Not to beat the subject into the ground, but ever since my original blog post about the "Breaking Dawn" casting scam that's being advertised all over the Internet and landing in people's email inboxes, I have received tons of messages asking whether casting calls on other sites are also a scam.

Here's the bottom line:

ALL CURRENTLY ADVERTISED CASTING CALLS FOR BREAKING DAWN ARE FALSE.

Breaking Dawn is not yet in production. When it does go into production, professional casting directors will be hired to cast it.

Any website or company claiming that they can get you an audition for "Breaking Dawn" and then asks for ANY money whatsoever is not a real casting company.

REAL CASTING DIRECTORS ARE NOT "CASTING SCOUTS"

Real casting directors don't have websites where people are required to pay money to submit themselves for jobs.

They will never see the supposed audition tapes that the "casting scouts" on these websites are promising to forward on to them.

Real casting directors in the US are usually members of CSA. Their resumes can be found on IMDb.



REAL CASTING DIRECTORS WORK WITH REAL TALENT AGENTS

The CDs that Summit hires will work with professional talent agencies to hire the principal roles.

Real talent agencies do not charge their talent any money to be represented. They only make commissions when their actors book jobs.

Real agents represent established, professional actors who were either referred to them by other professionals or whom they have previously seen perform on stage or film.

They do not scout for talent in shopping malls, on Craigslist, in banner ads or in spam emails.

Real agents do not run acting or modeling schools, especially ones that charge thousands of dollars.

In the US, they are usually franchised by SAG



and AFTRA.



REAL EXTRAS CASTING DIRECTORS WILL HIRE THE BACKGROUND PERFORMERS

Real extras casting directors have offices, staff and phone lines. They are usually based in the area where the film will be shooting. Their resumes can be found on IMDb.



They will widely advertise open casting calls for background actors (if any are needed) on the TV and radio stations in the city where the film is shooting.

The casting call will be free to attend. You should never have to pay to audition or to find out the location of an audition.

They will not seek to hire extras who live outside the shooting area. They are not interested in dealing with travel complications that could arise from hiring an out-of-town extra. And they certainly won't hire someone who doesn't already have working papers.

If you want to be an extra on a film, the harsh reality is that you need to live in the area where it is shooting and there's no guarantee you'll even be chosen to work.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD

I hope this clears up everyone's questions. Please spread the word, as many people have not heard this information, and judging by my inbox, are still falling prey to scam artists everywhere.

You can read my previous blog posts on this subject below or by clicking "Scams" in the Labels section in the right sidebar. As mentioned before, if we ever get any real news about "Breaking Dawn," we'll post it here and pass it on to our Twihard mailing list.

Be safe, do your research and always use common sense.

Lana Veenker CSA
"Twilight" Casting Director (Oregon)
IMDb

LINKS:

No need to pay to be in Twilight cast

Breaking Dawn Casting SCAM ALERT

Beware of Acting and Modeling Scams

Acting/Modeling Schools that Double as Agencies?

If you've been around my blog for a while, you know how much we hate, HATE, HATE scam artists who prey on aspiring actors and movie fans (especially kids) with fake casting calls.

A new one involving Breaking Dawn, the final installment in the Twilight series, has come to my attention. BE WARNED! As I've done in the past, I'm going to dissect it, show you all the red flags and demonstrate how I did the research to uncover the scam artist behind it all.

So next time you get an email like the one below or see something online that sounds too good to be true, you'll know how to dissect it yourself to find out if it's bogus or for real. Take note!

By the way, I'm not going to post the name or URL of the company and give them free traffic, but this was forwarded to me from a real talent agent, whose client (a minor) received it. The girl did not have a profile on this scam website and doesn't have any other publicly viewable casting profiles online. So the first question is: How did they get her contact information? When her mother replied to the email to inquire, the email bounced back: "no such mailbox." Major red flag. I would have deleted this as spam right then and there. But let's dissect the entire message anyway!

