What Happens After I Hold an Audition for My Project?

After posting the roles for your project with Casting Networks, you’ve reviewed your actors’ self tapes and held your auditions with the performers you’ve selected to try out for your various roles.

As a project creator just getting your feet wet in the casting process, you know there’s more to come, but you may not be sure what you need to do next. There are a few steps you should take before casting your performers that will guide some of those decisions. Here’s a quick snapshot of what comes after the audition to help bring your project to life.

The callback

Callbacks happen after you’ve either seen the actors audition or viewed all the auditions if actors submitted self tapes. Those that stand out remain in contention for the role. The others simply do not make the cut. A callback then occurs for the lucky performers that have made it past that first round audition. During a callback, the remaining actors are called back for a second audition. There may be one or more callbacks in the casting process, each one with the goal of thinning out the list of actors to eventually fill the role.

One-on-ones

When it comes to the final contenders, you might want to meet the actors you’re thinking of choosing for the role – and possibly give them a one-on-one audition where they’ll really need to bring their best performance. Remember, you not only want to know if the actors are good, you also want to know if they’re easy to work with. You may be casting a drama, but that doesn’t mean there’s any room for it behind the scenes.

Checking avails

After the audition, you’ll also want to be checking avails. In a nutshell, avails is checking the availability of your chosen cast to make sure that they can actually work on the days you’re looking to film your project.

This process typically happens after the audition when considering the look for a show for a future date and time.

Checking avails can also help whittle down which actor you eventually book for the role, and sometimes completely change the casting decision of the production if a booked actor has something come up unexpectedly. Simply put, if your actor can’t work that day due to a scheduling conflict, you might have to award the role to someone else – or worse, restart the casting process entirely if multiple actors can’t commit to your dates.

Keep in mind that when first booking, casting directors may not know call times until they have enough information from production. Those times can change frequently, so you need to make sure an actor is available for the entire day you are looking to book them. Sometimes actors will be on “first avail,” meaning that they have confirmed availability but are not booked. In that event, the actor can still look for other work.

Once your actor has confirmed their availability, you can go ahead and book them for your project.

What’s next?

Now that you’ve got your actors lined up for your project by going through the audition process, holding a few rounds of callbacks and getting avails, it’s time to hammer out any last-minute details with locations or any other logistics before you get the ball rolling. After that’s set, you can get your project off the ground.

Try it out for yourself! Sign up or log in and cast your project with Casting Networks today!

Related articles:
Audition Advice with Ani Avetyan
How to Create a Safe Casting Experience for Actors Before They Audition
My Casting Story: Al-Teron on ‘On the Come Up’
Get to Know the Casting Director: Wendy O’Brien
How To Become an Actor in Houston