Whenever you’re auditioning for industrial work (or any work for that matter), nothing
will burn your repute and profession sooner than being dangerous along with your dates and your availability. If you understand that you simply’re not accessible for the shoot dates of a mission, don’t audition. Full Cease.
Auditioning for a mission you aren’t accessible to shoot solely creates complications in your allies -namely, the casting director and your agent. And also you undoubtedly don’t need both of these events upset with you.
Now right here’s the place it will get extra sophisticated: typically you’ll get a breakdown out of your agent, and the shoot dates are listed as at some point throughout a five-day span. More often than not this occurs when a manufacturing firm has been employed to shoot a number of spots
for a shopper, and, on the time of the auditions, the capturing schedule continues to be in flux. Let’s say you’re accessible for under two of these 5 attainable capturing days. Do you have to audition? Reply: Sure, however clearly listing your conflicts along with your agent and the casting director. After which, in case you’re lucky sufficient to get a callback, remind the casting
director yet another time of your conflicts and availability. Sometimes, a desired casting alternative can swing a shoot schedule that’s nonetheless taking form to accommodate an actor’s availability.
In case you are an actor who’s auditioning for on-camera work and in addition does a whole lot of theatre, pay particular consideration to your contract with the theatre — particularly if it’s a non-union one. In case you are working with an Fairness theatre or a smaller non-union firm, you need to ensure you have 1) an understudy and a couple of) a clause in your contract that lets you step away from the present for a couple of days to take higher-paying work. In Fairness contracts, that is known as an MRE (Extra Remunerative Employment) clause. If there isn’t a MRE, you’re completely inside your rights ot request one. Right here’s a nice article by Chicago Casting Director Catherine Miller (no relation) about MREs.
Most theatres perceive the significance of an MRE for his or her performers’ livelihoods, BUT theatres will need to maintain blackout dates in your contract, often round tech rehearsals and opening weekend, the place you’ll. not be permitted to overlook rehearsal of reveals for an additional gig. Whereas a nationwide industrial will probably pay you greater than the whole run of a play, breaking a theatrical settlement to take a industrial gig throughout a blackout interval could be a fast approach to make sure you’ll by no means work at that theatre once more. Avoiding these conditions earlier than they occur is primarily your accountability as an expert actor, not your agent’s.
If you end up unavailable, a easy and immediate “thanks a lot for the curiosity, however I’m not accessible in your shoot dates” is an applicable and appreciated response–and pay particular consideration to the immediate a part of that recommendation. For an in-person audition, actors typically keep on the casting director’s schedule till a affirmation or cancellation is obtained out of your agent. So, in case you delay in telling your agent that you’re not accessible for the mission, the CD might need to scramble to discover a substitute in your time slot after they get that information. And that substitute actor could have additionally misplaced out on invaluable prep time in consequence. And that’s simply dangerous karma.
The factor you by no means need to do as an actor is audition for a mission “simply to be seen.” If a shopper falls in love along with your efficiency however can not rent you for his or her given shoot date, that’s a catastrophe, and no one wins.
–Matt Miller is a industrial director and occasional teacher at ASC.