Christa Schamberger - Independent Casting Director

STUDIO & TECHNICAL FACILITIES - Casting Connection Studio
151 Ninth Avenue, Highlands North, Johannesburg South Africa

The acting area measures about 5m x 4m (15 x 12 feet) on fitted carpet against a neutral grey cyclorama. Auditions are shot with a Sony PD150 camera fitted with a Sennheiser MK300 mini shotgun microphone. This delivers good sound quality while allowing the artists freedom of movement for action scenes. An unobtrusive number is superimposed throughout every audition, facilitating identification at any point on the final compilation.
Lighting is provided by a custom built flourescent Soft Box to the left, filled by a large Polly-bounced fill off-centre right. A central backlight / kicker is also used. Video is captured direct to hard drive in full DV quality. This reduces costs by eliminating the digitising process. Material is archived until the end of Principal photography in South Africa.
The Director's viewing area / interview area is behind the camera and has a separate door for access to the office, toilets and kitchen.

On-Line Auditions In 2007 we distributed "Generation Kill" Auditions (Out Of Africa Films for Company Pictures UK for HBO) and "Rough" (Sienna Films Toronto & Philo Films SA) by uploading to the CastIt system based in Santa Monica. Not all Producers have the budget or need for the sophisticated CastIt online streaming system however, while the public file transfer sites (YouSendit and TransferBigFiles) are often congested and slow - they also hold the files for only a few days. The Scriptwright Audition Access page We have our own Upload / Download facility, which has proved both popular and useful. (Invictus, Africa United, Kidnap & Ransom, Sniper-Reloaded, Strike Back!, Women In Love, Outcasts) Our web site server is located in the United Kingdom, since most of our clients are in Europe or the USA and the "pipe" to South Africa is comparatively congested and slow. Although we prefer the Windows Media format because it provides an excellent balance of quality and speed, most clients seem to find Quicktime or *.MP4 easier to deal with. (Windows Media files CAN also be played on Apple computers!) You will naturally require access to a high speed connection and possibly the facility to burn your download to data CD or data DVD. How it works Producers receive a Link via e-mail to their own password protected page on a sub-domain of our site. While video clips can be viewed online, the intention is that the files are downloaded and saved to your hard drive. These files may then be burned to an ordinary data CD or data DVD and viewed on a laptop on location, if necessary. It is also possible for auditions to be uploaded from other centres, although they wil not be accessible from the page until I have been able to update links on the relevant page. When the Auditions have been encoded, uploaded and linked, you will be sent an e-mail with a clickable link. After entering your User name and Password, you will be allowed to view your production's index page. A table on the index page will indicate which Roles have ben updated. Each character can be reached via the menu bar, which is repeated on every page. Hovering the cursor over the thumbnails will display the artist's audition number, name and role. Right-clicking on the thumbnail will pop up a standard browser menu which will allow you to download the file and save it to your computer. (Apple = Ctrl +Click) While you can play the clips on-line by clicking once, they may well be downloaded onto your computer anyway before playing. Auditions are reduced to about 320 x 240 pixels (Half size) for uploading, but once you've saved them, can be viewed at the "2x" setting in your media player. In the later stages of casting you may need to offer your selections to a Broadcaster. Provided no further edits or trims are required, this can be quickly accomplished by setting up a separate page. We will send you a new link to enable the Broadcaster to easily find your candidates assembled on one or two pages, depending in the size of your cast. If takes are to be cut, please email detailed instructions - preferably with "In" and "Out" timings. The auditions will have to be edited off-line and re-uploaded. We can upload auditions to your own FTP site if required. Please initiate discussions on the technical details at an early stage. We need to know your preferred video format, for a start! Self-Taped Auditions The number of South African actors travelling or living abroad has led to the need for a remote audition upload facility. We've had this in place for some time and it has proven useful - however it is deliberately not an "open" facility for a host of reasons. Actors or their local Agents are requested to initiate discussions with Christa first. We will then provide you with encoding specifications and FTP access details. Do NOT use facilities such as YouSendIt or SendBigFiles and surprise us with an e-mail link! We will not download huge HD files from wherever, only to have to re-encode them and re-upload them to our server. As a general guideline: Tape your audition in a quiet place against a plain, untextured backgound, preferably not a dead white wall though! When choosing a location, record a short clip of "buzz" and LISTEN to it! You will be surprised at how your brain blocks out distracting sound that the camera microphone picks up. If you have the choice, shoot in the standard 4:3 aspect ratio - it is pointless to transmit acres of unused widescreen space. Choose the best takes, then encode to 320 x 240 pixel frame size in Quicktime or mp4, with Keyframes every 25 fr or 2 seconds. (Or the nearest size in widescreen format) Set Streaming On and activate Fast Start. Set Audio quality to Mono at a 32K sample rate. If the jargon above is unfamiliar, copy the e-mail you will receive and provide it to the person who will be doing your upload.

Audition Session DVDs Although most producers now use our on-line facility because decisions may be made by Executives scattered across the world, if this is not necessary, compiling auditions to DVD may be a quicker, cheaper and more convenient option. Note that DVDs require a different encoding process, so requiring BOTH uploads and DVDs will incur extra cost. Our workflow has been designed to minimise the extra time required, should your circumstances change.
Unlike most other studios, our DVDs are fully authored, with menu-buttons for each actor's audition. While this first stage costs more it makes best use of DVD as a non-linear medium. An archive copy of each DVD is kept at the Studio.	Since co-productions require multiple copies of auditions to be sent to different parts of the world, the lower cost of producing multiple DVDs compared to the real-time duplication of tapes makes DVDs effectively cheaper per copy.	A satisfied Producer pointed out that, considering the expense of getting his Director and other Producers in the same room, the aditional cost of menu-driven DVDs was more than offset by not having to hunt & peck through either an untitled VHS tape or a DVD without a menu. Directors also value the ability to make almost instant comparisons between contenders.
Not all South African Actors have head shots. We therefore take clearly numbered reference pictures as part of the Audition.	Reference pictures are printed up four or nine per page, depending on the volume of auditions, which stage the casting has reached, and budget.	An Index Folder is suppplied with each DVD. First-round auditions are usually compiled in numerical order, but DVDs may be sorted by role or other criteria, depending on your preferred working method.
Please send Technical queries only to:

NOTES:

Studio charges are set at the beginning of each year and are structured so that Producers pay only for services they require, as opposed to the blanket fee approach adopted by some studios. Casting Director's fees are negotiable according to the length of time required for any given project. Please send an e-mail to Christa or call with your queries for specific quotes.

The technical operation of the audition studio is managed by Scriptwright cc, which is a VAT-Registered Close Corporation. Studio-related costs such as studio hire, DVDs, copies, photographs etc. are invoiced separately by Scriptwright cc.

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	Christa Schamberger-Young
+27 11 440 3477	Independent Casting Director Emmy Award Nominee 2009
Johannesburg	(The Casting Connection cc)	South Africa