Casting the right talent for your film project is one of the most important aspects of success. Their delivery and emotion will shape how the audience experiences your vision. But finding the right person for every role is not an easy process, nor one that should be rushed.

You can have the perfect script, the highest quality camera, and set design, but all that won't matter if the acting is bad. While there's likely to be quite a bit more talent in places like New York City or Los Angeles, no matter where you live, there are ways to find the people you need, whether it's lots of kid actors, a couple with great romantic chemistry, or anyone else. Not everyone is in NYC or Hollywood, even the big stars like Julia Roberts, who primarily lives in Taos, New Mexico.

Local Colleges and Universities

Most local institutions have drama departments, providing the perfect pool of students excited to get some "real-world" experience in acting. Ask drama/theater instructors if you can talk to their acting students about your project or if they can put the word out themselves.

At the university level, you can put flyers on bulletin boards and perhaps get a listing in a student paper. If the school has its own radio station, advertising your need for actors there is sure to help you build a large pool of local talent to choose from.

Community Theater

Check with your local community theater. Odds are, they'll know at least a few talented people looking for an opportunity to work on a film project. Or you might be able to hang up a flyer on a bulletin board.

Use an App

There are apps for everything these days, and that includes booking actors. Actors can create profiles that list their experience on apps like Special Guest App. That allows them to perform without having a talent agent or manager take a big chunk of money from their earnings while making it cheaper and easier for those who hire them as well.

Facebook Groups

There are Facebook groups for everything, including actors, filmmakers, and just about anyone else connected to the industry. You can do a Google search or use the search bar in the group board tab. There is a long list of options that will come up either way, like Original Actors Helping Actors, a group for actors to connect with other actors for support and advice. But it also welcomes and encourages those who are casting and other industry professionals. You can follow actors and post links to your own page to find out if anyone local might be interested in your project.

Freelancing Sites

You can also find local talent on freelancing sites. There are many out there with profiles of top-notch talent looking for projects just like yours. Upwork is one of the largest, while others include Guru, Fiverr, and Freelance.com. While it might be a bit harder to find someone in your specific area, these sites are worth looking into for quality talent at a more affordable price.

After job data was released in 2020, it revealed that in Northern Virginia, there were fewer jobs lost here due to the pandemic. From September 2020 through September 2021, there was an increase of 45,400 employed (3.1 percent). It represented 62 percent of all jobs regained throughout the state, showing that the region managed to get through the pandemic without as much economic damage as most.

In January 2021, experts predicted that Arlington would bounce back quickly, and as we get closer to the end of the year, all signs point to that prediction being accurate.

If you're thinking about buying a home among properties in the Arlington real estate market, whether for a career move or to start your own business, it's likely to be a good choice with this economy recovering faster than many other metropolitan areas across the country.

Here's a closer look at what you should know about the Arlington area economy post-pandemic.

How the Housing Market is Affecting the Economy

When home prices rise, consumer spending typically rises, leading to higher economic growth due to the wealth effect. The opposite can occur when prices sharply drop, adversely affecting consumer confidence.

From June through August 2021, in the zip code 22201, the Clarendon|Virginia Square|Ballston-Virginia Square neighborhood in Arlington, nearly a third of homes sold above the list price, with the median sales price over $1.5 million, according to Redfin data reported by Patch.com. The publication noted that while the housing market usually starts to cool down following the summer months, picking up again in the spring, experts have predicted that it will continue to be hot throughout the rest of the year.

Overall, in October 2021, home prices were up .2 percent in Arlington compared to last year, with a median selling price of $674,000. Experts say both single-family homes and townhomes will continue to "sizzle" due to low inventory, although condo prices may dip slightly.

Small Businesses

About 90 percent, or 6,000, of businesses in Arlington County are small businesses, defined as having fewer than 50 employees. During the pandemic, both the county and Commonwealth implemented a variety of grants and programs to help keep them running, and it has made a significant difference.

