Resources
Please note that we are not affiliated with any listings on the resource section. We list them only as a service.
- Classes
- Private Coaching
- Indie Student Films
- Monologues
- Must Read List
- Great Websites for Actors
- Resumes & Website Service
- Demo Reels
- Photographers
- Requirements for Headshots
- Mass Production of Headshots
- Taped Audition Requirements
- Videographers for Taped Auditions
A Note on Training: We believe in training. A violinist practices every day, not just the day before a performance. We expect you to work your acting muscle every day in class, rehearsals, on set, practicing monologues, etc. On that note, here’s a list of companies that teach in our industry.
Georgia Area Classes
Celebrity Actors Studio (Atlanta) • Website: www.celebrityactorsstudio.com
Nick Conti's Professional Actor's Studio (Atlanta) • Website: www.proactorsstudio.com
Your Act (Atlanta) • On camera classes • Website: www.youract.tv
North Carolina Area Classes
C&J Audition Workshops (Charlotte) • Website: www.cjcasting.com
Film Actors Studio (Charlotte) • Website: www.filmactorsstudio.net
South Carolina Area Classes
PURE Theater (Charleston) • Ongoing class all ages • Website: www.puretheatre.org
South of Broadway Theatre Company (Charleston) • Website: www.southofbroadway.com
The Have Nots (Charleston) • Improv class • Website: www.thehavenots.com
Actors Theater of SC (Charleston) • Classes for all ages • Website: www.actorstheatreofsc.org
LA & NY Coaches who also teach in the Southeast
Kirk Baltz (Los Angeles) • Website: www.actorsintensive.com
Anthony Vincent Bova (New York) “Eric Morris System” • Website: www.bovaactorsworkshop.com
Private Coaching
Gaylord Parsons (GA) Tel. 770.837.5102
Kirk Baltz (LA) Tel. 323.467.8492
Eric Dente (NY) Tel. 212.501.2825
Sharon Graci (SC) Tel. 843.345.1090
Rodney Rogers (SC) Tel. 843.723.4444
Greg Tavares (SC) Tel. 843.853.6687
Chris Weatherhead (SC) Tel. 843.588.9636
Indie Student Films
"Indies" usually offer no pay, but are good for camera practice and resume building.
Atlanta Performs (Atlanta) • Website: www.atlantaperforms.com
Casting in the Carolinas (NC & SC) • Website: www.castinginthecarolinas.com/casting_calls.htm
City of Savannah Film Office (Savannah) • Website: www.savannahfilm.org/news.cfm
Monologues
The Movie Monologue Page • Website for Film & TV monologues • Website: www.whysanity.net
Must Read List for Actors
Two good books to read before or after you start acting:
- The Street Kids Guide to Having It All, by John Assaraf
- Feel the Fear and Do it Anyway, by Susan Jeffers
Acting books:
- How Not to Audition: Avoiding the Common Mistakes Most Actors Make, by Ellie Kanner & Martin Flynn
- Audition: Everything An Actor Needs to Know to Get The Part, by Michael Shurtleff
- How To Get The Part, Without Falling Apart, by Margie Haber
- Acting the First Six Lessons, by Boleslavsky
- No Acting Please – “Beyond the Method”, by Eric Morris & Joan Hotchkis
- Irreverent Acting, by Eric Morris
- A Challenge For The Actor, by Uta Hagen
- How to Audition, by Gordon Hunt
- The Casting Directors and the Casting Process, by Keith Wolfe
- Breaking into Commercials, by Terry Berland
- The Art of Acting, by Stella Adler
- A Dream of Passion, by Lee Strasberg
- The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods, by Richard Brestoff
- The Open Door, by Peter Brook
- The Empty Space, by Peter Brook
- Threads of Time, by Peter Brook
- Respect For Acting, by Uta Hagen (and anything else by her)
- The Actor's Eye, by Morris Carnovsky / Peter Sander
- My Life In Art, by Stanislavsky
- Strasberg Method, by Laurie Hull
- The Way of the Actor, by Brian Bates
- Method Actors, by Steve Vineberg
Also the DVDs:
- Acting for Film, by Michael Caine
- Looking for Richard, by Al Pacino
Great Websites for Actors
The Actor's Checklist • Website: http://www.actorschecklist.com
Atlanta Performs • Website: http://www.atlantaperforms.com
Backstage • Website: http://www.backstage.com
Mandy.com • Website: http://www.mandy.com
Variety • Website: http://www.variety.com
Resume & Website Service
Teresa Smith • Create and update resumes • Email: tssmitht@aol.com
Fish Net Creations • Custom websites for actors • Website: www.fishnetcreations.com
eData Design • Value priced websites • Website: www.edatadesign.biz
Demo Reels
Trevor Erickson • Website: www.clandestinefilms.com
Anthony Nixon • Email: antnixus@yahoo.com
Ed Reynolds & Via Productions • Email: reyvia@aol.com
Photographers
Georgia Area
