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 HERE'S WHAT HAPPENEDI took a road trip to Atlanta with a couple of acting buddies for a panel Q&A that was 100% worth it. The networking wasn't great, but the info from the panel was excellent. While we were there, we stayed with my college bestie who works in casting and production. She told me if the audition deadline is Monday, but she has ten great self-tapes on Friday, she'll send those to the director, meaning actors who meet the audition deadline can still lose their chances of getting seen by the director. It's not a total loss, however. Some casting directors still watch every single audition, which is beneficial to you because you're now in casting's "mental storehouse" of talent for future auditions. In other words, our tapes are still getting seen by casting even if we miss the top ten sendoff to the director, but don't get too comfortable because that's ultimately who we want to see it. Yes, we submit our self-taped auditions to the casting director, but our goal is to get in front of the people who actually make the final casting decision, which isn't the casting director. I've heard casting directors say they will slay dragons for talent they love if the directors and producers don't agree with them, but ultimately, they're submitted to production's decision. Did you know that your self-tapes ultimately need to reach the director and producers for you to be considered for a role, and there's a way to significantly boost the odds of making that happen? So what should an actor do? I'll tell you how in this post, plus tips on making it a reality.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 1Casting directors receive hundreds of self-taped auditions, anywhere from 100-600+ depending on the role. The panel Q&A I attended had two very reputable casting directors who both said they only submit 8-10 self-tapes to the director out of the hundreds they receive. It's important that you understand how quickly everything is expected to move in the casting process. Casting directors don't work for us; they work for the production and view the production team as the client.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 2I dunno about you, but this information kicked my butt into gear on self-taping turnaround time. Submit self-taped auditions the same day if you can. What if the script is dialogue heavy? If the deadline is longer for a dialogue heavy script, then make it a goal to submit your audition at least two days before it's actually due. This, actor friends, will require you to get organized.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 3There are a ton of auditions you can actually do by yourself (i.e. direct to camera or no reader's lines). You may even get by fairly okay using a reader that isn't an actor for commercial or industrial roles. But for film and television roles, you really need a reader who is an actor, especially if the scene is emotionally intense, which means you need to make a reader pact. Reader Pact: agreement with a fellow actor that you two will always be available for each other's reads unless one of you has a booking. Ideally, they'll be from your acting class so you both have the same foundational teachings on how to approach your script. It's also nice to have someone who can recall a note from your acting coach that may help with your audition. You need to have an on-call reader for quick self-taping turnaround time. Start asking your actor buddies today if they're willing to do this. This is assuming you already have a self-taping studio. Please DO NOT record yourself saying the other lines. The entire point of acting is connecting to another human being and setting an objective to get something you want from them. This is also why in-person is ultimately better than a video call. However, video calls are much more common now, so let's dig into that.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 4Now the issue comes down to scheduling a reader to come over for your audition. Unfortunately, for actors like me, I live about an hour away from the most of my actor friends. I made a reader pact with my friend Tracie from acting class because she lived close to me, but then we both moved in opposite directions from each other! So we experimented with using FaceTime for auditions (years before Covid), and it freaking worked! You can also experiment with Skype or Facebook Messenger video calls if you don't have Apple products, but the quality of our FaceTimes has been great so far.  🚨Update: I spoke to our insurance company who informed me that your home or rental insurance will NOT pay for any accidental injuries that happen at your residence if someone comes over to self-tape even if you're not running an official self-taping business. You must make everyone sign a release form no matter what.🚨  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 5If you're taping on your phone, then you'll also need to use a laptop if you don't have a second phone or camera and tripod. The trick is to find a stand that will allow your laptop to sit at eye level, so you can film on your phone but receive the FaceTime call on your laptop. So far, we haven't had any issues with our audio quality, but we've both been taking the FaceTime calls via our laptops. ***UPDATE: I tried this with another friend while calling from my laptop to their phone and the audio quality was not as good.*** Have your reader use headphones to reduce feedback if they're taking your call from their smartphone. Both of you should set your phones or laptops to Do Not Disturb. Yes, there is a Do Not Disturb option on your Mac laptop:
