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Tag: Commercials

Monday, April 29, 2019

Cast Iron Studios takes flight with Delta Airlines and the Port of Portland with non-stop laughter!

by Cast Iron Studios Staff

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

Cast Iron Studios had the royal honour and an absolute blast in teaming up with Sparkloft Media, The Port of Portland and Delta Airlines recently in a campaign to promote Portland’s only non-stop flight to London.

Leading up to the event, improv and comedic actors paired up and threw down their best British accents in one of the loudest and most eventful casting sessions on this side of the Atlantic. Ultimately cast for the cheeky roles were actors Josh Edward and Damon Kupper, who held court on April 19th in Director Park as passersby were encouraged to gather round and egg on the royal duo as they “made way for the Queen”!

Damon Kupper as the Town Crier & Josh Edward as the Queen’s Royal Guard

The boisterously hilarious and engaging Town Crier interacted with the crowd in attempts to crack up and make guffaw the ever so straight and stoic Queen’s Royal Guard.  The best wisecracks and wittiest of jokes reigned–and the further the Royal Guard’s guard was let down, the chance for someone to win a trip to London went WAY UP!  Congrats all around on a successful live event.

…And the flight hasn’t officially taken off yet!  There’s still time to jump onboard and enter the contest!

Win a free round trip flight to London – Click to enter! 

A proper shout-out to Producer Kate Adolphson and Social Media Strategist Alexandria Goodwin of Sparkloft Media for the fun gig. The actors had a jolly good time, and so did we!

Thursday, October 4, 2018

CASTING CALL: Real Barbers & Boxing Trainers

by Cast Iron Studios Staff

Cast Iron Studios is seeking REAL BARBERS and REAL BOXING TRAINERS for an upcoming Adidas spot. This is a paid gig at union rates.

Submissions are due by 4pm on FRIDAY, October 5, 2018.

Casting is THIS MONDAY, October 8, 2018. 

BARBERS: Male, black or mixed ethnicity, late 20s to mid 30s, with real barber experience. Charisma and ability to improvise is encouraged. Portland local hires only.

BOXING TRAINERS: Male, any ethnicity, age range 25-45, with expert-level training experience. Charisma and ability to improvise is encouraged. Portland local hires only.

This project is SAG-AFTRA, but we will consider both union and non-union performers.

Pay starts at union scale of $671.69 for one day of shooting. In addition, there are several options for internet, new media, print, industrial, and broadcast usage, which could bring this rate up by a few thousand–to several thousand–dollars, if exercised!

Shoot is on one of the following dates: Thursday 10/11, Monday 10/15, Tuesday 10/16, or Tuesday 10/23. You must be able to fully clear your schedule for the shoot date, if hired.

Wardrobe fitting is on Wednesday 10/10 or Friday 10/12.

If you fit the specs and are available for the shoot, please send an email to talent[at]castironstudios.com and include:

  • Name
  • Phone Number
  • Level of experience as a BARBER or BOXING TRAINER
  • A clear head-and-shoulders photo (selfie is fine)

If we would like you to audition, we will contact you with an audition time for Monday.

Be reachable!

Please no calls or drop-by visits. Only submit if you fit the specs, are a Portland local hire, and can clear your schedule for the shoot. Thanks and please share!

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Long Overdue

by admin

Time for an update!

We had an absolute blast working with Stephen Belber, Nan Morales, Jordana Glick-Franzheim and the rest of the team on “Management“. Can’t wait for another opportunity.

Jennifer Aniston and Steve Zahn were loads of fun on and off duty–and such pros to boot. I only got to meet the other leads briefly, but we hope the entire cast enjoyed their time in Oregon! We certainly loved having them here.

Next up is “The Burning Plain” by Guillermo Arriaga, starring Charlize Theron. We’re looking at just a few people for them, since most of the shoot takes place in New Mexico. But our background casting division will be handling the extras in Portland and Lincoln City. Info will be posted on the Rutabaga website and MySpace page.

Commercials have been busy recently with multiple projects for Nintendo, and clients like Samsung, HP, Adidas, Intel, Oregon Lottery, Microsoft, etc. Of course, they all seem to kick in at the same time after a lull! I keep telling producers to confer amongst themselves and spread the jobs out equally throughout the year, but that never seems to happen….

The New Year is gearing up to be busy as well, with a few features sniffing around, a handful of indie scripts (which I still need to read) and a possible music video. So we’ll be hitting the ground running after the holidays.

Speaking of holidays, we had a fun Argentine-themed client appreciation party last week, called “Noche de Luna”. The high-heeled shoes and fedoras were fantastic, and our 200 guests were even treated to a celebrity appearance or two, before the night was through. Here’s a shout out to the talented tango dancers who added to the ambiance and to Ron Toms and the staff of rontoms for all their help. You rock!

