read Part One: Pre-Production here

One night in January, I was sitting on Ashley’s couch eating Thai takeout and sifting through hundreds of headshots. I was trying to figure out who I wanted to call in for auditions for our new web series, and this was the fourth day we’d met in a row trying to figure out who her co-star would be. Ashley, a good friend whom I had written one of the lead roles for, was just as overwhelmed as I was about the sheer volume of submissions we’d received for the remaining roles.

“Unfortunately I don’t think you can’t call in everyone,” she told me as I geeked out over resumes that included credits from Hawaii Five-O and Hunger Games, and acting schools such as Carnegie Mellon.

She was right, of course. Narrowing down 600 submissions to around 20 for each of the three roles was near-impossible, but finding quality actors is so important, especially for a web series with recurring roles.

With Antidote 15, we were incredibly lucky to find the cast we did. I distinctly remember during callbacks watching Conner and Ashley read together and just knowing that they were perfect for the roles– seeing them perform the lines made everything fall into place. Not to mention after Daniel left the audition room, we decided to cast him immediately and cancel callbacks for his role since we didn’t want to see anyone else.

Casting is a great process, but it needs to be highly organized in order to run smoothly. These talented performers are taking time out of their day to come and read for you– if your audition process is a hot mess of confusion and long waits and miscommunication, you’re starting off on the wrong foot. [Read more…]