Cattle Call

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last wrote!

I attended my first open casting call this past Saturday. It was for a show called Forensic Files on Court TV. It was at Chelsea Studios on W. 26th Street between 6th and 7th Avenue. I'll bet they saw at least 2000 people that day. I was number 327. The call was from 11 -5pm and I got there at 10:45. We waited in line in the freezing cold for hours!

We finally got inside, in the lobby by about 12:50. We then went upstairs in groups of six and went into a rehearsal studio filled with people waiting in chairs. We were called up one by one to have our pictures taken and were put into groups of three. We were given scenes to work on. The sheet just gave a brief synopsis and three lines. The idea was for each of us to take on a character and after the three lines, improvise the scene. I was with an older woman named Sarah and a sweet girl about my age named Tina.

Here is the scene summary: Two roommates are involved in illegal activity. The third roommate finds out and threatens to go to the police. The two roommates tie her up and eventually kill her. The third roommate's family reports her as missing. In this scene, a detective interrogates the girls as to the third roomamtes whereabouts.

My line as roommate number two was, "Uh...I don't know, a couple of days? What is this all about anyway?"

Shortly after getting the "script" and coming up with a few ideas for the improv we got called into the room for the audition. It was another rehearsal studio but with long tables. There were about 6 women sitting behind them facing us. They said, "whenever you're ready." We got about thirty seconds into the improvisation and they yelled, "cut!" We were handed slips on our way out that said they'd let us know in the upcoming weeks, months if they needed us for any principle, background, or extra work.

All in all I think it went well and I'm glad that I did it. It  would be nice if I got something but, we'll just have to wait and see. The show films in Allentown, PA but they pay for transportation and the pay for a shooting day is $400-$500. They also pay for a hotel if the shoot carries over into the next day.

 

Fingers crossed!