by our location, the ability for casting directors in Australia to audition talent and make those auditions available for consideration on projects coming out of the USA or Europe, will be a huge benefit for our actors here in Australia.”
Showcast, Spotlight and Breakdown Services have been working together for years to share and distribute casting notices in their respective territories when requested by casting directors. All three partners have now upgraded their respective websites to offer production teams the option to send their casting breakdowns directly to these other regions, as well as their local territory, at the click of a button. So, for example, a UK casting director can now use Spotlight to find performers from the US, Canada, Australia or New Zealand and - vice versa - Spotlight performers can easily be found for work by those casting in these same regions.
The Virtual Auditions system, developed by IACD, is another step in the direction of “borderless casting”. Gary Marsh, President of Breakdown Services, commented on Virtual Auditions, “With today’s technology, a casting director anywhere in the world can upload auditions - and the director, producer, studio or advertising agency can be watching those auditions within minutes.”
Ben Seale, Spotlight, agreed and added, “Given the cost of flying actors to meet with the decision-makers in the entertainment industry, not to mention the time involved, this service moves the casting process forward by leaps and bounds.” Spotlight already has a number of casting studios on site in its West End offices, which casting directors use daily to conduct their sessions.
The members of the IACD agree that these conferences have far-reaching benefits and they plan to continue to meet together on a regular basis with the goal of helping to bring the world community of casting directors, agents and actors closer together.
