Tip of the day: Send your Spotlight CV as a link & add it to your website

If you’re sending an email to agents, casting directors, producers or directors, don’t bother sending a photo, CV or show reel attachments, which they might not have the time to open. Just send them a link to your Spotlight CV.

Assuming their browser is open, they’ll be able to see your details in seconds. You can also include the link on your Facebook profile or even in a Tweet. 

A growing number of Spotlight members are also setting up their own websites and creating permanent links to their Spotlight CV. The benefits of this are that you don’t need to double up when adding/amending credits or uploading photo or video content. Here are some of the link buttons on offer:

To find out how to send your Spotlight CV as a link or add it to your website or blog, log in to your actors page and click on ‘Link to my CV’ which appears under the ‘My Web CV’ heading.

posted on 30th March 2010

Spotlight at the National Student Drama Festival

The National Student Drama Festival starts tomorrow in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, and Spotlight is one of the sponsors.

Pippa Harrison, Spotlight’s head of client services, and Will Davies, agent and casting liaison, will be at the festival from 30 March to 1 April hosting a seminar entitled “How to be a Professional Actor” and attending a couple of Equity networking events.

The National Student Drama Festival is a week-long celebration of theatre, live performance, discussion and special events.  NSDF10 offers students the chance to attend workshops and discussions covering all aspects of theatre and performance, including acting, dance, writing, directing, designing, devising and producing.

Practitioners come from all over the world and there are opportunities to take part in performances even if you are not part of a selected show.

In previous years workshops have been led by Mike Bradwell, Brian Cox, Ken Campbell, Stephen Daldry, Tim Fountain, John Godber, Stephen Jeffreys, Mike Leigh, Phylidda Lloyd, Mark Ravenhill, Simon Russell Beale, Sandi Toksvig and Timothy West, to name but a few.

For more information visit the NSDF website.

posted on 26th March 2010

Spotlight sponsors the Alan Bates Bursary 2010

Spotlight are proud to announce sponsorship of the Alan Bates Bursary 2010.

This Bursary is awarded annually to a promising young actor, at the outset of their career.

Sir Alan Bates was the Patron of the Actors Centre from 1994 until his death in 2004. He cared passionately about the craft of acting and about the cause of young actors entering the profession. The Alan Bates Bursary was endowed to commemorate his inspirational work on behalf of the Actors Centre and will be awarded annually to an actor of exceptional talent.

This year's recipient will be selected from an audition and interview with Lesley Sharp and Richard E. Grant. Previous judges have included Richard Wilson, Lindsay Duncan, Henry Goodman, Alex Jennings, Frances de la Tour, Frances Barber and Janet Suzman.

The Bursary is open to any actor under the age of thirty who is in the process of completing training on a NCDT accredited BA Acting course or an NCDT accredited 2 year Acting diploma i.e. a 2010 Graduate.

To apply for the Alan Bates Bursary please visit www.actorscentre.co.uk and download an application pack.

The deadline for applications is Friday 30th April 2010

If you require more information on the Alan Bates Bursary 2010 please contact Caroline Byrne at members@actorscentre.co.uk

posted on 24th March 2010

RSC casting assistants give auditions advice

Janine Snape and Jim Arnold, casting assistants at the RSC, were guest speakers at the Spotlight Graduate Programme this week. The event was a brilliant opportunity for graduates to meet them and to hear about the casting processes at the RSC.

Janine and Jim’s top tips:

1. In an audition, respond to the director’s instructions and adapt your performance accordingly.
2. Choose audition pieces that are appropriate to your age and gender.
3. Make sure you have your showreel and voice clip uploaded onto your Spotlight page.
4. When inviting casting directors to shows, give them as much notice as possible.
5. Be polite, be courteous, be yourself!

The Spotlight Graduate Programme of seminars and workshops runs until June and aims to support all students graduating from CDS drama schools in their final year.

For information on upcoming events, visit www.spotlight.com/graduates.

