Hollywood -- They`re a money-saver for actors and a time-saver for casting directors and talent agents. And though they`re catching on slowly, online casting services may just transform the Hollywood biz.

Castnet.com and the Link are the established players and are already changing the casting process by helping set up actors with projects through a few clicks of the mouse. A third, Casting Workbook, has recently joined the Hollywood fray.

Casting directors can send their scripts online to talent agents hooked up to one of the services, and the agents can reply in minntes with proflies of actors, replete with pictures, stats, and - on two of the services - even audio and video clips. No need to flip through thick books or open packages full of photos.

Actors pay a set fee per year and avoid the hassle of mailing headshots each time a job becomes available. Particularly intrigued by these are the episodic episodic TV and commercial casting realms, where time is of the essence.

An indication of how fast the online services can perform: Within an hour and a half of posting a commercial breakdown on Castnet, casting director Kari Peyton received 1,220 individual actor submissions. By the next day, the total had climbed to 1,680.

Casting Workbook, created by Vancouver-based OnLine Production Services, has signed up a majority of casting directors in Canada since its debut in 1995, and is trying to break into Hollywood, where Castnet.com and the Link already co-exist.

After recent launch events in Hollywood, the Workbook has reeled in about 60 casting directors, and meetings are being held with agents to pitch the product.

Michelle Pearson, a talent agent for Dagaz Talent in Calgary, has been using the service since its inception. "Casting Workbook saves costs for everybody and speeds up the casting process immensely," she says.

Though still in its infancy in Hollywood, the Workbook has enticed casting directors such as Harriet Greenspan ("Sunset Beach") with the incentive of a free computer.

"I`m usually an old-fashioned person, but if all the agents subscribe to the Workbook, it would be very useful," she says. The service is free to talent agents and casting directors; actors must pay a $42 annual fee.

70-90 AGENCY HITS A DAY

Since late 1996, Castnet.com has offered Hollywood similar online services. With more than 150 agencies and 250 casting directors linked to it, the site gets about 70 to 90 agency log-ins and up to 20 new breakdowns per day.

Richard Horgan, Chief Information Officer of Castnet.com, says that what differentiates his company is that, in addition to being accessible via the Internet, Castnet has its own secured, private network that users can dial into directly.

Actors on Castnet must pay $49.95 annually to have a headshot and resume posted. Additional photos plus audio and video clips cost extra. Like the Workbook, casting directors and talent agents can access the application for free.

The Link Cwwwsubmitlink.com), operated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in partnership with Breakdown Services, the leader in the traditional Hollywood submissions process for more than 25 years, has garnered business through its association with the Academy Players Directory.

Any actor who pays a $75 fee for placement in the directory is automatically submitted to the directory`s online site, which connects with the Link.

In terms of volume, Breakdown Services Ltd. leads the pack, making up to 60 pages of breakdowns available daily.

HARD COPY

Still, the majority of the casting and agenting industry is not yet convinced that these services will predominate. "We do not see the Internet replacing the way people currently like to do business," Marsh says. "The majority of casting directors like to receive hard copies of pictures."

A Back Stage West/Drama-Logue survey conducted at the end of 1998 showed that 84% of casting directors polled were hooked up to Internet at work but did only 19% of their casting online. Of the 78% of talent agents using the Internet, just 23% were using online casting.

The online providers are undaunted:

"I see monumental shifts in how people do business," says Horgan of Castnet. "The 30% of casting done by breakdowns will completely be co-opted by the electronic process to the point where (paper) breakdowns may be obsolete, possibly within the next five years."