This Week's Auditions!

I've been battling that sore throat that was making it's way around LA and a week later, avoiding alcohol (ok, I had 2 glasses of wine), and eating healthy, I feel like I'm almost back to normal!  Luckily, I had Monday off to take a little break and rest up before a busy week with two auditions in addition to my normal work schedule.

On Wednesday I had a Hair Audition in Woodland Hills for a Webcast.  I got there early and was told it was actually starting 15 minutes later than planned and when I got to the holding area there were about 50 people already waiting so I was glad I got there when I did.  By the time they started the casting about 20 more ladies had arrived.  They announced that for this Webcast they were looking for girls with thinner hair.  They needed a short-haired and long-haired model.  Thankfully, some of the girls knew they weren't right for the casting with their full thick curls or extra long hair and thanked the stylist and left.  They do give some instructions and this one included no processed hair so as the stylist dismissed the bleached blondes I wondered why they would want to waste their time knowing they couldn't be cast in this project.  We are all so busy in our lives, so driving out to Woodland Hills isn't a five minute trip, it took me an hour round-trip, I'd want to make sure I fit the exact description of the casting.  As the stylist walked through the mass of girls and came to me she approved me for the next round.  We got cut down to about 25 and after they went through the short-haired models they got to us.  Now we had the stylist and director checking out our hair and the director loved mine, saying it was so full and pretty, and then pulled it back.  The stylist asked if it would be too much, and he said it just might be, but thanked me for coming and said I had a great head of hair.  From other conversations I heard it sounded like they were doing updo's and adding in extensions and with a full head of hair, mine would be too thick for the look they were going for.  Now, I can't really be mad about this, not even disappointed.  I got a great compliment and made it to the second round.  Let's just hope the next Hair Casting I go to, that they're looking for full bouncy hair and maybe I'll get that one ;)

Yesterday, I filmed a video submission for a Smile Design Center.  It was a wordy script and since I also had to read in Church, I had lots of memorizing to do.  It needed to be taped on a phone for quality purposes (over a webcam) and Neil helped me out by shooting it for me (thank you for not wanting to kill me after all those takes).  I think I did about 50 takes and just couldn't get it perfect.  I am a perfectionist and for me, it either got too saleswoman with a sales pitch, or too best friend and lost that excitement and energy.  I hate to give up on something but knew I had to walk away because the longer I was working on it, the more frustrated I got.  I tried it sitting, standing, in my heels, without them, and everything in between.  Maybe I was being too hard on myself because as I watched all the takes today to decide which one I was sending my Agent, I picked out two that I was happy with, though not perfect.  My Agent got back to me this morning after I had texted him last night saying I didn't love any of them and he said, a good painter must know when to stop; Casting was looking for personality and delivery.  When he saw both I sent, he agreed that his favorite was also mine, and it was natural and personable, plus my gestures sold it.  So...fingers crossed on this one...

It was great to get back into the Audition game and will be happy for more to come!

More Hair Fare

This Friday I had another Hair Casting in Woodland Hills.  This one was for a Video Shoot that took place over 2 days and was paying really good!  I haven't had a hair-cut since March so at this point, I'm in dire need of one, but keep hoping that I'll book one of these Castings because then they give you a hair-cut by a high-end stylist and they could color or hi-light my hair as well.

Thankfully, these castings are always at just the right time and traffic is fantastic!  I got to the Casting at 9:30 am about 15 minutes early and after signing in, waited till just before 10 am to be ushered into one of the rooms.  There were about 100 girls for this one casting.  Once we all were seated we waited a few more minutes until a Casting Director came in and announced the specifics for the shoot.  They were looking for Caucasian, Hispanic, or Asian women with straight to wavy hair that was shoulder-length or longer.  Right there, about 15 girls were excused from the room; I'm hoping they have their Agents to blame for that one and didn't drive all the way into The Valley to drive right back home.  Then the CD did a walk-through of the room excusing girls that according to him, would be too difficult to work with for this particular shoot; in this case, that meant anyone with over-processed hair, or girls that needed too much work done whether it be color or cuts.  I survived that round and another 20+ girls were out the door.  He did another cut similar to that one after talking to the client and getting a better idea for what he was looking for 20 more girls were excused.  All the red heads were gone which was a huge surprise because usually those are the first girls chosen to be kept or seen!  The Casting Director then had all of us move to one side of the room and he walked by each girl, passing or excusing her, and walked by me, saying gorgeous hair (wow, definitely made me smile), and after that we were down to just over 20 girls.  