For more tips and advice from Spotlight and our guest experts, click here.

posted on 23rd March 2010

Spotlight members win big at this year’s Olivier Awards

Big congratulations to all the Spotlight members who won awards at Sunday's Olivier Awards. They are Aneurin Barnard, Eddie Redmayne, Iwan Rheon, Mark Rylance, Maggie Smith, Samantha Spiro, Rachel Weisz and Ruth Wilson.

Plaudits too to all the performers who were nominated in the actor/actress categories.

On the dance side of things, Stephen Mears won Best Theatre Chorographer for Hello Dolly! at the Open Air and the Rambert Dance company won the award for Outstanding Achievement in Dance.

For a full list of the winners and nominees click here.

posted on 23rd March 2010

Famous faces from Spotlight's past

Since 1927, Spotlight's pages have featured hundreds of famous faces. 

The Hall of Fame is a compilation of our favourite actor and actress photos from stage and screen. 

To view ‘When They Were Children’, ‘James Bond 007’, ‘Academy Award Winners’ and many more, click here.

posted on 22nd March 2010

Top five career tips for budding dancers

Spotlight were at Move It! 2010 (http://www.moveitdance.co.uk/) last Friday and as well as all the amazing performances and master classes, several industry professionals were giving career advice to aspiring dancers.  Spotlight’s very own dance expert Martin Pavey picked the top five tips and here they are:

• Believe in yourself - Casting Directors always look for passionate performers. Your driving force must always be your love for dance and joy of performing, as well as the conviction in your abilities.
• Train - Training not only gives you the necessary skills, but the ability to focus your energies and meet inspirational people. Visit the CDET website (www.cdet.org.uk), for a list of accredited dance courses that will enable you to shine to the casting community!
• Have fantastic photos - Any performer worth their salt must exploit every opportunity to promote themselves. Having great photos taken both stationary and “in-action” is a brilliant way of instantly showing the casting director what you can do. They can be in colour too!
• Be versatile - Learn as many types of dance possible to give you the edge! Casting directors audition dancers they can rely on, who are proficient in many styles.
• Never give up - Ballet Superstar and motivational speaker at Move It! 2010, Wayne Sleep, stressed the importance of tenacity in this industry. Keep going and don’t listen to any discouragement others may throw at you!

For information on Spotlight Dancers and how to join, click here.

To see examples of recent dance projects cast via Spotlight, click here.

posted on 19th March 2010

Recent actor, dancer and presenter projects cast via Spotlight

The following are just a selection from the many hundreds of projects which have been cast via Spotlight recently:

Film and Television

The Sarah Jane Adventures

The IT Crowd

Taggart

Merlin

4321

Inbetweeners

River City

Untitled Ken Loach Project 2009

Hollyoaks

Sex and the City 2

Stage

Dunsinane (Hampstead Theatre, London)

Enron (Noel Coward Theatre, London)

The 39 Steps (National Tour)

Really Old, Like Forty Five (National Theatre)

Columbo (National Tour)

Canterbury Tales (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Liverpool Playhouse, Cheltenham Everyman, SJT, The Rose)

The Promise (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond)

Backbeat (Citizen’s Theatre, Glasgow)

An Enemy of the People (Crucible, Sheffield)

Othello (International Tour)

Commercial

Marmite

Cadbury ‘Glass Half Full’

Nike

John Lewis

Coca Cola

McDonalds

BBC iplayer

NSPCC

Actimel

Douwe Egberts

Dance

Singin in the Rain (Musical)

Cruise Ship Tour (Stage)

Tango (Internet)

Chicago (Musical)

Freaky Farley (Television)

Chemical Brothers (Music Video)

Out Day Out - Royal Court Liverpool (Musical)

Clairol (Commercial)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (Musical)

Sony Ericcson (Still Photography)

Match.com (Commercial)

Tokyo Disney Resort – Spring 2010 Audition Tour (Stage)

Guys and Dolls (Musical)

Presenting

CNN (Corporate)

NHS (Viral)

The Debt People (Commercial)

Wannahave (Television)

Canadian Game Show (Television)

Numerous Pantomime Productions (Stage)

BBC Global News – the Internet Season (Commercial)
What’s New TV (Infomercial)

Metro.co.uk (Internet)

GMC (Corporate)

posted on 19th March 2010

Five Top Tips for TV and Film Casting from Kate Rhodes James

At this week’s Spotlight Graduate Programme event, casting director Kate Rhodes James (Bleak House, Cold Feet, Into the Storm, Mo Mowlam, The Fattest Man in Great Britain) spoke to final-year drama graduates about casting for film and television. 

