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When New York area acting coach and Backstage Expert Matt Newton dove into directing his first short film, “Hide/Seek,” earlier this year, Backstage was one of his first sources for casting the film’s four roles. “We received a total of 3,500 submissions, probably half of which came from Backstage,” Newton said. “We wanted to put it out to everybody and use this entire process to help my actors document what happens from casting to pre-production to production to post-production.” With the help of “Homeland” casting director Kimberly Graham, Newton sifted through those 3,500 applicants and brought 60 of them in for auditions, 20 into callbacks, and eventually cast four. In using Backstage, he quickly learned what he was looking for from actors and what makes a profile really pop. “It was really eye-opening on the casting process,” he said. “It’s really about people needing to know how to present themselves professionally.