Summer shooting season is here — and we’ve been hearing from many actors that they’ve been contacted by filmmakers thanks to their audition videos being on the Stonehenge Auditions YouTube channel.

We’re taking this occasion to remind actors about how the videos work.

Stonehenge Audition Videos are Publicly Available
We know it’s probably obvious since they’re on YouTube, but yes, your audition video can be seen by pretty much anyone. It’s public.

Having the videos be publicly available is, in fact, why we’re still doing Stonehenge Auditions. It has served as a resource for the DC-area filmmaking community and beyond. We hear from actors getting contacted not only by local filmmakers, but ones in Richmond, Philadelphia, and New York. While there’s no guarantee any project will be good, bad, or weird, enough actors have contacted us about good projects for us to keep on posting videos.

You May Ask to Update or Remove Your Video at Any Time
As per the video release actors sign when attending Stonehenge Auditions, actors may contact us at any time to remove their video from the YouTube channel.

You can also ask for us to update your contact information listed with the video. We highly recommend you list the email address you use for your professional acting work versus a personal email address. You may also want to list your agent’s email address and phone number, if that’s applicable.

We can usually make these changes within one business day.

Always Research Filmmakers & Production Companies
The barrier to having some sort of online presence is lower than ever, so if you get contacted by producers, look ’em up!

Whether it’s a website for their company, the particular project, or even a reel of their previous work, it can be informative. Even student filmmakers may have online examples of their work.

If anything strikes you as odd or raises a flag, go with your instincts — and always ask questions. In Team J’s Casting Notes series, we have an article specifically about responding to casting notices. The section on researching and asking questions holds true when producers reach out to you as well.

Here’s hoping your summer is productive and creative!