Cast approval: get your cast list signed off by production
59 sec
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How a talent agency sends a cast list to production for approval and gets the decisions straight back
Getting cast signed off by production usually means a PDF of headshots or a spreadsheet attached to an email, a reply saying who is in and who is out, and those answers typed back into your booking system by hand. When the cast changes, the whole round starts again with a new attachment.
RosterDeck keeps production approval next to the booking. Create a named cast list on the job, send it to your production contact from the Email page, and production review headshots and full profiles on a link. Their decisions come back into the job and to your inbox the moment they send them. This walkthrough follows one cast list of 49 shoppers and tourists for the Harbour Lights III job, from creating the list to production’s answer.
Step-by-step walkthrough: what happens in this demo
Every action in this walkthrough corresponds directly to RosterDeck’s live production features. Click any timestamp to jump to that moment.
Step 1
Create a cast list on the job
Name the list, choose the job dates it covers and decide what production can see.
Open the job on the Job page, expand Cast approvals and choose New cast list. Name it after the look rather than the date, such as “Featured diners” or “Week 1 crowd”, because production see the name at the top of their page. Pick the job dates the list covers: one decision per person covers all of them, so nobody is approved on Monday and declined on Tuesday. Then choose what production can see: cast contact details, and whether they can pull the list into their own Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, kept up to date automatically. If one of the dates asks cast for a custom image, you can include that as well. The new list sits under Cast approvals with its dates, its cast count and the date its link closes.
Key takeaway: Each look gets its own list, and the dates it covers keep every decision consistent across the shoot.
Step 2
Send the approval request to production
Pick the list and its cast on the Email page, add your production contact and send.
On the Email page, select the job date and open the Production sheet with Approval chosen. Pick the cast list, then tick the cast to include from the people cast on its dates. Anyone who has declined, is unavailable, has been released or did not turn up is never offered. Add your production contact’s name and email, check the subject and message, and preview the email before you send the approval request. Each list has one link for its whole life: add cast later and they appear on the link production already has as pending, so only the new faces need an answer.
Key takeaway: No attachment to rebuild when the cast changes, because the link production already has always shows the current list.
Step 3
Review the cast on the production link
Production see a card for every artist, open full profiles and export the cast, with no login.
Production open the link in a browser. Each artist has a card with their headshot and the dates they work, and the list can be searched by name, filtered by gender, role or decision, or switched to show selfies. Opening a profile shows the artist’s photos and characteristics such as playing age, build and hair colour, along with their measurements, experience, wardrobe, DBS check date, driving licences and dietary requirements, and their contact details if you chose to share them. Production approve or decline artists, and can export the cast as a PDF with each headshot or selfie and the name or measurements, as a multi-photo PDF with up to four photos per person in a grid or comp card layout, or as an Excel spreadsheet.
Key takeaway: Production decide from the full picture of every artist without the agency sending a single attachment.
Step 4
Approve the list and send the decisions back
Approve or decline everyone at once, add a note and send the response to the agency.
Approve All and Decline All settle every artist in the current view at once, and Select All lets production act on a chosen group. A note for the agency is optional. Submitting shows how many artists are approved and declined; production confirm their name and send, and the agency is emailed the result, with any declined artists named alongside production’s reason where they gave one. On the Job page each cast list then shows its approved, declined and awaiting counts, and declined artists are marked as declined on the dates the list covers. The link stays open after a response, so production can change a decision or answer cast added later and send an update.
Key takeaway: Production’s answer lands in the job the moment they send it, not in an email thread you have to retype.
Platform rules & operational safeguards
Built specifically around UK film, television, and commercial casting standards.
No rounds
One link for the life of the list
Each cast list keeps a single production link. Add cast at any time and they appear on it as pending, so production only answer the new faces and never work from an out-of-date copy.
Secure link
No account for production
Production review, approve and export the cast in any browser with no login, password or app, and the link closes automatically a set number of days after the last date on the list.
Privacy
You choose what is shared
Cast contact details only appear when you allow it, and access for production’s own Excel or Google Sheets is switched on list by list, covering nothing outside that link.
Live status
Decisions back in the job
Approved, declined and awaiting counts appear against every cast list, declined artists are marked on the dates the list covers, and the agency is emailed the result with production’s reasons.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about how this workflow operates in RosterDeck.
No. Your production contact is emailed a secure link that opens in any browser on a phone, tablet or computer. There is no account, password or app to install, and the link only shows the cast list it was sent for.
Until a set number of days after the last job date on the list, five by default, which you can change under Public Link Expiry in Settings. You can also close a link early from the Job page and reopen it later, and production’s answers are kept either way.
Yes. Each cast list has one link for its whole life. Add cast from the Email page and they appear on the link production already has as pending, so only the new faces need an answer and nobody already decided on is asked again.
A card for each person with their headshot and the dates they work, and a full profile with photos, characteristics, measurements, experience, wardrobe, DBS check date, driving licences and dietary requirements. Cast contact details are only shown if you tick Make cast contact details visible to production.
Yes. They can export a PDF with each artist’s headshot or selfie and their name or measurements, a multi-photo PDF with up to four photos per person in a grid or comp card layout, or an Excel spreadsheet. If you allow it, they can also pull the list into their own Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, kept up to date automatically.
The artist is marked as declined on the dates the cast list covers, the list on the Job page shows the declined count with production’s reasons, and the email the agency receives names who was declined. Production approval is optional, so you can still book cast without sending a list, or before production have answered.
Yes. The link stays open after they respond, so while it is open they can change a decision and send an update, and the agency is emailed again.
Yes. Production can ask the assistant to approve or decline cast by name, role or date, summarise the decisions by role, or send their response. Every change is shown as a proposal they confirm before anything is updated.
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