Episode 58 Actors Access
Welcome to the Vermillion podcast, a free audio library of business strategies,
creative inspiration and industry knowledge for actors, filmmakers, writers and anyone
looking to activate their creative potential. I'm Misha Calvair, a writer -director who
helps artists build the careers that they dream of. I really hope that this podcast
inspires you in some way. Thanks for tuning in.
Actors access versus backstage versus casting networks. The amount of options that you
have as an actor on self -submitting can be pretty overwhelming.
So today I'm going to talk you through these three different platforms and help you
to understand which one might be right for you because they all do different things.
So I want you to understand them so that you can use them as tools. And also,
I want to de -stigmatize self -submitting so that you know where it fits into your
total strategy because most people should be self -submitting even if you have an
agent or manager. I'm going to explain why. The first thing that I want to cover
is the stigma around self -submitting. A lot of people that I know hate self
-submitting.
interested in self -submitting and kind of getting his work out there. So question is
why? Because it feels to him kind of demeaning.
And I just want to stop everyone right there. Self -submitting is not demeaning.
Self -submitting is marketing. You could self -submit without even wanting the role
because you just want to get your name out there. It's the equivalent of saying,
hi, hello, I exist and showing them your picture. It's basically like handing out
business cards. Is it tedious? Yeah, but we have a plan for that. I just want you
to be introducing yourself and handing out business cards via self submissions to
casting directors, directors, and producers, and I want you to do it five days a
week. Take the emotion out of it. Take the ego out of it as well. Like stop
thinking of it as either the only way that you're gonna get work or something that
only desperate actors do who can't get work. It's neither. Think of it instead like
brushing your teeth. Most of us brush our teeth every day. Then this is gonna be
the equivalent of brushing your teeth. Are you emotional about brushing your teeth?
No. You're not like, "Oh, I'm so angry I have to brush my teeth right now," or
"Oh God, I really, really hope that I don't get cavities after this brushing
tonight. Man, I just, I really need this to work out for me." Imagine if you were
loading your brushing with all of that emotion, right? It would be insane. I want
you to think of self submitting the same way that you think about something as
brainless as brushing your teeth. That's what it should be. So just think of it as
something that's completely lacking in emotion. Think of it as lacking in a desire
for a result as well. It's just marketing and sometimes it'll lead to an audition
and sometimes it'll lead to a booking but that's not why we do it. We do it to
get the word out there. Think of it as handing out business cards. As a result,
the faster and more effective you can get at it, the better. If you're brushing
your teeth, you don't want it to take more than, let's say, three minutes maximum,
right? But you do want to do a good job because if you do it and you do like a
bad job at it, then you're going to get cavities. So you want to make sure that
you're submitting effectively, but that it's not taking up a ton of time. So that's
why I say five days a week Monday through Friday once a day The other reason in
the macro to self -submit is that right now as of the time of recording. It's 2025
middle of the summer and I don't know the numbers on New York But LA if you're
like, oh, it's so quiet. There's nothing there's nothing filming or you know, I'm
not getting auditions. It's not you Union jobs are down to 27 % of where they were
two years ago, in terms of union jobs on film and TV sets. So that's an over two
-third reduction in the amount of union hires that are happening.
We presume that this number will go up and that we're here at this moment in time
due to a confluence of factors that have led to this contraction in production
filming in the U .S. However, we are here. It doesn't matter why we're here.
We're here. And you can't afford to stay the same.
If things are two -thirds quieter, you have to be two -thirds louder. You cannot
exert the same amount of effort with marketing outreach and auditions and expect the
same result that you got two years ago. If you don't change your efforts and your
output, you're probably going to just by staying the same, you're going to get two
-thirds less auditions, maybe even less than that because everyone else is going to
be upping their efforts to get seen in order to make up for that gap.
So you're not on an even playing field anymore. You have other people who are
outperforming you. And that is why it can go from not a 2 /3 reduction, but a 90 %
reduction in the auditions that are coming in for you. So I just think whether
you're repped or not, whether you're doing indie films, no matter where you are, you
can't afford to not be self -submitting at this time. Take the ego out of it.
It's just a way to get your name out and to show people that you exist and to
also have a chance to show them your work. Anyway, let's talk about the different
platforms for self -submitting. The first and most important is Actors Access.
