Ready to take your filmmaking skills to the next level? This comprehensive curriculum covers essential casting topics such as working with agents/managers to get the best talent, building your list and working with a casting director (or not), and bringing on higher-level talent for your independent project. You’ll learn how to run successful auditions, negotiate talent deals, and build relationships for your future productions. The interactive live Q&A will give you the chance to ask questions and gain valuable insights. By signing up now, you’ll move forward with confidence, gain credibility, and have agents/managers enjoy dealing with you.
Webinar Schedule
Film Directing Webinar Series
Jumpstart Your Directorial Debut:
Casting for Success
with Shane Stanley, Multi-Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker
- Date: Friday, June 9, 2023
- Time: 10:00am PST to 11:15am PST (California Time)
- 1:00pm to 2:15pm EST (New York Time)
- Location: Live Online via Zoom
- Cost: FREE for Members.
- Registration: Pre-registration required. Click Here to Register Now.
Curriculum
- Working with Agents/Managers to get the best talent for your production.
- Building Your List and Working with a Casting Director (or Not)
- Putting Together Your Wish List of Actors
- How to Research to Find Ideas and Understand Who is Possible
- And how to identify less well-known actors that can add value to your project in supporting roles
- Considering international markets
- Working with Your Team and Coming to an Agreement with Stakeholders
- How Ambitious Should You Be with Your Wish List?
- How Many Options Do You Want for Each Character?
- Working with Casting Directors
- Do you need a casting director in the first place?
- Pros and cons of bringing on a casting director
- How to find the right casting director for your project
- Bringing On Higher Level Talent for Your Independent Project
- What high-level actors and their team need to see to consider working with you
- The best way to reach out to begin the conversation and who you should actually start the conversation with
- What kinds of offers might higher level talent actually consider for a small production?
- How to pitch your project to a higher-level actor and their team to peak their interest and why timing is everything
- Letters of Intent
- Navigating around not having a distributor yet
- Red flags to watch out for when starting the conversation.
- Postings and Running Your Own Auditions
- Where to get the actors you’re looking for
- How to post to attract better talent if you’re not dealing with agencies or a casting director.
- A rundown of how to run a successful audition
- How to hold yourself in the audition room
- Ensure you’re making actors feel comfortable and safe
- Pros and cons of self-tape auditions
- What to look for when evaluating actors
- Red flags to watch out for when auditioning actors
- Negotiation Talent Deals
- A rundown of the elements of a talent deal
- Working with a lawyer vs. doing it yourself
- The power of billing.
- Implementing ‘points’ to make the offer more enticing and other ways to sweeten the deal.
- Follow up conversations with agents
- Getting agents on your side and the advantages of boutique agencies
- The art of going back and forth
- Contract requests you should anticipate. (Escrow, pay-or-play, billing, etc.)
- Tips on closing the deal
- Working with Deadlines and when to walk away
- Interactive Live Q&A
What You Will Learn
- How to cast your film.
- Where to go and not to go.
- Build relationships for your future productions.
You Will Be Able To:
- Move forward with confidence.
- Start to gain credibility.
- Have agents/managers enjoy dealing with you.
About the Speaker
Shane Stanley is a multi-Emmy® Award-winning filmmaker and best-selling author who grew up in/around “the biz” in Hollywood. As a childhood actor he had appeared on-screen in over 100 projects with Hollywood legends which included June Lockhart, Lloyd Haynes, and David Arkin. By age ten, he was comfortably running an Arri 16mm camera, a flatbed-editor, and Moviola.
Along with his father, Lee Stanley, Shane produced The Desperate Passage Series. The docu-drama series ran on KTLA with world-wide syndication from 1988 to 1994, was nominated for 33 individual Emmy® Awards and won 13 statues. Two episodes of the series went on to become successful feature films, Gridiron Gang was acquired by Sony Pictures and became the #1 box office hit starring Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson.