Now that your laptop is ready to go, you need to create a laptop stand that sets laptop screen at eye level. My hubby and I threw together these stackable racks for my laptop stand, which can double as storage. NOTE: be sure to put something heavy on the bottom rack of your stand so your laptop is stable!  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 6When I decided to become a professional actor, the very first class I took was an Audition Bootcamp. The instructor had us go through the entire audition process including walking into the room. I hit my mark and said, “Now what?" “Now you slate.” “What’s a slate?” LOL! I’ve come a long way since my initiation days, but I truly had no clue what a slate was. Now I feel like I spend 40% of my auditions worrying about the slate. That's not an exaggeration. Slate Struggles Are Real:
Once I got my self-taping studio together, I didn’t realize how involved taping an audition slate would be. I was also surprised to see all of the various slate requests I received. I assumed there was a standard slate. Not so, Actor Boss. Full body slate shots became my primary self-taping hassle. What's your biggest struggle with self-taping? Comment at the bottom of this post to share. In this section, I’ll breakdown how to save yourself tons of time self-taping your full body shots.  If you're self-taping an audition at home, I'm guessing that you also hate resetting your studio to get the dreaded full body shot each time. Why is there no universal standard for slating?! You may be surprised at how often you'll audition alone or via video, leaving you to shoot the full body shot yourself. That means no zooming or panning plus resetting your camera and lights. This. Takes. Time. I solved this problem by saving all of my full body shots and slates to my phone. Now I can just pop whichever one I need into my audition video. However, this isn't as straight forward as it sounds. There are a few tips and tricks you should apply to make those shots easier to use.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 7It's too confusing when your hair is different in your closeup and your full body shot. The full body shots are typically a quick two seconds, so make it seamless. Film a full body with your hair up and one with it down if you ever wear it in a ponytail so you can easily select the one that matches your closeup. You don't want them to stop and say, "Wait is this the same person?" It may also feel like you used an old full body shot, which can create doubt about whether or not you currently look the same.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 8You can use wardrobe to make your slate transitions seamless, too. Pick one shirt to wear for all of your general reads that aren’t wardrobe specific so your audition outfit always matches your primary full-body shot. I had a life uniform for a while, and I miss it. I scored big with nine blue V-neck tees at Target on sale for less than $5 each! I wore those shirts for almost every self-tape. If the audition doesn't suggest wearing something character specific, then you can wear the same shirt for all of your reads. This saved me so much time because I never had to change or prep an outfit for self-tapes. I'm hoping Target gets that blue color back soon so I can go back to my life uniform days. Your other option is to tape and save full-body slate shots in various tops. These may include a:
Let me know if I'm forgetting one, but these will cover a majority of your reads. Now simply match your top for the read, then reuse the coordinating full-body shot.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 9Remember, you need to look the same in your self-tapes as you do in reality. If they book you from tape or give you a callback, will you look the same? I suggest you update those full-body shots every six months, unless your look drastically changes before then. Got new hair? Gotta update it. Lost or gained weight? Gotta update it. Cool new tattoo? Gotta update it. You 100% cannot show up looking differently than you do in your self-tapes. It puts everyone in an odd position of either spending more money to make you look like they thought you did or wasting a bunch of time recasting your role for someone who has the look they need.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 10One day when Tracie came over for a read, she saw how much time it took me to move my lights and camera around until I had everything in just the right spot. She said, "Why don't you just tape your floor?" DUH! I am a theatre major for crying out loud! We used spike tape for everything! I needed a quick fix, so I used making tape. If you want the pro stuff, then spike tape is what you need. You can get it in a variety of colors to mark your various setups. For example, you can mark where everything goes for your full body shot in blue, closeups in green, and medium shots in orange. This is assuming you even need to move around your setup. Spike tape is designed for residue-free removal so that it doesn't damage your flooring. You may still want to swap your tape strips every quarter just to be safe. Spike tape is also awesome because you can easily tear it by hand. YO! Please remember that you cannot vacuum or clean your floors or carpet while the tape is still there. You will create a hot mess that's not easy to fix when you're ready to move. Even though spike tape isn't supposed to leave residue, it still may create a shape on the floor since that part of the floor hasn't experienced as much wear-and-tear as the surrounding areas.