Kelsey Edwards (Atlanta) Also in LA • Website: www.kelseyedwardsphoto.com
Jackie Goldston (Atlanta) • Website: www.jackiegoldston.com
North Carolina Area
Benjamin Segal (Charlotte) • Website: www.benjaminsegal.com
Troy Tomlinson (Charlotte) • Website: www.flamingchickenstudio.com
Patricia Roseman (Wilmington) Also in LA • Tel. 310.766.6011
South Carolina Area
David Despeaux (Charleston) • Website: www.daviddespeaux.com
Jörg Meyer (Charleston) • Website: www.jorgmeyer.com
Robbin Knight (Charleston) • Website: www.rkdp.com
James Connelly (Charleston) • Website: www.connellyphoto.com
Ed Reynolds (Charleston) • Email: reyvia@aol.com
Jillian Walzer (Charleston/Hilton Head) • Website: www.jillianwalzerphotography.com
Requirements for Headshots
Commercial shot: use a happy conservative look used for commercials, print and industrials.
Theatrical shot: an interesting, often sly look used for film and television.
* If only going with one look use a middle of the road look.
- Shots must be in color – one headshot and one ¾ body length
- Portrait (vertical) orientation is preferred over landscape (horizontal) orientation
- Must use a make-up artist for teens and up
- No jewelry, however small stud earrings are okay on females
- Solid shirt or sweater; NO turtlenecks, logos, stripes, or prints
- Females must show length of hair; don’t hide hair down back
- Don’t cut off top of head; must see whole head
- Pick interesting background lighting, not just solid wall
- Background should be slightly out of focus, can be outside or inside shot
- No shadows on the face at all please
- No gums showing; practice in mirror if this is a habit for you
- Take some with teeth showing and some without
- If you wear glasses and don’t have contacts, you must wear the glasses in the picture.
Mass Production of Headshots
You will only need to get your headshots reproduced. We can submit your ¾ length headshot electronically. You should order at least 100 copies and send 25 to the office with your resume neatly stapled to the back. Keep the remainder with you when you go on auditions.
Headshots can be reproduced on photograph or lithograph paper. The choice is yours, although lithograph is often less expensive. We recommend you order your headshots in a matte finish. Why matte? Because most casting studios are indoors and use tungsten light, which makes it harder to look at glossy pictures. We also recommend portrait (vertical) orientation of your headshots and we find that most casting directors prefer portrait over landscape orientation as well. Headshots with borders are most common. However headshots without borders (called "full bleed") are acceptable.
The On Line Photo Shop (Los Angeles) • Website: www.theonlinephotoshop.com
The Pixel Pusher (Atlanta) • Website: www.the-pixel-pusher.com
Photoscan (Orlando) • Website: www.photoscanonline.com
Reproductions (NY & LA) • Website: www.reproductions.com (use rough border style #1 or #5)
Isgo Photo (Los Angeles) • Website: www.isgophoto.com
New Image Prints (Los Angeles) • Website: www.newimageprints.com
Taped Audition Requirements
Occasionally we are able to save you the time and expense of traveling to first round auditions by having you put yourself on tape. We will personally put you on tape for any project at our office – but those of you outside of the Charleston area who are not able to come to our office for taping, need to be able to do it yourselves. Please follow the requirements below when sending us your taped auditions via email.
Send us your QuickTime (QT) or Windows Media Video (WMV) file in either standard widescreen DVD resolution at 720x480 pixels OR standard TV resolution at 640x480 pixels. Widescreen is preferred, but either is acceptable as long as the quality is good. We understand this will result in larger files and ask that you keep them as small as possible. The maximum file size we can accept via email is 20MB. For larger files please use YouSendIt.com or Dropbox.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not use the black fade in and out feature, add heashots or titles. This makes editing difficult for the casting directors when they put together their tapes for the studio to view all the actors' auditions. You should never see black on your tapes at the beginning or end of your auditions.
It is important to do the following:
- Please film in front of a light colored, solid wall or backdrop. NOT A BLACK BACKGROUND.
- Lighting must be good enough to see the color of the actor's eyes – this is our number one problem.
