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SALT LAKE CITY -- The acting business may become slightly less impossible to break into soon. An upcoming Web site can help people find auditions for TV and movies.
While trying to cast the "This Is the Place" television series, agents just weren't sending Todd Bay and Henry Ferreyra the type of actors they needed. They tried posting audition notices online, but there was another problem.
"But, there's no central location for actors, performers, musicians and artists to go to one location for free," Bay said.
You'd think there would be a long line of actors salivating at the chance for work. Normally there would be, but Bay says posting auditions in the past was harder than it may appear.
"Someone said, ‘Hey, call all the Web sites and put ads out on Craigslist.' There were 10 to 15 different sites we had to go to to post auditions," he said.
So, Bay says they put a new page on Facebook. Sure enough, the actors showed up.
"Through Facebook, we had a five hour audition for a television series. More than we could have possibly handled," Bay said.
But Bay and Ferreyra wanted to make it easier for performers to find the work they're looking for. So, they created iGigz.net which will put all local casting calls into one site.
Bay said, "Production companies and engineers can go to the site and [our] Facebook [page] as well and say, ‘This is what we have coming up. We need this age group, we need this look.'"
Bay says he and his partner scour through all of the separate Web sites where auditions are posted to gather their information. He says many people just don't know where to look, and agents can be very expensive, although he says this site won't eliminate your need for an agent altogether. The site will be unveiled in the next few weeks.
The site isn't meant just for actors. Bay and Ferreyra plan to post jobs for people involved in all aspects of the entertainment industry, from writers to crew members to regular people wanting to appear on reality TV.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