At this point he put us into two groups, Virgin Hair and the rest of us.  I've never done anything permanent to my hair, but because I do semi-permanent color on occasion, even though my last time doing that was a year ago, I was still in the other group.  He then asked each of us for our headshots or book (portfolio) and took some time looking through each one.  He joked about my name and being too young to know that I was the Bionic Woman, ah, but I do, and said I had beautiful and healthy hair.  Score...I was apparently having a really good hair day!  I did find it interesting that over half the girls in the room didn't have anything with them, not even a headshot, but had their portfolio's on their iPhone to go through.  Unfortunately, those girls weren't included in the casting so I was now in the Top 12!  After taking our headshots to the client, he came back and announced the 7 girls that were going to stay to meet with the client, and unfortunately today, I was not one of those girls called.  He thanked all of us saying it was nothing personal, we were beautiful girls and that's why we were called in, and he would see all of us again soon.

As I left the Audition I was actually very happy and proud.  I had gotten wonderful compliments on my hair and had also gotten really far in the Audition process, watching exactly how they were running it, which was really interesting.  I had to be happy that out of these over 100 girls at this time, I was in the Top 12.  It just means that something else will come up and I'll get an opportunity the next time.  I don't know why this time I had such a refreshing and happy feeling about it, but I did, and I hope I can continue to bring that to all my auditions in the future :)

Letting my Hair do the talking...

On Thursday evening, after I got home from work at Irish Times, I was going through my Castings and saw that I had a Hair Audition in Woodland Hills on Friday morning!  This was a job that could be working this weekend, a month from now, or 6 months from now, so it was a great opportunity to meet with this stylist and teacher.  

My favorite Great Hair Headshot :)

*Let me give you a little back story about my issues with my hair...I remember when I was younger in my grade school and middle school days when the girls in my class would make fun of me, tease and laugh at me.  My hair was one of their issues with me, and the butt of their jokes.  They would say I had terrible hair, and should shave my head, because I would be better off bald.  Back then I would cry and it would make me wonder what was wrong and why they would say things like this.  My Mom would always tell me that they were just jealous but when you're 10 years old, it's hard to believe that; now that I'm older and understand relationships and friendships, I know my Mom was right and they were just being mean and jealous.  I had very long dark hair that was naturally wavy, was healthy and shiny.  What was so wrong with it that I should shave it off?  Nothing.  It was something that these girls knew they could pick on me for, and push me down, to make them feel better about themselves because they were bullies.  I've never held a grudge and even when I see these girls when I'm back home, I will always be polite, but I've never forgotten how they treated me, and how I will teach my children to treat everyone they meet with respect.  I make sure people in my life, even people I just meet, don't feel like outsiders, make everyone feel welcome because we all have our insecurities, we should give everyone a chance and not make a snap judgement.

Waves for my Hair Casting

So back to the Audition.  I waved my hair that morning, doing more natural make-up to let my hair do the talking at the Audition!  It's good to stand out and give Casting something to remember you by so I chose a simple bright purple dress to accompany my favorite Guess heels.  Since I had driven to Woodland Hills last week for my Fitness Audition around the same time, I knew that even on a Friday, traffic should be moving, and I was able to make it there in less than a half hour.  The big difference from Culver City to Woodland Hills was the over 25 degree temperature change; it was 75 degrees in Culver City and 102 in Woodland Hills!  I'm never one for air conditioning, but going to a casting on a day like today was a must!  It was the same place the last Hair Audition I had was at (a training salon for students), and after signing in, I took one of the remaining seats.  I was 15 minutes early and able to read a little bit of my book. Then around 10:45 (the audition time) I noticed a man, walking around, looking at every girls hair.  There were some gals walking in just then, even 5 minutes late and not wearing heels.  That was one of the main things on the Audition notice, always wear heels, and considering they wanted girls to be 5"5 I had a pair of my highest heels on!

They called about 30 of us who had signed in first, to a classroom to wait for the Teacher and his Stylist.  They were shooting videos in the next few months, and since N* had just moved here from New York he wanted to get a group of girls together to work on these videos, where he showed cut, color, updo's and styles.  We were separated into two different groups, girls who were willing to cut at least 4 inches of hair, and then girls who weren't open to major cuts, but would be willing to color or hi-light, do trims and styles.  I was in the second group and they called 8 of us forward.  N* looked at each of our hair, and flipped through mine and then asked all of us for our pictures.  They were actually filming a video this Sunday already.  I noticed I was one of a few brunettes, as most of the girls were blondes, and then a few redheads.  At both Hair Castings I've been to, they tend to lean towards the redheads because I think they're more unusual, and all the redheads had great hair so I can see why they were chosen!  After they got all of our info we were dismissed from the room.  As I walked out of the building, I saw that more girls had showed up so they still had a lot of people to see before the day was done.

Even if I don't book a hair job in the next couple of weeks, I'm sending my information and more photos to N* because he's got a ton of videos coming up in the next few months and I'd be more than happy and lucky to work with him in the future because it's all about the net-working :)