Tag Archives: Audition

Audition Etiquette: Do’s & Don’ts

Posted on August 5, 2016 by AMP Talent Group

How to execute the perfect audition? I’m sure this question has become exhausting to a lot of you, constantly being drilled with the correct way to go about the audition process. This is because without being awesome at auditioning, you will never be able to really show people how awesome you are at acting. So […]

How to execute the perfect audition? I’m sure this question has become exhausting to a lot of you, constantly being drilled with the correct way to go about the audition process. This is because without being awesome at auditioning, you will never be able to really show people how awesome you are at acting. So while it’s tedious and frustrating incessantly having it banged into your head like a broken record, it’s something that you will want to make sure you have down to a science.

This is why we’ve broken down the do’s and don’ts loud and clear, to make sure you know exactly how to kill it the next time you step into that audition room.

DO respond to all Agency Communication immediately. In this fast paced business, Actors must be on the ball with the best communication skills by responding quickly to confirm auditions, and all communication from the Agency. Response times by the actor within the hour of an email or phone call being sent is required, not hours or days later. Casting people are waiting to confirm or replace the actors for the auditions. Know there are many people involved in getting you the audition and timely response to auditions is key with respect to all and future auditions.

DO put your cell phone on silent. Vibrate won’t cut it, particularly if your leg starts shaking in the middle of your intense and dramatic monologue and it’s just your mom wondering if you’re going to be home for dinner or not.

DO be early for your audition. Ideally you will show up 20 minutes early, so you can sign-in, prepare yourself with whatever material you’re going to go off of, as well as ground yourself, relax, and de-sweat (if you were rushing) before going in for your audition.

DO be friendly and professional when you’re meeting everyone at the audition. Even though you’re promoting yourself as an actor, they will be more inclined to want to hire you if you show you are a respectable and professional human being.

DO turn up the charm before your audition begins. This is the time when you need to showcase your personality before you showcase your acting chops. Show them that you are ready, and would be a delight to work with, and not in an overbearing, front-row-of-the-classroom kind of way.

DO keep the conversation up-tempo and brief, letting the casting directors and people running the audition drive the conversation.

DO repeat the director or casting director’s name back to him or her when you’re introduced. It shows you’re listening to what they’re saying, instead of hammering out your audition strategy in your head like a nervous wreck while going through introductions.

DON’T shake anyone’s hand in the room unless they reach out to shake your hand first. You are just one of so many actors they have seen that day, you won’t make an impact by thrusting your sweaty palm into their hand.

DON’T wear cologne or perfume. If they meet you and are instantly over-taken by your intense aroma, then your audition is going to drop downhill very quickly.

DON’T wear heavy make-up. You’re there to show off your natural self as a performer and what you can do with whatever character you’re auditioning for. Too much make-up will just distract from your performance and focus the casting director’s attention on all the wrong things.

DON’T wear self-tanner. So you just got back from a vacation in Mexico and have a bit of colour. That does not mean you can compensate your skin by applying bronzer you bought at the drug store. You’ll end up orange and won’t book the part.

DON’T bring props or wear costume unless directed to by your agent. Sure you may think you’re taking your audition to the next level by going crazy with your outfit, but actually, it’s the opposite. Never bring a costume for your audition unless it’s something that was strictly outlined in the breakdown from your agent.

DON’T apologize for messing up your audition, or apologize for nailing it, thinking that you did poorly. Just perform your audition, say your thank yous, and be gone. Do not continue to beat a dead horse by apologizing all your way out the door.

DON’T disagree or argue with any direction that you’re given. You’re there performing something for them, so make sure you do what you’re asked.

DON’T bad mouth anyone. Of course after enough auditions, you will start to see the same casting directors again and again, and build up a bit of a rapport. This does not mean that you should ever start to gossip about someone else in the business that you may have a mutual disliking for. You should always be professional and business as usual.

DON’T ask the casting director for feedback. Feedback comes from acting classes, not auditions. Work with a coach prior to your audition and ask them for feedback. Come prepared with the material ready to give your best performance and don’t expect to get anything but a “Thank you for coming in” at the end. If you get more your lucky, but do not expect it. The casting director is looking to hire the best actor for the parts she or he is casting. It is not the casting directors job to give feedback to all the actors at auditions. It is the job of the actor to come in prepared with all the emotion ready to give the best performance.