Here are a few photos of the festivities:

Stylist Kathleen Chetlain and Photographer Frank di Marco
Actor John Breen and Director James Westby
Director David Poulshock and Literary Agent Moreen Littrell
Music Manager Ken Erlich and Casting Director Lana Veenker
The ever-festive David and Sara Dochow, Set Designers
Casting Director Lana Veenker and Actor Steve Zahn
Producer Juliana Lukasik and Director Todd Korgan

 

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Feature Fest!

by admin

Hey gang,

Things are finally getting back to normal. I had a lot of catching up to do after more than five weeks out of town. The bookkeeper came by and sorted through several months worth of credit card and bank statements. I’ve been following up with clients, sending thank you notes, issuing invoices, researching employee benefits, buying new office furnishings and other fun admin stuff.

Business is also picking up: We’ve got a feature and several commercials going on, and word is that more projects are on the way. We just finished casting for skateboarders again, interestingly, since the cast and crew premiere of “Paranoid Park” took place last night. It was great to see the film away from the glitter and nerves of Cannes, surrounded by friends and colleagues.

A few other features we worked on over the past year are nearing completion and we can hardly wait! “Selfless” by the Pander Brothers is one of them and “The Auteur” by James Westby is another. These guys are so talented and we had a blast working with them!

The “Feast of Love” trailer is starting to be seen in cinemas. Word is that it will be released in October.

“Follow the Profit”, directed by Drew Rosenberg, has wrapped principal photography and is in post.

Now where are those three NEW feature scripts we’ve heard are coming down the pike? Fingers crossed that they don’t all land in our inbox on the same day! 😮

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Slate Please!

by admin

Greetings!

Just a quick fly-by here. The wrap party for “Paranoid Park” was last weekend; it was really fun to see all the kids and meet their parents, reconnect with the crew, and celebrate our hard work. Can’t wait to see how the film turns out! Sounds like the shoot went exceptionally well, so everyone’s excited to see the results.

We’re starting on a new feature film for Lakeshore Entertainment, “Untraceable”” starring Diane Lane. Have got several other independent films underway and the usual slew of commercial clients. It’s a conveyer belt!

I shot down to LA last week to do some casting down there and got to drop in on a few casting directors I know and catch up with friends. Had to cut my trip short, though, when I heard the wrap party was moved to Saturday: After 14 weeks on Paranoid Park, I wasn’t going to miss that, so I flew back early to attend!

Oh, and we’ve finally entered the digital age and got our new website up and running. It’s mainly geared towards clients, but kinda fun to check out. I hope I don’t get an onslaught of emails from actors in Romania and Venezuela, wanting us to cast them in our next Lottery commercial….it doesn’t really work like that, guys! If you’re not local, it’s not likely we can use you. 😉

Off to work!

Later,

Lana

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Rock the Djembe!

by admin

I suppose it’s time for a long overdue update.

Where did I leave off? Oh yeah, “Paranoid Park.”

🙂

We’re getting closer to having a cast. No one has been booked yet, but a few favorites are starting to rise to the surface. We’ll see how it pans out.

Since then, we’ve also worked on a Nike job for Wieden + Kennedy, tied up a few loose ends on “Feast of Love,” cast a print job for Saturn Outlook, several infomercials, a few hospital spots, a home gym show and a video game commercial. Also have a handful of screenplays on my desk that I keep trying to get to. Ack.

More importantly, though, I held a fundraiser for Run for Congo Women and did my first trail run for a cause (a whopping 5.5 miles, but hey, it was HILLY and I hadn’t had time to train!). I think I raised a lot of money for the cause (thanks to all the theatre and film industry folks who sponsored me and to Toby Christensen who provided incredible healing djembe music at the shindig–you’re all so amazing!), but I still have to sit down and figure out the numbers.

The run itself was a very emotional experience, knowing that each mile I ran, several families were going to be affected. As Run for Congo Women founder Lisa Shannon put it, it was like carrying some of the burden for the people of war-torn DRC.

Next up on the philanthropic calendar will probably be some get-out-the-vote efforts. It’s almost that time, people! Your voice matters!

Ciao for now,

Lana

Thursday, July 27, 2006

Casting Teens for Gus!

by admin

At long last, I’m poking my head back in here. Clearly, blogging is not my medium. 😐 Mea culpa.

I’ll quickly summarize the whirlwind of the past few months, so I can update you on the latest news:

May 2006:

We were hired to do the Oregon and Washington casting on a Morgan Freeman movie for Lakeshore Entertainment, called “Feast of Love,” based on the Charles Baxter novel. Actually, we’re still working on it. It’s been great working with the producers, crew and the very lovely Robert Benton who is directing. Just one last session this weekend and we should be about done.

June 2006:

Besides the regular commercial biz coming in, we did a major spot for Nike, requiring 150 talent for a night shoot at a shopping mall. Oy! I won’t even go into the craziness of that gig; I’ll just say that I bow to the producer for pulling it off with such class. If WE thought it was insanity, I can’t even imagine what HIS job was like.

We also managed to cast a few indie shorts, a music video, a couple TV pilots and some educational stuff, but the big fun came working on James Westby’s new feature “The Auteur” (based on his short by the same title). Hilarious script. I can’t wait to see how it turns out!! And I think I can pretty safely say that, after working on that film, I’m probably the only person on the planet who has been embraced by Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama…and porn star Ron Jeremy(!). But those stories are for another day.

