Spotlight Self-Tape Guide for Agents

Receive requests for self-tapes and forward them to your clients through Spotlight with Spotlight Self-Tape.

This guide is for agents who don’t use Tagmin. If you are a Tagmin agent, please take a look at our Self-Tape guide for Tagmin agents.

We are excited to launch Spotlight Self-Tape across our platform. This feature is currently available to a limited number of casting directors. We’re using this period to refine the tool based on direct feedback before opening it up more broadly.

As an agent, you will now receive Spotlight Self-Tape requests from casting directors through Spotlight, which can be forwarded on to your clients all in one place.

As well as helping you keep track of your clients’ responses, this feature also helps promote a consistent workflow across your agency, and makes it clear when self-tape submission deadlines are, along with which requests are still pending and which clients need to be chased.

Allowing multiple agents at your agency to receive and respond to your Spotlight Self-Tape requests

A Spotlight Self-Tape request will only go to the Spotlight account of the person who submitted for the role. If your client has Full Access and submitted themself, then they will receive the request.

If you make a submission for a client that multiple agents within your agency represent, only you will receive and be able to respond to the Self-Tape request.

How to ensure all relevant agents can see and respond to the requests:

Sign into your Spotlight account.
Click on the icon at the top right of your screen to open the right-hand menu, and then click ‘Account settings’.
Scroll down to ‘Self-Tape requests notification settings’.
You’ll see that it says ‘Requests sent to you only’. To change this, click the edit/pencil icon next to it.
Select the email addresses of the agents you’d like to be able to see and respond to your Spotlight Self-Tape requests.

Other Things to Note:

This setting will need to be changed before you receive the Spotlight Self-Tape request, otherwise the request will only go to your account.
The name of the agent who submits the Spotlight Self-Tape request to the casting director will be visible on the Self-Tape request, so you can check it in your feed to see who handled it.
If you would like to be notified about new requests via your agency’s main contact email address, you can turn on this setting in ‘Self-Tape requests notification settings’. Selecting this will not allow the entire agency to see and respond to your client’s Spotlight Self-Tape requests via the email, only send email notifications.

Take a look at our video guide below for more help on how to change this setting.

Receiving a Spotlight Self-Tape Request

When you submit your client for a project on Spotlight, and the casting professional sends them a Self-Tape request, you will receive a notification by email, and the request will populate within your Spotlight account.

How to view a Spotlight Self-Tape request:

Click ‘VIEW SELF-TAPE REQUEST’ in the email notification you receive.

Sign into your Spotlight account.
Click on ‘Self-Tape requests’ on the left-hand menu on your home page to see all the Self-Tape requests made by casting professionals.
If you use a shared account, all Spotlight Self-Tape requests will appear here. If you use individual agency sign in details, only submissions made by or shared with you will appear.

Status request meanings:

No Status: If no status appears on the Self-Tape request, an agent still needs to respond to it, otherwise it will continue to show as ‘pending’ to the casting professional.
Awaiting Submission: The Self-Tape request has been accepted by an agent but not yet submitted.
Sent to Client: The Self-Tape request has been sent to your client, but they haven’t yet submitted it to the casting professional.
Declined: The Self-Tape request has been declined and no further action is needed.
Self-Tape Sent: The Self-Tape has been submitted to the casting professional either by an agent or your client.

Responding to a Spotlight Self-Tape Request

When a Spotlight Self-Tape request is first received, it will have no status. You will need to respond to it so that the casting professional knows whether their request has been accepted or declined.

How to respond to a Spotlight Self-Tape request:

Click on the new request (it will have no status) to view the description, attachments, quantity of videos requested and instructions for each video.
At the bottom, click ‘RESPOND TO REQUEST’.
Select either ‘I will be accepting this request’ or ‘I will be declining this request’ and leave a message for the casting professional, if needed.
Click ‘SUBMIT RESPONSE’.

Changing your response:

If you need to change your response, you can, so long as it’s before the submission deadline.
Just click back into the request and edit your response.
If you originally accepted the request and shared it with your client, changing the response to decline won’t remove the request from your client’s feed. However, they will no longer be able to submit any videos to the request.

Submitting the Self-Tape

Thanks to the Spotlight Self-Tape feature, it’s possible for either you or your client to submit the self-tape directly to the casting professional through Spotlight.

How your client can submit the self-tape themselves:

Accept the Spotlight Self-Tape request using the steps in the previous section.
Click ‘SEND TO CLIENT’ and add any necessary details in the message field that you wish to pass on to your client.
Your client will now be able to upload their self-tape directly to the casting director through Spotlight.

How to submit your client’s self-tape:

Accept the Spotlight Self-Tape request using the steps in the previous section.
Make your client aware of the Self-Tape request specification and deadline, either by sending the Self-Tape request to them via the steps above, or by messaging them through another method such as WhatsApp or email.
Your client will need to send you their self-tape through a method outside of Spotlight once it’s complete.
When you’ve received the self-tape through a method outside of Spotlight, click into the Self-Tape request and click ‘SUBMIT SELF-TAPES’.
Click on the pencil icon if you’d like to edit the name of the self-tape file.
Click ‘SUBMIT’, and then ‘SUBMIT MEDIA’ in the pop-up window that follows.
A green message will appear to confirm that the self-tape has been submitted, and the status on your feed will change to ‘Sent’.
Please note that once the self-tape has been submitted to the casting professional, it cannot be deleted or amended.

Additional Options as an Agency

Tagmin

If you want simplified client communication and a streamlined upload journey, consider using our agency solution Tagmin, which fully integrates with Spotlight Self-Tape requests.

Tagmin will allow you to:

Client Notification: Package scripts, breakdown information and self-tape instructions together automatically, via your own work email, in a single click.
Client Delivery: Clients upload self-tapes directly into Tagmin with built-in tools to stitch their files together, giving you a finished submission without the manual work.
Review & Polish: Review, reorder or trim scenes your clients have uploaded and release them to casting professionals instantly, eliminating the need to download and re-upload the files yourself. Or, opt to skip agent review for those fast turnaround projects.
Branded Links: Share links are created for all self-tapes. These agency-branded pages automatically bundle self-tapes with your client’s Spotlight profile, your logo and contact details.

Setting Up Individual Users

We continue to encourage you to set up individual users for everyone working at your agency for the following reasons:

Error Prevention – Individual sign-ins reduce technical errors.
Client List Management – In the near future, each user will have the option to have individual client lists.

Shared Read Job Automation

Designed with smaller agencies and co-ops in mind, we introduced a new option which allows you to turn the ‘read/unread’ state option on. This means that one team member’s action (e.g. marking a job as read) will apply to everyone. It’s a great way to sync your team’s progress if you use read jobs as a flag for completed work.

This feature is optional and can be toggled on or off to fit your workflow. You can do this in the ‘Agency Details’ section of your account, found under ‘Job Feed Settings’ in the left-hand menu. It will start working the moment you click the button, so there may be a slight tidy-up needed for previous read breakdowns. Once the option is ticked, any read/unread breakdowns will be shared across all users at the agency.

How to add new users/sign in credentials to an agency:

Sign into your Spotlight account as an admin user.
Click on the icon at the top right of your screen to open the right-hand menu.
Click ‘Agency Details’.
Choose your agency, then click ‘Add new user’ at the top of the page.
Enter the new agent’s email address and click ‘Send Invite’.

By following these steps you’ll be able to effectively manage the Spotlight Self-Tape request you receive. If you run into any issues, take a look at our Self-Tape feature FAQs or you can contact our team at agents@spotlight.com.

We welcome your feedback on the Self-Tape feature.