I am super excited for today’s episode because I am being joined by LA based youth Casting Director, KRISHA BULLOCK, Krisha is one of the most influential, award-winning casting directors in the industry today and She specializes in youth casting. She has worked on everything from television shows to feature films and some of her credits include your favorite iCarly, Zoey 101, Henry Danger, and Victorious. She is also currently working on Danger Force, Side Hustle and Fairly Odd Parents - Fairly Odder. She has guided many up-and-coming actors who have gone on to massive success making her another fantastic asset to your child’s career
Denise: I don’t know what you think about this, but I like to call you the queen of multi-camera comedy casting and that’s just because you cast and live in a multi- camera comedy world. Let’s start with telling our listeners what multi-camera is
Krisha: I like to say I live in the multi-camera comedy world since that is the primary thing I have been casting for so many years. Multi camera comedy is comedy… primarily kids comedy although there are some multi camera comedies for adults as well where there are four cameras that are working at the same time. So all four cameras are recording what is happening on stage at the same time and they edit between the four cameras. So from the actor’s perspective they are in the same sort of physical way standing and performing to an audience in the same way that you would do for live theatre… multi camera comedy has the same sort of vibe to it
Denise: What is the difference between multi-cam and single cam?
Krisha: Multi-camera is much closer to live theatre where you would be literally projecting to the audience so your volume is a bit louder, your pace is a bit higher, your energy is a bit higher. You don’t need to project because your camera is picking up all of the emotions from a very different close up way versus the projection that is needed for both theatre and multi camera.
Denise: So when you put out a casting breakdown for a young actor do they know it is a multi cam versus single camera project
Krisha: We put in our breakdown that it is a multicam project… that does not necessarily get translated to the actor… I get the sense that most actors have an idea of what it is.
Denise: That’s why the training is so important because you have to understand the genre and the medium that you are auditioning for.
Krisha:
Absolutely and I am a big believer in research… that when you get a project you need to be doing the research knowing what all the words are and if the show has aired on television, watching it, luckily now with the internet everything is accessible so there is no reason to not be doing research any longer.
Denise: So your main role is a casting director. If you could really define that because I think parents/young actors have a misconception of what a casting director is. What is your role as the casting director for the projects you work on?
Krisha: Thank you for asking, I think it is a very misunderstood role in production. Casting directors in my world work very closely with the writers and the producers for a project. Our job is really to bring that vision of the writer along with the producer and sometimes with the director if you are working on a film… we are bringing their vision to life so it is a cooperative, creative conversation that happens where we are asking what they have in mind as they were writing what they have in mind as they are producing and we try to bring that vision to life. And when I say that I mean we break it down what it is that we would be looking for in the actor to fulfill that role, we search for an actor who brings that role to life in a very organic way… that is the best fit for the role. Carrying on from that. Once we have held the auditions and we present who we think are the best choices to the creative team. There is always a conversation. It’s not one person, it is always multiple people who weigh in not only the creative writers and producers but also the network will also weigh in on those casting choices. Then the last part of my role is to fight for people I think are right if other people are overlooking them and then once a decision as finally being made, we make an offer and deal with the agents and managers in the negotiation of that offer and generate the contacts and cast lists and share it with the rest of production.
Denise: But what I’m hearing is that you have a lot of jobs, but at the end of the day it’s not YOUR decision
Krisha: It’s never really one person’s decision on any project anywhere. Every project is a collaboration and I don’t think there’s any world where there’s just one person from start to finish.
Denise: I love that because when I work with young actors we’re really trying to get them to make interesting choices and sometimes those choices will be able to tell the creatives something that they might not have seen but now they’re bringing something to the role that all of a sudden the creative team is going to say “wow I didn’t see that… that’s even better”
Krisha: Absolutely!...
Really what we want to encourage young people to do is not only bring interesting bold choices but the most interesting bold things that come out of them. It comes from inside of who they are and bringing that out. They are always going to be interesting if they reach the truth inside of them because every person is interesting in their own way.
Denise: Would you say there are certain skills that are important for young actors to have if they want to book comedy?
Krisha: I think it’s good for young actors to practice their improv skills. It gets them thinking outside the box; it helps them think of all of the different ways a scene can be played. I think it’s also important for young actors to understand that there are a lot of different ways for actors to come at the role and if they are training in improv and scene study they can use both of those skills as they figure out what is funny in the scene and how they can make it funny.
Denise: What is funny? Do you think that’s just innate or can someone learn to be funny?
Krisha: I do think there are a lot of young people that are innately funny. They just understand what is funny and they understand the comedic timing and how to make words on a page read even funnier than maybe we’ve read them in the first place. And then you can 100% learn to be funny. You can take the classes and understand where the funny beats are and how to utilize different techniques to find whether or not that is funny…I absolutely think people can learn anything. It’s just going to require work and practice.
Denise: I think that that word “truth” is so important!
Krisha: 100%. We are funny people. All of us are funny people. What happens in your life is much funnier than creating something else. One of the things that I get asked most often is actors always saying: I always want to know what you’re looking for.
I like to remind young people that we are looking for YOU. We are not looking for a thing or something that’s outside of you, we’re always looking for you… for truth. Which brings us back to that truth is where the funny is. I always just want people to bring themselves to the role and accentuate different parts of yourself.
Denise: If we could just spend a few minutes on why the slate is so important especially in multi cam comedy
Krisha: Well the slate is important for a lot of reasons. Kids have to slate so we can hear their voices. Hopefully they are speaking in their natural voice that we are finding out how old they are. How tall they are and what grade they are in. It is an information gathering place for us. The slate is now the only introduction we have. When kids used to walk into our room, they used to have to slate all of that information but we had the opportunity to have a little bit of chit chat and get the sense of who this person is and we don’t have that anymore because it’s all self tapes. I have noticed that people who slate like they are actually talking to a human makes a difference.
Denise: I think just in a slate you can learn so much if that person is creative or funny. And you want creative and funny people
Krisha: Exactly.
Denise: I just want to talk a little bit about this self tape world. That is a big change from being in the room. Are you solely casting from self tapes?
Krisha: We are doing all of our first calls via self tape and then depending on the situation and the role and so many factors sometimes we are casting right from that self tape sometimes we ask people to record additional things. Sometimes we will use zoom or facetime or eco cast so that we can have more of a one on one experience with the actors. That’s the biggest part I really miss is being able to work face to face and with the people in the room.
Denise: Then the actors need to be really good at self taping.
Krisha: Yes, it’s a lot. We are asking a lot of young actors right now. And Parents. I do understand and have great compassion for what we are asking people for.
Denise: And now you can see actors from all over the country!
Denise: Is there any advice you have for actors or parents in self taping?
Krisha: Yes, make sure you can be seen. Make sure there aren’t shadows on your face. Make sure you can be heard: that the audio and the video match up. Have your camera at the eye level of the performer. I like a plain backdrop. I don’t think it needs to be professional…I think you can grab a blue sheet and you can tape it to your wall. The top of your head should be at the top of your screen. The bottom of the screen should be waist. I like actors to stand when they audition. I think actors get more energy and through that energy there is more connection to creative truth. Try to make sure that whoever is reading with you is keeping the pace and volume the way the actors are speaking. The reader is there to help the actor be the best actor they can be.
Denise: What about memorizing?
Krisha: Actors have to be memorized. That’s their job. Their job is to memorized and audition until they book the job. For memorizing it is just a month. It is just not optional. The competition across the board has gone from a very very huge pool to a monstrosity of talent now and the people who aren’t memorized will just immediately sink to the bottom.