July 2006:

We actually got FOUR whole days off on the 4th of July holiday, so that was amazing and fun. We picked up on “Feast of Love” again when we got back, finished up bookings on “The Auteur” and scrambled through several more commercial gigs, before getting a call from Gus Van Sant’s producer about casting his new film, “Paranoid Park,” based on the Blake Nelson novel.

I don’t have a lot of time to go into it now, because we’re heading into MAJOR cattle calls on August 3rd and 5th to find teens for the film, but anyone interested can check out the MySpace page we’ve set up:


www.myspace.com/ParanoidPark

We need 14-18 year olds of all types, plus we’re going to need skateboarders 14-30 at our next cattle call on August 15th. Check it out and tell everyone you know!

Later!

Wednesday, May 10, 2006

The movies are coming! The movies are coming!

by admin

Hello all.

I just flew back from Europe yesterday, after a two-week vacation in Germany and Italy. It was lovely, and unlike last year, I actually GOT a vacation. Faithful readers may recall that we landed a CBS/Hallmark movie-of-the-week last time I tried to take some time off, and I spent the end of my vacation talking to my office for hours on my cell phone (international roaming–OUCH!).

Well, we did get several requests for resumes while I was out of town this time, but that was easy enough to handle from the laptop. Got the word on my last day in Italy that three of the four features we are up for have been greenlighted, and the forth has been pushed, but supposedly still happening. Commercials show no sign of slowing down, either. Read: BUSY SUMMER.

I was very glad that business was slow while I was gone, because my staff needed a break. They were on the verge of collapse. Well, they got two quiet weeks with the boss gone (read: two-hour lunches and midday hair appointments…I’m onto you guys!), but now they are complaining that they’re bored and can’t wait for it to be busy again.

Sick puppies. They don’t realize that we aren’t going to sleep until November, once it kicks in. But they seem to thrive on 14-hour days, so who am I to complain? 😉

On my trip, I visited family in Weimar, former East Germany. Made trips to Buchenwald concentration camp (eww), Erfurt (charming) and Berlin (cool, but cold and wet when we were there).

Then flew to Pisa and had a lovely week in Tuscany–SIGH! We rented an apartment in Florence and turned that town upside down (the SHOES, my God!! The shoes! Oh yeah, and the museums. But the shoes. I was drooling over the shoes. Oh, and the gelato. Mmm.).

Also visited Siena, Lucca, San Gimignano and Via Reggiano. All fantastically lovely with wonderful people, food and wine. Great weather. Entirely too many tourists, but what can you do?

Each city looked like the set of any number of Shakespeare plays (Two Gents, Merchant of Venice, R&J, etc.). I fell in love. My office is lucky I came home. 😉

This week, we’ll be strategizing for the summer rush. I’m bracing for it. Just hope I get a few days to recover from jetlag before I have to use my brain too much.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006

Hugs and Laughter in the Audition Room

by admin

Anyone still reading? [cringe]

I’ve been at the office for 14 hours today. Anyone in their right mind would go home, but I saw a comment someone posted here and it made me feel guilty for such an extended absence.

Here’s the update:

We had a short lull, but now we’re in full swing again. Finishing up on a few commercials from last month and working on several new ones that just came in. Two projects got postponed–thank goodness, because there was no room left on the calendar and we’re all on the verge of collapse. But the other jobs are all a lot of fun.

The project we cast today called for an actor with Down Syndrome and all the young men we saw were positively delightful! They were having so much fun with the process that it put all the other actors (normally a tad nervous in the audition room) at ease. Each audition ended with a lot of hugs, applause and laughter.

We’ve got one tomorrow that calls for a comedian, so that will be a kick, and Thursday’s project is also a comedic spot, with Friday and Saturday callbacks for both spots. Nice way to end a (long) week.

I did catch some theatre and screenings over the past few weeks, though: Saw a production of “Crowns” by Regina Taylor (of “The Color Purple” fame) with great music and an excellent cast. Got to go out with the cast afterwards, too; all of them fantastic artists. That was fun.

Also went to see a production of Frozen by Bryony Lavery with a friend and mentor who is on the drama critics committee for our citywide theatre awards.

In addition, I managed to attend to the opening of a new play, a dance performance, the birthday party of a local musical theatre actress (OMG, you can imagine the entertainment with all of her equally talented friends in attendance!), two screenings of films by local filmmakers (one of which I cast), a graduation showcase at the Art Institute, and the monologue finals at one of our universities, for which I was an auditor.

Oh, and I finally saw Brokeback Mountain. Good flick, but I wish I hadn’t known so much about it going in. There weren’t many surprises for me. Eh. [shrug]

Met with the president of our local theatre arts association about a fundraiser I’m putting on next Monday. It’s to raise money for actors in crisis and we’ve decided to to an awards show! There have already been 100+ RSVPs, so it should be a blast. I’ll give a full report later.

Well, hopefully I will: I leave for Europe six days after the party, so knowing me, I’ll fall behind again, oh faithful readers. I apologize in advance.