Casting Directors: How they Work, How they got into this Career

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I've always loved the idea of being a casting director like Russell Marsh or Lesley Goring. Does anyone know of any agencies where it is possible to gain work experience in London or NY? Or know of any more big casting directors for fashion shows/campaigns? Happy New Year! xx
 
somebody please answer! I wanna know too! :D
...I would say to work your way up at an agency...start off as receptionist or assistant, and learn from that experience...but then again, I have no clue about the fashion industry...I just know I worked my way up the food chain at my job, and that you can pretty much do that anywhere if you're determined enough!
 
i found some information about how russell started

Having cut his teeth as an assistant to the show producer Michael Rosen in the 1980s (they produced runway shows for the cream of the then London fashion scene, including Bodymap, Katharine Hamnett, Richmond-Cornejo), Marsh did a stint at the Laraine Ashton Model Agency (now IMG). It was only in 1990 that he found a way to combine his talent for creating fashion shows with his flair for finding new faces, and set up his own company.
 
it's such an interesting profession, i think that you should probably just get an internship following someone becasue there isn't a degree or anything for it.
 
I always wondered, are there seperate agencies that provide fashion brands or houses with a casting director...or are they employed by a modeling agency, or the fashion house itself? Like a show for Chanel or something, who arranges and directs a casting...where does he hail from? Et cetera...

Thanks!
 
^I found a great article: :woot:
http://www.thestar.com/living/Fashion/article/244841

And it answers your question:
DNA has a staff scout who searches for models specific to the agency's clientele.
Some design houses have their own scouts, too. One of the most powerful is Russell Marsh, who works for Prada, Balenciaga and produces many London Fashion Week shows.

P.S I need a Russell Marsh's photo for an article, does anyone have any? :flower:
 
^vogue.co.uk had a picture a while back, but i dont know what happened to it
 
thanks, I've read somewhere that he's around 50- is that true?
 
Thanks for the article. It's so interesting to read about how the models actually get casted. :flower:
 
I know what a booker and a scout is,but what are the exactly tasks of a casting director.
Does he decide which models come to the casting or does the agency/booker send the right girls?
 
there are very few of these in the whole world...
only the very big comapanies can afford a separate casting person...
and also for big ad campaigns...
often casting people are used for finding 'real people' or a 'street casting'...

very often producers double as casting people...
i would think that would be a good thing to do if you want to break in..
work for a production company
 
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Coacd

Best blog

Confessions of a Casting Director

COACD

mostly polaroids, right now the latest show cards for NY Fashion week.
The day after AMTM finished, he had Jaslene's Elite card (so awful, lots of makeup!).
 
Rates?

Does anyone have an idea how a casting director charges for a job? I mean, does he/she take a percantage from the client/model agency or have a fixed rate for the job?
 
Thought I'd share this article from The Independent on Russell Marsh..

Fashion & style: The model maker
Independent, The (London), Sep 29, 2005 by Cat Callender

'You want to know what modelling is all about?' drawls the casting director Russell Marsh, turning to his assistant for the punchline. 'Tell her what it's about, Adam.'
'Timing,' mutters Adam, deadpan and without lifting his eyes from his computer screen.
'It really is,' says Marsh. 'It's about chance meetings that can change your world forever.'

Or, at least, it can be if it's Marsh who claps eyes on you and likes what he sees. Marsh is one of the most influential casting directors in the business. With an ability to spot a supermodel at 50 paces, he has launched the careers of more girls than you can shake a stick at, and spearheaded countless new ideals in beauty. 'He just seems to second- guess what the next direction is going to be in modelling,' says Tori Edwards, director of ICM Models. She not only attributes the current vogue for haughty, 'bourgeoise' models to Marsh (he discovered Gemma Ward and Daria Werbowy, the trend's poster girls), but also believes that he is responsible for the success of many of the big names stalking the runways today. 'I remember when Russell cast Karen Elson in a Miu Miu show just as she was starting out. Next minute, Steven Meisel was shooting her for Italian Vogue.'