Topics covered included how to approach a casting director, what to expect in an audition and how best to present yourself (CV’s and photographs).  For anyone wanting to break into television and film here are her top five tips: 

1. Research each casting director before you meet or contact them.  If you’re writing to them, and you know the role they will be casting for, read the book etc, tell them why you’re right for it.  Be specific.  IMDB everyone.  Anything they’ve done that you liked?  Tell them!  Invite casting directors to your show, even fringe show.
2. Not getting the role doesn’t put the casting director off casting you in the future.  Keep a good positive attitude, be polite and punctual and you will be recalled for other auditions.  Understand the way you look.  Don’t come across as nonchalant – you want to look like you want the job.
3. CVs – keep simple, especially important for new graduates without much experience yet.  Agent and photo paramount.  Casting directors for TV and film are looking for a headshot which is a heightened version of you.
4. Always have a showreel available.  In America you have to have a showreel.  While it is not quite the same in the UK, you don’t want to lose a job because you don’t have one.  You can even film yourself if you haven’t had any filmed work yet.  Straight to camera.  Not too long.  2-3 strong scenes.  Use recent clips – no good seeing anything from 10 years ago.
5. There will always be a camera in the audition room for TV and film castings so get a tripod and camera and practise with them. Learn how to position yourself, be aware of the light, what the camera registers.  Be capable of bringing it down if necessary.

The Spotlight Graduate Programme of seminars and workshops runs until June and aims to support all students graduating from CDS drama schools in their final year. For information on upcoming events, visit Spotlight Graduates.

For more tips and advice from Spotlight and our guest experts, click here

For information on Spotlight’s showreel upload and editing services, click here 

posted on 17th March 2010

Spotlight at Move It Event

Spotlight had a fantastic day exhibiting at this year’s Move It event on Friday 12^th March. 

Highlights from the main stage included; Expressions Academy of Performing Arts, whose performance was inspired by dance from around the world, Urdang Academy, who explored the beauty of ballet and some cutting-edge contemporary dance and Cambridge Performing Arts – Bodywork Company who entertained the crowds with some high velocity hip hop and street dance plus the sensational Flawless taught a packed masterclass.

Once again Move It brought the latest trends, the most cutting edge performances and top dancers all together under one roof and we were thrilled to be a part of it.

You can view a full set of photos from the event on our Facebook page.

If you are interested in joining Spotlight Dancers click here

posted on 16th March 2010

One-month Spotlight casting subscription now available

Need to find actors? Need to send a casting brief? One-month subscriptions to Spotlight Interactive can now be purchased online.

A subscription gives you all the services you need for every stage of the casting process, making it quick and easy to find the perfect performer for any role.

Visit the Spotlight Shop to subscribe now.

posted on 15th March 2010

Top five career tips for aspiring presenters

Are you an actor or dancer looking to branch into presenting?  Or perhaps you've been watching television and thought I could do better than that?  To help you on your way here are our top five tips:

1. Be specific about what type of presenter you are - are you entertainment, factual or both?  If you have an expertise, capitalise on it.  Agents, commissioning editors and heads of development all need to be able to place you immediately, don't make it hard for them.
   
2. When seeking representation, you need a showreel to send to agents.  It doesn't need to be professionally shot and edited and should be no longer then three and a half minutes.  In terms of content, you should consider a piece to camera about something you're interested in, a piece walking and talking and an interview (which doesn't need to be with anyone famous).  Avoid a musical montage at the start, it wastes time and agents may not have the patience to wait until it's over. 
   
3. Presenter photos are another important tool of the trade - they can be b&w or colour, a head shot or full length but most importantly they should be a true representation of who you are.  In this sense they are different to traditional actor-style photos - presenter photos can even be a holiday snap! 
   
