Dear Actor,

You’re part of a select group of our most loyal members, so you may already know that we’re getting ready to launch an all-new Fishpond platform — rebuilt from the ground up to be easier, faster, and fairer for actors across Ireland. And yes, we think it’s on it’s way to looking pretty sharp too. Your feedback at this stage will help shape Fishpond into the platform actors truly need and deserve. Thank you for being part of this first chapter, built with care, for the people who make the work happen.

Important
We’d like to complete the actor beta testing by Friday 21st November, so please take some time between now and then. Also, we wanted to mention that this is still our quiet test phase, so please don’t post or share screenshots on social media just yet. We’ll have a full public launch soon and you’ll be the first to know.

About the testing environment
It’s important to note that the beta testing environment you will visit is not the completed platform – so you may come across placeholder text / images / videos / layout that is still being worked on. Some links may not be quite ready to lead you where they should. For example, you won’t yet be able to view your subscription details just yet. This will come later.

Feel free to explore and offer feedback on anything you encounter – whether that’s in relation to a technical aspect, your user experience or a bug that you want to report. We’d also love to hear if you really like something, so don’t be shy to tell us!

Areas we’d most like your feedback on
For now, the two most important aspects we’d like you to test for us are:
A) updating your Actor Profile and
B) applying for roles with your profile / AUDITIONCAM / AUDITIONMIC
We know that these features and processes are at the absolute centre of your work as an actor, so we want to get them just right for you on every device. As mentioned, feel free to explore the other parts of the platform that you can see and give us feedback on those, but we would particularly love some feedback on how these two aspects are working for you. If you could also try things out on different devices, that would be incredibly insightful for us.

How to provide feedback
When you log in to your account in the beta testing environment, you will see an orange pop-out tag on every page called Submit Feedback. Click here to tell us what you are experiencing (or not experiencing), what device you are using and if you could attach a screenshot of what you are seeing on screen, that would be really useful. You can send us as many pieces of feedback as you wish, there is no limit to the number you can submit. Simply send your feedback and the form will reset for you.

How to get started
Step 1 – Visit the beta testing environment here
Step 2 – Log into your existing Fishpond actor account (you will be required to reset the password)
Step 3 – Visit your profile and check to see if your existing material is appearing – headshots / reels / personal information / credits etc. if not, be sure to tell us.
Step 4 – There are new fields on your profile, so fill those out and add the relevant information.
Step 5 – Visit the Projects Board and apply for roles you can see – for once, it doesn’t matter if you match the brief 😉
Step 6 – If you could put yourself forward for roles with a combination of clicking Apply / Send Audition and a combination of just your profile, AUDITIONCAMs and AUDITIONMICs, that would be incredibly useful. We’ll outline exactly what to do below.

The process of putting yourself forward for roles in the real world will be:
– If the caster has not enabled AUDITIONCAM/AUDITIONMIC on a role, one button will appear – Apply.
– If the caster has enabled AUDITIONCAM/AUDITIONMIC on a role, two buttons will appear – Apply and Send Audition.
– Click Apply if the caster has posted a project on the board and you are declaring an interest in a role (you should only be able to apply once per role).
– Click Send Requested Tape if the caster has been in touch with you and asked you to send them a specific video or voice clip.
– Regardless of which path you choose, you will have the option to send the caster just your profile, or add a video (AUDITIONCAM) or voice clip (AUDITIONMIC).

Please test the below as many times as you can on different roles (and devices if you can)
For example you might test the following scenarios for us:
– Click Apply / Send Profile
– Click Apply / Send AUDITIONCAM / Record into the Device
– Click Apply / Send AUDITIONCAM / Upload a video file
– Click Apply / Send AUDITIONMIC / Record into the Device
– Click Apply / Send AUDITIONMIC / Upload a sound file
– Click Send Requested / Send AUDITIONCAM / Record into the Device
– Click Send Requested / Send AUDITIONCAM / Upload a video file
– Click Send Requested / Send AUDITIONMIC / Record into the Device
– Click Send Requested / Send AUDITIONMIC / Upload a sound file

Note that you should be restricted to sending a maximum of 10 videos or voice clips per role.

Step 7 – Your Application Record
After you successfully put yourself forward for a role, a record of your application should appear in FTC (for their consideration). In addition, if you sent a video, it should appear in the AUDITIONCAM section of your dashboard. If you sent a voice clip, it should appear in the AUDITIONMIC section of your dashboard.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to help shape the new and improved Fishpond for actors and casters in Ireland – we’re so excited to collaborate with you.