Don’t (only) Post Your Casting Call as an Image
As a voice actor and frequent sharer of casting calls, I see a bunch of them all the time in many different formats. And sometimes that format is as a .png or .jpeg. There are some benefits to this — you can make it colorful and eye-catching, add branding, and put all the information someone needs in a single place. But there are some pretty heavy downsides when your casting call can only be found as an image, and I’m going to briefly break them down.
It’s Inaccessible.
This originally said “it’s not screen-reader friendly” but I felt like that was an understatement. It’s actively prevents anyone using a screen reader from accessing your call, as none of the text on your image will be read by a screen reader.
You could fix this by embedding alt-text on the image, posting the text alongside the image, or linking a document with the casting call written on it. Personally, I’d recommend linking a document alongside the image — google docs is screen reader friendly! Some websites don’t have alt text options, and some websites make it hard to access captions without being logged in.
You Can’t Copy & Paste the Text.
Why would VAs want to copy and paste text in a casting call? The answer is multifaceted.
- Being sure they’re sending their audition to the right email. It’s much easier to copy & paste an email than writing it out from a picture.
- Needing the text in a different font, size, or color. I can’t capture all the reasons why someone might want to modify the text you’ve carefully chosen, but to name a few — they might need a dyslexia-friendly font, or a bigger font size, or a white background with black text, or a black background with text, or a strange preference for reading lines in Courier (that one is me!). If someone has to re-write your casting call lines in order to audition, they probably won’t.
- Wanting to put casting calls on the same document. It’s not uncommon for voice actors to audition for multiple things at once, and sometimes people want to combine all the roles they’re reading for in one document. When you’re in the booth, it can be convenient to simply scroll from one character to another without bouncing and searching through different documents.
It’s Easier to Share a Link Than an Image
This one is pretty minor, but at the end of the day a string of characters that make up a link takes up far less space than a full image. If someone wants to share your call on a different website, they don’t need to download a picture, they can just copy a link. (Yes, people can usually copy the link to an image posted on social media. But some websites, like Instagram, make it hard to view images without an account.)
In conclusion:
Don’t only share your casting call as an image! Give voice actors text they can copy, in some form or another. Make it easy to audition for your project so that you get lots of great auditions! Don’t create needless barriers to entry!
Good luck!
