Archive for July, 2010

Jul 21

D-List Celebrities With Their Own TV Shows

So I am currently working on a new reality show in A about a “Celebrity” and how amazing her life is.  Now I put celebrity in quotes because I honestly don’t think that many people care about this woman but nether the less she has a reality show and I do not.

On set this week we had to do interviews.  This is pretty normal for reality shoots because the interview usually helps the story move along kind of like narration in a movie.  Now on a normal reality show set without “celebrities” you can usually tell them when to be ready for interviews and what not.  This was so not the case for our interview day.

My call time was 7 am, which is pretty darn early in my book.    All of the pa’s are to meet at the production office and then drive 15 passenger vans to pick up the crew at the crew parking lot.  As a side note seeing me drive a 15-pass van is just hysterical because lets be honest I can barely see over the steering wheel.   Anyway, since LA traffic is god awful we get to crew parking around 8am which is close to the D-listers house that we are shooting at.  At this same time this said D-lister is supposed to be in her makeup chair getting her face put on.

After picking up the crew myself and other pa’s drive to house and start to unload gear into the interview room.  9am rolls around and we are supposed to begin interviews…

And the waiting game begins..

11 am rolls around and we finally get the D-Lister into the interview room.  Yes you read that correctly.. 11am.  Apparently the D-Lister’s husband refused to wake up at his call time so the entire production had to wait for him.

Seeing as it is an interview day and there is not much to do during them as a pa, I got to sneak a peak at the monitors to see how the interviews were going.  Now I have never before felt bad for an executive producer, but while watching the monitors I wanted to go hug him or give him a very strong drink.  Not only was this D-lister refusing to say certain things because she thought they sounded stupid, she constantly complaied about having to do the interview.  Her ranting and complaining lasted for three hours.

At around 7pm we finally wrapped production, when we were originally supposed to be wrapped at 2pm. And thus are the extreme joys of shooting a reality show about someone who believes that they are above everyone else.

Seriously, does anyone besides my mom watch these shows?

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Posted in Being a Production Assistant, Production

Jul 10

Being A Casting Recruiter

 

I received this email in my inbox today:

Hi Rachel,

I came across your blog and wanted to reach out to you and tap into your knowledge of the casting industry. I have an interview to become a casting recruiter for an MTV show on Wednesday of this week and wanted to ask you how your experience was working as a casting recruiter. Was the work difficult? How was the pay? Better yet, any advice for how to nail the interview?

I’ve always been a fan of reality tv and view working in the casting industry as a dream job, so to speak. I’m currently working for a publishing company but would love to do casting on the side… just not sure where to start. I read in one of your blogs that being a casting associate for MTV was your foot in the door type of job.

Looking forward to hearing back from you… any advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated!

Being a casting recruiter or associate can be wonderfully fun or terribly awful depending on the show you are working on and the company you are working for.   I’ve done casting for four different reality shows and each experience was very very different.  There are a few main things that I think you need to ask before taking a casting recruiter position.

First and most important what show are you working on?

Certain shows are very easy to cast for while others are extraordinarily hard.  Take for example a show like Is She Really Going Out With Him?  For me it was fairly easy to cast for because around where I lived there were tons of douchebag guys going out with hot girls.  However when I had to cast for a show about parents with troublesome children  it was extremely difficult because no parent really wants to admit that they can’t control their own kids let alone show that on national television.

What is the rate?

I know this is an obvious question to ask when taking any job but it especially important with casting because you need to find out if they pay you based on your quota or not.  This means that some companies will either pay you a set amount each day or week like a production assistant or that they will only pay you only if you reach your quota of potential  cast members.  If you think you can reach your quota then by all means take the job.  But, trust me from personal experience it sucks to work a full 12 hour day, not reach your quota, and find out that the company won’t pay you for your efforts.

Is there a daily/weekly quota and if so what is it?

This ties into the question above, however, it is still important to ask.  Before you start casting you need to know how many people you have to turn in on your contact list each day.  Some companies will be great and your quota will be 2-4 people, while others will have unrealistic quotas of 20 people.  Take this all into mind when accepting the position.

As for nailing a casting recruiter interview the best thing to do is to come off as an outgoing person.  The position involves you going out to the public and finding potential cast members for the show, therefore you can’t be shy or scared to talk to people.

Check out some of my older posts to read stories about my casting experiences.

Good luck!

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Posted in Casting, MTV Casting