You have a Self Tape! Please (FOR THE LOVE OF GOD) confirm/deny.

Remember the days when you would walk/drive/blimp halfway across town in peak hour traffic then to J-walk/illegally park/accidentally knock one of the elderly over just to make it on time for an audition only to find out they are running half an hour behind?

 

Then after a small eternity of running lines in your head/exchanging awkward smiles with thirty other clones of yourself/wondering if your car is going to get towed and you have to sell your spleen for a ride home, you get pulled into a small room where sits a rickety tri-pod, an overly exhausted casting director, and a casting assistant who is eating the 10 pack of mc-nuggets you didn’t have time to get on your way here because an audition in peak hour is one of life’s cruel jokes?

 

Ah yes, the good ol’ days.

 

As actors, we spend more time auditioning then actual acting (at least at the beginning of our careers). And as an someone who has spent a good ten years auditioning in three separate countries, I cannot say for sure that being made to enter a broom closet sized room and bare your soul to a camera while being taunted with mc-nuggets just so we can get a chance to work in the craft we so ardently love doesn’t violate the Geneva convention.

 

If this is sounding a little too close to the Milgram Experiment, fear not. I present to you, the Self-Tape!

Thanks to the necessity of remote casting due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Self-taping has moved from a luxury to a staple in the creative industries. With the number of international projects being cast with an increasingly insane turnaround, self-taping has become an invaluable tool for not only casting, but we as actors as well.

 

But as if we hadn’t had our fill of strangeness already in the form of in-person auditions, Self-taping comes with its own variety of whack-a-doodle.

What was once an awkwardly forced exchange between you and a casting director (and sometimes a brutally disinterested reader) has now been exchanged for you… at home with your tripod and a blank wall… sometimes alone… saying, and more often than not yelling things like, “You killed her?!” or “When it fits you feel it!” – JCPenny, or “If it doesn’t get all over the place, it doesn’t belong on your face” – Carles Jr.

 

While it may suck that your neighbors most definitely hate you and anyone walking by your window automatically assumes you’ve made a very sad attempt to join OnlyFans – tis a reality that we must accept and a resource that is too good to pass up and too crucial to be ignorant on.

 

Backdrop: Is your backdrop clear? No crinkles or marks? A single colour? Flatters your skin tone?

Footage: Have you maximised your exposer? Can we see your eyes? Are you shiny? Do you have shadows?

Tops & Props: Do your clothing choices serve the character? Are they a single colour/no logos? Do they flatter your skin tone? Do your clothes or prop’s distract from your performance?

 

Thinking critically about these questions and making clear concise choices can put you ahead of most of self-tapers by giving the casting director little else to focus on other than your performance. Be Bold. Be Proud. But above all be Smart.

 

Have a great year everyone!