Digital casting is a process that enables both talent and people who solicit and employ talent to fulfill production requirements in the

entertainment Entertainment is a form of activity that holds the attention and Interest (emotion), interest of an audience or gives pleasure and delight. It can be an idea or a task, but it is more likely to be one of the activities or events that have deve ...

corporate A corporation or body corporate is an individual or a group of people, such as an association or company, that has been authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law as "born out of s ...

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

, art,

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

and marketing industries through the use of

on-line In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on li ...

, mobile and digital technology. Digital casting platforms allow talent to create online profiles to solicit opportunities for themselves through the use of a "self tape" regardless of professional representation from a manager or talent agent. Talent profiles generally include

photograph A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitivity, photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. Th ...

s, resumes, video reels, voice over reels and detailed accounting of special skills and unique attributes. Many of these platforms, including Actors Access, Backstage, Actors Equity Casting Call, Playbill, Casting Frontier, ModelMayhem, Now Casting and NYCastings have become industry standards and are used to cast talent in

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

, feature films and commercials as well as live performances, televised talent competitions musicals, corporate entertainment and print advertising.

History

Though early versions of digital casting platforms began to appear in the late 1990s, the 'revolution' in casting didn't engage until after the start of the 21st Century when

audio Audio most commonly refers to sound, as it is transmitted in signal form. It may also refer to: Sound *Audio signal, an electrical representation of sound *Audio frequency, a frequency in the audio spectrum *Digital audio, representation of sound ...

and video technology improved for general on-line users through open systems and

digital recording In digital recording, an audio signal, audio or video signal is converted into a stream of discrete numbers representing the changes over time in air pressure for audio, or Color, chroma and luminance values for video. This number stream is s ...

devices such as cameras and mobile phone image capture technology became widely available and affordable. Advances in uploading speed, image and digital transmitting technology, along with casting specific technology including Cast It Systems and Casting Frontier's iSession applications encouraged the growth and use of online casting from both amateur and professional talent. In 2008, as a reaction to the arrival of digital casting platforms, the

Screen Actors Guild The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) was an American labor union which represented over 100,000 film and television principal and background performers worldwide. On March 30, 2012, the union leadership announced that the SAG membership voted to m ...

(SAG) launched a free and dedicated system called iActor, which was the first union-hosted online casting directory featuring onsite Station 12 cast clearance. While iActor was exclusively available to SAG members, it also enabled AFTRA talent to create profiles.{{Cite web, url =https://variety.com/2008/digital/news/sag-completes-online-casting-directory-1117981868/, title= SAG Completes Online Casting Directory , publisher = variety.com

List of established platforms

* Actors Access * Actors Equity Casting Call * Backstage * Casting Frontier * Casting Networks * iActor * LACasting * Mandy (formerly Casting Call Pro) * NYCastings.com * Playbill

References

Entertainment industry