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Are MM Casting Calls Dead?
I just got done looking through the casting calls posted by photographers in Illinois and out of the 25 or so ads I clicked on I saw maybe 7 people in total responded. I thinks that's pretty sad with a major city like Chicago in that search criteria. My question is have many of you had success with posting casting calls or do you find talent using other means like Facebook and or Craigslist? Jan 01 13 08:22 pm Link Maybe the other photographers sucked and no one wanted to work with them? A lot of people have been or are out of town for the holidays, or had to work extra due to the holidays. Andrew Thomas Evans www.andrewthomasevans.com Jan 01 13 08:24 pm Link I think its because people just message directly, not reply to the casting calls. Thats what i do anyway and what happens when i run a casting call. However i stopped doing casting calls on mm because i get far more responses to the casting calls elsewhere. I have still had good results on mm though, i just message models i want to work with directly. Jan 01 13 08:25 pm Link I've always had mixed luck with my casting calls - even when I get a lot of responses, I still doesn't always seem to translate in to having a shoot... I prefer to just drop a message to models I'm interested in working with and pitch the project directly - I have had a lot more luck that way. Jan 01 13 08:27 pm Link TrianglePhoto wrote: Good idea! Jan 01 13 08:35 pm Link i did a casting for boudoir and got three on CL and zero on mayhem. i did a casting for a vargas homage shoot and got two on mayhem. i just respond personally to castings. i don't use the built-in response thingie. Jan 01 13 09:04 pm Link I have just posted castings and it's a lot of work compared to a year ago. I am posting annoucments and getting some interest but, wow, compared to a year ago around April, I was running hot. And I think maybe its MM castings may not show up very well on people's phones. I could be wrong. I am grateful to MM for the shoot Is have done through it, but I noticed people saying the number of threads on Photography Talk were greatly diminished, so I wondered if it's more difficult to see or access forums on some phones. I seem to only have real success by directly contacting models. Jan 01 13 09:16 pm Link SCAM Photography wrote: Most people directly PM the person posting the casting. I always ask that they do this. Jan 01 13 09:23 pm Link I've posted a couple casting calls and the sounds coming from the crickets was deafening! Other times one or two hits. Jan 01 13 09:57 pm Link I post casting calls off and on, and depending on the time of year and availability of photographers that are closer to the model, that makes a big difference. Also many models do not respond to a casting call, rather they send the photographer a message and save time on waiting for the photographer to write them back... Jan 01 13 10:02 pm Link SCAM Photography wrote: Quality is a big factor in how many people respond and who responds. I posted a casting call for a male model and had a dozen responses in the first couple days. I suppose if my work sucked, I would get less response. I see lots of models posting casting calls. They tend to be less talented and less experienced. They get a few responses from photographers with the same talent level. It's pretty easy to see the correlation. Jan 01 13 10:08 pm Link To me casting calls cuts down on the time consuming task of individually contacting models. The ones that respond do have interest on what I am offering and the odds are on my favor. So far it has been working. Jan 01 13 10:17 pm Link When I place casting calls, I'm doing good if there is one response. When I respond to casting calls, I'm doing good if I get a response. Jan 01 13 11:33 pm Link I still think they are useful but for me it's hard to get the Models or Stylists that that I want to work with through castings. Once the Models or Stylist reach a certain level of confidence with their work they often don't need to cast for Photographers. They cast more for paying work. Jan 02 13 12:31 am Link I think it depends on where you post the castings also. In a bigger, more populated area, you really get more responses than you even want to deal with (mostly via message). Also depends on what you post in the casting call, because people do read them believe it or not. Jan 02 13 12:33 am Link I rarely put up casting calls but each time I have I felt flooded with responses which came back more as private messages then tags. From at least 20 for a very last minute shoot to close to a hundred for one during an overseas trip. What your casting for and the type of images in your portfolio could also have an impact. I've had a number commented that they wanted to work with me because my port did not have any nudes/implied nudes in my port regardless if I do shoot that style or not. Jan 02 13 12:50 am Link I always just directly PM the person who put out a casting but the ones that interest me lately are rare. Jan 02 13 12:52 am Link I agree. Most people respond via PM, and not through a posting. I had a great response to a casting call I posted in December. Jan 02 13 01:09 am Link SCAM Photography wrote: How do you know only 7 responded? Casting calls give you the option of replying by either a public or private message. I suspect there could have been more private than public replies. Jan 02 13 02:00 am Link SCAM Photography wrote: MM has not been a good place for good models,, but I still use it at times.. and I must say, with some (a few) good results.. Jan 02 13 02:31 am Link WMcK wrote: This. Jan 02 13 02:48 am Link I normally get the opposite problem. I normally get an enormous number of replies and have to spend loads of time filtering out all the unsuitables to make a shortlist to send to the client. Paul. www.photographybyriddell.co.uk Jan 02 13 03:00 am Link I have posted only one casting call in the 2 years that I have been on MM. Over 50 models looked at it but only 4 responded to it. I picked one model (I know now, stupid of me, I should have picked all 4) who was the most enthusiastic! Shoot was 3 weeks away, and e-mails went back and forth. I get an e-mail from the model the night before the shoot. She says, "I can't make it tomorrow, I forgot I have to move"! Jan 02 13 03:04 am Link MainePaintah wrote: This made me smile. The best yet ? Jan 02 13 03:11 am Link Jan 02 13 05:54 am Link I have found MM casting calls to be pretty much useless. It is just easier and more effective to contact an agency to do a pull for me. I have had better luck by browsing models in my area and contacting them directly. Jan 02 13 05:58 am Link ...you should see things from my neck of the woods...not a single casting call or anything within coo-wee of the black stump. I still soldier on and pay my dues to MM  Jan 02 13 06:04 am Link I made a casting call at about midnight last night. It is now 3:00pm, and I have had three responses and nine PMs. Jan 02 13 03:10 pm Link -JAY- wrote: I made one yesterday to see what I would get and I got 30 views and 3 pm's. I see it helps to have a clear concept of what you want to do. I would like to post on Facebook to see what type of response I would get but I don't want to have to tell half of my friends list no. Jan 03 13 06:12 am Link |