Shane served as Vice President of Sheen/Michaels Entertainment where he produced several motion pictures starring Marlon Brando, Mira Sorvino, Thomas Hayden Church, Donald Sutherland, Marisa Tomei, Sean Penn, John Travolta and of course, Charlie and Martin Sheen. During that time, he also began writing and penned episodes of Zalman King’s Red Shoe Diaries, edited motion pictures, and created an original television series for Jeff Sagansky, former Head of CBS, before producing Dream Chasers for Discovery Channel – a television adventure program filmed in several different countries in the aftermath of 9/11.
In 2004, Shane made his directorial debut with his own screenplay, A Sight for Sore Eyes. The film was honored with the Special Jury Award at WorldFest Houston, won two Telly Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Film & Television, as well as winning top honors at the International Family Film Festival along with Walden Media’s The Chronicles of Narnia. It went on to win dozens of prestigious awards and was invited to screen at Cannes in 2005.
Shane has also directed countless music videos, many which have aired on VH1’s Top 20 Video Countdown, including two that went #1 and another that made the network’s list of Best 100 Music Videos including “Go That Far” with Bret Michaels. The Michaels’ video was used for the television series Rock of Love, where Shane also served as a consulting producer.
Stanley has also produced and directed national television commercials including campaigns for Morongo Resorts, San Manuel, Westgate Las Vegas, Kimberly Clark, Snapple, Virgin Airways, Sony PlayStation, and mega-hit gaming franchise “Call of Duty.”
Other directing credits to his name include Mistrust, starring two-time Golden Globe® and Emmy® Award winner Jane Seymour, Break Even with Tasya Teles, Steve Guttenberg, and Golden Globe® nominee, Joanna Pacula which he also produced with Adam Kane (Prodigal Son, 24: Live Another Day, Heroes). In 2022, Shane produced and directed the action-comedy, Double Threat starring Matthew Lawrence and Dawn Olivieri (Yellowstone, 1883), which The New York Times listed on their Top 5-Action Movies to Stream Now and was the sole indie feature amongst Hollywood blockbusters on Amazon Prime’s “Top 10 in the US” list remaining there for several weeks and peaking at #4.
Recently, Shane’s action-thriller, Night Train, starring Danielle C. Ryan and Diora Baird released nationwide theatrically and will premiere on HULU in May of this year. The film is the story of a single mom struggling to make ends meet as a Hollywood teamster who evades capture by a ruthless FBI Agent while running black market medical supplies in her legendary souped-up pickup truck. It also stars Joe Lando, Ivan Sergei, and Joseph D. Reitman.
His book, “What You Don’t Learn in Film School,” a best-seller earning a 4.5-star rating across the board was listed by CNN, FORBES, and BOOK AUTHORITY among the Best Filmmaking Books of All-Time, which covers filmmaking from concept to delivery. It has landed on required reading lists at several universities around the world and is endorsed by some of the most respected names in Hollywood including Producer, Neal H. Moritz, (Fast & Furious, S.W.A.T., 21 and 22 Jump Street) and Paul Williams, Oscar®, Golden Globe® and Grammy® Award Winner and Hall of Fame songwriter.
In addition to his Emmy® Awards, Stanley has received 11 Telly Awards, 2 CINE Golden Eagles Awards, 5 Aurora Awards, 4 WorldFest Remi Awards, and 28 International Film Festival Awards. He has spoken at several prestigious film and art institutes around the country including The Screen Writers Expo, the world’s largest tradeshow for screenwriters, alongside Oliver Stone, Michael Goldenberg (Harry Potter franchise) and Adam Herz (American Pie) about the secrets of marketing to today’s youth.
He and his wife, actress Val Barri, are active in charities supporting cancer research, restoring hope for inner-city youth, and animal rescue. They live in Los Angeles.
Please visit: shanestanley.net and whatyoudontlearninfilmschool.com for more info.
Presented and Hosted By:
Student Filmmakers Magazine
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