Tagged: Douchebags

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

Mar 05

Is She Really Going Out With Him? Watch Episodes Now!

“Is She Really Going Out With Him?”  the show I spent casting for most of this Fall is finally airing on MTV!  It airs every week night at 6/5c.   Check out the link below to see the season 2 trailer:

Is She Really Going Out With Him Season 2 Trailer

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Posted in Uncategorized

Sep 16

Casting for MTV

Going out to bars and clubs every single night.  Partying it up with tons of different people.  Walking right past the lines and the bouncers because they already know who you are.  Free drinks and no covers.  This doesn’t sound like a job does it?  Well you guessed wrong.  This is my job.  I get to go out every night and find the biggest douchebags around to be on tv.  I basically get paid to party.  What is my job?  I am a casting associate for MTV and I am currently casting their hit tv show “Is She Really Going Out With Him?”

Now I bet you think that this is a pretty sick job, which it really is, but there is a lot of pressure involved.  First,  I cannot go out and actually party.  I am not out getting drunk every single night because well this is my job, and to get drunk while you are working in my opinion is kinda frowned upon.  Second, I have to have find couples that would be perfect for the show.   I am expected to get between 8 and 10 awesome couples a week.  Third, there is a huge turn around for this job.  If you aren’t pulling your weight and bringing in enough couples you will be let go and the next eager casting associate will gladly take your place.

So now you are probably asking yourself what the show is all about.  Well MTV’s website says it the best:

“Inspired by the popular website Hot Chicks with Douchebags, Is She Really Going Out With Him? is a hilarious and compelling docu-format show that aims to tear down the mystery behind pop culture’s latest unexplainable phenomenon: beautiful and innocent young sweethearts who fall for self-absorbed, overly-tanned, tattoo covered douchebags.

In each episode of Is She Really Going Out With Him? we’ll closely examine one couple as our hot chick eventually leads herself towards making a fateful decision… Will she stay with her douchebag bf or move on to a better man? ”

Next question.. is this show real or fake?  Can these guys really be that big of tools?  The answer my friends is yes..yes they really can be.  Every couple that has been on the show is a legitimate couple that a casting associate like me found out and about one night.

Next big question.. how in the world do I convince these guys to be on the show?  Well there are a couple of ways to get guys excited about it.  First and foremost  you have to find the right type of guy.  If the guy isn’t really a douchebag that doesn’t care what other people think of him then he isn’t going to want to do the show.  If the guy is a cocky asshole who thinks he is the shit, well then he would love to have his ego stroked about how awesome he is.  The trick is you have to flip the show on the guys, and the more ego-stroking the better.   The girls are the easy ones because you just tell them how they can basically make fun of their douchey boyfriends on national television and most of them are totally into it.

So what’s the point of all of this?  Well with my job comes hilarious stories of the people that I find and talk to about the show, and I figured the best way to promote the show and the casting was to blog about it.

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Posted in MTV Casting