4. Research the industry - it's so important to know what companies are producing what and who the commissioning editors and heads of development are.  The way to do this is to read trade magazines such as Broadcast and start watching the credits at the end of TV shows.  Once you have familiarised yourself with these names then you can target them and send them your details.
   
5. Networking - hugely important, keep your ear to the ground, go to networking events, be seen and get around, meeting someone face to face is what it's all about so maximise those chances by getting out there.  If you're going to an event – search on Google Images for the people you are likely to meet there.  That way you'll introduce yourself to the right person and avoid time-wasting and embarrassments.  Remember who you meet and follow up by sending them your details. 

For more details on the benefits of joining Spotlight Presenters Emerging Talent section click here.

posted on 12th March 2010

Spotlight Prize nominees announced

We are pleased to announce the names of the 22 drama students who have been nominated for the annual Spotlight Prize in 2010.

Each nominee has been selected by their CDS drama school as the best actor from their graduating year. The nominees will now perform at the prestigious Spotlight Showcase on 20 July 2010, to an exclusive VIP audience of agents, casting professionals and others.

A panel of industry experts will award two prizes based on the performances:

• Best Actor/Actress (£2,000)
• Highly Commended Actor/Actress (£1,500)

The prizes will be announced on 20 July 2010.

All nominated students also win a free year’s membership of Spotlight, and a free ticket to the Spotlight Student Summer Ball on 30 May. All nominees will also be appearing in the upcoming showcases and performances given by CDS drama schools. To view a calendar of forthcoming events, visit the Spotlight Performance Calendar.

Congratulations to all of the nominees, who are pictured above: Hayley Ellenbrook (ALRA), Fleur Keith (Arts Ed London School of Acting), Jane Horn (Bristol Old Vic Theatre School), Andy Rush (Birmingham School of Acting), Vivienne Bell (Central), Lil Davis (Cygnet Training Theatre), Beth Park (Drama Centre London), Olivia Vinall (Drama Studio London), Jesse Briton (East 15 Acting School), Louis Maskell (Guildford School of Acting), Patrick Osborne (Guildhall), Lewis Hart (Italia Conti), Ellie Jacob (LAMDA), Herman Gambhir (LIPA), Katie Jacobs (Manchester Metropolitan), Matthew Seadon-Young (Mountview), Andrew Gower (Oxford School of Drama), Luke McConnell (QMU), Seline Hizli (RADA), Oliver Mott (Rose Bruford College), Leon Vickers (RSAMD) and Rosie Wyatt (RWCMD).

posted on 10th March 2010

How to succeed at commercial castings

2010 has got off to a great start at Spotlight Studios with numerous film and television projects using our facilities.

Just recently feature film directors Roland Emmerich (2012, The Day After Tomorrow) and Taylor Hackford (Ray, Proof of Life) were in casting for their latest projects. It’s pilot season too which means plenty of actors have been in to tape their auditions for American casting directors.

Commercial castings include Orange, John Lewis, McDonalds, Shell and Nintendo.

To help you with landing that commercial, here are some top tips:

1. Check that you’ve received any relevant script or information in advance.
2. Always know the product and the casting director when you arrive at the casting.
3. Always read the script first, fill in the casting forms later.
4. Be prepared to wait (and pleasantly surprised if you don’t have to). Commercial sessions invariably run late, so don’t let it affect your audition.
5. Expect to be asked to improvise: approach this with a positive attitude and try not to look nervous even if you are.
6. Remember you’re in front of a camera, not on stage – less is more when it comes to your performance.
7. Listen carefully to the instructions the casting director gives you and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
8. Be aware of where the camera is and make sure your face is clearly visible – don’t look straight at the camera though.
9. Don’t try and be wacky or different to stand out.

For more information on our studios, including a studio tour, click here.

For more tips and advice from Spotlight and our guest experts, click here.

posted on 10th March 2010

Success at commercial castings – free workshop for Graduates

Spotlight’s next Graduates Programme event, on Monday 8 March, aims to give students a crash course in the world of commercial castings - debunking myths, telling you what to expect and how to prepare for the castings you’re most likely to encounter as a graduate entering the industry.

