 Here are five different things that you need to have in place in order to have success in these casting websites. Casting websites are actually not worth it for you if you are a brand new actor and don't have any of these things. So please don't fall into the trap of wanting to get a casting website before you're actually ready. And it depends on what level you're in and you're acting to need each of these things because the last thing is absolutely essential to be able to audition for huge shows, huge films. It is important to note that the acting industry and the entertainment industry in general does change all of the time. Keep doing your research and stay up to date to what's happening. Like an actor in the 90s, if they started acting right now in 2022, they would be so confused because they'd be like, wait, why am I filming my own auditions at home? This doesn't make any sense. And I've been using casting websites for a while now. My name is Belgica. I'm an actress in the San Francisco Bay Area and LA. So I'm gonna give you these five things that I believe are really important when you are starting out and when you're creating your first casting website account. First thing and the most important thing before you go and pay for any website is that you want to have a headshot and you specifically want to have like a closeup, basically this framing right now and a full body shot so that when people are looking on the casting website so they can know what you actually look like, there's absolutely no way you're going to be requested any audition if they don't at least know what you look like because acting is very look heavy if they want somebody that looks like they work at a video game store, 1990, like they want a very specific look. They don't want somebody that looks like they work in corporate America. So the most important part is for them to see what you look like. So make sure you have at least that headshot. If you're just starting out like you've never had a pay job before, I would say take some photos on your phone, have somebody take photos of you, something that really represents what you look like right now. Some nice clean photos with no filters. At least have those two photos if you're just starting out. The second thing you should have before you get a casting website is a self-tape setup and that can be as little as having a tripod and your phone because your phone is absolutely great for self-tape auditions but your tripod's gonna make your life a lot easier. Once you do go on these casting websites and you start submitting for work, you are going to be requested self-tape auditions which are auditions that you film at home. And again, it's pretty much this frame unless they want to see a little bit more of your bodies and you might have to put your phone a little bit further. Pretty much any audition that you get on a casting website, at least the first one is going to be a self-tape audition, an audition that you film at home. So if you want to get a little bit fancier, if you want to invest a little bit more, you can get a ring light and a backdrop. Right now I know that casting workbook has an amazing self-tape kit that's only $72 for the ring light, the tripod and the backdrop. And I have a video up here as well as a discount code. It's $72 if you are in the U.S. If you want to invest in that and you could also use it if you film YouTube videos. Just the ring light that I bought when I first started out was like $100. So the fact that you can get basically everything you need for a self-tape audition for $72 is pretty good. The third thing is training. Again, we're getting a little bit up there in your level of acting but you do want to have some training even if you are so talented naturally, you need to be able to develop the stamina and develop yourself as an artist and be able to really tackle any script that comes at you. And that can be a class in high school or a class in college, whatever, but you want to be able to put on the casting website that you have some training, which also goes to the next part. So number four, a reel or a resume. You can put that training in your resume but before you even get training or while you're doing training, you can also audition for student films, short films, background work, which your background work, I don't think should go on your resume personally. You want to be able to put something in your resume so that training would be a great place to start because if you put, I was in a student film or I was in a play that doesn't say that much about it because they don't really know, did you have one line? Did you perform well? Where in a reel, for example, you would be able to show them your ability. So a resume of course is something great so that they can see that you have some experience and if your resume has training, then they can at least trust that you have some experience with feedback, with an acting coach, giving you feedback as far as what you're doing. Let's go to the other part of number four, which is your reel. And because now we do have these phones and we have the ability to film our self-tapes, you can also create your own reel at the very beginning at home like this. Like if you were doing a self-tape, you can perform a scene or a monologue with somebody. So you can at least show them what you look like when you're speaking, what your acting abilities are right now. You can also do that even starting out because you can always keep updating that. You can use one scene as your reel for now, but it's like if you were filming a self-tape audition, you're just giving them a little bit of a clip of what you are able to do right now. A reel is going to be able to get you so many more self-tape audition requests because if you combine having a great head shot with having a great reel, like they're actually gonna be able to see what you can do. And they'll be more confident in being like, oh yes, I wanna see them audition for this because their reel was so great or their look is so great on their head shot. And number five is getting a little bit up there, but you could still do this as a beginner, depending on where you live, how much ability you have already as a beginner. But it is so essential for casting websites. I didn't know this until like two years ago. And when I found out, I was like, oh duh. Like that's how they do it. So number five is representations, agents, managers. And this is because this is the way casting websites work. They're the host of the audition, right? So a casting director will come onto this website and create a casting call. They'll say, okay, we need a new character for stranger things. Let's say Carmen Cuba goes on to Actors Access, for example, and she, Carmen Cuba, writes up the casting breakdown along with her team. And she's like, okay, we need a new character and this is going to be an 18 year old that works at the movie theater. Okay, so they're gonna write that up and they're gonna say, hmm, there's a lot of fans of stranger things. And this character that we need to cast for isn't that rare, we could find them pretty easily. So we're going to filter for this casting call to only go to representation. So that information will only go to agents and managers and then the agents and managers will say, okay, which ones of my actors could play this? They have the look, they look like they could be on stranger things, they have the ability to be on stranger things. Then they're going to pitch those actors to Carmen Cuba and her team and be like, okay, I have these 12 people from each agent or manager or whatever. Where if they filtered it for everybody to look at, of course, all of the actors are going to audition even if they put male, even females are gonna audition. Like everybody's just gonna be like, yes, oh my God, I love stranger things. It would be a great show to be on. So basically casting websites filter casting calls and they can decide who can see it. Do they want the actors to see it? Do they want all of the representatives to see them? Just some of them, they can email them personally. So casting websites are heavily filtered. Even if you do pay your monthly subscription fee to the casting websites, it does not mean you will be able to audition to the higher level stuff unless you have representation. And that to me was a game changer, finding out that that is how casting websites work. And these are the higher up casting websites. So things like casting networks, casting workbook, actors access, casting frontier, those websites have the ability for agents and managers to use that software where backstage, for example, last I have seen, because I don't use backstage anymore, they don't have a place for representation. So it's usually smaller jobs. So you're not going to see something crazy, like the main character in a Marvel movie or stuff like that. Like you will see stranger things stuff on backstage, but it is more likely than not something for background or a stand-in. If you are a brand new actor, like you're just starting out and you're doing research in acting, I am so excited for you because there's so much information out there. Of course I have almost 600 videos on my channel about acting, I just like to share whatever information I know or I researched new things that come up, but there's also so many other people on YouTube, on Instagram, podcasts, like directors, writers, casting directors, other actors, everybody's giving out so much information. So I'm so excited for you. And if you have any questions specifically for me, I can try and link you stuff, not just my videos, but I can link you other stuff if I don't have it myself. I do have a video right here on a bunch of different casting websites. I did a long video about 12 different places where you can find auditions and I review each casting website and I talk about which one is right for you depending on your age, location, the level of acting that you're in. And I also feature another channel at the end of every video.