A preliminary viewing before a season starts: agencies and casting directors look at new faces in advance, ahead of the castings for particular shows.
What it is for
So that by the time the week begins, a casting director already has a circle of people worth calling. In season there is no time to get acquainted: there are dozens of shows and decisions are made within a day, so the introductions happen a month or six weeks earlier.
How it goes
Faster than a casting and without a brief: there are no garments and no role, they are looking at you as such. Polaroids on the spot, a walk, measurements, a short exchange. Sometimes they ask for the book, sometimes digitals on a phone are enough.
Decisions are not usually made and results are not communicated. Silence after a pre-casting is normal, not a rejection: the list is being assembled and it sits until the season.
What depends on it
Whether you are on the mailing list for first-line castings when the season opens. It is the one moment a casting director looks at you without hurry, so what registers is exactly the way you turned up.
How to arrive
As you are ready to work: clean face, hair down, simple clothes that fit, heels you can walk in. Not in a look and not in makeup — you are being assessed as material, not as a finished result.
Refresh digitals the day before, not six months earlier: a mismatch between the card and the person in front of them is noticed immediately.
How it differs from a casting
A casting is run for a specific show or shoot and you are either taken or not. A pre-casting commits neither side — it only builds the circle.
