[NEohioPAL] Casting agency can of worms I opened....

[Kay Cosgriff]

I agreed and received a very stern lesson which started out, "had I  read...I 
would know." what a hoot!  Hugs to Marc Moritiz.....between you and Alan 
.....everyone showed they are not frozen from the weather.....thank you for 
making this service available Fred.......I enjoyed the afternoon....!  





________________________________
From: Alan Tuskes <spfx1 at sbcglobal.net>
To: neohiopal at lists.neohiopal.org
Sent: Thu, January 3, 2013 11:45:58 PM
Subject: [NEohioPAL] Casting agency can of worms I opened....


I guess I opened a big old can o’ worms when I posted my opinion (and that of 
SAG-AFTRA) about the posting I made about Cleveland Style Casting charging for 
the privilege to audition for a project, It turned into a debate that Fred 
should or shouldn’t screen all such postings, which it shouldn’t have.Sorry, 
Fred. That’s not possible on a free forum such as this. It does allow us to make 
people aware that there are “agencies” that try to pull the wool over people’s 
eyes, and the vigilance of the members who know better can point out that this 
is not right.

From the Cleveland Style casting website, your membership gets you:

Basic Club Membership In addition to allowing you the opportunity to register 
with Cleveland Style Casting, we will also ask if you would like to become a 
member of our exclusive Cleveland Style Casting Club.  Club membership is $54.99 
annually and allows you to take advantage of discounts and services that are not 
available to non-club registrants. Benefits include:

1.  Private audition times for exclusive CSC projects.
2.  Special invitations to CSC Networking events and engagements.
3.  Exclusive pricing on workshops and classes.
 
I can understand the discounts on workshops and classes, although I have never 
seen workshops or classes EVER being offered on their site, outside of 
headshots, which are available through Tina Hobbs’ makeupbar website (and I, 
personally, was not impressed by those, but that’s my opinion) and the only 
networking event, a December 13, 2012 Holiday Mixer, was open to all. So what is 
the advantage of the annual fee? The private audition times for “exclusive CSC 
projects”. Really? In my experience, the casting agent is NOT in the business of 
making casting decisions, production is. The casting agent looks at their 
roster, and forwards info about people who may fill the role to production to 
look at for consideration. If they have people who are particularly strong for 
that role, they may ask them to come in to tape something, but that would be a 
private audition time regardless, which every talent agency does anyway as part 
of their service WITHOUT CHARGING THEIR TALENT!!! Then, if talent is cast from 
someone from their roster, they negotiate with the producer the best rate for 
the talent, and make their percentage off their best negotiation. That’s the way 
it works. I’m guessing that CSC doesn’t know that, and they hope that nobody 
else does, either.

You may want to check out somebody lie The Talent Agency instead. You can submit 
through their website, and they don’t ask for a dime to be considered. If you 
are looing for experience without necessarily being paid, Ray Szuch’s North 
Coast Casting is a great place to check out. He opens his doors to any producer, 
no matter the budget, and does what he does for the love of film. I am not 
affiliated with either of the 2 entities I mentioned, but have worked with both 
before, and never heard complaints about either from anybody.
 
Spoke my piece. Good night.
 
Alan
 

Alan Tuskes
Cell phone 216-701-9192
Special Make-Up and Creature FX /Visual Effects
www.creaturecorps.net
www.kurtzmaninstitute.com
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