- No logos or busy patterns on clothing. Bright solid colors work best.
- Sound must be clear.
- You should have an ACTOR reading opposite from you for the quality of the performance.
- SLATE IN - Each actor must slate with their name, agency and the role they are reading at the beginning of each take.
- If taping a role with more than one scene, tape all the scenes together to include the slate in and out on the same file.
- One good take please. Only do a second take if absolutely necessary.
- SLATE OUT - At the end of the take, have the actor stand, pull back for a full body shot, and have actor state their name again and height.
Taping Instructions for PC users
A full version of Windows Movie Maker comes installed on most new Windows based computers. In order to use the program your computer has to be operating Windows XP or newer. If you are operating XP and do not currently have Movie maker installed on your computer, you can get it by downloading the service pack for the operating system from Microsoft's website for free.
1. Start Movie Maker. To start Movie Maker, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Windows Movie Maker.
2. On the File menu, click Capture Video. Alternatively, in the Movie Tasks pane, under Capture Video, click Capture from video device.
3. On the Video Capture Device page, in Available devices, click the DV camera.
4. In the Enter a file name for your captured video box, enter a name for your captured video file.
i.e. John Doe/Star Trek/Dr Spock (actor name/show name/role)
Then, in the Choose a place to save your captured video box, select the location where you want your video to be saved, or click Browse to select a location.
5. On the Video Setting page, choose the video setting you want to use for capturing video and audio.
6. On the Capture Method page, click Capture the entire tape automatically. The tape in the DV camera will rewind. Capture will begin automatically and ends when the video tape ends.
7. Select any of the following commands:
• To separate the video into smaller clips, select the Create clips when wizard finishes check box.
• To stop capturing before the end of the video tape, click Stop Capture, and then click Yes in the resulting dialog box to save the video that has been captured.
8. To close the Video Capture Wizard, click Finish. The captured content will be imported into a new collection with the same name as the specified video file.
9. To save and send your movie as an e-mail message open your project in Movie Maker.
10. In the Movie Tasks pane, under Finish Movie, click Send in e-mail.
11. The Save Movie Wizard opens, and Movie Maker creates a lower-resolution version of your movie that can be attached to an e-mail message. On the Ready to Send By E-mail page, click Next.
12. The Save Movie Wizard creates a blank e-mail message for you with the movie attached. In the To box, type our e-mail address, info@coastaltalent.com. In the Subject box, type your name, show name and the role. To preview the movie before you send it, double-click the attachment and the movie will open in a new window.
13. When you’re ready, click Send.
For additional help using Windows XP go to: www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/moviemaker/default.mspx
For additional help using Windows Vista go to: www.windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/ec3fff68-e53c-4168-ae74-8557325e57e21033.mspx
Taping instructions for Mac Users
1. Open iMovie, connect and turn on camera.
2. In iMovie, select Automatic import. Press OK when done.
3. An individual QuickTime file will require a new project. Select File, new project and name accordingly.
i.e. John Doe/Star Trek/Dr Spock (actor name/show name/role)
4. For ratio, select Standard 4:3
5. Select clips from bottom and drag into new project.
6. When finished go to Share. For QuickTime file, select export as QuickTime, choose broadband Medium (about 4MB for a 2 minutes of tape) and Save onto desktop.
7. Drag file into Mail.
8. In the To box, type our e-mail address, info@coastaltalent.com. In the Subject box, type your name, show name and the role. If you want to preview the movie before you send it, double-click the attachment and the movie will play.
9. When you’re ready, click Send.
For additional help using iMovie go to: www.apple.com/support/imovie/
Videographers for Taped Auditions
California Area Mills Allison (Los Angeles) • Email: millskentallison@hotmail.com Georgia Area Creative Studios of Atlanta (Atlanta) • Email: creativestudiosofatlanta@yahoo.com Jackie Goldston (Atlanta, North Atlanta) • Email: jackie@jackiegoldston.com Kelly Casting (Atlanta) • Email: kellycasting@gmail.com Chip Lane (Savannah) • Email: firstcityfilms@comcast.net Anthony Nixon (Atlanta) • Email: antnixus@yahoo.com Anthony Paderweski (Savannah) • Email: contact@anthonypaderewski.com Gaylord Parsons (Atlanta) • Email: gaylordparsons@yahoo.com New York Area Shawn Passwaters (New York City) • Email: shawnpasswaters@hotmail.com North Carolina Area Auditions-R-Us (Wilmington) • Email: micheleseidman@aol.com South Carolina Area David Abrams (Charleston) • Email: dabrams966@aol.com