Actor Growth

Okay, this was very strange I thought. I got an audition request recently and the interesting thing was that in the note they were specifically going to pay the talent money to audition for them. Very unusual in deed.

What’s the catch? The only thing I could see is that they are apparently interested in using the audition tapings as part of their documentary in making the film. So maybe the money would be a way for people to agree to do this should they decide to use your audition footage.

The first thing I thought of was how this must be one expensive audition process for the producers. Secondly it made me wonder if this was a serious production or if they are trying to do like a blooper or documentary of sort. Guess I’ll have to wait and see as this would be a first.

The audition the other day went okay and it was kind of interesting. It was for a commercial and people in a group of three were brought in. This audition felt like it was 100% based on look. Essentially, when we were brought in we were asked to just improvise that we were like college students who were talking about school life as they taped it.

Then, the camera person just slowly zoomed into each of us as we did this improvisation. So I think that is a sign that the intent for this is to just show the client on the type of looks they have and from there they can choose which groups of people they like best.

Well this was an unexpected surprised. I got a call from the agent today that a casting director requested to see me for some kind of commercial shoot. The cool thing too is that the audition takes place tomorrow right in the studio where I took the audition workshops. So, hopefully that gives me an advantage.

This was technically the first day that I asked my coach for any possible pointers even though I am not active in the workshop at this point. Result? No response from the message I sent. Then again, as you all know the other coach that said he wanted to speak to me didn’t get back to me either. So, maybe this truly is one of those it is all about the money scenario.

Either way, hopefully this audition will go okay. Guess I am on my own.

Today I got an e-mail about a casting notice for a film that is specifically looking for ethnic people. One thing I noticed is that in the character breakdown it mentions that they are looking for a person within the 20-40 years age range.

These types of postings always confuse me as a twenty year age gap is pretty substantial in terms of the look. Usually I am told that people post it this way because they are still unsure on exactly what they want. I often hear casting directors complain of actors getting submitted for parts where they don’t fit the age range. Postings like this sure don’t help.

I have been getting quite a few project notifications recently from a particular film school here which happens to be the largest one in Vancouver. I volunteered to act in a film for them a few weeks back as it was one of the instructors who was requesting for the talent. So, I thought that if an instructor was requesting for the talent that the project would be professional to work on.

Interestingly enough, I guess as a result of this I have been getting audition notices that aren’t being advertised first. Obviously these are student films and not professional acting gigs, but it sure shows me how this is what is like with real casting directors too. Example, once the person works with you they try to use people that they know first.

I got a call from my agent today who asked if I had access to a camcorder as he was thinking of submitting me for a project that requested that candidates be pre-screen by doing a self taped audition. Basically, as the name implies you are basically taping yourself as if you were in the audition.

This isn’t the time to try and play out the scene in a classroom way where you have a scene partner with some getups as the footage has to be focused on you primarily like an audition. Unfortunately, he didn’t actually tell me which project it was for and when he would get the sides.

Another interesting thing was that my acting coach phoned me too beforehand as I requested for a sit-down awhile back just to go over some of my career goals and hurdles. When I mentioned this, it sounded like a perfect opportunity to get some coaching to create a better taped audition.

I never actually done this before and so it will be an interesting experience.