Yes, Director's Access is industry standard for self -submitting, and here's why. It
is linked to breakdowns. If you don't know what breakdowns are, those are the
announcements of things that are casting that go out to agents and managers from
casting directors, the roles that are currently out casting, and the agents and
managers see the breakdown every day, and they pick projects to submit their roster
to that are casting. And then the casting director gets to decide who of the
submissions they're actually going to schedule to either have a live audition or to
send in a tape. Actors access and Breakdown Express, which is the breakdowns that I
just described. Those are all run by Breakdown Services. So think of Breakdown
Services as the umbrella, and then underneath that you have Breakdown Express, and
then also Actors Access. And Actors Access is the publicly accessible version of
certain breakdowns. Most of what goes out on the breakdowns to agents managers is
not going to be available on Actors Access. Why? Actors Access is for the public.
It's for public consumption. Anyone can sign up as long as you pay the fee, right?
So it's very like open to the masses, open to anybody, whether they have acting
training or not. Agents and managers don't want 20 ,000 people submitting for these
larger projects. They don't want to have to sift through 20 ,000 untrained actors.
You can just imagine how insane that would be. They don't have the resources to go
through 20 ,000 submissions for every role. Obviously, they want a more curated pool
of actors who have more credits, who have more training, who are further along in
their career, and that's why they will submit for the larger film and TV projects
on breakdowns. That breakdown is not going out to the public, it's only going out
to the agents and the managers. So who posts on actors access independent filmmakers?
Students who are in film school some of whom are doing great work Niche roles that
they are having trouble casting from breakdown. So let's say okay. It's white lotus
season 4 but it's for circus performer who is under five feet tall who can still
walk and juggle. And they have to be Latino because it's set in Brazil this time.
And that would be a hyper niche role that they're gonna have trouble if they just
put that on breakdowns like how many agents and managers are gonna have that
specific a role. So that's where Actors Access comes in handy and you'll find a lot
of like special skills or special language or dialects and you can still find Bigger
TV and films putting stuff out on actors access is usually just more niche so My
recommendation for how to use actors access effectively is to get the yearly
subscription Do not submit piecemeal on actors access Why because the amount of
submissions you're gonna have to do in order to get any sort of traction on your
efforts is large. You're gonna have to cover a lot of ground so quantity is gonna
be really important and you don't want to be paying I don't even know how much it
is per submission but it's just cost -benefit analysis like do not do it. You want
to do the unlimited I don't know it's like a hundred something a year it's really
not bad and it will be well worth it if you're able to submit for five minutes a
day five days a week.
You need to make sure that you have on your profile on Actors Access a video clip
Try and have something that's not Just a self -tape if you only have a self -tape.
That's fine. I Don't love the pay to create a real kind of a thing like the pay
clips They don't look like they were taken from a real project. So You can also
shoot a high quality clip yourself for like next to nothing and have someone edit
it for very, very cheap. You just have to put a little bit of effort into creating
a clip and you can get something actually quite professional looking. So you want a
clip of some kind or you're real. If you have absolutely nothing else, a self -tape
I guess, you want a headshot, you want your resume, and you want a slate shot
attached to every photo. Why? If you don't have those four things,
you're gonna be bottom listed, meaning your name is at the bottom. And if you only
have one thing, your name is at the very bottom. If you only have two things, it's
a little bit above that. If you only have three things, it's a little bit above
that. So if you have all four, you're at the very top. And yes, some casting
directors will sort all submissions by whatever criteria they're sifting through. But
automatically, it's sorted by order of, do you have these four boxes checked?
Headshot, resume, reel, or clip, and slate shot. So just have them. Just get them,
have them, have something up there. And regarding the slate shot, don't overthink it.
It's not that deep. Get in front of a wall, any wall, could be something like
this. Literally, it could be a blank white wall. And say, hi, my name is Misha
Calvair. Great to meet you, or thanks so much. Have a great day,
right? It can be two sentences, it could be one sentence, it could just be your
name. Don't overthink it because very likely no one's ever going to watch it. It's
just for the algorithm, to make sure that you're at the top of the search results
when you submit. Why aren't they going to watch it? Because you're already going to
have to tape another slate shot for every audition. They're going to watch your
slate shot for the audition, and you want to make sure that those follow the
instructions, whatever they ask for. Don't overthink the actor's access slate shot
because probably no one's going to see it or care, but do make one. And then
finally, don't overthink the notes section attached to each submission. You don't have
to put a note every time, but if they're asking for that circus -performing Brazilian
stout walker, you could say in the notes, "By the way, I'm Brazilian." And I was
in the circus. And that would be helpful because authenticity is really important
these days for casting. And If you have real world experience, that's a noteworthy
note to leave. The main thing that is necessary is that you got to do this five
days a week, once a day. Five minutes. That's all I'm asking.
