We are going to be going over 5 Key Principles when putting yourself on tape and submitting it to casting. If you really pay attention to these five areas and invest in them with a lot of tender loving care, then you are really increasing your chances that this self-tape you’re sending in will be received and perceived as being highly professional and it’ll help make them want to watch it!
Now, about risks. When you’re going into the room, there are certain principles that you want to abide by, i.e. you don’t want to bring in props, you can't get too fancy with the setup, because all that stuff in a room is unnecessary and distracting and actually can come across as very hokey and unprofessional. But when you’re self-taping you can get away with things you simply can’t get away with in the room. You can get creative with music, you can get creative with a prop, you can really put your stamp on the production and presentation of this character and make it your own. A perfect example is Dacre Montgomery’s audition for the second season of Stranger Things. If you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to watch it, it’s fantastic, and low & behold it won him the role.
Now remember – everything I’ve outlined here are recommendations. This is an industry that is not built on hard & fast rules – really, anything can happen. There is a great example of a self-tape audition that ultimately led to this actor booking the lead role on what was to become a very popular television show. I’m talking about Hugh Laurie and House M.D. He was on location somewhere staying in a hotel and he filmed himself (cold-reading by the way) in a bathroom. Now, they did not book him off of that initial self-taped audition, but that original self-taped audition led to an entire process in which he ultimately booked the role of Gregory House. Of course, this was Hugh Laurie! And he had a huge resume and a strong name value that carried that original cold-read audition taped in a bathroom!
Ok that's my 2 cents! To view Dacre Montgomery’s full audition, as well as Hugh Laurie’s, click on the Youtube video above, links will be in the description box. And while you're there, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more!
- Picture. Whether you are shooting on your cell phone’s camera, or whether you’ve invested in a high end DSLR, the most important visual element from a casting perspective is that you have a clear, crisp picture - one that is well-lit, which means you can either light it yourself or shoot the scene next to a window where you have a lot of natural light flowing in. We need to be able to see your face clearly, which you can achieve on your cell phone. Now, if you have it in your budget to afford a high-end DSLR, go for it! But it’s not necessary. Most casting offices shoot their own [in-house] auditions on a mid-range HD camcorder. So if you want to invest in an outside camera and you don’t want to use your cell phone, that will do the trick! Important: if you're shooting on your cell phone, please film the scene horizontally where the picture takes up the entire horizontal frame, and not vertically where you’ll end up having a lot of useless space on the side of the picture. No one wants to see that in casting!
- Sound. From a casting perspective, the most important thing regarding sound is that we can hear you clearly. Crisp, clear sound – one that’s going to pull us in, free from outside distractions. So if your apartment is right next to a busy highway, don’t shoot the scene in the room that’s right next to the road! Your tape does not have to have a high film quality sound, but if you can achieve a high quality sound, that’s going to help! It will also help your sound if you shoot on carpet instead of hardwood floors or cement. For me, I’m a real stickler for sound. So when I’m putting someone on tape at my studio, I use 2 different microphones – one for the actor, and one for the reader. And I always make sure that the reader’s microphone is pulled away enough so as to reduce that reader’s volume by 25%, because you don’t want the reader’s lines to stand out over your lines. The reader’s volume should always be about 25% less than your volume. Tip: if you’re going to invest any money, I recommend you invest your money in getting an external microphone that you can hook up to your camera to help you produce much better sound.
- Frame. Standard framing that casting directors use when bringing someone into their office to put on tape for producers is very close to the frame that I’m using throughout this video: tip of the head to about the mid-arm or just above the mid-arm. Note: avoid having extraneous space above your head within the frame. The frame should lightly caress the top of your head, or be very close to it. Extraneous space above the head can be distracting and doesn’t pull the viewer into the talent as much as keeping a tighter frame above the head. If you’re shooting an emotional scene, push in even tighter. For emotionally charged scenes, you want the writers & producers to feel like they’re right next to you experiencing the intensity of what you’re feeling so moving closer in is much better. This is why daytime dramas love the closeup because it captures those juicy dramatic moments so effectively! If you’re shooting a high-action scene, you do not need to pull back on the frame and shoot like you’re shooting a large master frame – it’s just not necessary. Playing out a lot of physical activity on a wide frame in an audition has the strong potential of coming across rather hokey. Why? Because your action is not balanced out by atmosphere, it’s not balanced out by a set or a monster coming at you – those things aren’t in the picture, so if it’s just you in a wide frame taking a lot of action it can look a bit silly. But if you push in tight, and the viewer gets to experience your character’s point of view in a tight close-up, those producers and writers who are watching that scene, their imaginations are going to naturally fill in the blanks – and nothing can compare to their imagination. So letting their minds fill it in is only going to serve you.
- Background. Please shoot on a plain background. It doesn’t really matter the color, what matters is that it’s plain. But good colors to use are green, blue or any earth tones – as long as it’s non-descript and doesn’t interfere or distract with what’s happening within the frame. When you have a lot of “stuff” happening in the background – if you’re shooting in your living room for example, and there are pictures of you on the wall behind you or other things that can be seen in the background – sometimes those things might catch the viewers eye and then they’re not paying attention to you, instead they’re distracted by what’s happening in the background. So it’s much better to film your scene against a flat background.
- Reader. I can’t fully express how important it is to have a good reader. Now obviously the reader is not the focus of your scene, but if you can find an acting buddy to self-tape with you – pop ‘em $10, $15, $20, however much you want to spend on your reader, or buy them lunch – it’s worth it. It is only going to help your performance if you have a skilled reader to work off of.
Now, about risks. When you’re going into the room, there are certain principles that you want to abide by, i.e. you don’t want to bring in props, you can't get too fancy with the setup, because all that stuff in a room is unnecessary and distracting and actually can come across as very hokey and unprofessional. But when you’re self-taping you can get away with things you simply can’t get away with in the room. You can get creative with music, you can get creative with a prop, you can really put your stamp on the production and presentation of this character and make it your own. A perfect example is Dacre Montgomery’s audition for the second season of Stranger Things. If you haven’t seen it, I highly encourage you to watch it, it’s fantastic, and low & behold it won him the role.
Now remember – everything I’ve outlined here are recommendations. This is an industry that is not built on hard & fast rules – really, anything can happen. There is a great example of a self-tape audition that ultimately led to this actor booking the lead role on what was to become a very popular television show. I’m talking about Hugh Laurie and House M.D. He was on location somewhere staying in a hotel and he filmed himself (cold-reading by the way) in a bathroom. Now, they did not book him off of that initial self-taped audition, but that original self-taped audition led to an entire process in which he ultimately booked the role of Gregory House. Of course, this was Hugh Laurie! And he had a huge resume and a strong name value that carried that original cold-read audition taped in a bathroom!
Ok that's my 2 cents! To view Dacre Montgomery’s full audition, as well as Hugh Laurie’s, click on the Youtube video above, links will be in the description box. And while you're there, don’t forget to subscribe to the channel for more!