Audition Workshop Day 12
Oct 4th, 2009 by Alan Yu
Today we were challenged with another cold audition session. The interesting thing about this one is that for the role of the guys there was literally only like 4 lines of dialogue and the person before had like 2. However, there were large amounts of pages before this which doesn’t have the character speaking but it did give you an idea of what the story was about.
With that I did the scene. As it turns out, I over analyzed the scene and read a bit too much on it. As usual when you get sides for an audition you are only given the pages that relate to the scene that the casting director wants you to perform. Besides what is on these pages everything such as the back-story and character relations are up to you to figure out. Because of that, people can come up with completely different interpretations on the mood and energy level of a scene.
As a crazy example, let’s pretend your character had one line saying “I am going to fall down that hole” and the other character says “Don’t do it!”. That is literally the entire dialogue on the sides that you were given. Now think about how vague that is. You basically need to figure out what the scene is about by trying to say research the show/film online or read as much as possible into the other pages that were given to you even if they are crossed out.
Think about it. If you interpreted that scene as a guy about to end his life then the delivery will probably be more dramatic/mellow. If you made a choice to say these guys are like playing a video game on this huge projector outside then it will be more fun and anxious. Those are the types of choices that you are forced to make otherwise nothing will really come across when you perform the scene. That’s why it is important to try and find as much about the scene as possible.
Now by over analyzed what I mean is like in that situation I would say things like “These two are best friends where they know it is the end of the world and so one guy doesn’t want to live anymore. One guy is a sports athlete and the other is a ex military guy”. Basically, that results in a “How in the world did you get that out of reading those sides?”
The lesson is that sometimes things can be a lot simpler than necessary. It is kind of contradictory too at times as you need to make strong choices in situations like these and therefore it is more about getting right I’d say.
Just wanted to say I have just found this blog. I am an actor in the UK and a lot of the things you are talking about seem like a very different industry to over here. In fact, I had a conversation with a fellow actor about it a few weeks ago who is applying for a green card and trying to get involved in the scene over the ‘big pond’. I’ve always wanted to learn about the Amercian film and television industry. I’m going to crawl through your archive because it looks like some really good stuff.
I’ve just started a blog myself at http://theactorbegins.blogspot.com/ (i understand that with your knowledge of all things technical you might not think much of the layout/design etc, but i’m getting there!) Any tips wouldn’t go amiss.
Keep up the good work mister!
Rhys Jennings
Hi Rhys,
Thanks for dropping by. I’ll read your entries too to see if it really is that different where you are. And hey, everyone’s journey is different.
A suggestion for your blog, maybe putting the feed subscription icon closer to the top somewhere? Maybe in the nav area? I’m guessing that is just a default blogspot setting though.