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 11Save yourself even more time by creating an audition editing work flow. I've scrolled through my camera roll wasting so much time being aggravated that I couldn't find the stupid shot I needed when keeping it was supposed to save me time in the first place! Save those full body shots or generic closeup slates (name, height, location) to an album in your phone, and name it "Slates." Done. Easy. Now all you need to do is open that album and transfer the correct file to your video editing app. You may also consider creating projects in your video editor with each full body shot you have. That way, if you're wearing a polo for your audition, you'll already have a project started with your fully body polo shot. Wash, rinse, and repeat for your other outfits.  SELF-TAPED AUDITION TIP 12UPDATE: If you don't need to setup and breakdown your studio each time you tape, this will change your life. I now leave my lights and tripod in position to shoot a full-body shot, then simply walk up to my camera for my closeup and audition. Holy crap. Why haven't I done this the entire time? The trick is to lock your AE light box (iPhone), then pull it downward to darken the background behind you. Game changer. If you do need to move around your self-taping equipment for some reason, keep reading. I was stuck on the idea that I always needed to reset my self-taping studio "back to one" once I finished taping my auditions. That meant shooting my closeup, moving my equipment to shoot my full body, then moving everything back into closeup position. One day, I was in too much of a hurry to reset my equipment once I finished self-taping. The next time I went into my studio, everything was still in "position two" for my full body shot. I thought, "Great! Now I need to waste time resetting, and you know my hair is going to look frizzy once I do." My mind functions in ordered checklists. If the closeup is going to be first in the edit, then my brain thinks that's what I need to shoot first. I started to reset my studio for my closeup and medium shots, when I realized that I could just start with the full body shot because my studio was already setup for it! If your studio is already in the full body shot position, shoot that first. If it's already in the closeup position, shoot that first. Do not waste time resetting your studio once you finish self-taping. Shoot your last setup first. I know that sounds simple, but I'm saying it in case you're an actor that thinks like me. It's ok to shoot out of order. Movies would never be made if this weren't true. No one is going to know that you didn't shoot in order, except for maybe your OCD. Take it from someone who gets flustered when things aren't in a specific order--your time is too important and too valuable to waste on unnecessarily resetting your studio. It's also a good habit for you as an actor to break this linear thinking when it comes to your work so that you don't get flustered at shoots. It's very possible that you end up shooting the last scene first, the first scene on day ten, and your major character arc on a totally random day due to weather. I recently watched a show on Amazon Prime. In case you haven't seen this feature yet, when you hover over the scene with your cursor, you can sometimes see Trivia about the show. I was shocked to see that they filmed the entire season of this show based on location availability. That doesn't just mean that they filmed an episode out of order--it means they filmed the entire season out of order with scenes from multiple episodes on the same day. Those actors were ping-ponging scripts, emotions, and lines like crazy people. So it's possible that you'll be put in that situation as an actor at some point. You're constantly at the whim of the production schedule. Learning to be flexible in your self-taped auditions will prepare you for being more flexible with schedule changes on set. Comment and let me know which tip you found the most helpful. If you want a full breakdown of my self-taping studio equipment, check out my page Spurgeon's Favorite Things. I'm still using the original lights that I purchased years ago now, and I haven't replaced the bulbs yet.  TAKE ACTIONSo here's your action plan:
This will bump you from being an amateur actor to a pro. Remember, it's best to have one actor on call, but you can use any actor with this new studio setup, regardless of location. Just be sure to run a test call to double check feedback before you have an actual read. You Might Also Like:You should actually start self-taping auditions before you sign with a talent agent. Learn how to become an actor with the correct steps in the correct order in my Kickstart course. Enroll now.  These Casting Office Etiquette Tips Will Make You Look Like a Boss 1 Crazy Useful Special Skill Casting Directors Love How to Communicate with Your Talent Agent PIN THIS POST:
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4/16/2021 10:04:57 am
Very hard written article, Thanks for sharing with us, keep writing this type of the article. Leave a Reply. |
HEY ACTOR BOSS,I'm a screen actor and certified goals coach focused on helping other screen actors that are not yet a household name achieve their most urgent goal. 
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I only promote being a goals coach specifically, not a life coach.
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