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For casting
Pre-screen the whole pile this week. Only the standouts on the callback list.
Totem talks to every applicant on the submission pile. The backstory, the motivation, the on-camera vibe, captured the same way every time. You wake to the ten worth a real callback, with the moment they earned it.
Silent betaFully free in beta
First-round screening, Senior Eng
First-round screening. Totem ran this conversation across 8 candidates and synthesized what came back into the takeaway below.
Key findingsAI-synthesized from 8 candidates
Two stood out on systems thinking, with the clearest answers on trade-offs and debugging under load. Three more were solid technically but vague on what they wanted next. Two were off on fundamentals, one a clear no.
- Strong systems thinking
- Solid technical baseline
- Vague on motivation
- Off on fundamentals
- Worth a second round
- 60%Positive
- 20%Friction
- 20%Focus
- Responses
- 0
- Fully completed
- 0/0
- Avg. completion
- 0%
- Avg. length
- 0m
From silent-beta calls
“I used to wade through four hundred submission tapes to find the eight stories worth a callback. Totem talked to every applicant, surfaced the same eight, and three I'd have missed scrolling tired at midnight.”
— a reality casting director, mid-season
What casting teams ask first
“Won't this flatten the personalities I'm trying to find?”
Totem's job is the pre-screen, not the audition. It hears what every applicant says about themselves the same way: the story, the stakes, the why they applied. The casting room still happens with you in it. What changes is that the room holds the ten worth being in, not the four hundred you couldn't get to.
What casting teams start with
The casting conversations no one has time for.
Story vetting, multi-source
Story Vetting, Crestline Acquisition
Vet ten sources before deadline, none of them on your phone.
Cohort end-of-term eval
Fall Cohort Evaluation, Data Science
Hear from the whole cohort, not the four who fill the form on the last day.
Concept validation study
Concept Validation, Threaded Collab
Run a depth concept-test in a week instead of a quarter, without booking a single calendar invite.
Why casting teams pick Totem
- 01
Every applicant gets the same first chance. The story buried at submission 287 surfaces because the same structured pre-screen heard it the same way it heard submission 12. Casting drift, between assistants, between coffees, eliminated.
- 02
Pattern across the cohort, weekly. The thing five applicants have in common, the arc you didn't know your season needed, surfaces as a pattern, not pieced together from tired memory at the end of submission week.
- 03
Your casting hour spent on people. The room holds the callbacks worth callbacking. The scroll, the watching, the wading, hosted before you sat down to it.
What changes
What changes for casting teams.
- 01
Two-hundred pre-screens in a week, off your calendar
Reality casting routinely opens with hundreds of applicants. Totem runs the structured first-round conversation with every one of them async; you triage from synthesis, not from tape.
- 02
Story consistency across the cohort
Same questions, same probes, every applicant. The applicant who didn't open up to the assistant on the phone at 4pm now opens up to a host that has all night.
- 03
Casting patterns surface, not just shortlists
Across two-hundred conversations, the dominant arcs, the cast gaps, the recurring conflicts, become visible. The pattern is the season.
Common questions
What casting teams ask before they try Totem.
- How can casting directors pre-screen hundreds of applicants?
- By moving the first-round conversation from the casting team's calendar to an async AI-moderated pre-screen. Totem talks to every applicant, runs the same structured story interview, and surfaces the ones worth the callback room — with the moment they earned it.
- What's the best tool for reality show casting?
- Submission platforms (Casting Networks, Backstage, Cast It) handle intake and management; they don't run the pre-screen conversation. Totem runs the conversation: same questions across the pile, real probes on hedged answers, the story signal that picks the season.
- Can AI replace the actual audition?
- No, and the framing misses the point. Totem replaces the pre-screen — the backstory check, the motivation interview, the on-camera vibe before the room. The audition stays human and in the room. The room just holds the callbacks worth callbacking.
- How does AI-moderated pre-screening affect casting consistency?
- It improves it. Drift between casting assistants — different days, different probes, different energy — is one of the unmeasured sources of inconsistency in reality casting. Same prompt, same host, every applicant; the story that didn't land with a tired assistant at midnight gets heard the same way it heard the first submission of the day.
- How is Totem different from Casting Networks or Backstage?
- Casting Networks and Backstage are submission marketplaces and casting-call management tools. Totem runs the actual pre-screen conversation that informs which submissions you act on. They're complementary: the platforms aggregate talent; Totem talks to them.
- Can Totem help with scripted TV or commercial casting?
- Yes, with the same caveat: Totem replaces the pre-screen, not the read. For scripted, the pre-screen surfaces character understanding, availability, prior-credit context, and the actor's read on the role before the audition slot. The audition itself stays in the room.
Your turn
Describe the cast. Hear every applicant first.
One prompt seeds the screen. Totem talks to every applicant on the pile. You wake to the shortlist, the patterns, and the three stories you'd have missed.
Drop your promptFree during the betaNo cardYour prompt, your data