Dear Struggling Actress

My fellow blogger/actress Anita sent me the following email:

I was wondering of I could ask your opinion on the following casting call:

Auditions for Dance Machine the Movie

Looking for Actors, Dancers and Musicians for Nationwide Casting for Feature Film!

We are holding open casting for the full feature film "DanceMachine!". "Dance Machine" is being produced by Mark R. Harris whose credits, to name a few, include "Crash", "The Black Donnellys," and "Gods and Monsters." Mr. Harris has developed a reputation for being a Hollywood innovator and has decided that instead of having the talent come to Hollywood, he wants Hollywood to come to the talent. "Not only will everyone have a fair and equal opportunity to showcase their talents and possibly land a role in DanceMachine!," says Mark, "but also show the rest of the entertainment community what they can do."

We are looking for:
Dancers & Choreographers
All types, all styles. Includes Dance Machine arcade dancers.
Actors
Primary Cast - teenagers. General cast - all ages. Breakdown & Actors sides may be found here.
Musicians
All types, all styles of music. Performers, Composers, Groups/Bands.
Artists
All types, all styles of art. Anime, 3-D, Animation, Pop & Modern Art.

Note: All minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.

Location: All states, United States

Payment details: Professional Pay

Applications to this casting call require:
* A phone number
* A profile photo
* A profile video

[A list of breakdowns follows.]

You have to go to their website, http://idancemachine.com/, register and then you can access sides, upload your CV, headshots, audition videos etc. It’s free and the only thing that I’m not too happy about is that your audition videos can be seen, rated, and commented on by anyone.

Would you do it, audition I mean? Or would you have earlier in your career? I just don’t know how seriously to take this and how professional and fair it is.

Hi Anita! So here's my take on those types of auditions:

They're NOT auditions. They're a promotional marketing campaign preyed upon actors so that when one actor who uploads all the stuff then has to tell all their friends and family members to vote/comment for them -  that one actor/dancer has told 100 people about it. And of those 100 people, 50 might go see the videos and vote. Which is pretty cost effective.

Their website says "All roles for DanceMachine! will be cast exclusively from talent from our iDanceMachine.com community." but just because a website says that doesn't mean they actually will. It's not smart for a film production to do that! Why would they go through thousands of videos (mostly terrible) when they could offer the role to already established talent like Vanessa Hudgens or Dianna Agron - stars who already have a huge following! THAT helps make a movie money. Unknowns with very little on set (if any) experience do not. And could cost them a ton of money due to their lack of experience and proffesionalism.

I don't for a second buy that these are real auditions. I mean, they could cast their extras in it, but even then, don't you think they'd want to go through an extras casting service filled with actors who KNOW how to do background work and are all in one spot to pull from?

It's a 3D movie. They're putting tons of money into special effects. They will hire professional, established actors and dancers repped by agencies. There's too much money going into it not to.

So, I would say you can do it to do it, but your chances of being called in are probably worse than winning the lottery. I'm not going to do it. I'd rather put the energy into filming a small scene and using it to put on my reel.

I think any actor, when it comes to these types of multi-media platforms to cast a movie needs to be very wary; no one is going to risk millions of dollars on someone who at least doesn't have a high powered agent behind them vouching for their work. Movies aren't made for art. They're made to make money. It's a business. If you're an unknown Struggling Actress, you're not going to help that movie make money. You're a risk. You have to look at it from that point of view.

And good for you, Anita, for doing your homework on it! I'd love to know what you decide on.

[UPDATE! 9/8/2011 Please see Dan Harris' response to this post here]