DON’T overstay your welcome. So you killed your audition, the endorphins and energy is running full-throttle and you instantly want to be chatty, try not to. Just finish with your performance, share a final word or two, and then thank them for taking the time to see you, and off you go. No casting director is going to want to deal with a over-chatty actor at the end of a seriously long day of auditions.

Auditioning can become a very simple, and smooth running machine once you do enough of them and nail down the right way to go about it. There are just some important rules that you have to follow to make sure that you don’t stand out in a bad way. These do’s and don’t are simple guidelines for you to keep in mind the next time you step into the room in hopes of booking your next job!

Remember your auditioning for your career, not the job. Meaning that you do your best with each audition, come prepared, are on time, are well rehearsed, memorized, in character and ready to perform a killer performance!

Break a leg!

6 Tips To Ace A Cold Read Audition

Posted on September 6, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

Ahhh the dreaded cold read. It’s something that a lot of actors fear. That’s because usually there is no opportunity for preparation. A script is thrown in front of you moments before you’re to appear on camera, and panic can set in. You worry that you’re going to deliver the lines completely flat, you aren’t going to figure out what’s going on in the scene fast enough to deliver a satisfactory performance, and it’s just going to be painful and you’re going to be terrible. Yes it might not be the most comfortable thing you’ll have to do, but it’s a big part of the audition process and something that you’re going to have to get a handle on if you want to book acting jobs.

At AMP Talent Group, we want our clients and talent to excel in every opportunity so we recommend you keep these tips in mind to help you improve your cold reading skills for audition purposes, we’ve highlighted 6 important keys to cold read success:

Arrive early for your audition: Sometimes if you arrive early you will have the opportunity to read over the sides and begin your preparation early. This way you can at least be familiar with what you’re going to be saying and doing. If you are able to get the material beforehand, spend less time on the actual lines that you are going to be delivering, instead focus on the story and situation, as well as try and get a feel for the character that you’re going to be reading. This way you can at least ground yourself in the world of the scene and you won’t require quite as much attention on the actual words, so you can feel yourself as the character in that environment.

Research the project you’re auditioning for: Even if you know you’re going in to do a cold read audition, you can still go online and find out some details about the audition. You can also ask your agent to provide you with some more information if possible as well. You should find out the type of project that you’re going out for (commercial, feature film, TV show), as well as the time period of the piece, and what the story is. While you might not be able to find a ton of information on the project, you will definitely be able to get some background information that will at least put you ahead of most of the actors who will be walking into the audition blind.

Be Flexible: When you’re going through your cold read, it might not be blatantly clear from the outset if you’re reading a comedy or a drama. I mean, hopefully it is, but there is a possibility that you won’t get the tone of the script right away. This is why you need to enter into your reading with complete flexibility. Go in with the mindset that they might ask you to read the script in a certain way that you weren’t expecting, or maybe you’ll even discover things in the middle of the reading that take it to a whole different place than you expected. Considering that this will be one of the first times you’ve read through this passage of the script in its entirety, you definitely can’t be opposed to figuring out certain things from the inside. So be loose, flexible, and ready to go in any direction.

Take risks and do more than just read: Even though it’s a cold read, you don’t want to sit there like a pile of concrete and just read the lines in a voice that will put the people holding the audition to sleep. You still want to be lively, take action with your body, and use your voice as an instrument to get yourself into character and convey emotion. Even though it’s just a cold read, that doesn’t mean you can’t make strong choices and go with them. In fact, you will standout more at your audition if you make a decision and try something out. Even if it’s wacky, there are no wrong artistic choices during a cold read. You want to show them that you were able to read over the script, and in just a couple of quick minutes, be able to make a strong artistic decision and do something with the character that nobody else has done. They want to see how you interpret the script, just as much as they want to gage your actual performance.

Look up at the reader: Unless this is the first time you’ve ever acted or been to an audition before, you will know that you must always look up at the reader when you deliver the lines. You should never read directly from the page, but be following along with your finger and make sure that you use the person reading with you as a reference to get yourself into the moment and be authentic. Try and look up and connect with the reader as often as possible. Just be sure that you keep your thumb on the page and follow along so you don’t lose your place during the read. The people running the audition understand that the material is completely new to you; therefore they don’t expect the audition to be perfect. Also, taking your few minutes before the audition starts to get a good grasp of the scene, story, and your character is going to be hugely instrumental in allowing you to go with the scene and connect with the reader, instead of having your eyes married to the page the whole time.