ANATOMY OF A SCAM EMAIL

From: Casting Department
Sent: Thu, Dec 3, 2009 3:36 am
Subject: Salem Area Movie Extras Needed for Twilight "Breaking Dawn" Casting in Portland. <---RED FLAG! All Ages Wanted, No Experience Needed, Make up to $300 Per Day!

Shoot location has not been announced, so no casting is taking place in Portland. Also, productions never hire extras casting companies until a few weeks before principal photography is starting. Last I heard, Breaking Dawn won't shoot for another six months or so.

"Dear Jane,

"I noticed your portfolio online<---RED FLAG! and have decided to contact you regarding positions now available as a movie extra for the new Twilight "Breaking Dawn" movie in Portland."

Casting directors don't casually browse the Internet and contact people individually to work as extras. You think we've got time for that kind of thing???

If a CD needs a thousand extras, he or she will contact all the TV and radio stations, announce a casting call and get everyone to show up at once. Or, if they have an established extras casting company, they will contact extras in their existing database and check their availability for specific dates.

"No experience is necessary, all looks/types are wanted and the pay ranges from $80-$250<---RED FLAG! per day depending on whether it's part or full time.

"Casting starts next Monday<---RED FLAG! so you will need to register (FREE REGISTRATION)<---RED FLAG! as soon as possible. It will be lots of fun, a great way to make connections in the industry and pays well!<---RED FLAG!

"If you are interested CLICK HERE TO APPLY (registration is free)."<---RED FLAG!

Where to begin? First of all, we know extras casting doesn't start next Monday, BECAUSE THE FILM ISN'T EVEN SHOOTING YET. Yes, principal actors sometimes get hired well before production starts, but not the extras.



Next, the words FREE REGISTRATION are misleading: You can indeed register (i.e. give them all your contact information) for free on their website, but you can't view the casting call details unless you PAY (more on this later). Real casting calls are widely publicized and FREE.



Also, the subject line of the email promises up to $300/day. This part says they can earn up to $250/day. In reality, extras earn a lot less than that. And only stand-ins even come close to working full-time as extras. The work is very sporadic; usually only a few days here and there.

We'll discuss what happens when you click on CLICK HERE TO APPLY in a bit.

"Sincerely,

"David Fox / Portland Casting Scout"<---RED FLAG!

Five simple words, yet so many suspicious elements:

David Fox is a dubiously generic-sounding name. Plus, I live in Portland and I've never heard of him. A Google search for "david fox" + "casting scout" returns zero results.


Nobody calls themselves a casting scout, unless they're trying to get money out of you (in my experience). We are casting DIRECTORS. A Google search for "david fox" + "casting director" doesn't turn up anything useful, either.


If by some stretch of the imagination, I don't know him because he just arrived in town for this specific project (which is not possible, since the shoot locations of BD have not been announced), he would at least have a resume on IMDb, right?


Wrong. IMDb has no listing for an extras casting director named David Fox. Do you really think Summit Entertainment would hire someone with NO casting experience to work on their blockbuster movie? Check out the resume of the extras CD who cast their last film. THAT'S more like it.

"PS: We are the entertainment industry's way of casting new faces and talent all around the world for movie extra roles.<---RED FLAG! With over 300,000 members<---RED FLAG! and thousands of Industry professionals (producers, directors, agents and photographers) Star Extras is the right place to find jobs! Thousands of jobs now available in all 50 states. We have been in business since 2005 and are a proud member of the Better Business Bureau."<---RED FLAG!

Aah. So now we discover that our beloved David Fox is not the extras casting director of Breaking Dawn, but in fact he works for a website that he claims industry professionals use.

Sorry, but professional extras casting directors have their own databases of local talent. They don't hop on these websites looking for extras, otherwise they'd get swamped with useless submissions from around the world. Extras are always cast LOCALLY.