The free workshop will be hosted by Thom Hammond, who manages Spotlight’s busy casting studios and brings experience as a freelance casting assistant and an actor to this informal, interactive session.

Some places are still available at the event, which is open to students graduating from CDS drama schools in their final year.

Visit Spotlight Graduates to book a place.

posted on 4th March 2010

Spotlight at Launch 2010

Spotlight enjoyed a successful day at Launch 2010, the annual event that brings together dance graduates and industry professionals.

Last weekend’s event was packed full of seminars and advice on how to kick start your career and start thinking about your future. Seminars included ‘Managing Finance and Tax’ with Tim Tubbs, ‘Arts Administration’ with Isabel Tamen (former dancer and executive director of Richard Alston Dance Company), ‘Education in Dance’ with Veronica Jobbins (head of education and community department at LABAN) as well as an in-depth CV tune-up session with Kiki Gale (artistic director of East London Dance).

There was also the opportunity to ask Drew McOnie (So You Think You Can Dance, New Adventures), leading dance photographer Chris Nash, freelance dancer Sarah Storer (Henri Oguike, Raphael Bonachela), Ben Duke (Lost Dog), Darren Ellis (artistic director of Darren Ellis Dance, Richard Alston Dance Company, New Adventures), Akosua Boakye (ADAD Trailblazer, head of dance at Kensington & Chelsea College) and Etta Murfitt (associate director for New Adventures Production Company) questions and advice about how to launch your dance career in the Chat Show at the end of the day.

Drew McOnie said his advice to students is: “Find out exactly what it is that makes you happy and follow it. It’s not going to be easy but if you can see it you can get it!"

Hosted by Dance UK and The Place, the day offered opportunities to network with leading choreographers, performers, teachers and delegates from all areas of dance. There was a chance to speak to exhibitors including Equity, Dancers Career Development (DCD), City University, Pilates Foundation, and Jo Baker (Dance Science), as well as Spotlight.

You can view a full set of photos from the event on our Facebook page. (Photos by Sanna Ryg.)

We look forward to seeing you again next year!

posted on 4th March 2010

Promote your graduate show on the Spotlight Calendar

Calling all graduate actors, dancers, child artists and young performers! Did you know that the Spotlight Performance Calendar allows you to advertise your final year performances and showcases to the entire casting industry?

Used by casting directors, agents, producers and directors throughout the UK, the details, dates and locations of your show are accessible from all areas of our website. Furthermore, for drama and dance graduate performances, each posting has a cast list which can link directly through to your Spotlight CV and photo. 

This is a completely free service open to:

• All drama students who are graduating from a CDS drama school or an NCDT accredited course;
• All dance students who are graduating from dance schools and colleges which are either accredited by the Council for Dance Education and training (CDET), Ofsted approved or eligible for DADA awards;
• All child artists and young performers and child agencies who appear in Spotlight Children and Young Performers directory.

Numerous schools and colleges are already posting their details on the Performance Calendar - make sure your showcase performance receives maximum exposure via the Spotlight website!

For more information visit www.spotlight.com/calendar/.

posted on 3rd March 2010

Spotlight Actresses – renew your membership now

It’s that time of year when our actress members need to renew their Spotlight membership or confirm their details.

This year is gearing up to be an exciting one for Spotlight’s directories, website services and outreach work, with lots more planned in the coming months  - you don’t want to miss out!

To renew visit www.spotlight.com/renew.

Paper forms are also being sent to actress members in the post, but please note that it will take longer for us to update your CV and/or photo if you choose to complete these. The deadline is 15 April 2010.

To renew your membership online you need:

• Your Spotlight Update PIN: in the format XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
• A debit or credit card: membership is just £137 for a whole year in Spotlight, and you can pay online using our secure online server
• A high-resolution digital copy of your new photo, if you wish to change it

If you have any questions regarding your membership, please contact us on questions@spotlight.com or call 020 7437 7631.

posted on 1st March 2010