How to Film a Self Tape While Traveling | Audition Tips for Actors

Self tapes on the road. How to turn in an audition from your parents' basement or wherever you might be. Back in the olden days, we used to say the shest way to ensure that you're going to get a job or an audition is to book a plane ticket. But nowadays, you don't have to show up in person. You can just send in a tape. However, we're typically not in control of our environment when we're on the road. So, what can you do? First, you do the best you can. Work on the acting. That's always the most important. I would travel with a small tripod or ring light, something where you can at least shoot something, especially if you're going to be gone for a prolonged period of time. You want to make sure that there's good light, that they can see you, and that they can hear you. There's a lot of extraneous noise. Maybe you might want to wait until the middle of the night to film it. Although of course natural daylight is always much better. Make sure that your family members and people know that if they need to be quiet, you're not going to want to travel with your backdrop. But find a wall or a space that is not distracting. You don't want somebody trying to figure out what that piece of artwork is behind you or where if there's any clues as to where you are. H wonder if they're in a Hilton or uh free of distractions as much as possible. That said, you can also get creative. If a scene is supposed to take place outside, maybe you can do it outside. You can be flexible with it. If a scene takes place in somebody's kitchen, maybe you can just do it in the kitchen. Especially if you're on the road and you cannot control that environment. Of course, what's very important is to always let your managers, your agents know when you're going to be out of town, know when you're going to be on vacation, so that they know maybe maybe they can ask for a little more time, maybe it won't be able to happen right away. So, make sure that you're communicating with them. They don't want to tell people, "Oh, we're looking for somebody to replace somebody and we need them here tomorrow." Oh, that's great. I've got the person because they don't know that you're on an Alaskan cruise right now. So, make sure your agents always know. And they're going to understand if you're on the road. Again, nobody is hiring you to be a lighting designer, a sound designer, and a set designer. They're hiring you for the acting. So don't neglect the most important part, your work. All of your audition work, your who am I, your character work, that's always, always, always what's going to come first. Then you can worry about the environment and everything. Who are you going to read with? Make sure that you've got friends and actors or an acting coach on standby. somebody that you know, oh, I'm going to be going home. My mom is really good to read with. That's fantastic. Oftentimes, family members are not great to read with, and they might distract us. They might might get in our heads. Certainly, if you're working a love scene or something, it's a little awkward to be doing it with a family member, unless that person's your spouse. So, I wouldn't necessarily do that. So, making sure that you've got somebody in a compatible, say, time zone to be able to work on on your sides with. Also, making sure that you have good Wi-Fi if you need to upload it. Making sure that you're going to be able to get that back in a good turnaround. Right? That's what they talk about the turnaround time that I'm going to need this tomorrow. I'm going to need this in two days or a lot of times what it is these days is two days but give it to me ASAP because they're making decisions right away. So get it back to me as soon as you can. Don't rush. Don't do it just so that you can get it done. But put your work into it. Treat it in terms of your preparation the same as you do an audition at home. And let's get you a job when you're on vacation or when you're traveling or when you're with family. Also, make sure that when you travel, if there's a possibility that you're going to get an audition, you maybe pack a couple of shirts or something that works for you. those shirts that you know, oh, I look good in this shirt and I always get a call back. Some again, something that's not distracting. If you audition non-stop for doctors or nurses and you want to pack some scrubs, that's fine. But just make sure that you know you're not on a beach vacation. You've got nothing but bikinis and you're supposed to play a pilgrim from the 1800s. So, your iPhone or your Galaxy or whatever Android, whatever phone that you've got with a camera, if you normally like to shoot something on a more traditional camera, but you don't want to take that on your vacation or you've got a really long lens and that's not going to work. Of course, you can just shoot it on your on your phone, which is what I shoot most people's auditions on is their phones. You've got a little tripod, put it on the phone. A lot of times I'm the reader for somebody over Zoom. We coach over Zoom and they record that. So you might need something that adjusts so you can raise and lower whether it be a laptop or you might not have access to a printer. So, you might, if you usually like to look at your sides on your phone, but you're also recording it, you might need another way to be able to access your sides. And you might need another way to access your sides. Anything else that they need to know that don't shoot in a dark space? voice. - Yeah. I said that. Make sure that you're not backlit. Use the environment to the best of your ability. You can shoot it in a car. If the scene takes place in a car and you can get good light, good sound, and you can be seen, shoot it in a car. You're you're gonna have some good luck uh editing this one, buddy.