Aaron Marcus, an actor with 36+ years experience, shares seven ways to get more auditions: get an agent, check state film commission websites, join filmmaker groups on Meetup.com, network through Women in Film & Video, post in local acting Facebook groups, contact ad agencies using the American Association of Advertising Agencies directory, and sign up for casting platforms like Actors Access and Casting Networks. He maintains a list of roughly 1,000 industry contacts and emails them regularly to stay top-of-mind.
Chapters
Hey, are you feeling frustrated and, and maybe even angry about the lack of acting auditions you've been getting? Well, if so, watch this video to the end. I'm going to be sharing with you 7 tips that will help you find auditions. And stick around to the very end. I've got a great bonus video for you that you're going to really like. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Actor and Model Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. And what I love doing here is sharing information from my 36-plus years of experience working as a full-time actor. If, if you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell, and if you like the video, uh, give it a thumbs up. That's really helpful. So the very first thing is— and I'm, by the way, I'm going to list, uh, all the links for you below in this video, and also I'll put it in the show In the show notes just so you can see it. Look, the best way to get auditions is to have an agent, a good agent, who is submitting you for projects. Now, if you don't have an agent, there are lots of different ways of trying to find agents. Certainly you can go online. You just need to make sure it's a legitimate agent. It's an agent that you connect with and one that's right for you. And as a matter of fact, I'm going to leave a link right up here for a really good video about dealing with agents and how to start working with one. Number 2, another way of trying to find out about auditions is going to your state's film commission website. And the link that I have below, it's really, it's a pretty amazing list. It's an international list of film commissions. And what you want to do when you go to the site is see if they have any current projects that they are shooting in your state. Maybe there are projects that are planning on shooting and see if you can get information about how you can submit Tip number 3. There's a really interesting website and it's meetup.com. It's a company and it's all free where you can go to meetup.com and do a search for people who you're interested in connecting with. So maybe you'll find a filmmakers group. Maybe you'll find an independent filmmakers group. Maybe you'll find— A a director's group, maybe a film writing group, maybe other actors. And what you can do is join the group, they get together, and, you know, this is a great way of making strong connections. And this is another great way of finding, finding out about possible projects. And along with that, actually, this would be tip number 4, you You can try going to Women in Film and Video. It's a great organization. They are worldwide. They have lots of offices in the U.S. And what you can do is you can— and you don't have to be a woman. I used to write for them, and I used to be a member years ago, and it was great. They have meetings. They have guest speakers, at least the one that, that I would go to. And this is a really good way to connect with other people. You might find producers, you might find cinematographers, you could find all different kinds of people. And once again, you know, you don't want to just sit and wait for things to come to you, especially if things are slow. So go out there and be proactive. Number 5, check out Facebook groups. You'll find there are lots, lots of acting Facebook groups, and find some that are in your area. Once again, this is a great way to connect with other people. Some of the sites, they list projects that are going on. When I am sharing, uh, these quick tip videos, I actually post them on about 125 Facebook groups all dealing with, uh, acting. So you can definitely find them. It's just a matter of doing a little research. And once again, you can network, make connections on some Facebook groups. Number 6, a great way to try to find out about auditions is to submit yourself to art and creative directors at advertising agencies. Sometimes, not always, sometimes they're the ones who make final decisions as to which actor gets booked for the TV commercial, maybe the radio spot, or if you're doing commercial modeling, you know, a print job. And what you want to do is find some in your area. Once again, I'm listing a link. This is a great association for advertising agencies. Look, you can do local searches and you will find a lot more because there are only a limited amount of people or companies who are members of— it's aaaa.org, American Association of Advertising Agencies. But at least this would be a place to start to see if there are any ad agencies in your area. And once again, you want to send them to the creative directors and the art directors. Just make sure you've got the right materials, you know, your headshot looks great, your resume is in perfect order. If you have a comp card, you know, you can send that in if you're trying to get print work as well. Number 7. So there are some companies, and you might have heard of them, maybe not, but I'll share a little bit of information about them with you, and there are 3 of them I'm going to mention. One is called Actors Access, which you might have heard of. You know, this is a company, and there are a few others that do similar things where you can sign up, you fill out your profile as to where you want to hear about projects taking place. If you only want to hear about things in your area That's fine. If you are willing to travel a bit, you can open it up and maybe say you'd like to hear about projects in 3 or 4 states surrounding you. You can do that as well. Just so you know, for Actors Access, you have 2 choices. You can either get a free account, in which case every time you decide that it's a project that's right for you and you submit, you will pay a nominal fee. I think it's like $2. And then if you do have a reel, which I highly recommend that you do place on Actors Access because that will allow casting directors to take you more seriously, I think you might have to pay $5 every time you submit. Or I think— and once again, and I'm not getting any money from these companies, so you might want to check them out in case some of the numbers have changed. But I do believe it's around $68 a year, and then you can submit as many times as you want and there is no additional fee. You might want to just check out trying it free first, see how many auditions you're submitting to, and if you think you're going to do it and spend a lot less than $68 a year, then keep the free one. And if you think you're going to be spending more than $68, then, you know, become a member. There's also Casting Networks. That's another company. They do similar things. There's also 800 Casting, which is another company you can check out. They are primarily Southeast, but, you know, check them out. And I think they are about, I want to say, $49, $50 a year, something like that. And then you can submit an unlimited amount. I'm not sure how much Casting Networks costs. It might be a monthly fee. It might be an annual fee. I don't know. I use them, but I don't pay for it. Some of the agents that I work with require that you have an account, but if you are going through an agency, you don't have to pay for, for any kind of annual fee for that. I had mentioned that I was going to share with you a link to a really good video that will be helpful to you. You can see it right up here. And It's all about should actors do extra work, and I think you're going to find this really, really helpful. Very last thing I just wanted to mention, look, it's really important, you know, unless you, unless you are super busy and you're working as much as you want or auditioning as much as you want, I just think it's really helpful to be proactive. I've got a a list of, I don't know, probably about 1,000 people. These are directors, producers, casting directors, agents, photographers, people at ad agencies, people who I've worked with, had connections to. And I will— I know them, and I will— or I've worked with them, or I've auditioned with them, and I'll send them information just to have them keep me in mind. Because even when you've worked with people for a while, it's easy for them to forget about you. So my philosophy is I want to make sure that they remember I'm available, I'm around. And anyhow, so periodically I will send information out to them. And it's not a coincidence that not long after I do that, all of a sudden, you know, I start hearing from people. So anyhow, highly recommend that you be proactive. Even if you have an agent, you can always send the booking through the agent, which you should for a whole variety of reasons. But I think it's helpful to really get yourself out there and make connections and not just wait for— to get a text message or an email. If you guys haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe, click the notification button so you always know when I upload a new video. I try to do them every Tuesday. Um, depending on my work schedule, you know, depending on how many jobs, auditions, and just how busy I am. But, uh, if you do click the bell, that way you'll always know. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. That's really very helpful. I'm Aaron Marcus. Oh, oh, and by the way, I just forgot. Um, do me a favor. Uh, if you have any suggestions on ways of getting more auditions, please leave a comment below. I mean, that, that's why I have this channel. It's an opportunity for a group of industry folks to share information, help each other, learn from each other. So please share any kind of information that will be helpful to all of us. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
