One thing we occasionally get asked when informing new parents that their child has been chosen for a casting is “well, how many people are going to be there?”. The likelihood is that they are picturing an ‘open casting’ – the type you see on sitcoms where thousands of hopefuls line up around the block, queueing for hours in the hopes that they might get seen. As an agency, we don’t tend to do these castings (if we receive such briefs we’ll generally add them to the Ology Blog and our social media pages. They’re open to the public, and although that’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s not what we’re about.

When a production company decides they need an actor for a show, or a model for a magazine, they put out a casting call. This will usually have specifications on, sometimes vague (boy or girl 5-9) and other times very specific (girl 5-9, ginger hair, 140cm, must be able to ride a bike). The very first process for us is finding the children who we think would be right for the job. We would never submit every child for any job – we only submit you when we think you’d be perfect for it! That’s the first gauntlet to pass.

Next, we’ll send off the casting card (and Supernova if you have one) for the Casting Director to look at. Here they will draw up their own shortlist. They wouldn’t book in any child that they didn’t think stood a chance because that would be a huge waste of everyone’s time – and they are very busy people! Sometimes there are a few rounds of shortlisting, with assistants narrowing down the children we send to their favourites, and the Casting Director choosing from those for the ones they want to see.

So by the time we call to let you know you’ve been booked in for a casting, your child will have been through several shortlisting options! They have just as much chance as anyone else there that day so don’t ever let that put you off.

The moral of the story is that ‘You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take’. Go out there, show them what you’re made of and you could be The One. Good luck!