LA Casting

LA Casting sends out individual emails, it’s a good and a bad thing. Good in that you can delete projects that you don’t care about, but bad because you can end up getting a ton of email to sift though. As far as I can tell there’s no way to select which kind of projects you’d like to receive not receive, i.e. theater, student, print, etc. To get to what LA Casting calls their “Direct Cast”, click on your profile, then click Direct Cast Prefs. In there you’ll see “Send Email Notices for following types of projects:”. It should be at the very top of the preferences. Select the emails you’d like to receive. Select your “union” status, your age range preferences, extra’s preferences, and direct contact. After getting everything setup, hit “Save & Return to Main Menu.”

Actors Access

Actors Access sends out periodic emails with a list of all the breakdowns that meet your “About Me” under your profile. Again, pluses are that it’s a single email, it’s broken down into the different breakdowns, and the coloring of the email also helps you scan the email pretty quickly for submissions. Honestly, right now, I can’t think of a downside to these emails. I’m not a fan of digest emails, but in this case, I can live with it. Setup is simple. Log in to Actors Access. Hover over my tools and select my account from the list. On the bottom of this page there’s a check box to turn CMail notification on / off; select it, and hit save. That’s it.

Now Casting

Now Casting does a very similar email like Actors Access. It’s easy to skim and search for submissions you want to target. What I find hard is once you get to the submission page it’s hard to see the part you’re looking for. Same pluses as actors access, but I think that Now Casting comes less in a day than Actors Access Email. Setting up: Log in to Now Casting. Hover over “My Account”, and click “Edit My Email Lists”. Look for “Now Casting Notices Alerts”. Click the subscribe button next to the email address you want to use.

And of course, if I missed anything send me an email or post a comment. Hope this helps make your acting lives easier.

I really find that having a good rounded experience in your field helps you understand how all the pieces work. In the entertainment industry there’s three major sections, and within them multiple roles:pre-production, production, post-production. One of the jobs in post-production is that of the editor. They are responsible for taking what the director has filmed and turning it into the final product that you see on screen. There are a lot of tools that editors use, and one that is used for special effects is Adobe After Effects. Below are some of the sites that I have found with some really great tutorials from beginner to semi-expert level.

Update: New tutorial pages added on March 10th, 2009

• Layers Magazine
• Adobe TV
• Creative Cow
• Video Copilot
• Adobe AfterEffects
• MaxAfter
• Maltaannon.com
• Gray Machine”
• Forging Fire Productions
• AE Tuts

And, as always, if you guys know of any more great websites to get tutorials from, post them in the comments, and I’ll update the post as they come in.