The GRANT 2.9 program was announced in September of 2021. It aims to provide more funds to nonprofits and businesses to aid in short-term recovery. It includes 200 grants of $10,000 to the organizations that are eligible, according to

The Job Market

Several large, multinational companies have been making a home in Arlington in recent years, including Amazon. In January 2021, Microsoft announced that it was on its way too, bringing the Microsoft Technology Center, a global sales and marketing team, and Microsoft Federal. Its goal is to open around the second quarter of 2022, with approximately 1,500 new jobs expected.

Arlington is home to numerous Fortunate 500 companies, prestigious educational establishments, high-profile nonprofits, and a fast-growing startup scene. In addition to Microsoft, the top employers in the area include Lockheed Martin, Nasa, Wegmans Food Markets, and the Federal Reserve System.

As of September 2021, the unemployment rate in the county was just 2.2 percent, compared to 4.8 percent nationally. The average household income in Arlington is nearly double the national average of about $80,000, at more than $154,000.

If you are keeping track of hiring trends these days, you will find a lot of job openings for professionals skilled in information security. The reason is the growing digital transformation along with the adoption of cloud services. Big data analytics has allowed companies to gather a massive amount of data and analyze it to obtain valuable business insights. The more data a company gathers, the higher is the risk of a data breach. Malicious hackers are trying out innovative ways to intrude into a company’s systems and networks so as to compromise their sensitive data for personal gains.

Companies, irrespective of their size, have realized the need to take proactive steps in securing their business data from any kind of cyberattack. Though there are a variety of information security professionals hired to ensure the overall system security, professionals who can beat malicious hackers in their own game are ethical hackers. Unlike black-hat hackers, ethical hackers gain access to an organization’s system with permission from the concerned authority. They bypass the security and infiltrate networks to identify vulnerabilities and loopholes and rectify them before they can be exploited by malicious hackers.

Ethical hackers are one of the highly paid and sought-after professionals in the field of cybersecurity. If you can add an ethical hacking certification to your resume, there is no reason why you can’t improve your earning potential even further. Willing to know more about such certifications? If yes, then this article is for you. We have listed some of the most popular ethical hacking certifications that are recognized by companies worldwide to hire professionals in this domain.

Let’s check them out!

Certified Ethical Hacker (CEH) Certification by the EC-Council

Whether you are a Network security engineer, Information security manager, Solution architect, Cyberdefense analyst, or Junior penetration tester, the CEH certification will benefit your career. The latest version CEH v11 is dedicated to making you aware of the commercial-grade hacking tools, techniques, and methodologies used by hackers to ethically hack an organization. The certification covers everything that you need to become a seasoned ethical hacker - NICE 2.0 framework’s Specialty areas, emerging attack vectors, modern exploit technologies, hands-on hacking challenges, malware analysis, dedicated modules on Cloud and IoT, and thousands of hacking techniques and tricks.

The associated exam 312-50 (ECC Exam) is 4 hours long in which aspirants have to attempt a total of 125 multiple-choice questions. You need to follow one of the conditions mentioned below to be eligible for appearing in this ECC exam:

● Hold a CEH certification of version 1 to 7.
OR
● Hold a work experience of at least 2 years in the domain of Information Security.
OR
● Attend an official EC-Council training.

GIAC Certified Penetration Tester by SANS Institute

The Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) has designed this certification to demonstrate a candidate’s skills in conducting a penetration test properly using the best practice techniques and methodologies. With this credential, you’ll gain the knowledge of conducting exploits and engaging in detailed reconnaissance and utilizing a process-oriented approach to projects involving penetration tests. Information security professionals like ethical hackers, defenders, auditors, and forensic specialists can take this certification.

The associated exam GPEN is web-based and is required to be proctored. The time allowed is 3 hours and there are around 82 to 115 questions to be answered. The passing score of the exam is 75%.

Important Topics - Attacking password hashes, Azure overview and Attacks, Escalation and exploitation, Kerberos attacks, Penetration test planning, Scanning and host discovery, and Vulnerability scanning.

