|
Anyone ever auditioned for a commercial shoot??
|
View this Thread in Original format
| chinaboy1021 |
I auditioned for a commercial today. One of Procter and gamble's products. It was at a casting firm. The panel consisted of 5-6 people. I have no idea who those people are. Are they from the marketing firm, production firm, or the casting firm?
I'm pretty sure they're not from P&G because the guy who called me after told me I have to come in for the final audition which will be in front of "the client", which I assume is P&G.
What I need to know is how the getting-paid part works. Who pays me, is there any room for negotiation? Who are all the middlemen involved? |
|
|
| ChemEnhanced |
| I think you need to get the job before you worry about who pays you. |
|
|
| Inquisitor |
chinaboy1021,
Congrats on the first time audition. Just getting in the room is an amazing feet.
I'm a working actor and can tell you how this breaks down.
Normally, there shouldn't be 5-6 people in the room when you are auditioning. So, I am guessing, it might have been the camera operator, a reader, two casting directors and an assistant or two. Maybe the director was in the room. The client is P&G, which is correct.
Now, if this is a UNION commercial, ACTRA, then you can go to their website and call them for information. But ACTRA has established minimums (this is called SCALE) for what your pay rate will be. As an artist, depending how much power you have (meaning how much Film/TV or Commercial work you've accomplished) you can then negotiate your own rate.
Now if this is a NON-UNION commercial, you should have been told on the breakdown (a one sheet) that explains how much each person will get paid, how long the commercial will run and what regions/nations this commercial will air on. Non-Union commercials can pay much less than union ones.
The best advice that I can give you is, forget about the monies until they offer you the commercial. Once they offer you the commercial, I would call ACTRA (the union) and ask them for a list of agencies that you can go in and have them negotiate the contract on your behalf. Otherwise, you would need to hire a lawyer to understand the verbiage.
Commercials they usually see a couple of hundred actors for one role.
They bring back about twenty or so for the same role at the callback where the client will be present.
Most important thing, have fun.
PS: Agents never take any money up front from an artist, they only take a commission of 15% of the total earnings when a contract is signed and the gig is booked.
Good luck!
D |
|
|
| Espresso |
P&G commissions the work to an ad agency
The ad agency either 1)have an in-house team or 2)contract out the work to production companies or individuals, most of the time though it's the latter (2).
The people who do the audition are the creative director (aka art director) from the ad agency + the people from the production company (casting director if they're big, the director +crew if they're a small company).
You'll get paid by the production company/individual who will provide you the release form, sometimes it could be the ad agency, but usually they don't get involved in that and the casting budget comes off the production company's allocated budget.
There are no negotiations as there are plenty of people who audition to get credit, so it's take it or leave it. |
|
|
| mnemonic. |
| quote: | Originally posted by Inquisitor
|
lol... you know more about this than most account people in advertising!! |
|
|
| chinaboy1021 |
Ahhhhh.....Thanks to both of you guys for the info. Seems a bit over whelming for me.
I understand though: don't worry about the monaaay until I actually get the job.
I just want to know my rights if I have any.
Just to clarify, the 5-6 people in the room does not include the camera man. None of them read anything to me. I received instructions from the camera man in another room before I went into the room with 5-6 ppl. They were all looking at the screen in front of them which had my face on it.
Just went on the company website "casting team" page. People listed: 2 x Casting director (C.D.C), Studio manager, Studio tech, 2 x casting associate.
This is not a big gig, I don't think. The person who told me to come to audition (casting associate saw me in a parking lot waiting for a friend) told me $1000 bucks.
The union and agent mumbojumbo is confusing for me. So what are you guys suggesting based on the situation I have described?
Go to next audition and then come back to report what they are asking me to do/sign? I just want to be prepared in case they realize I don't know jack about the industry and try to save costs on their side or something.
I have no idea if I'm blowing this out of proportion. :rolleyes: |
|
|
| chinaboy1021 |
Also more importantly:
I should prepare some acting skills before the next audition right? Do they hire based on appearance (potential) or actual acting skills. The first audition was for appearance only I think.... |
|
|
| Espresso |
Yep so far you haven't done anything wrong and should be fine, no need to be worried about ACTRA stuff as it doesn't apply to you.
One you get the job, they will ask you to sign a whole bunch of forms releasing your usage rights to production company (on the footage aqquired, promotional/marketing materials they might use your face in it, etc in the future and and disclaimers about liability on the set and all that stuff, I'm assuming this is a not a photoshoot, but a commercial spot)and that's pretty standard, it will be called Talent Release Form or something like that header.
Question: the company you checked their website is the ad agency or the production company?
Congrats on the first audition, hopefully you'll get the job. |
|
|
| Vivid Boy |
| I once auditioned for Rush Hour but they gave my part to jackie chan |
|
|
| chinaboy1021 |
UPDATE:
Well...the casting firm just called me back. They said I'm booked, I got the ing gig.
I asked them "wasn't I scheduled for a second audition later this month?"
Apparently the client and producers were all there on the first audition, either in the room with me or in another room with more screens.
Well It's a UNION JOB too. I just checked this:
http://www.actratoronto.com/downloa...10-11_Rates.pdf
So I'm pretty much being paid by standardized rates set out by ACTRA right? |
|
|
|
|