You're going to thank me when you start to get a ton of auditions because my
people have a million and they're working. they are working, they're getting
auditions, they're getting a lot of auditions, and I want the same for you. If you
want to get accountability on getting those auditions and booking them,
talk to me about joining as a Vermillion member. We would love to have you. You
get me live. I'm talking about your specific career, your specific issues.
We figure out solutions together, we strategize together, and everyone is so great.
They're so talented. I love the people who are members of Vermillion, like literally
and truly love them.
Let's talk about backstage. Backstage is also a great place to self -submit.
It covers a little bit of different ground because, as mentioned, Actors Access is
linked to breakdowns. and Breakdown is going to be doing a lot of major TV shows
and film because Breakdown Services is where those things go out. It's the only
place where those things go out. So Backstage, on the other hand, is wonderful for
indie film, for high -level student films, for web series, for verticals.
And my clients are sometimes booking more from backstage than they are on Actors
Access, depending on where they're at in their career. For me,
Actors Access is priority just because of the level of projects that it can
encompass. But if you want to increase your exposure and the amount that you're
auditioning and booking, I would do both. It's not that deep. Don't think about it.
You just need five minutes a day on each ten minutes a day on both profiles Total
self -submitting. That's it And to do this you're gonna want to go to backstage
create a profile that mirrors Your actors access profile so whatever strengths you're
leading with whether it's film or TV Have the same profile crossover to backstage Do
the same strategy five once a day, Monday through Friday, once a day. And if you
see a posting on both, just submit on one of the platforms. You don't have to
submit on both platforms. That's it. Do both. If you have to pick,
I say do Actors Access, but both is even better. And I do wanna caution you to be
aware of scams. I think it's harder to get scams through on Actors Access. I really
don't see that many of them because it is linked to the larger industry through
breakdowns. I hear about and see more scams on backstage, so I just want to take a
sec to say they are definitely out there. However, there's a difference between a
poorly worded or an overly legal audition notice and a scam.
Some of them just aren't written very well, but But, doesn't mean that they're a
scam. So when in doubt, ask your actor friends. It's so simple, like, no need to
be really wigged out about it, just screenshot, show it to a few actor friends,
say, "Hey, what do you think of this? Hey, does this look like a scam?" Or you
can email backstage and you can say, "Hey, can you verify if this is legitimate or
not?" Here's some common things that I've heard or seen. You should never pay money
for an audition. That's not how it works. You're trying to get paid. You should
never travel for the first round of an audition. That's what self -tapes are for.
And I've seen a client got targeted with that where he had to pay the "travel
agent" back for the flight out to LA for some major movie, and it was fake.
And then finally, don't ever meet with an agent or manager that approaches you from
backstage, that's an unserious inquiry. Ages and managers will approach you directly
via email if somehow they get your information. So I wouldn't trust any rep that
comes to you through backstage.
Okay, let's talk about casting networks. The ugly step stepchild of the three.
But you really are just for commercials. That's why you're here. You're just the
annoying little sister screaming for attention, wanting to just do the commercial and
then not do anything narrative, not do anything serious. And we're not expecting
anything serious out of you. We know, we know that you're just here to mess around
and do commercials and that's it. That's fine. So, if you want to do commercials,
be on casting networks, maintain a profile, but gear all of your materials towards
commercial acting. So that means including your on -camera experience, making sure you
have your commercial shots up there, you know, usually light, bright, show tees, etc.
But don't expect anything else out of good old CN. Now,
if you have a commercial rep, great. Let them handle all of your submissions on
casting networks. I don't think that you should be putting an effort on casting
networks. I've also find it just very overwhelming and draining whenever I go on
there. So you want to do commercials, figure out how to get a commercial rep and
then let the rep handle it. Let them do your submissions on CN.
So this is kind of an exception to my rule about self -submitting because castings
for commercials happen at a much faster pace than narrative auditions.
Commercial agents and casting directors, they're built different.
I mean, I don't know how they do it, mad respect, they're just, their brains are
different because To be able to keep all of those names in their heads and all of
those different commercials in their heads, because it's a shorter casting time and a
shorter shoot time and a shorter turnaround time. There's also way more commercials
than there are anything else, obviously. This is why I say for commercials,
maybe let your rep handle it and you focus on AA and BS. Okay,
I hope this was helpful. I get a lot of questions about self -submitting and I get
a lot of questions about these platforms. So I just wanted to kind of clear it up.
Tell me if you end up increasing your auditions after this. Tell me if you end up
booking from one of these platforms as a result of these tips. I really want to
know and I really hope that it works for you. Thank you so much and I will see
you next week. The Vermillion podcast is sponsored by Vermillion, a home for artists.
We offer classes coaching and community for creatives and
