Guest Columnist: Acting Coach Karen Maseng
As a coach and a casting director, I’ve come across many actors who dread self-tape auditions. Some will actually turn down an audition if it’s a self-tape. Honestly, I just can’t believe any actor would waste such an opportunity.
I've auditioned actors in person for well over 20 years and I get why actors love it. But the reality is that self-tapes save production a lot of time and money. The new normal is a hybrid of self-tapes, virtual auditions and in-person auditions and I suspect it's here to stay. Actors who are serious about their career must learn how to feel comfortable auditioning in ANY environment. This will only benefit their work because it will force them to become more focused and resourceful.
So what’s to love about self-tapes?
I personally think that self-tapes give you an incredible opportunity to be creative, take your time and audition in a space that is far more relaxed and intimate than the audition room could ever be. That intimacy, that familiarity can produce a unique audition that will help you stand out from the crowd.
I know that many actors have roommates and very limited space to play with, but with a little bit of imagination and ingenuity you can create a nice little area for your self-tape auditions. Invest in a frame that can be put away easily. Buy several backdrops to see which one is more complementary. Play with lighting until you find the perfect setup. You can create a set in-front of, around and behind your camera to help you get into the world of the scene AND you get to pick your scene partner. Self-tapes are the only audition situation where you have a say in who you’ll be reading with and where you’ll be doing it. This is where your support network of fellow actors can be incredibly beneficial.
When you have an audition at a casting facility, a studio or an office, you have to get in the car, get stuck in traffic, look for parking spaces and pay a fortune for parking that might be blocks away from where you need to be. Once you get to the audition, the lobby is a great place to meet fellow actors and catch up but that could be very distracting and disrupt your preparation. In some instances, you might be intimidated by the talent you see waiting to go in, which could cause you to second guess yourself and lose your confidence. Other times you might be stressed because casting is way behind schedule and you’re worried about being late for another audition across town.
Once you get into the audition room, if you’re lucky, the person auditioning you is wonderful and gets a great audition out of you. But there are those times when the casting director or their associate might be unapproachable, distracted, humorless or stressed for a variety of reasons. And you can bet that most of the time the person you’ll be reading with is not an actor.
None of that to worry about when you're doing a self-tape audition. So, you could complain about having to work harder for your auditions these days or you could get to work learning how to love the self-tape. It might take a little time and practice, but the payoff is worth it!