CompTIA Pen Test+

This certification by CompTIA tests you regarding the most up-to-date penetration testing, and vulnerability assessment and management skills required to identify the resiliency of the network against attacks. The certification is unique because it assesses a candidate’s ability to test devices in new environments like cloud and mobile, apart from existing desktops and servers. Moreover, it includes management skills used to plan, scope, and handle weaknesses, not just exploit them. The certification is also compliant with ISO 17024 standards and approved by the US DoD to meet directive 8140/8570.01-M requirements.

The associated exam PTO-001 consists of a maximum of 85 questions that are performance-based and multiple-choice type. The exam duration is 165 minutes, and you need to score at least 750 marks (on a scale of 100 to 900).

While there are no prerequisites to take the exam, a minimum of 3 to 4 years of information security work experience is recommended.

Offensive Security Certified Professional (OSCP)

The OSCP is a foundational penetration testing certification that is acknowledged, popular, and required for many cybersecurity jobs out there. Professionals who hold this certification are capable of identifying existing vulnerabilities and executing organized attacks in a focused and controlled manner. Further, they know how to leverage or modify existing exploit code to their advantage, perform network pivoting and data exfiltration, and compromise systems due to poor configurations. The certification is ideal for information security professionals who want to take a serious step into the world of professional penetration testing.

The associated exam is a 24-hour hands-on penetration test in which a candidate has to complete a challenge and submit a comprehensive test report.

Candidates applying for this exam should have a clear understanding of TCP/IP networking, Bash scripting with basic Python or Perl, and Windows and Linux administration experience.

To sum it up, ethical hacking certifications can give a boost to your cybersecurity career. Consider taking an online course to prepare for the certifications mentioned above. Their exams aren’t easy to pass on your own, and an online course can help you prepare better. You’ll learn from the industry experts who know the cybersecurity best practices and guide you step-by-step to learn about ethical hacking from scratch. So, why not get ethical hacking certified today and reap its career benefits!

Most families do have cars at home but not every family does. There are times where there is a dire need of a car and you would have to head over to a car service. Even families that do have cars will find themselves in situations where they need to hire a car. In this regard, getting help from Car Service Boston is the best idea. From airport transfers to special occasions, there are many reasons why families living in Boston might need to hire a car.

Family Trips

If you have a bigger family, you would need to hire a coach for family trips. Suppose that the kid who you have sent off to college is also back home and the whole family plans to take a trip. Now, there is not enough space in the family car for everyone. In such a situation, you will have to hire a car from any car services. There is an option to choose SUVs and minibus. According to the size of your family, you can choose a car for your day trip.

Airport Drop-Offs

Airport transfers are easiest when one person in the family has to go somewhere. However, when the whole family has to take a trip together, things get a little difficult. You cannot take your own car as there will be no one to drive it back home. If you leave it at the airport, you will have to pay a huge parking fee. Using AirportCar Service, you will be able to make these drop-offs much easier. A car will drive you to the airport while you sit in the back planning about your vacation and what you need to do as soon as you land at your destination.

Special Occasions

If there is a special occasion in the family such as a christening, graduation or a birthday, the family would have to go somewhere together. For example, if your kid is having his or her college graduation, the whole family would want to be there for the kid. When the family car gets too small for everyone, you can go ahead and hire a bigger SUV from car services.

School Drop-Offs

If the house car is at the workshop for maintenance or it is not in fit shape to be on the road, you will need a car to take the kids to the school. Car services come in handy in such times too as they have a wide range of cars for you to choose from. You can drop off the kids at school, their football practice, swim lessons or painting classes in a hired car until your car comes back.

When hiring a car in Boston, you should consider BostonCar Service. The Blue Nile Livery’s aim is to cater to the customers’ specific needs, whether they are business-based, individual-based or family-based. With customer satisfaction in mind, the company has built a solid reputation in the city and continues to provide the best service.