Technology has revolutionized the audition process. Actors can now save time and travel expenses by submitting high quality taped auditions. Most roles are cast directly from high quality taped auditions that follow these guidelines from the CDs in our region. With this being said, every audition has its own instructions that come from the studio or network. Be sure to read your entire audition invitation for instructions. This is a chance for you to show the person hiring you that you can take direction once you get on set.
1. WORD PERFECT: You should be word perfect, especially if the director is also the writer. If you drop or change a word and you taped an excellent audition, in which you were fully present and your acting was outstanding, go ahead and send that audition. If you were honest in the moment, you will be forgiven and the viewers will be caught up with your acting brilliance –not the fact that you dropped a word.
2. PROPS & WARDROBE: Read your audition notice for instructions. If it says no props, don’t use props. If your audition involves your character on the phone, it’s okay to use a cell phone to show that you are talking on the phone, but don’t make your audition about the prop. The usage of a prop has to be so seamless that we never know it is even in the scene. Wear clothing that suggests your role and compliments your skin tone and body shape. Solid colors are best. Avoid wearing patterns, logos or costumes. BDUs or lab coats are acceptable for military or medical roles. Make sure that your clothing and hair color do not blend in with your audition backdrop.
3. LIGHTS, BACKGROUND & SOUND: Your lighting must be good enough to see your eye color and skin tone. There should be no shadows on your face or behind you. Use two incandescent lights (bulbs with filaments), one as a key light, set off the side of the camera and pointed at your face, and one as a fill light, set to the opposite side of the camera a little farther away and pointed at your side. Film your audition in front of a well-lit, solid, light colored background. Do not film outdoors. Be careful to not over-light so you don’t become washed-out. Nothing should compete with your performance. This includes scary wall paper, cracks in the ceiling or walls behind you, door frames, windows, appliances, phones, other people, AC fans, traffic, pets, etc. We don’t want CDs or producers checking out the contents of your house when they should be paying attention to your performance.
4. READER: Always have an ACTOR read with you in the same room. Your reader is part of the audition. The better an actor they are, the better your audition will be. Your reader should never outshine you as an actor though. They should stand equal distance from the camera as you are, so their voice doesn’t overpower yours. Using multiple readers for an audition is not recommended. Taped auditions without a reader, with lines dubbed in, or with a reader recorded through a phone or Skype call may not be accepted by some of our CDs, and should only be done as a last resort.
5. CAMERA & MODE: Invest in a good camera that allows you to get the best picture quality (preferably 720p HD) and upload your audition in high definition. Some CDs view auditions on large monitors between 21-27 inches to make casting decisions. Make sure your video does not look pixelated when viewed on a large monitor. Avoid using cell phone cameras, web cams or computer cameras to tape your auditions. You don’t have the same control when using these as you do with a camera that is designed for videotaping that sits on a tripod. If you must use a phone or tablet, place it sideways on the longest side for a 16:9 ratio on a stable surface at eye level.
6. FRAMING: Your camera should be at nose level, not below you, not above you. Frame from your shoulders to the top of your head and keep your face the focal point of your taped audition. Avoid excess space between the top of your head and top of frame. Your eye line should be slightly off camera. CDs prefer to see your entire face, not a profile shot. Maintain eye contact with your reader, rather than looking directly into the camera. If your audition is for a “News Reporter” it’s okay to look directly into the camera. If you are talking to more than one character in the scene, make sure your eyes appear to move between each character. Be still in your auditions. Most of the time there is no need for wild hand gestures and lots of movement. Unnecessary movements pull the viewer out of the scene and away from your performance. You should stand for most auditions to keep your energy up, unless your scene indicates that you are sitting.
7. SLATE: If there are no slate instructions in your audition invitation, slate at the END of your audition by saying your name and height in a full body shot. Do not pan up and down. Do not include side profile views. A slate is where you stand, look directly at the camera and announce your name and height, your talent agency, and the role you are auditioning for. You may be asked to add something else such as a profile shot, or the city you live in. Every audition has its own instructions for slating that come from the studio or network. Read your audition invitation and slate according to the instructions. Let your audition play out in its entirety. Leave the camera on a few seconds after you deliver the last line so we can see your reactions to the scene, particularly if your reader has additional lines after your last line. If you go from the performance straight into the slate, pause a few seconds between the audition and the slate to allow some separation.
8. IMPORTING YOUR AUDITION: Avoid using the black fade in and out feature, adding headshots or title cards. You should never see black on your tapes at the beginning of your auditions. For the best quality, use H.264 as the standard video compression type, compressing in high quality, at an export size of 1280 x 720. That will result in approximately a 60 MB file for each half minute of tape. Files should be 100 MB or less, therefore you will have to adjust the compression quality and export size if you are taping a scene over one minute. Acceptable file formats are QuickTime (.mov) or MPEG-4 (.mp4) files.
9. NAMING YOUR AUDITION: Unless otherwise specified, the name of the audition file should read FirstName_LastName_ROLE_Sol.extension. The file extension must be .mov or.mp4. If you are asked to audition for multiple roles, takes, or separate slate files, you must submit individual files for each role or take and name them accordingly. See examples below.
FirstName_LastName_ROLE_Sol_tk1.mov (take 1)
FirstName_LastName_ROLE_Sol_tk2.mov (take 2)
FirstName_LastName_ROLE_Sol_slate.mov (slate)
10. HOW TO SEND YOUR AUDITION: Actors will send most auditions through Eco Cast. Sometimes it may be necessary to send a downloadable link to your audition using WeTransfer or Hightail. All of these large file transfer services are FREE and easy to use. Send the link to: info@soltalent.com. Do not send your audition as an email attachment. The email could go to our spam folder, or be rejected due to file size limits. Never upload any auditions to public websites like Vimeo or YouTube –even if you set the video to private viewing. A few years ago, some actors were blacklisted by studios when viewers on a popular show’s message board connected story points that had not yet aired by watching auditions posted on YouTube. Don’t let that happen to you.