Attachment Filename & Size
When you send your submission for an acting job, you normally send along your CV, a couple of headshots, and maybe a voicereel as attachments.
Here are a couple of important things to remember about these attachments.
Give them your name
Often, the casting director will save the attachments to their computer. They might, for example, have a folder called male actors or female actors 20-30 which contains just headshots and CVs of groups of actors they might like to use in the future.
So it’s very important that you include your name in the filename of your attachment in case it’s separated from the application.
- john_smith.jpg
- maria_rossi.jpg
- maddy_lange.pdf
This way, the moment a casting director sees the file they will also see – and remember – your name.
If you call any of your attachments like this…
- headshot_1.jpg
- my_photo.jpg
- cinenglish.pdf
…then the casting director will have no idea who it belongs to and you could lose out on the job!
No accents or spaces or non-English letters
While we’re at it, don’t put any accents or unusual/uncommon characters or spaces in the name of the attachment. Some systems will have a problem with these and there’s a risk your attachment could get lost or will not open.
This is especially true of non-English (i.e. non-Roman alphabet) characters.
So instead of this:
- Anton d’abo.pdf
- Aimée La Tour.pdf
- Ευκλείδης Παπαδόπουλος.jpg
Make it like this (and while we’re here, better to make it all lowercase, too):
- anton_d_abo.pdf
- aimee_la_tour.pdf
- euclid_papadopoulos.jpg
Note that using an underscore instead of a space is an excellent idea as it makes names easier to read.
How to change a filename
You cannot change a filename once it’s been uploaded to enCAST. You need to change it on your computer/phone and then upload it.
- How to change a filename in Windows
- How to change a filename on a Mac
- How to change a filename on Android
- How to change a filename on an iPhone
Once you have renamed the file, you should upload it to your enCAST profile.
Don’t make them too big
You might have superfast WiFi to download huge files onto your computer. But the CD might be on location in the middle of nowhere with a bad 2g signal and a smartphone with no space on it.
So keep your attachments small.
PDF and JPG Attachments shouldn’t ever really be larger than about 250kb. If they are, then think about resizing them.
There are a number of online tools you can use to resize your PDF and JPG files. With these tools you simply upload the original, and download a smaller, more compact, version. Here are 2 links to resize your PDFs or JPGs, but there are many more you can find.
