We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Kina Bale-Reed a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Kina , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?
In my early 20s I worked as a receptionist for a recruiting company and within 6 months was promoted to recruit COBOL programmers. This was right before Y2K so there were tons of job openings in this field. I did that job for a few years before I felt completely unfulfilled and un-creative and decided to return to school. I loved theater in high school and studied it a bit in college but never really pursued it. So, I quit my corporate job, enrolled in KD Conservatory, and waited tables through graduation. The school had a job opening about 8 months after I graduated and I jumped on it. It was a front desk position and part of the job was coordinating casting sessions with local casting directors and getting a front row seat to the process. Occasionally, I would be asked to assist and even more rarely, someone would call the school looking for actors or extras for a project. My first paid gig was a Nike commercial. They were shooting downtown and needed some extras to fill in the stands. They asked me to post flyers, and round up a group of students and send them over after school. A few weeks later, I received a check for “extras coordinator”. Something clicked after that. With my recruiting background, and passion for acting it all made sense. I left my full time job at the school and started learning everything I could about the casting process. I assisted other casting directors, volunteered at film festivals and events, joined industry organizations, and sent letters and resumes out all over town, all while finding gig work that paid enough to keep a roof over my head. Those first few years were a real struggle and I thought about giving up many times but ambition and just enough casting work kept driving me forward. Soon, doors started opening when a few casting directors and production companies gave me a chance to prove myself, and it grew from there. Year one, I had the opportunity to work on lots of commercials and a major TV show, Prison Break, as a casting assistant, where I learned a ton. Year two, I officially started Cast-O-Matic and within about 9 months, I was asked to cast the PBS Kids series and home videos for Barney and Friends. I worked on the show for the next 3 years. I had also landed a few commercial clients during that time. Some of those clients grew with me and fifteen years later, we are still working together. It wasn’t always easy, but it was always worth it.
Kina , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
These days we mostly cast advertising projects – commercials for web, new media, and broadcast, print campaigns, industrials, voice overs, PSAs, and promos, with the occasional indie feature or short film. We have worked with some amazing directors and producers over the years, and have seen lots of talented actors too. We have cast projects for just about every major brand in cars, healthcare, big box retailers, restaurants, mobile, food and snack brands, beauty, banking, casinos, toilet sprays, gaming, and lots of others.
I think what sets us apart is that I started out as an actor before I became a casting director, so I am always aware of that during casting sessions. I think it makes me much more empathetic and considerate of the acting process. I do my best to support them and make them feel comfortable and confident when they walk into the audition room. I also think my recruiting background makes me approach casting in a different way. We think outside of the box and come up with creative ways to find exactly what our clients need and every once in a while, what they didn’t know they needed.
I am very proud of work we have done for of our clients over the years. Projects for Poo~Pourri, Doritos, and Sega were probably the most fun we’ve had in casting sessions. The actors were asked to improvise and had us in tears we were laughing so hard. We had the opportunity to go to Paris, Texas a few years ago and cast real people for French’s Mustard. The people there were so accommodating, friendly, and receptive. It was an amazing experience to cast real people and highlight the locals and the town. We have also cast 6 feature films and 5 shorts over the years and most have gone on to screen and win awards at numerous film festivals, including Sundance, Tribeca, and Cannes. I am very proud of all of the work we have done and our clients are the best!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
When I first started out in casting, I left my full time job so I could be available when opportunities presented themselves. Flexibility in my industry is key and advertising work is sometimes seasonal, so here are slow periods during the year. I was assisting other casting directors at the time and its contract work, often without a lot of notice. When they called I always wanted to be able to say “YES, I am available”. So, I took on gig work with flexible hours – none of it paid particularly well, but I lived in a cheap apartment and kept my monthly expenses as low as possible. There was no Uber, Door Dash, or Favor back then, so I had to be creative. I taught beginner gymnastics a few mornings a week at preschools, taught after school programs, waited tables, did promotions work, and signed up with every market research company I could find. After I had worked on Barney and Friends for 3 years, the show stopped production permanently, but I was able to teach acting workshops to help supplement my income during the lean times while I looked for new casting opportunities. These days, I mostly just do casting work with only the occasional workshop. There isn’t a lot of downtime these days either like there was in the beginning when I was just starting out. I have been able to make a career out of casting, but it took a long time to get to this point with lots of ups and downs, but I never gave up. I also have an amazing support system which has been critical on my journey. I owe much of my success to mentors, colleagues, friends, my parents, my sister and business partner, Rina, and an amazing husband Clint, who were all there to support me at different times along this journey.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Covid turned things upside down for everyone, and had a huge impact on advertising. When the pandemic began, we were having our busiest first quarter ever and on March 11, 2020 everything started shutting down. We had just cast a job for a major ticketing provider, and had two other jobs in the pipeline about to award. They all started postponing but were ultimately canceled by the end of that week. I was also working as a producer/assistant director on a feature film at the time. We tried to continue filming but after two weekends, we stopped production with no idea when it would pick back up again.
I had brought my sister Rina on to work with me in November of 2018. The business had grown so large, I was no longer able to handle all of the work myself. She came on to provide much needed support and to take on some of the workload. When the pandemic hit, I no longer had only myself to worry about. It was crickets for few months but work started to slowly trickle in as advertising began to come back and pick up speed. But the industry was totally changed. Not only the way we cast, but the way we advertised to consumers. We were no longer doing traditional in-person casting sessions and had to take a crash course in new advertising trends. Most clients wanted virtual auditions so we had to scramble to get up to speed with the most efficient way to do that. Clients who did want us to continue in-person casting sessions, had a whole new set of issues to overcome. Now we had to require masks, set up sanitation stations, take everyone’s temperature at the door, spread everyone out with 6 feet of distance between them, and hope they weren’t asymptomatic. It completely changed the way we auditioned people. No more group auditions, which meant more time spent seeing one person at a time in the casting room and having to clean and disinfect between people. It was much longer work days, and loads of stress wondering if we were doing enough to keep everyone safe, and if it was worth the risks to our own heath. It was a crazy time for sure, but we adjusted and came back stronger than ever. Our business has continued to recover and even grow over the last two years. We are doing much more virtual casting these days but we have the in-person stuff down. We run like a well oiled machine and make adjustments to accommodate our clients needs while keeping everyone as safe as possible.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.cast-o-matic.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kinabalereed/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/castingmadeeasy/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kinabale/
Image Credits
Model: Brooklyn Riley