SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--IMDb (www.imdb.com), the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content, today announced the launch of Pro Casting on IMDbPro (www.imdbpro.com), the subscription service of IMDb created exclusively for film and TV professionals. Pro Casting will simplify and enhance the process by which casting directors and filmmakers find the right actor for any role while making it easier for actors to discover and apply for casting notices.
For more than a decade, IMDbPro has been a daily habit for entertainment industry professionals who rely on IMDbPro’s unrivaled data, contact listings, in production information and STARmeter data to stay informed and get connected. With the introduction of Pro Casting, IMDbPro is redefining the casting process.
“IMDbPro is probably the single most helpful tool in the tool box when I’m casting one of the leads in a movie,” said Richard Hicks, casting director (credits include Gravity, Zero Dark Thirty, Game Change) and President of The Casting Society of America. “There’s nothing better. It’s the encyclopedia of actors. It’s changed the way I do the job.”
“IMDbPro is the most informative website for film,” said Kerry Barden, casting director (credits include Dallas Buyers Club, August: Osage County, Winter’s Bone, Good Will Hunting and Se7en). “IMDbPro is something that I use first thing in the morning and all day everyday.”
“IMDbPro has long been an important force in casting,” said Col Needham, IMDb’s founder and CEO. “Robert Pattinson, for example, was discovered for the role of Edward in the Twilight franchise on IMDbPro. Combining our new Casting tools with our unrivaled data (more than 130 million data items including more than 5.5 million cast and crew members), advanced search tools and vast user and subscriber base, we are uniquely positioned to revolutionize the casting process.”
Using Pro Casting’s suite of frequently requested casting tools, casting directors and filmmakers can post unlimited casting notices, leverage IMDb’s proprietary search technology to narrow submissions by specific criteria such as performance skills and physical attributes, add promising candidates to a personalized list and share their list with anyone via social networks and email. Casting directors can also easily gauge how an actor’s popularity has trended over time via IMDbPro’s new, interactive STARmeter graphs and receive recommendations of actors similar to the ones they are currently viewing.
“IMDbPro is such an integral part of our process that I can’t imagine not having it as a tool,” said Carrie Audino, casting director (credits include Mad Men). “IMDbPro is an amazing resource. We use it all day. It’s constant. With the new casting features, there’s the potential to really discover new actors from IMDbPro. These tools will change list-making forever.”
With Pro Casting, actors will benefit from new tools designed to help them find their next role. Actors can conveniently update their IMDbPro profile page (their industry resume) with headshots and demo reels and share their page with anyone via social networks and email. Actors can also browse and filter through casting notices, apply directly for roles by submitting their customized IMDbPro profile page, and add any person or project they are tracking on IMDbPro to a personalized list.
“The casting business is very fast, especially during pilot season so I need to access information as quickly as possible,” said Sharon Bialy, casting director (credits include The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad). “When I speak to actors and give them advice, I tell them that being a member of IMDbPro is one of the most important things they can do because if their name is being mentioned, I want to quickly be able to look up and access that information. And if they are not on IMDbPro and I have to go somewhere else, sometimes I don’t have the time to take that many steps.”
“Of the new Pro Casting tools, the thing that excites me the most is the list-making capability because that is one of the jobs of a casting director – to present ideas to the producers and directors -- and the ability to easily attach a picture and a couple of credits can make all the difference in the world,” said Sharon Bialy. “Producers and directors are making quick decisions and the first decision can often be ‘no’ because it’s the easiest and our job is to turn that ‘no’ into a ‘yes’ so if they can see two different credits and two different pictures immediately for an actor they are going to be more open to considering that actor for a role.”
Along with the release of Pro Casting, IMDbPro has introduced a complete site redesign to make it easier for IMDbPro members to discover the information they are seeking. For example, you can now find complete contact information on the main detail page for the more than 200,000 industry professionals and companies listed on IMDbPro.
For more information about Pro Casting, go to www.imdbpro.com and sign-up for a free 2 week trial. To watch a series of original interviews in which leading casting directors (whose credits include Gravity, Dallas Buyers Club, Mad Men, The Walking Dead and Breaking Bad) discuss their work and give career advice to actors, go to: http://www.imdb.com/procastingvideos
About IMDbPro
For more than a decade, IMDbPro has been the place where entertainment industry professionals get informed and get connected by providing IMDb’s unrivaled data (more than 130 million data items) plus industry specific information including: Contact listings for more than 200,000 industry professionals and companies; project listings for more than 15,000 in production films; and STARmeter rankings for every person listed on IMDb. IMDbPro membership, which is inclusive of Pro Casting, costs $19.99 per month or $149.99 annually.
About IMDb
IMDb is the world’s most popular and authoritative source for movie, TV and celebrity content. The IMDb consumer site (www.imdb.com) is the #1 movie website in the world with a combined web and mobile audience of more than 190 million unique monthly visitors. IMDb offers a searchable database of more than 130 million data items including more than 2.7 million movies, TV and entertainment programs and more than 5.5 million cast and crew members. Consumers rely on the information IMDb provides -- including showtimes, ticketing, trailers, critic and user reviews, personalized recommendations, photo galleries, entertainment news, quotes, trivia, box-office data, editorial feature sections and a universal Watchlist -- when making viewing decisions. IMDb’s portfolio of leading entertainment apps (http://www.imdb.com/apps/) includes its popular “Movies & TV” app for iPhone, iPad, Kindle Fire, Android phones, Android tablets, Windows Phone and its mobile-optimized website. To date, there have been more than 80 million downloads of IMDb’s mobile apps worldwide. IMDb's X-Ray for Movies & TV (www.imdb.com/x-ray) is a feature that revolutionizes the viewing experience by bringing the power of IMDb directly to Kindle Fire HD and Wii U devices. IMDbPro (http://www.imdbpro.com) is a subscription version of IMDb designed exclusively for professionals who work in the entertainment industry. IMDbPro provides contact information, in production listings for film and television projects and exclusive STARmeter rankings that are determined by user searches on IMDb. Additionally, IMDb owns and operates Withoutabox (http://www.withoutabox.com), a marketplace for film festivals and filmmakers, and Box Office Mojo (http://www.boxofficemojo.com), the leading online box-office reporting service. IMDb.com is operated by IMDb.com, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) (http://www.amazon.com). To learn more, go to: http://www.imdb.com/press.