Oh, their scammy website probably has casting calls for some low-budget freebies, posted by indie filmmakers who don't know any better, but no major production company is going to use a company like this. When they arrive in a shoot location, they hire a LOCAL casting company, with an actual office, phone lines and real people behind the desks.


And by the way, when I searched this company's name on the Better Business Bureau's website, it came back with a reliability rating of F (company name blacked out, to avoid giving them traffic):

If that wasn't enough to convince you that the company is a scam, let's check out what happens when you click the link in the email.

___________________________________________

ANATOMY OF A SCAM WEBSITE

This page has some of the same information as in the email, but I will point out a few more red flags:



ALL EXTRAS CASTING IS LOCAL

"Place: (nationwide) <---RED FLAG!

"Female or Male - All Ethnicities - All Ages <---RED FLAG!

"By clicking 'Apply' button you will send an email with a link to your profile directly to the casting agent." <---RED FLAG!

Nobody does a nationwide extras casting call. That would be insane. Why would a casting director want 20,000 emails from extras who don't even live in the right area? Extras casting is done LOCALLY. Period.

There are plenty of people who live near the shoot location, so there's no reason for production to hassle with the myriad travel complications that could arise from hiring someone out of the area. If you want to be an extra on a particular movie, you'll just have to move to where it's shooting first.

Extras casting directors already have too much work to do and way too little time. They prefer to hire extras whom they've worked with before and trust to show up on time and behave properly on set. At the very least, they want local extras.

NO WAY TO REPORT PROBLEMS OR COMPLAINTS

The links to report scams, spam and inappropriate content do not allow you to send a message; instead, they lead you to the registration page. I was not going to give this sketchy company my contact info just to report a complaint, so I read the Terms of Service to see if I could find any contact information there.



The two email addresses I found in the Terms of Service where one can supposedly file complaints (abuse@___.com and legal@_____.com) both BOUNCED.

WHO IS THIS GUY?

Next, I conducted a WHOIS search on the company name, but only came up with the contact info for a private registration site that keeps the registrant's name anonymous.



So, I did a WHOIS search on the domain name of the email address in the original email and--BINGO!--I found a certain Richard Fox (hmm, same last name as David--what a coinkidink!).



A little more digging revealed this information:

* "Richard Fox" owns about 4,885 other domains
* is a contact on the whois record of 631 domains
* 1 registrar has maintained records for this domain since 2006-10-23 with 1 drop.
* This domain has changed name servers 2 times over 2 years.
* Hosted on 3 IP addresses over 3 years.
* View 15 ownership records archived since 2007-11-27.
* 3,881 other web sites are hosted on this server.

In other words, a guy who spends a lot more time making money off websites than doing any actual casting.

THE FINE PRINT

So, what will it cost you to find out about a NON-EXISTENT casting call for Breaking Dawn? Well, if you're unlucky enough to have signed up for the yearly subscription, you'll be out a HUNDRED BUCKS with no refund. I found this on the TOS page:

"[SCAMMY COMPANY NAME] offers a monthly (30 days) subscription for $39.99 and an annual (365 days) subscription for $99.99. All subscriptions are billed for the respective amount following the last day of the subscription period. [SCAMMY BRAND NAME] memberships are subscriptions billed on an automatic recurring billing cycle. PLEASE NOTE THAT ONCE YOU HAVE BEEN BILLED AND SERVICE HAS COMMENCED FOR THAT BILLING CYCLE, YOUR FEE FOR THAT BILLING CYCLE IS NON-REFUNDABLE. NO PRO-RATA REFUNDS WILL BE GIVEN FOR CANCELLATIONS IN THE MIDDLE OF A BILLING CYCLE. [SCAMMY COMPANY NAME] also offers a $1.99 3-day trial promotion. The 3-day trial if not canceled becomes a regular monthly subscription of $39.99 after the initial 3-day trial."

I'm sure our wily Fox is making a pretty penny off Twilight fans who did not recognize the scam that this is. And that makes me mad!

