Does anyone have an opinion or experience with their children and Central Casting? They recently had an open call asking for kids, but don't they deal only with extra or background work?

I know this is a background casting company. That's about my extent of knowledge towards Central Casting.

quote:

Originally posted by ocmom:
Does anyone have an opinion or experience with their children and Central Casting? They recently had an open call asking for kids, but don't they deal only with extra or background work?

Were they charging for registration?

You know Ray and Rita, I beleive they were. I think it was a $25 fee, which is why I didn't take it too seriously. But I have done some research since and they seem to be legit, but that FEE!? And there was also a casting notice on
NYCastings for extas NOT registered with Central Casting - what does that mean? Do have any experience with them?

quote:

Originally posted by ocmom:
Does anyone have an opinion or experience with their children and Central Casting? They recently had an open call asking for kids, but don't they deal only with extra or background work?

Central Casting only books background actors, union and non-union. Not speaking roles.

From the early days of filmmaking in Hollywood, Central has been "the Gold Standard" for extra casting, and although it's been a lifetime since I worked with them, I would suppose they still are. "Back in the day" we had a union strictly for background players... it was called SEG, The Screen Extras Guild. But after decades of providing extras decent living wages (can you imagine making a fine living doing strictly background work today?), a strong anti-union sentiment began to fester and grow in Hollywood, driving productions out of Los Angeles forever (the first show to abandon Hollywood was Stephen J. Cannell's "21 Jump Street" starring a young newcomer by the name of Johnny Depp -- totally shot and produced in Vancouver, Canada and permanently ending Hollywood's stranglehold on film and television production).

Many, many agencies flourished during the reign of Central Casting, but only Central has remained, testament to their continuing dominance in a highly competitive field.

You may want to post on backgroundbeat.com, but yes, basically all Central does is background work. If you look here there are a bunch of NYC based background cos. listed. The "not registered" notice was for those who are not currently registered with CC--as in they need new faces.

Thank you both, Robert and CSilvera for the info! What do you think about that $25 fee? Also, do any Moms out there have any first hand experience with Central Casting and young children? I think CC was looking for young ones as well, but I'm aware of the grueling day of work that awaits an extra and was wondering if anyone has attempted this with a toddler.

I don't think that a $25. fee is excessive... it'll essentially just cover your processing.

Young children are always an special consideration, but labor laws protect all players, union or not. Check with your representative to address your concerns and for their input on the subject.

www.robertkim.com

Are you sure it has to be paid? I thought I read somewhere that was just if you had a special kind of picture taken to be put in their book. I wouldn't pay it--there are plenty of other companies that don't make you pay a fee. I'm also not sure I would take a toddler to do non-union extra work, but I think you could check with the Central before to see the timing etc. I wouldn't think anyone in the production wants a bunch of cranky tired toddlers running around, so I would think they would be mindful of this.

CSilvera, Now that you mention it, I beleive that's what the fee was for. I've been trying to find that casting notice to no avail! Anyways, I completely agree with the tired cranky toddler thing, but I was thinking of listing as Mother/daughter and mother/son. My daughter is 2 and she will be getting a SAG waiver from a film she's doing, and I wonder if it's worth it to continue "waivering" at such a young age? Maybe this should be a separate thread!

Yeah--maybe it should be! I know for adults there's an issue of joining sag too soon; don't know if it's the same for kids.

quote:

Originally posted by ocmom:
You know Ray and Rita, I beleive they were. I think it was a $25 fee, ...
Do have any experience with them?

We have done a lot of SAG work from 1977 on and NEVER paid an advance fee as Central Casting charges. We have NOT registered with Central Casting and do not expect to do so.

In fact it is against the law in NYS to charge an advance fee.
See
http://home2.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/news/pr_112304.shtml
"Upfront fees are illegal. Do not use an agent who requests upfront fees for photo shoots or any other type of service."

I think the fee was to be in their "book" as CSilvera had mentioned. I have looked all over the internet for the original notice for this! I have checked their website and it makes no mention of a fee to register with them.

quote:

Originally posted by ocmom:
I think the fee was to be in their "book" as CSilvera had mentioned. I have looked all over the internet for the original notice for this! I have checked their website and it makes no mention of a fee to register with them.

Perhaps a BackStage employee can look at the first NYC hard copy ad that Central Casting placed a couple of years ago.

I believe that at that time they said that paying for photo was mandatory. That is when we decide we would not register with them

No no no, Central Casting asks for a $25 fee for the digital picture, which isn't mandatory - but when you're pulled up in the system that picture comes up automatically instead of having to truffle around for the headshot that has been stored in a file somewhere. NY state does not permit those type of fees for casting companies. from what i've been reading so far however, the majority of the people who don't get as many matches as they'd like are the ones that do not get the digital picture (i guess that could mean there's a "catch"). Personally, I do not feel $25 is a lot of money if that's the only thing standing in the way of making some (not great but "ok" bordering on "good") money. However, I understand that there are many people out here in NYC and LA that may have already paid an arm and a leg for headshots. Central Casting has been in the business for quite some time so I don't think it could hurt to try it out. As far as the weary mother goes, look them up on BBB, most likely anyone they really ripped off or did wrong would have complained about them there...I say go there because, for some of the users on here (not targeting anyone specifically so please do not respond to this angrily) but it's not THAT difficult to come to a random site and bad mouth a business if they didn't give u everything you wanted or it turned out to be too hard...but if it was as serious as some of these users truly made it I'd imagine they wouldn't only complain on an ideally anonymous message board. So check there for any complaints.