 If you want to start auditioning, I would recommend Actors Access, Casting Networks, Facebook, and Instagram as your source for auditions. The easiest way to get an audition is of course to submit two casting calls on casting websites, and there are so many casting websites, so you want to make sure that you're selecting the right one for you depending on what kind of acting work you want to do and where you live. I have only ever lived and worked in California, so these are my recommendations. Start with either Actors Access or Casting Networks and create the free account, and then when you know for sure that you can dedicate 15 to 30 minutes a day, Monday through Friday, to submit to these casting calls and about four to eight hours to do one or two self-tapes per week, like memorizing, preparing, sending it over, then you can start paying the monthly subscription. Do not get the annual subscription. I know it's really tempting because it's a better deal and sometimes there's codes for even a better deal. But don't do it until you have proven to yourself that you can consistently submit two auditions or that there's actually enough work around you. And I'm going to talk about how to set up your account for success in a second. In addition to casting websites, Facebook and Instagram are great sources to find more casting calls and they're free. Finding free casting calls like this takes a lot more time than on a casting website because especially at the beginning you're looking around to be like, who even shares casting calls? Who should I follow? On Facebook, I like to focus on filmmaker groups specifically because once they're getting ready to make their thing, they're going to share casting. And on Instagram, I like to follow all kinds of casting directors, producers, writers, directors, film festivals. So then I can find more filmmakers that way and other actors because I know whenever I see a casting call, I always share it. Do not DM anybody saying, hey, can you cast me in something? There's no point instead consume what they're putting out and if you actually like them or their work, then eventually they're going to share a casting call and if it fits you, then you can submit. Or make sure that you're posting your acting work on your account and if you are in some kind of project, you can DM them and send them a link and say, hey, I was just in this really fun project. I wanted to send it over in case you wanted to watch it. It was a lot of fun, blah, blah, blah. Just make it personalized. Do not make it feel like you're just copying and pasting it and like, spare me. A casting profile is a lot like social media because you need content on there that represents who you are, the things that you like, what you look like, what you like to do. If you are going to use Instagram as a place to try and get auditions, make sure that when anybody clicks on your profile, it's very obvious that you're an actor. Like in your bio, you can put actor, you can put a link to your actor's access and pin either a photo of you, like a headshot of you, or a clip of you acting. I don't think I need to tell you, but you should be way more careful when submitting to casting calls on social media versus casting websites because on casting websites, at least there's a little bit of a buffer, a little bit of an approval system where Instagram, they can just post whatever they want. In order to create a casting profile, there is some prep and it's gonna take, if you do, like if you dedicate yourself, it can take you like two or three days as long as you don't hire other people to help you. And I think if you've never been paid for acting and you don't have a lot of money to spare, you should do all of this by yourself. Create an email specifically for your acting and for your submissions and it can be something like bookingbelchicarrodriguez.com or just belchicarrodriguez.com and make sure that you are consistently checking this and have your notifications on because you are going to get a lot of emails from these casting websites if you choose to. A printable resume, you might never have to actually print it but you do want to have it in that format and you'll be grabbing that information and putting it onto the casting website. There's a section for measurements and that's because production needs to know your body in order to purchase items for you to wear and for that, you're gonna need a soft measuring tape. It's a lot better if somebody else does it. They do not have to be professional. If you do it for yourself, it's really easy to tilt either measuring tape or have it folded or something and then you have the wrong measurements. You'll need some basic photos and we all know that a professional headshot photographer is the best thing to do but in the meantime, while you make money to be able to afford those, you can just take some with by yourself with a tripod. You want to get at least some profile shots, a close-up smiling, close-up not smiling and then you can play around a little bit with what you're wearing where you are and just do more headshot style to have more content on your profile. You'll also want your full body shot and then your hands front and back if you are looking to do commercial work. These can be easily done if you have a paper backdrop or a blank wall in your house and if you have neither, then you can go outside and take some photos in a neutral space with nice natural lighting. While you're taking these photos, you can create a slate shot for actors' access which is essentially a slate, like an introduction of yourself. So you can start with your smile, try and recreate that photo of you close-up smiling and then you can go straight into a slate. Hi, my name is Beljika Rodriguez and I am located in Burbank, California. A reel or a clip of you acting, do it like this about this framing with a blank backdrop, a blank wall is fine and choose to contrasting either scenes or monologues and then grab 15 or 20 seconds of the best parts of it to upload those as your samples. Making your casting profile is pretty easy. They all pretty much ask you for the same information but it's really important that you are completing your entire profile and not only having photos but also having any clip of you acting because simply they're going to have a better idea of who they're asking to send in a self-tape where a photo can be in a certain angle, certain lighting, whatever. A video is going to show what you move like, what you act like, what your abilities are, what you sound like and they're just going to be like, okay, I could see this person in this roll. Sit down and set a timer for 10 minutes and then just write anything you're good at, soccer, roller skating, knitting and if you are in a career that you might be able to use in a roll like if you're a nurse in real life, write that down. If you have any pets, like a really friendly dog that are willing to be on camera or unique things like a wedding gown or skates, ball gowns, things like that, make note of them and also take some photos. Write down all of the hobbies that you have because especially for commercial casting they're going to want to know what you can actually do comfortably so if you love to cook, that's one of your hobbies, they're going to be like cool, she knows how to chop really well, she's not going to hurt herself on camera. It may be silly to sit down and write all of these things but it's really useful and saves so much time when you're creating new casting websites when you already have all of these things in one place. These sites are user-friendly for the most part. They were made a lot of them a long time ago and for some reason haven't really been updated enough to be the quality of other apps that we use. As far as what kind of work I see on these casting websites, for casting networks I see a lot of commercial work. Some student films, some independent film and sometimes I see background roles. For actors access the most casting calls that I see are for independent work and commercials but I know that they also post film and TV mostly filtered to agents. Both of these of course are way better if you have an agent because they'll actually be able to see all of the casting calls. And because of that here's a video on how to find an agent and it doesn't matter what level you're at.