My Response

Here's what I wrote to that mean person in the comments section on the other blog, in case you were curious. (Which you probably weren't.)

Hello Readers,

I am Angela, the blogger who authored this post.

The production team (aka the director and the PA) and I were blessed to have a lovely shoot on Monday. The actors who were involved were all kind, professional, and delightful. I felt honored that they were all excited to take part in this little project, and moreover, that they honestly wanted to help make it great. Two of the actors told me that they have also recently made short film projects of their own, and were happy to be able to help with mine. Another one of the actors documented the whole shoot with his camera, and vowed to send everyone photos of the process. We truly could not have asked for a better group of people to work with.

In the end, we literally had hundreds of submissions from actors who wished to be cast. In fact, we’re still getting submissions now, two days after the shoot date. I was shocked and humbled by how many people wanted to work on this short, especially in light of the fact that we could not afford to pay them. And I am grateful to everyone who submitted, for showing interest in this small little film.

I read every submission, looked at every headshot, and examined every résumé. Because as an actor, I hope that when I submit, I will be considered. I wanted to show that respect to every actor who was willing to take a chance on this little project. I chose actors for the short based on whom I thought would be great to work with (gauging from the small amount of communication that I’d received from them) and everything worked out splendidly.

I was surprised by some of the things I saw in submissions, which is why I decided to write this blog post. In the above post, I never claimed to be anything other than I am: a first-time casting director working on a non-paying passion project, looking at submissions for the very first time. I never claimed that I could speak for other casting directors; rather, I used the word “me” in my phrasing, to make it clear that these are my opinions.

I am grateful to the commenters on this post for sharing their own insights, which is exactly what I always hope will happen when I write posts. I shared my opinions on confidentiality disclaimers, and told you what they look like to me, a first-time casting director who has never used them as an actor; I got a great response in the comments showing a different perspective of why an actor might want to use one, which I found to be helpful and educational. Thank you so much for sharing your own thoughts!

At [this blog], the bloggers are not stars who have been working for 50 years and have decades of experience to draw upon. We are all actors who are in various stages of our journeys, and learning all the time. I am finding out things now that I didn’t know when I started writing for [this blog] three years ago, as an MFA student in Florida. I didn’t even know what online submissions were when I lived in Chicago five years ago. I know that there are readers out there who may be further along in their journeys than I am, and who may already know about some of the things that are new discoveries to me. But I also know that there are readers who may benefit from my newfound knowledge.

It is always my hope that my writing is going to help or inspire others. I had hoped that this post would be beneficial to actors who are just beginning to submit online for roles and auditions, as I was this time last year. I chose not to share specific examples of the things I had seen, but rather to give general pointers of what I thought might make submissions more successful. It was never my intention to offend anyone with my writing, and I apologize if anything I wrote was upsetting. The above post, as with all my posts, is comprised of my opinions, based off of my experiences. I am not an expert; I am an actor who hopes to help make the pavement a little smoother for other actors following on the road behind me.

All good things,

Angela