Hi, I am writing this to give you a feel for the commercial casting experience. Our daughter, Poppy is 9 and has been involved in the agency for approximately 3 years now. She has worked on various commercials and we have been to countless auditions and casting appointments.
The commercial casting experience is daunting the first time. Often you find yourself in a room that is overfilled with parents and children, sometimes all looking very similar to yours and other times, a complete mix. You’ll find yourself second guessing what they may be looking for. Some will be leaving as you arrive and others arriving constantly, like a conveyor belt. It’s easy to worry and wonder ‘what chance do we have?’. This is let and parcel though and you will quickly become acclimatised to this.
The first time you go to a casting, it’s easy for your child to feel nervous, in fact, I think it is probably more us feeling nervous for our child. It is really important that you prepare your child and explain that they are there for the experience and that there are lots of children being considered. Explain that they are talented to be on an agencies books and that part of the casting process is often looking for specific traits or mannerisms and that there is really no failing at this. It’s very important to manage their expectations, as there will be more no’s than yes’s.
Poppy sometimes gets nervous even now leading up to an audition, or doesn’t like what she has been asked to do on a self tape audition. With careful conversations though, she usually understands why she has been asked to do it and gets on with it.
When you have your first bit of success, which could be after 1 or 20 auditions, it’s a great feeling. However, they usually have a process where they will pencil your child. This is when they have selected a few possible options. Often this will be because they need to match other cast members to the children or that the directors may have not quite decided on the final direction of the story. It is fantastic to be pencilled as it means they liked your child, but it’s one of the hardest parts. The waiting to find out when you know they like them is tough. Having seen a fair share of pencils that haven’t lead to anything, I can tell you that it gets easier to deal with and you just need to be honest with your child and keep their feet on the ground. When they get rejected, it’s Important to reiterate that it is because of a look or a matched family member etc. Remind them that to be pencilled is a success in itself.