In addition to providing his services to some of the top fashion publications (British and French Vogue, Dazed & Confused, W), Marsh has an exclusive contract with Prada and Miu Miu to cast the brands' runway presentations and campaigns. Indeed, it is Marsh's job to find the right girl to embody a designer's vision (in this case, that of the quixotic Miuccia Prada), or inject character into the narrative of an editorial fashion story with his choice of model. 'He's an editor of girls, really,' says Anna- Marie Solowij, beauty and health director of Vogue UK. 'If people are referencing Bruce Weber's outdoorsy, Californian vibe, he can suggest 10 girls. If Miuccia is after retro, bourgeoise-type 20-year-olds, he finds girls to fit the bill. He is constantly slotting girls into roles.'

Having cut his teeth as an assistant to the show producer Michael Rosen in the 1980s (they produced runway shows for the cream of the then London fashion scene, including Bodymap, Katharine Hamnett, Richmond-Cornejo), Marsh did a stint at the Laraine Ashton Model Agency (now IMG). It was only in 1990 that he found a way to combine his talent for creating fashion shows with his flair for finding new faces, and set up his own company.
'This office is like a magnet. There's this force field " sorry to get all Star Wars about it " and the models I'm drawn to tend to end up going places,' says Marsh. 'I can tell from a Polaroid if someone's got something to say to me. I get this physical feeling, and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.'

As melodramatic as this might sound, there's certainly something about Marsh " heightened sensibility, perhaps " that enables him to spot what even seasoned model agents find imperceptible. 'I remember there was a girl called Vivien Solari whom Russell picked up on early in her career,' says Tori Edwards. 'One of the bookers [at ICM] wasn't sure about her. She had badly permed hair. We thought we'd have to groom her up. But he saw the potential in her, beyond all the superficial issues.'

Solowij agrees. 'Many of the girls Marsh has plucked out and pushed along their way, like Daria, have been around for a while,' she says, referring to the girl recently hailed as the supermodel of the Noughties. 'And, with his polishing, she has secured the Lancme campaign, which is a big deal because it's dependent upon her face. Until Russell focused on her, no one took much notice of her.'

Unearthing these gems, however, is a rigorous process and one that takes up all of his time these days. He no longer produces fashion shows, concentrating instead on his work with Prada. As well as liaising with the 80-plus key model agencies in London, Milan, Paris and New York (not to mention the scouts truffling for talent everywhere from Quebec to Uzbekistan), Marsh sifts through at least 100 images a day, and meets over 3,000 models a year. These are catalogued on his database of around 18,000 models, and then edited down to a mere 20 that possess that intangible ingredient that lights Marsh's fire. And, more often than not, Prada's, too.

Just as Prada's collections introduce the new fashion mood each season, increasingly, thanks to Marsh's collaboration, the models that sashay down that runway also set a new standard of beauty. 'I can't think of any girl who has done a Miu Miu or Prada show who hasn't gone on to become a great model,' says Edwards of what, in the industry, is considered to be the ultimate launching-pad. 'When a new girl gets Russell's thumbs up, it paves her path.'

Take Sasha Pivovarova, an unknown Russian girl whom Marsh booked to open Prada's autumn/winter 2005 show last September. In under six months, she became the face of Prada and was photographed by everyone from David Sims to Peter Lindbergh for British, French and Italian Vogue. And take Angela Lindvall, Karolina Kurkova, Gemma Ward, Diana Dondoe and Querelle, all of whom are considered some of the hottest models working today. While all were spotted by Marsh, each one represents a different type of beauty (fresh faced, androgynous, Amazonian, aristocratic...).
http://findarticles.com
 
Jennifer Starr, Casting Director

Women management blogspot

You may think you know Jennifer Starr from the hit Bravo show “Make Me a Supermodel”. Jennifer is the original independent Casting Director – world renowned photographers and designers hire her for her opinion and point of view. In her words: “I have the best job anyone could have – I have a license to go up to anyone I find interesting – and I do”. Jennifer has collaborated with photographers such as Bruce Weber, Richard Avedon, Steven Meisel, Mario Testino, Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott, Inez van Lamsweerde & Vinoodh Matadin, Terry Richardson and Steven Klein. She has cast campaigns for icons such as Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Gap and Gucci.

Q: Where are you from?

A: New York City – but at 14 my family moved to Miami which I really didn't mind because I loved sports and the outdoors. In Manhattan we had a 40 minute gym class each day where we were in a small school gymnasium. If we were lucky we got to go over to central park and kick a ball around. At my school in Coconut Grove, Miami, I was on the swim team, volleyball team and basketball team. On weekends I was at the beach. Miami was completely different then than it is now. Coconut Grove and South Beach are practically unrecognizable.