Please feel free to share the link to this page with everyone you know. Don't let others fall prey to creeps like this.

[Edited to add this helpful link that also applies to acting scams:

US Federal Trade Commission:
If You've Got the Look, Look Out! Avoiding Modeling Scams]

[Also edited to add: Any "Breaking Dawn" audition advertisements that may appear on this blog are doing so by using keywords and are not endorsed by us. We do our best to block websites from placing bogus casting calls on our site, but some may slip through the cracks. Caveat emptor!]

This is a little late, but we just got the DVD from the TV station!

On October 26, 2009, in anticipation of the release of "New Moon," Daytime spoke to Casting Director Lana Veenker at the NBC studios in Tampa, Florida. Veenker, whose company did the Northwest casting on "Twilight," the first film in the vampire saga, talks about working in the business outside Hollywood.



Visit the Daytime website.

by Aaron Weiss
KGW Newschannel 8
November 19, 2009

Teenage girls (and probably a fair number of boys, men, and women) will be lining up for midnight screenings of New Moon, the film adaptation of the second novel in Stephenie Meyer's vampires-meets-90210 Twilight saga.

Twilight fans were disappointed when New Moon's producers decided to shoot the film in British Columbia, after shooting the first film in the Northwest.

The third film, Eclipse, has wrapped shooting, but star Robert Pattinson told MTV that Breaking Dawn, the fourth movie, will be shot in Portland. If it's true, that's huge news for the local film industry, and Twilight fans, who are sure to stalk the stars as soon as they show up.

Pat Dooris talks to fans and industry veterans on the eve of New Moon's premiere.

Link to video.

Once again, the holidays are approaching. It's the time of year that we like to give a shout out to the non-profits that Lana Veenker Casting supports throughout the year. Please check out these websites and consider donating your time and/or money. It feels great!


Run for Congo Women

Started by Lisa Shannon, an author and activist from Portland, Oregon (and one of Lana's closest friends), RFCW benefits victims of the world's deadliest war since WWII. Lana Veenker Casting has sponsored dozens of women and their hundreds of children through Run for Congo Women, and has inspired others to become sponsors themselves. Lisa recently appeared on Oprah and her new book, A Thousand Sisters, will be released in the spring.


Make a Wish

This year, Lana participated in the Twilight Fan Trips Vampire Baseball event benefiting the Make a Wish Foundation which gives hope, strength and joy to children with life-threatening medical conditions by granting wishes. An amazing organization that grants a child’s wish in the U.S. every 40 minutes.


Portland Area Theatre Alliance's Valentine Fund

PATA's Valentine Fund provides emergency cash when crisis strikes a member of the local theatre community, such as an illness or catastrophic event. It holds a special place in Lana's heart, after an actor and close friend in her former theatre company was hit by a car on his way to a performance. The Valentine Fund helped him pay rent while he was unable to work.


Oregon Food Bank

Oregon Food Bank reports that requests for emergency food have skyrocketed in recent months. A $10 contribution helps them collect and distribute enough food to fill an emergency food box, feeding a family of four for three- to five-days. LVC has often held fundraisers and made donations to Oregon Food Bank and encourages you to do the same.


Oregon Red Cross

When the three-year-old son of a local actress was diagnosed with leukemia (A.L.L.), Lana Veenker Casting helped organize a blood donation drive in his name. LVC has also supported Twilight blood drives over the past few years. The Red Cross has a continuing need to replenish its supplies and needs all blood types.

Here are some other organizations that LVC supports and recommends. Spread the love!

World Forestry Center
Oregon Humane Society
Amnesty International
Film Action Oregon
Muscular Dystrophy Association
Susan G. Komen for the Cure
Human Rights Campaign
Portland Rescue Mission
Oregon Public Broadcasting
Sierra Club
Goodwill
Easter Seals
Abby's Closet
Kiva
Northwest Children's Theatre
Oregon Bus Project
The United Way

Happy holidays!

