Stock Image casting

We have successfully finished the casting for Zooma, an stock image company from Swedden, produced in Argentina by Ifixit. The objective was to find persons from different kind of ethnias. We cast orientals, latins, anglo-saxons, nordics, andeans, dark asians, children, adultos, and old aged people.

The models came from a street scouting by Why me? and from ethnic specialized agencies like TCV, Garotos y Garotas and Carioca.

If your age is between 11 and fourteen and you think you are a good soccer journalist send us an email!

We are looking for boys between eleven and fourteen years old to host a TV soccer show for a sports channel.
If you are interested send us an email to: busqueda@whymecasting.com with photos, personal data and contact info and tell us how much you like soccer.

The call finishes 07/11/07.

Casting for the short movie "Bolivian Two"

We have just finished the casting for the short film “Bolivian Two”, directed by Juan Pablo Felix.
The script of this short movie was the winner in a contest organized by the film making company La Doble A within a space called Dospuntouno with teenager thematic.
It was filmed the first days of October in Buenos Aires and actually is in the edition process.
The short movies of this program will be exhibited in within different national and international festivals. The last edition was projected in the FIAP (Festival Iberoamericano de la Publicidad 2007) inauguration, the Centro Cultural Borges, the MALBA museum, the TV Channel ISAT and some film festivals. The film count with the support of La Doble A and different companies from the film industry like Rental, Metrovision, Revista G7, Laboratorios Stagnaro, La Rana, Shift3D, FX Stunt Team SA, y Why me? casting.
The selected actors were two children: Alexis Rivkin from Why me? and Franco Arcidiacono from the agency Elenquitos.
Congratulations to the director Juan Pablo Felix and his team. We are anxious to see movie, meanwhile, a little advance:

New minimun cachets from the Argentina Actors Association.

Since 17/9/2007 the new minimums established by the Argentina Actors Association for advertising actors cachets are the following:

Protagonist: $452 + Image rights depending on the country.
Co protagonist: $376 + Image rights depending on the country.
Secondary roll: $245 + Image rights depending on the country.
Minor character: $220 + Image rights depending on the country.
Groupal character: $100 + Image rights depending on the country.

(The values are expressed in US Dolars and may vary according the exchange rate.)

This numbers correspond to one working day, plus the corresponding for image rights according to the country. For example for Argentina is 50% for the image rights.
The benefits are obvious: a higher minimum and a higher cost for one working day.
However, as I see it, this means a good salary composition that favours the actors but there are many holes and flaws.
At first it’s the same cachet for a TV commercial for 12 months for the hole country and a commercial for a single province for 3 months. The production cost for both commercials are very different. In this case the option that are using the small announcers is not using actors for their higher cost. I don’t think this wage rises affects Coca Cola but the truly affect the small announcer. And this way the actor losses too, because the job opportunities are less.

On the other hand there are no benefits for the actors in the international commercials. The actors' cachet is the same as if it is for Argentina or for France, the image rights is 50% in both cases.

In the case of graphic advertising the client is starting to make their contracts trough AMA (Argentina Models Association) rather than AAA (Argentina Actors Association).

I think that at the end of the way the market is going to be ok with this new cachets, but I also think that there is a lot to do.

Resuming… there is no direct benefit to the actor because the international cachets are lower than before and there are few job opportunities. The small film companies are also not beneficiated because of their low budget. Maybe the only benefactors of this are the big filming companies when budgeting for international movies.

What do you think?
Marcela Villanueva

"Politiquito" on air

Considering the upcoming presidential elections, the Consejo Publicitario Argentino realised a campaign for education awareness under the slogan “The future is us”. The casting of this campaign was realized by Why me? and after an interesting scouting, Agustín Valentinetti from the agency Imaginativa was chosen. The spot was produced by Aguirre Films and directed by Alberto Lequi.

Filmlatina’s cover

Congratulations to our director Marcela Villanueva and her love store, because today they where Filmlatina´s cover! (see the complete note in spanish)

Why me? new Msn contact.

Now you can contact with us via MSN. Our new contact is: whyme@whymecasting.com
We will gladly join you to our contact list!

Nine new animation movies from Sinfilm

Our friends at the production company Sinfilm put on air tour excelent animation movies directed by Gus Peón and Paki Montes. Gus was recently incorporated to Sinfilm staff. They are very good movies, we wish Sinfilm a lot of success and we hope their next commercials require casting :)

“Atico”, the Speed spot for Telefónica, is already on air. The commercial was directed by Javier Blanco from Hermanos Mundo. This kind of movies presents something new in Argentinas’ local market: user generated content. It asks the audience to write the end of the commercial so they can participate in a contest called Speedy Videos from which the award wining Director is also part of the jury.
The casting made by Why me? was very rich and succesfull. The selected actors were: Albertina Brito Lima y Emilia Sanchez Chiquetti from Talentos del sur, Mailen Glove from El Ovni, Felipe Villanueva from Guapas and Guido Botto Fiora from Karina Albanesi.

Isabel Caban for Dia Supermarkets

Isabel Caban from Why Me? participated in the commertial for Dia Supermarkets “Expertas en ahorro” realized by Habitación 1520 Productions.

Discovery Channel "Destrucción"

The new Steve Akerman spot “Destrucción” for Discovery Channel, of which casting was made by Why me?, is already on air. Here we have the Directors Cut:

Juan Manuel Soler for Scheinder

Our talent Juan Manuel Soler participated in the spot "Posta un bar" from Scheineder Beer. The production of the spot was made Mondo Cine.

Our models in Para Ti Mamá Magazine

Our little talents: Catalina Albanesi, Nyara Sol Valle, Franscisco Draghi and Ignacio Martín Barbeira have participated in different fashion productions for the last issue of the Para Ti Mamá magazine.







They also participate in the productions the models: Patricia Miani, Jorge Agustín Oberto, Pamela Correa, María Victoria Arrabaca Pimenta and Mariano Solero

MTV´s “Quiero Mis Quinces” second season is comming

We have finished the “Quiero Mis Quinces” second season casting.
"Quiero Mis Quinces" is the Latin version of the "My Super Sweet 16" TV show.
After a hard but fun scouting for real teens we manage to choose the new teen stars. You will have to wait for the first show in MTV. Meanwhile you can peep the first season here.

Discovery Channel

For Cruz del Sur Cine
Steve Akerman will make a new public good spot for the prestigious cable and satellite TV channel. The casting was made by Why me? and the choosen actors were Matias Ezequiel Rodriguez, Valentina Kurchan, Abril Aravena Bustos y Facundo Diaz from Why Me?, Silvia Marra y Monica Bennet from Guapas and Nello de Piero from Imaginativa Casting.

Happy 2007!