The self-tape has taken over and I both do and see a lot of them. However, there is one common mistake that all actors or studios make when self-taping: a poor reader.
Earlier this year a manager sent me a client that he needed audition ready ASAP. He had gone into a few rooms already without leaving a strong impression, so they asked me to figure out what was going on. I read with him and true to the feedback, he wasn’t doing much with the material. For some reason—perhaps because I could see he was good or because the manager wanted a massive turnaround in that one session, I decided to try an experiment. I set up the camera and asked him to try it again. We read the scene six times. The first time I read as a casting director would, and then with each take I gave more in my read. By the last take I gave him all I had as the character opposite him in the scene, waterworks and all. Before he had a chance to process, I played back his first and then last take. The difference was remarkable and he was stunned. “So I need to act as if I’m getting what you gave on the last take even though they will read like you did on the first take, and be in the place I was the last time we did it as soon as I
Leave a Reply