Q: How did you get into this business?

A: Through Bruce Weber’s sister Barbara DeWitt. Bruce was shooting The Calvin Klein Obsession and Jeans campaign and she was the producer. I was 17 and she asked me to scout locations for the shoots. There were about 40 models, including Christy Turlington, and we needed private homes where Bruce would be comfortable shooting nudes in natural light. I lived in a high-rise but many of my friends had beautiful homes that I knew would work perfectly. Once the shoot began, Bruce asked me to stay on as a production assistant – I remember one of my first responsibilities included taking the models to the beach to get a healthy tan, and making sure they didn’t get sunburned. I decided I couldn't really tell my friends what I was doing (LOL). Who would believe it? After working for Bruce for a few months I went to the University of Wisconsin, where I received a B.A. in Sociology, and studied Political Science at Oxford. Right before graduation, Bruce and his partner Nan asked me to come back to New York and work for them full time. Somewhere along the line my primary job became casting the models. I think I just really enjoyed that part of the job more then anything else and I guess was innately good at it. Bruce would send me all over the world to find fresh new faces.

Q: Tell me about working with Bruce-

A: Bruce wanted to know everything about the people he would shoot – where they were from, what sports they played at school. He was curious about who they were as individuals. For many Abercrombie & Fitch ad and Versace campaigns I would travel ahead to the shoot location and cast locals. This would help guarantee us new faces that hadn’t been overexposed. Using local people as models would bring spontaneity to the shoot – really great energy. Bruce really captures who a person is in his photographs. I refer to my time there as BW school. It was a real education into music, film, fashion, and art. Bruce would say we are going to do a Pasolini story and I would then go and watch every Pasolina film made. He would make cinematic references all the time. I made the best of friends over those four years. With Bruce and Nan and the dogs at the helm, it was very much a family.

Q: How did you start your business?

A: When I began there were no independent casting directors. There were no rules. No fee structures. There was no program or structured course of action to follow to become a casting director…like there is for lawyers, bankers or doctors. Bruce taught me how to do street casting – to find real beauty that would be accepted in a commercial ad campaign. He used to say- when you leave here and you’re a big casting director... he planted the seed. Bruce was super supportive when I left and even recommended me to Calvin. Then, my first phone call on my own was from Richard Avedon Things just kind of snow balled after that. I was incredibly blessed.

Q: What was it like working with Richard Avedon

A: He was larger than life. I admired him and his work even before I entered this business. He had so much energy. I kept calling him Mr. Avedon and he kept saying- please call me Dick. I said I just couldn't do that. At our first meeting he told me that he wanted me to travel around the world - that I should pick twelve different countries and find the most beautiful women in each country for the next Pirelli Calendar called Women of the World. After he said this I started looking around the room. He said "what are you looking for"? I said that I am looking for the man to tell me that I am on candid camera because these things don't happen to me. He said he loved me and I had the job.

Q: I loved those old D&G ads.

A: I loved casting those D&G campaigns for Steven Meisel. We used real people. I presented Steven with an extensive biography on each model because that's what Bruce liked. Steven was like- Jen- I'm not writing a book on these people- it's a portrait! He’s so funny! I cast real families and couples- many of them same sex couples, and they were shot in very normal, very casual, and very beautiful situations. I think it was the first time gay couples were portrayed in a very affectionate, loving and tasteful way. These ads had a big impact on the way homosexuality was perceived and I was so proud to have been a part of them.

Q: How has modeling changed in the last 5 years?

A: Celebrities have become the new supermodels.

Q: Where do you see the modeling industry changing in the next 5 years?

A: Well, I would say that street casting is still going to be important and I feel that reality television is going to affect the fashion industry as well.

Q: What do you look for in a model?

A: Someone who is comfortable in their own skin. A relaxed body attitude, not studied body language. Not “super-modely”. The ability to really look with their eyes and connect with the camera. I am always searching for unique and different types of beauty. I love people who are passionate about something and that passion comes through in a picture. And, quite often I am drawn to people with great personal style.

Posted by James Tinnelly
 
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