We know that people of all ages and stages use StarNow, including some of our own family and friends! So the crew at StarNow works hard to make sure that StarNow is a safe and enjoyable website for everyone.
Our Community Guidelines will help you understand what's expected on StarNow, and what should be reported to us.
At StarNow, we're committed to...
Working hard to find great opportunities for talent.
Educating talent about how the industry works – including what to expect in auditions, how to create a great profile to get noticed and how to stay safe online.
Working closely with Casting Professionals to make StarNow the best place to discover talent from all over the world.
Asking questions before we place casting calls, so we can give talent as much information about projects as we can.
Monitoring every listing, message and photo to check it's safe and appropriate for StarNow. (Read more about how we review castings).
Listening to our talent and Casting Professionals – let us know if you have seen something that worries you, and we'll take you seriously.
Being part of the StarNow community #StarNowSquad
StarNow is for people of every age, race, gender, size, shape and experience level. As part of the StarNow community, we expect our talent and casting professionals to follow these guidelines:
Treat everyone with respect. We don't put up with abusive language, threats, repeated unwanted messages, hate speech or harrassment of any kind.
Everyone's time is valuable. If you commit to holding or attending an audition, make sure you're on time, or let the other party know well in advance if you can't make it. Make sure to check messages regularly and follow through on anything you have promised to do.
Keep it legal. Make sure you're aware of laws or regulations in your area that apply to the projects you run. For example, if you're making a film that requires minors, find out what the legal requirements for child employment are in your area.
Help us look after the community. If you see anything that concerns you (for example a listing, a message or a profile photo), let us know using our REPORT buttons.
Take safety seriously. If you use StarNow to communicate intentions of serious harm towards yourself, another member or one of our staff, we will take this seriously. If we have strong concerns regarding wellbeing, these will be escalated to our Senior Management Team and we may report our concern to the relevant authorities.
Be supportive and build each other up. If you see someone with a great profile, leave a comment to let them know! If you've worked with someone awesome, leave them a recommendation - they might just write you one in return!
Kindness is key. At StarNow we welcome talent from all experience levels. This means that not everyone will have the knowledge and expertise of seasoned members. We ask that any feedback is given constructively - what is obvious to you, may not be to others.
From time to time we may make decisions you disagree with. Bear in mind if we cannot provide you with full details behind a decision we may be working within the NZ Privacy Act, GDPR guidelines, or protecting another member’s privacy. We may take into account your communication with us (for example if you are extremely rude or abusive when dealing with our team), as, if you cannot communicate with respect, it’s unlikely you’ll provide a great experience for another member.
Guidelines for placing castings on StarNow
You can list opportunities for actors, extras, models, musicians, dancers, crew, hair and make up artists, stylists, photographers, reality TV participants and more.
We allow jobs for total beginners, right through to jobs needing professional talent. These include feature films, short films, modelling jobs, corporate videos, stills shoots, callouts from agents scouting new talent to represent, TVC's, theatre and more.
Castings come from a huge range of casting professionals, with a huge range of budgets. This includes projects from student filmmakers, freelance photographers, advertising agencies, award winning production companies and professional Casting Directors.
Paid work.
The person placing the listing sets the payment on offer. StarNow doesn't take a booking fee or a commission on jobs booked.
Payments need to comply with any local national minimum wage rules. The listing owner is responsible for this. You can find our more about minimum wage rules here.
We encourage Casting Professionals to be upfront about the opportunity on offer, and the fees or payment, so talent can put the job into context and decide if it's right for them.
Vouchers, store credit or product in exchange for work (i.e. contra) are not considered as payment on StarNow - but can be a nice drawcard for an Unpaid listing.
Opportunities that are unpaid, or that offer expenses.
Our members tell us they love the huge range of jobs available on StarNow, so we've decided to list some unpaid or 'expenses only' opportunities and let talent decide what's right for them.
We work hard to educate Casting Professionals about what's appropriate. For instance, if a student filmmaker is making a no-budget graduation film, our members tell us they'd like to hear about that, and understand why no payment is offered. If someone places a listing that seems commercial in nature but offers no payment, we'll reach out to find out more and encourage payment.
We listen to our talent. If we receive complaints about certain opportunities we may remove the listing. If we feel we can't place an unpaid or 'expenses only' listing we'll get in touch with the listing owner to discuss it.
We wish ALL jobs on offer could be paid. This is a tricky issue and one we're always listening to our members on, to make sure there's a range of great and genuine opportunities on site for everyone.
Casting Professionals guarantee to us any job that they place on StarNow meets National Minimum Wage requirements (or similar, depending on the region). This means if they list an unpaid job they believe their production doesn't meet the legal criteria that means the work must be paid.
If any listing (paid or unpaid) is causing concern for any reason, you can report it by clicking the ‘report this listing' link on the listing in question, and we'll review it.
If there's a fee involved in a casting call, it must be stated up front. We only allow fees that are clearly industry-related and within industry norms. For instance, a listing may advise that talent will need to join a local casting website to be represented by an agent. Most of the time, upfront fees aren't acceptable and we won't place casting calls where talent have to pay a fee to audition.
If a casting requires nudity, it must be stated on the casting with a description of the context. Any casting requiring nudity (including implied nudity) must be paid. We don't publish casting calls for pornography. We don't allow advertisers associated with the adult industry to seek talent on StarNow.
We expect casting calls to use respectful language, even when describing colourful characters.
We expect owners of casting calls to be upfront and honest about their experience, the nature of their project, and what they will be asking talent to do. We will ask questions about someone's experience and their project if we feel we need to know more, on behalf of the talent who'll be applying for roles.
The safety of our members is our top priority. For certain castings we'll need extra information – for example to place a listing for minors, we need a copy of the listing owner's ID on file.
The legal bit: We do our best to ensure fair outcomes, but we reserve the right to suspend accounts or remove content for any reason, but particularly to protect our talent, casting professionals, and our services. We reserve the right to enforce, or not enforce, these guidelines in our sole discretion. These guidelines don't create a duty or contractual obligation for us to act in any particular manner.
If you have any questions about our Community Guidelines, please get in touch at contact@starnow.com
