Extras Casting

This was in The Pittsburgh Post Gazette:


Night clubs and casting calls may not mix
Tuesday, March 20, 2007

By Barbara Vancheri, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette



A "casting call" for a Pittsburgh movie proved to be too much of a good thing, prompting the DejaVu Lounge to double its announced cover to $20 on Thursday -- and sending some experienced actors away in anger.


Blair Underwood
Click photo for larger image.




Yesterday, one of the owners of the Strip District club claimed he broke even for the night, the production company underscored it had not organized the event, and casting agent Nancy Mosser said she had been invited to stop by and did get nearly 200 applications filled out for "The Bridge to Nowhere."

She said about 10 speaking roles (in addition to extras) remain to be filled but acknowledged, "That isn't how you do casting for movies. You start with Screen Actors Guild members and actors with resumes, and there were some people there that had headshots and resumes. ... You don't do it normally through a nightclub."

Some hopefuls read lines with actor Blair Underwood, who was at the club for a couple of hours. He will make his directing debut with "The Bridge to Nowhere," scheduled to start shooting in Pittsburgh next week.

Mosser is still handling local and extras casting, and interested parties can contact her office at 412-434-1666.

Last week's event was organized by the club, and while it got publicity for the Strip District venue and fresh faces into the door (and to Mosser), it also angered experienced actors, who say $20 may sound like a bargain to a newcomer, but auditions never carry fees.

"Legitimate casting is never done where you have to pay to audition," Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office, confirmed yesterday. "It sounds like a great big miscommunication," she said, emphasizing the legitimacy of the "Bridge to Nowhere" producers, who hope to make more than one movie here.

Part of the problem had to do with how the event was announced: through an e-mail press release that made no mention of a cover charge. When the Post-Gazette inquired about a cover, Jim Cook, who is one of the bar owners and a lawyer for the production company, said there would be a $10 cover charge to get inside. Some news reports made no mention of a cover.

Yesterday, he said TV reports drew so many interested parties that he had to hire extra staff and doubled the cover, but few people bought food or alcohol.

Cook said 190 people paid the fee. "We didn't make any extra money," especially since he couldn't take advantage of the crowd eager to watch the Pitt basketball game, which was a magnet elsewhere.

"I broke even on the bar and gave them a chance to get in a movie," Cook said, acknowledging the event was designed in part to promote the business. "I really think people got what they paid for."

In the future, however, Keezer said it's important to remember that casting is not done on a "pay to play" basis.