Passing this on for some friends:

STARVE A VAMPIRE, DONATE BLOOD!
Clark County Blood Donor Center
5109 NE 82nd Avenue
Vancouver, WA
Google Map
November 20th, 2009
7:30 am to 1:00 pm

Donate blood at the Clark County American Red Cross fixed site donor center on Friday November 20th, 2009 and register to be entered to win prizes which include a pair of tickets to a November 21st showing of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" and a "Twilight" saga collection box set which includes all four books in the "Twilight" series.

3 raffles
(1) Pair of tickets to 4:30 Regal Cinema 99 Stadium 11
(1) Pair of tickets to 7:00 Regal Cascade 16 Cinemas
(1) "Twilight" saga collection box set

Lana Veenker Casting is teaming with the coordinators behind the “Experience New Moon” event in St. Helens, Oregon to give four lucky fans the ultimate experience.



Location Casting Director Lana Veenker and local members of the “Twilight” cast will be participating in a VIP party and panel discussion on Thursday, November 19th, part of the kick-off of “Experience New Moon," a four-day release party that brings the vampire saga home to St. Helens, where several scenes from the first "Twilight" movie were shot.

The event benefits the Oregon Food Bank and includes screening parties, a walking tour of movie locations, a Volturi Ball, scavenger hunt, “Twilight” character look-alike contest, raffle and more.

Also on hand will be a beautician and esthetician from Forks, WA. Four lucky winners will be chosen to receive a “Twilight” vampire makeover. If you'd like to be one of them, register here for the drawing. Winners will be announced on Thursday, November 19th, 2009.

For more information, please visit the Experience New Moon website.

By Kristi Turnquist
The Oregonian
November 17, 2009

For its legions of female fans, the Friday opening of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" is quite possibly the most momentous event since the invention of air.



Anticipation has been fed by daily, breathless reports that "New Moon" stars Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart (aka "Robsten") were dating; debates over the special effects which turn co-star Taylor Lautner into a werewolf; and drooling over Lautner's newly buff physique.

For all its global popularity, "Twilight" is forever tied to Oregon, where the first movie was filmed in 2008. Even though production moved to Vancouver, B.C., for the second and third films, Oregon and Southwest Washington were the backdrop for the movie that increased the heart rates of countless tween girls -- not to mention middle-aged moms. The region still gets a tourism boost from the industry that has sprung up around everything associated with "Twilight." And buzz is building that the fourth film might return to Portland.

Link to full article.

I've been in LA for the build up to the Los Angeles premiere of "New Moon" this evening in Westwood! Got to meet and hang out with many of the "Twilight" fan site admins, including:

Twilight Lexicon
Twilighters Anonymous
Twilight Examiner
His Golden Eyes
Twilight Series Theories
Twilight Official Facebook
Bella and Edward
Twilight Moms
Twilight Source/Imprint
Kaleb Nation

(Hope I didn't miss anyone!)

And met Charlie Bewley, who plays Demitri in "New Moon," and whom I think fans are going to love. Wishing him luck on his upcoming projects. Sounds like he has a few amazing prospects on the horizon.



These lucky ladies from Cullen Boys Anonymous are first in line for their spot on the red carpet. They've been camping out for days!



Here's a photo of Matt Britton of Twilight Source with Kimbra Hickey, the "Hands of Twilight."



Tonight's the big night!

Good luck, cast and crew! Hope you have a blast.

Lana (location casting director on "Twilight") and some local members of the "Twilight" cast will be conducting a panel discussion at the Experience New Moon event's VIP party in St Helens, Oregon on November 19th. Here's your chance to ask what it was like to work on the first film in the "Twilight" saga, how to break into show business if you're just starting out, or anything else that comes to mind.

Planning on attending? Submit your question through this web form, and enter to win time with Lana and the cast at the event. Each submission is an entry. Winner will be announced at the VIP party on November 19th.

Unable to attend? You can still submit a question! Event organizers will be posting a video of the panel discussion.