Talent Cricle vs Shooting People

Does anybody use these and which of the two have you had the best results from - ie is it worth paying the ?20 fee for Shooting People when Talent Circle is free?

I've never heard of Talent Circle, though I would suspect it's all Circle. I'm a paid up member of Shooting People and although it's useful at the ass-end of filmmaking, but unless you're in London it's of limited use. I'm not in London so I doubt I'll renew. CastNet was very useful for finding actors willing to work for free and travel to Portsmouth, and I think we maybe got a couple through Shooting People as well, I can't remember. Or maybe it was PCR.

This is talent circle - http://www.talentcircle.co.uk/ somebody on another site suggested it. What's PCR?

http://www.pcrnewsletter.com/

it's free to place an ad, but costs a small fortune to subscribe to.

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CastNet was very useful for finding actors willing to work for free and travel to Portsmouth, and I think we maybe got a couple through Shooting People as well, I can't remember. Or maybe it was PCR.

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Just clarifying the numbers behind mikers point -on crooked features of our 8 main actors we got 3 from PCR, 3 from castnet and 2 from shooting people. Most of the auditionees were from SP but by that point we were more desperate so nothing should be read into that. Most of the applicants who applied though PCR were technophobes or agents and getting in touch with them was a pain. Personally I wouldn't bother with PCR again.
Castnet is probably the biggest actor database around and is the best for searching if you want something specific from your cast but 99% of the people take 2-3 weeks to get back to you if they get back to you at all so it's no good at short notice. Shooting People is better at short notice but only if they actually post your advert in time. talentcircle was recommended to me (by actors) after we'd shot Crooked Features but I used it to cast one of my shorts and it's much like shooting people (i.e. 99% london based, butt-end of the industry) only they did post my advert in time ;-)
Shooting people is about 10% better than talent circle at the moment. BTW be careful with talent circle because it's free to register but I believe you have to pay to post (I could be wrong though).

have only used talent circle once, and didnt get a good response at all. Shooting people has lost its edge a long time ago, also fed up with the attitude from SP. wont be renewing my subscription when it runs out in february.

Mainly relying on word of mouth at the moment, and next round of casting i do I want to get a casting director, so i can spend my time more productivly in the pub.

oh do use Mandy.com quite a bit

In the same way we just keep on making movies...just sign up to whatever you can.

Talent Circle is free. The daily emails are starting to piss me off now but I have had very good responses. Well, quite good.

If you want millions of CASTING responses I recommend UK Screen (.com) and for good CREW responses, I'd recommend Talent Circle.

I didn't bother signing up to Shooting People because I couldn't afford it at the time and UK Screen was a more established version of a similar nature. But when I have the money I'll use Shooting People. Plus Chris Jones, writer of the Guerilla books recommends Shooting People.

So yes. Just use them all [img]smile.gif[/img]

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Originally posted by Peter_G:
Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing?

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<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not first hand but a friend of mine who is a decent actor responded to one in the UK Actor's Studio in London. He got it - it was paid work for a Honda TV ad. So I'd say it's a good idea. The quality of people you get probably depends on the school and of course on the people that actually reply... worth a try.

When the time comes to cast my next project, I will post flyers in places were interested parties are lightly to see them (Drama schools, film schools, film societies etc). The flyers will give very basic details of the nature of the project, and a URL were potential cast can see all the information they're likely to want. I'm not sure how well this will work, but it is certainly worth a shot. Does anyone have any experience with this type of thing?

Thanks

Chance, when did you try using talentcircle.co.uk? When i cast I get *loads* of responses. perhaps you tried them when they first launched? if you don't believe me, check out their bulletins/site and you'll see loads of people posting jobs everyday. i doubt anyone would bother posting again and again as they do if they weren't getting responses! you can also search for crew and actors free using their talent search system. out of all the members they have about 6000 have created a profile. my only gripe with the site is it has got a bit cluttered since it first started but i heard they trying to update it to keep up with demand. im my opinion, job/castings are presented way better to the end user by talent circle that sh*ting people! happy casting!