Interview | Take a Trip Down Fame Street

Terence Greenhithe, Founder of Fame Street: Fame Street began as a website called Britstars way back in 1999. I started Britstars as a way for music fans to meet their favourite pop stars at book signings and special events. I would trawl the Internet looking for when bands would be meeting their fans. Although the website looked awful (hey, this was 1999), it really took off. After a year or so, I was sent an opportunity by a student filmmaker who was looking for some film extras for his short film. I posted it onto Bristars and the response was overwhelming! At this time, I was a black taxi driver and Britstars was free, so it wasn't a priority to me, but I nevertheless started to add on more opportunities for actors and actresses, singers, and models. I would spend hours searching for opportunities online and in newspapers to post onto Britstars. I then taught myself Javascript and CGI scripts to create an online membership area. It was a huge learning curve.

I promoted Britstars using Adwords and charged £2 per month for members to access the opportunities on the website. I was the only person in the UK doing this at the time and it coincided with the whole 'celebrity' thing with X Factor and Big Brother - it seemed everybody wanted to be famous! And the website was very successful. My time was spent promoting the website to filmmakers and TV companies and today I receive 100s of opportunities from filmmakers, record companies, and top TV producers, including the BBC, ITV, and Channel 4.

During 2010 there were many scam companies that were hiring hotels and inviting girls to become models and then charging them 100s of pounds for work that never materialised. This was completely unrelated to Britstars and nothing to do with us, but legislation was brought in that made it illegal to charge any fee whatsoever for any work for models and the modelling industry, including online. This was a big blow for us. Although the law was badly thought out, we were told to remove all opportunities from the website for the modelling industry. Today, Fame Street is the only company that abides by this law.

In 2011, the website was looking old and worn out, and so a massive rebranding, re-launch, and new look was put into place, including the iconic name change…and Fame Street was born. We now have a dedicated team that makes Fame Street the go-to place for auditions and casting calls.

Terence: Fame Street was the first website of its type in the world! There are about eight other casting call websites out there and all of them (with the exception of one) are awkward, messy and badly designed, and do not update their opportunities often enough. Fame Street publishes up to 50 new opportunities each week from reliable production companies that have used Fame Street for years. A casting call website needs to be user friendly, tidy, easy to use and functional. Fame Street constantly tweaks and twists the website based on user feedback to make applying for casting calls quick and easy.

Adam: Some businesses, like Freelancer, rely on a 'bidding wars' approach - what made you steer clear of this?

Terence: Fame Steet largely ignores the competition. We prefer to spend our energy making Fame Street the best it can be and let member feedback dictate what direction we go in. We may take a look at rival websites every now and then, but this is simply to see if they have redesigned themselves or have any new features. They rarely have…

Adam: What are some of the biggest clients that your talent roster has done voice work for?

Terence: We do not keep a track of what work our members get as we simply provide the opportunities and its then up to Fame Street members to apply for them. We have, however, had tons of feedback over the years from members that have landed speaking roles in major feature films and TV shows, including Game of Thrones and Hollyoaks.

Terence: Fame Street lives and dies by user feedback. Our website constantly shapes and shifts depending on the latest trends. Websites constantly evolve over time, especially now that tablet and mobile surfing has overtaken laptops and PCs. Fame Street is designed to look great on an iPad and iPhone as this is where most surfers come from. Our latest updates include a search function to drill down to what members are looking for, and to reduce the amount of 'link clutter' down to a few simple buttons. We're always listening!

Adam: Can you explain how your service works - how easy is it for people to sign up and get applying for jobs?

Terence: Fame Street is very easy to use. Anyone can register by clicking the big green register button. The sign up form has been really stripped down to remove all non-essentials. Many rival websites ask for your hair colour, height, big toe size, etc! But we feel this is just too much info to initially ask for. We keep it very basic. Members can add more details about themselves at a later date. Once a profile has been created, they can be found in the talent database. Registering is free, including the online profile. If members want to apply for jobs, they can upgrade their membership for a subscription fee. The fees we charge have been adjusted and tweaked many times over the years to offer the best prices online.

[bTerence:[/b] We are putting together a bunch of tutorial videos as we speak, and these should be ready within six weeks.

Adam: Do you have special plans to expand the reach of Fame Street over the next 12 months?

Terence: We are always trying to reach out to the far corners of the galaxy, so if there is a casting call on Jupiter, then we will be there pitching it!! We are already 'everywhere' in terms of paid online advertising and we are on the first page of Google for all our top keywords (it took eight years for 'auditions' to reach page one). If we can find other ways of expanding, then it will be implemented.

Adam: Have you considered doing any cross promotional work with other businesses to expand your reach? Or perhaps running competitions to attract more talent and talent seekers?

Terence: Yes, we are always open to anything that can promote Fame Street and are very flexible in our approach.

Adam: Finally, what 'first steps' tips would you give to those wanting to get into this field?

Terence: Be stronger than your excuses! There are many filmmakers that WILL give you a chance, even if you have no experience whatsoever. Start off by applying for non-speaking roles as a film extra. Don't expect to be in Eastenders because that simply won't happen yet. Build up experience as a film extra and this will bode well for when you apply for speaking roles. Always remember that this is a competitive industry and so disappointment should be taken with a pinch of salt. Fame Street proves time and time again that anybody, anywhere, can make it in films and TV. 300,000 members can't be wrong!