Hey, b,
I didn’t know if this is appropriate for the Get A-Listed board or where it might go :), but I’m trying to figure out what the difference is between Showfax and Actors Access.
We have the Casting Workbook in Canada where I can go and see who’s casting what and have access to read the sides that are posted. Some sides for some shows and commercials are not on there, some are on Showfax.
So I’m thinking about paying for a Showfax account so I can have access to more info. But then there’s Actors Access. I have a free account with them right now, but I have no idea what it is, tho they seem to be tied together.
When I click on the “Breakdown” link, there seems to be a lot of advertisements.
Little help?
smooch!
m 😉
Obviously, Marsha (m) is one of my current Get A-Listed students (I also had the pleasure of working with her when I took the Self-Management for Actors Tour to Toronto last year), and we agreed this Q&A fits quite nicely here, as certainly actors in other markets may have the same question.
Here goes.
Breakdown Services is the parent company to all manner of other wonderful companies, including Showfax, Actors Access, and CastingAbout.
Showfax is the sides delivery service (this used to be done via fax, hence the FAX in Showfax) for auditions happening all over the world. I often recommend actors poke around the Showfax sides’ listings, just to get a sense of what’s out there, casting, actively, at any given time. (Keep in mind that some projects do not list their sides openly at Showfax, but instead send them over privately, to protect storylines from being spoiled online, etc.)
Annual membership to Showfax is $68 and includes unlimited downloading of sides (there’s a per-page price for non-members). This Showfax membership also gets you unlimited electronic submissions on Actors Access postings, which are charged on a per-submission basis to non-members. (Of course, if addresses are posted for hard-copy mailed submissions, you can do that on your own, regardless of membership, since an Actors Access account is free. Of course, then there’s the cost of the materials, postage, etc.)
So, technically, when you do what MOST PEOPLE call “signing up for a year of Actors Access,” you’re actually buying a membership at Showfax, since that’s what fuels the “unlimited submissions” deal, as well as all those wonderful sides for you to check out. You can pay additional amounts to Actors Access for various quantities of media content (demo reels, clips of footage, audio files, extra headshots).
As you already know, an Actors Access account is free, and that’s what you have. If you attach that free account to a paid membership to Showfax, you’ll get access to all those sides, be able to submit electronically on unlimited projects, and you’ll continue to get email notification when roles match your type specifications or geographical area.
When you say that you see a lot of ads when you log on to your Actors Access account and select “Breakdowns,” I can only assume that’s a good indicator of how many casting directors (vs. advertisers) are using the site, in Toronto. Of course, Casting Workbook still gets the bulk of the local breakdowns there, so that makes sense. But when I pull up the breakdowns in the Los Angeles region of Actors Access, I see pages and pages of breakdowns, lightly peppered with ads.
So, perhaps if you’re looking to target some shows out here (or in New York, or anywhere else, really), you could browse the breakdowns that are showing up outside of your one specific area, and decide if being able to see all of that data would be worth the money to you (keeping in mind — even if you’re not looking to submit on anything out-of-region — you get access to all those sides, which makes the membership a no-brainer, to me, just due to all the self-educating you can do, pulling down those sides and seeing for yourself what a one-liner co-star audition looks like on this particular show, and what a meaty guest-star set of sides are like, on that other show).
Hope this helps you get a better sense of what you’re looking at, here. 🙂 Lemmeknow if you have follow-up questions and I’ll “see” you on Wednesday’s group call!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001451.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.