5 Reasons Why Your Project Wasn’t Posted

If you recently submitted your project to Casting Networks and you haven’t seen an email telling you it’s been approved, check to see if there’s one telling you the opposite (it will explain why). Projects don’t always get approved on the first try, and that can be for a number of reasons.

Here are the five most common explanations for why projects are rejected and how to make sure they appear on the Casting Billboard every time.

There was no compensation provided for paid gigs.

If your project will be paying talent, be sure to include your rate. Sometimes project creators will list the rate as “TBD” if they plan to pay but are undecided on the amount, but these will be rejected by Casting Networks’ support team. To maximize submissions for your project, a rate of $125 per day is standard, but how much the job pays is ultimately up to you. Just make sure that the amount you agree to pay is within your budget.

The project synopsis was too vague.

A detailed synopsis is key to informing your audience about your project as well as piquing their interest to submit for it. Without a synopsis, our support team, and sometimes your performers, may not understand what the project is and you’ll need to add more information to help us out.

For example, if you’re doing a commercial for a restaurant, provide details about the commercial, such as “This is a family sitting down for a meal at a restaurant laughing, having a good time creating memories and enjoying the food.” The synopsis shouldn’t be “This is a commercial for a restaurant.” Remember, it’s not about what the project is, but what’s going on within it.

Your role(s) were not clearly defined.

Make sure your characters have names and specific characteristics. The details should be about the role itself and not the type of actor you want to cast. For example, rather than a role for “Mom” with a description that says you’re “looking for a cool lady,” tell everyone that “Tara is very laid back, but confident in her work as a lawyer and her abilities as a mother of her two young children, Samantha and Bryan.” Your project won’t get the green light if the roles are unclear.

The Project is not really a performance opportunity.

A performance opportunity is a project that actors can use to either increase their credits for their resume or IMDb profile, find work for their reel, or nab a great role working as an actor or a model. Any projects where the role is a hostess or server at an event, a sales position or for anything else where acting is not required are not performance opportunities. Any jobs that are crew-related should be posted on Staff Me Up for best results as they are not allowed on Casting Networks.

When submitting your project, please make sure it is something that not only needs actors or performers but is also something they can use for self-development. For example, if you’re hosting an event and need to fill the space, a “brand ambassador” role for a project where you “need actors to walk around a live event” will not be approved as these are not credits that actors can use.

You added your contact information to your project.

If there is something you wanted to add to your role or project such as additional sides, you can link to a Google doc that provides more information for your performers. Keep in mind that in order to do this, you must have already received responses to your project from actors. When submitting your project, please do not post your contact information or direct performers to a third party site in your project or it will not be approved.

At the end of the day, your project will be approved based on the quality of the details and transparency you’ve provided. As a rule of thumb, be as detailed as possible and you’ll be on the right track to getting your projects posted to the Casting Billboard.

Here’s a quick recap of what you need to do to get your project approved:

• Provide specific rates for paid work.
• Include a detailed project synopsis as well as clear role descriptions.
• Make sure your project is a true performance opportunity for actors.
• Keep your project free of contact information
• Refrain from directing performers to a third party site.

If you’ve done all these things and your project still has not been posted to the Casting Billboard, please check your email or reach out to support@castingnetworks.com and someone from our support team will be sure to steer you in the right direction.

Now it’s time to give it a try! Log in or sign up to Casting Networks to start following these tips and create a project today!

Learn more:
PROJECT CREATORS: What do the statuses mean for each of my projects?
CASTING DIRECTORS: How will I see the responses from talent?
Five Ways to Get More Submissions for Your Project