Eco-cast Madness!!

So, I had to do an eco-cast audition. Basically what that means is you take a video of yourself, upload it to a website, instead of going to an audition in person. This has a lot of advantages; the actor doesn't have to spend the gas or time on the road going to an audition, they can upload only their best takes, and the casting director saves time and money by not renting a space and having to wait around for flaky actors when they could be doing other, more interesting and important things. So, win-win. In theory.

I am, happily, in possession of a handi-cam, so I didn't have to record from my webcam, which the eco-cast site expressly tells you not to do. I recorded it, did several takes, and went to download it onto my computer. But alas! I didn't have enough space! "Not to worry," I thought (I think in a 1930s British accent), "I can put it on my external hard drive, there is plenty of room there!" I plugged it in, and...nothing. The computer didn't recognize it as a valid USB device. Fail. So I tried to move some stuff around, get more space on my computer. Still not enough. And yes, it works just fine on other computers. Fast forward a couple days, to today, when it's due. Out of sheer frustration I plugged the hard drive in again, and eureka! It worked! I downloaded the video, cut it up in Windows Movie Maker to look decent, and went to upload it onto the eco-cast site.

It was too late. The file was due by noon.

Womp-womp.

Directors, not everybody has access to a RED camera or some other fabulous technology, or FinalCut Pro, or AfterEffects. We don't all have reliable computers that are awesome and always work. We tend to spend any extra money we have on headshots, classes, and gas. So maybe give us the option to either do an eco-cast audition, OR come audition in person. I know, this is a scary concept, but you may actually get better results...on BOTH fronts.

Meanwhile, I'm going to tell myself not to be disappointed, be glad my hard drive is working now, and that it obviously wasn't meant to be. I'd probably be terribly unhappy even if I had gotten the part, right? Maybe the director isn't very nice, or they don't have the budget to do what they want and it's going to turn out terrible. These are the things I tell myself.

And now I can move on to the next thing.