Posts Tagged ‘better auditions’

We transcribe scenes for you to practice each and every day. It's fun, and awesome. Doing just this little bit every day will bring you closer towards your goal of being an actor.

Dig in. Let's do this.

There are a LOT of things, as in physical things you can do in a scene. Sometimes there will be things written, sometimes, not.

Something like, "HE TAKES A DRINK OF WATER." May seem like simple direction, but they can be much, much more.

If there's some kind of action written into the scene, it's there because the author had something very specific in mind for what that character was feeling in that moment. There's a very specific reason that HE TAKES A DRINK OF WATER right then, and not the line before or after it.

What's the reason?

Damned if I know.

Get creative. it could be a litany of reasons...maybe...
...he needed a minute to think
...he wanted to let the guy think about what he said
...he needs to relax
...he was actually thirsty

These are four off the top of my head. I haven't even seen the scene we're talking about.

If there's stage direction, sure, do the literal thing, sometimes that's all you need. But in the whole play/movie, the guy only ever is directed, in the script, to drink twice, why is this one of the times? You answer that, and you've got a little clue to the character, even if you don't have all the info you'd like on them.

In the scene you're about to do, what just happened the "moment before"?

Something ALWAYS happened just before this. Sometimes the script will give you clues, sometimes it's totally up to you.

We could easily make a list of what it could be when it's up to us...

You could have...

...just had a fight.
...just woken up.
...just stepped in dog shit.
...just got laid.
...just had your dog die.
...just got a new job.
...just quit your job.
...just won a $5,000 scratch ticket.

You get the idea.

Go make your own list. At least 10 items. Pic two for the sides today.

P.S. I find it's better to make a list that has nothing to do with the scene you're about to do. This way, you get to try some really random stuff, and have a little more outside-of-the-box fun.

Of course, if it's obvious what just happened, you should probably try on that choice too.

A little trick to make you look a bit more professional for your cold reading scenes when you audition.

Memorize your first and last lines.

Aside from being the easiest lines to remember, just by their nature of being first and last, this also provides you with a great opportunity to connect with your scene partner/reader. You know that you're starting the scene connected with them. And you know that your finishing it connected.

People, in general, tend to remember the first and last impression of a person. Being "off the page" for that first line, gives you a chance to focus on the emotion in the scene, or your task. Then have your finger right there, so when you go down to the page, you're on track.

Memorizing the last line ensures that you're not buried in the page at the end of the scene, for the button at the end of the scene. Give it a try on your next one, see how it works. 🙂

The natural next step after "Be a fuck-up," is naturally, not caring at all whether or not you get the job.

This may seem counterintuitive at first. As in, "If I don't care, I won't do a good job."

But that's not what I'm saying. Getting the job would be nice and all, but that's not why you're in the room. You're in the room to show them the shit you can do with those four pages in your hand. You're there to show them the work you put into these four pages. To show them that you made some frikkin' choices. That you're NOT BORING. That you're engaged with the material. That's why you're in the room.

Whether you get the job or not is soooo far out of your control that you shouldn't even be thinking about that AT ALL. The more you think about the job, the more your stupid brain starts spinning out of control with all kinds of crazy scenarios and stories about how you're finally going to get your new apartment and by a house for your mom. Guess what, you're not. All you're gonna do is walk into that room, and kill it. After that, who knows.

Really.

That's what we're here for. This whole site is a place for you to try shit out. Anything. You wanna do the scene in a dress? Put it on. Wanna try a German accent? Nine problem. Wanna do it while jumping rope? Let's go Rocky.

You don't fail enough. Seriously. You need to fail a LOT to start to have the instincts about the stuff that's going to work and that's not going to work. You may try something and think, "Yeah! That's a great choice!" Only to find out it wasn't the best one that you could make.

You need to try at LEAST 10 different "ways" to do a scene before you can start narrowing things down about how you think it should be played. And by "ways" I mean anything from accents to being cold out to a whole other list of things that we'll get to with time. If you go in with your first choice, at best you're always going to come out of your reading wishing that you would've tried something else, at the worst, you're going to get an idea on the way home and obsess that "I should've done THAT!"

Sound familiar?

Since you're getting all the gold I'm putting out here, go ahead and be a failure today. Do the scene the worst way you possibly can. Make the glaring WRONG choice for the thing. You know what? You're going to find a little kernel of truth or insight by doing it that way.

Your welcome.

If you've been in acting for any amount of time, you must have SOME kind of accent or dialect that you can employ at will. Some of us have French, others love British, or maybe you've mastered the southern states, or have made a dive into the masses of Asia.

The accent doesn't matter. What does matter is trying it out with your material. Just reading it through with a different accent will provide you with insight into other ways to address the scene. This is especially useful when you feel like you're getting into a rut and are doing the scene the same way over and over again.

Doing it like your from Mississippi will change that for sure. The emphasis will be on different syllables, different parts of the sentence, you may even find a piece in there where there's a bit of humor that you didn't catch before. It a great, great discovery tool.

And hey it's pretty damn fun too.

Do you read every day?

You should be. Find something. Non-fiction. Something without a lot of emotion. Something that you're not going to ry to "act" by accident.

History books are great for this. The History of Acting, something like that.

Read four(4) pages, or about 5-10 minutes every day. Out loud. Don't stop for corrections, just make yourself keep talking. This does 2 things.

1 - it gets you used to reading off the page, so if someone hands you something, you're not stuttering through it
2 - it gets you used to hearing yourself. Half the time you're auditioning/acting, you too damn busy thinking, "Did that sound right?" When, really, it's got little to do with the actual words, and more to do with the feeling that delivers them. The words are just information. The real scene is in the emotion.

Oh, and DON'T read something all emotional. Get a history book, or someone's autobiography, or The History of Acting. It should be something that you're not trying to "put emotion into."

Simple.

Read out loud every day. You'll be a better actor because of it.

Seriously.

You go in. You have it all worked out in your head. You go in. don't embarrass yourself, but you walk out feeling like you didn't quite do what it was you set out to do.

This is probably because you were rushing. You blazed through the scene, you were the fastest one! Congrats! Woohoo!

Auditions are not a race to be won. Take your time, relax your shoulders, and DON'T RUSH.

It's far better for the casting person to say, "Let's give that another go, but pick up the pace." Than to give you a polite, "Thanks," because they didn't see what you were capable of. If you rushed, they didn't see it, they didn't have a chance.

Look the other person in the eye, relax your shoulders, and hit it, nice and easy.

Chill dude. Really. The more tense you are, the more you're going to look nervous and tense. And the more likely it is that you're going to walk out of that audition thinking "FUCK! That is not at ALL what I was setting out to do."

Sound familiar?

It is, because we've all done it.

The biggest reason you need to relax is that it's not that big a deal. It's not surgery, or a real gun fight. Honestly, it's just fuckin' around, it's playing. It's just that if you land it, you get paid for it.

Relax, and tear that shit up.