Practice your cold reads: If you want to take it one step further and work on your cold reading skills, then you should practice reading passages and memorizing as many of the words, as quickly as you can. At least learn to memorize important points, or key phrases that you can use and rely on so that you don’t have to be looking down at the page every two seconds during your audition. By practicing this technique, you will slowly start to improve your ability to retain words and dialogue very quickly so that you can be that little bit more off book when it comes time for your audition. By working on your cold reading skills on your own time, you will be miles ahead of the competition when it comes to stepping up and delivering a great cold read performance.

Cold reading only has to be a painful experience if you make it one. You can decide to ignore it and just do your best on the day of the audition, or you can take matters into your own hands and prepare yourself so that when a cold read audition comes your way, you’re ready to attack it and destroy it. Casting directors are testing you when they give you a cold read; they want to see how you handle it and what you do with it. So make sure you do everything in your power to show them that cold reads don’t faze you, in fact you look forward to them.

Remember, audition for your career, not for the job and you will feel more confident about your performance!

5 Ways To Prepare For Your Audition

Posted on September 3, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

The truth is that some people can be great actors but terrible at auditions. There’s the pressure, the nerves, and the last minute notice that can sometimes eat away at a person to the extent that they completely flub their audition. This can happen over and over again to talented actors, who have a hard time booking any roles, or even getting callbacks because they were so nervous and uptight on the day of their audition. Some big name actors even used to struggle with their audition process, to the point that they took years before they even started booking gigs regularly. Aaron Eckhart is one of them — he said that it took years before he started getting called back from auditions because he was so bad at them. He said that it took his friend casting him in a short film before he was really able to overcome his nerves and anxieties in the audition room. And he’s gone on to build a hugely successful career in Hollywood, so there’s still hope for you yet!

So how do you overcome this? How do you adequately prepare for your audition in a way that gives you the best chance to succeed once you get in the audition room?

Here are 5 things you should do to make sure that you’re not a nervous-wreck and can begin to get yourself prepared when you find out about an upcoming audition:

Memorize your lines, but don’t over memorize your performance: During an audition, it’s easy for actors to become stiff and calculated because they are so afraid of screwing up that they have the entire performance of the scene mapped out in their head. This leads to a lack of flexibility in the scene, openness to discover new things about the scene and your character, as well as dropping out of the scene because you’re completely in your own head instead of being present in the moment. That’s why you should make sure your lines are memorized, but act out the scene in a variety of different ways so that you can continually keep surprising yourself with your performance. That way the scene is constantly evolving and changing. The scene should never be the same each time. You need to move and speak in a way that feels the most authentic in that particular moment. Also, you want to be adaptable so if the casting director asks you to perform the scene a second time, but this time in a completely different way than before, you’re comfortable and ready for it.

Understand your character and the circumstances they’re in: The lines that you speak are important, but what’s even more important than that is the character you’re supposed to be playing and the particular circumstance they’re in. Once you begin to get a grasp on your character and the obstacles they’re facing (IE. what’s driving the scene and what’s your character’s motive?) then you’ll be much more comfortable playing with the lines once you get into the actual audition. You can start to play with the type of voice they use, the little nuances in which they deliver particular words, and unique mannerisms they may possess. Then the actual lines you’re speaking will take on more layers and be delivered with much more power and authenticity. Also, by having a handle on the deeper issues surrounding your scene, the more relaxed you’ll be, the more you’ll listen to what the person reading with you is saying, and the less focused you’ll be on the actual words that you’re supposed to deliver and the more focused you’ll be on the emotion behind the words.

Choose the appropriate wardrobe: This should go without saying, but don’t dress in a suit if you’re going to read for a role of a college student, or a slacker, or a stoner. On the flip side, don’t wear shrubby clothes if your character is supposed to be a Wall Street trader. If you’re given sides beforehand, there should be a breakdown of the character you’re playing at the top, or on a different page altogether. It’s absolutely essential that you read through that carefully and understand the type of person you’re going to be playing. Also, what you wear to your audition is going to show the casting director how you interpreted that particular character. It will show that you read through all the information you were given, took the time and prepared, as well as brought in your own ideas and interpreted the character in your own way. That’s exactly what they want. They want to see what your interpretation of this character is. They want to see something different than they’ve seen hundreds of times already today.

Don’t over-prepare: What’s interesting is that a lot of actors will tell you that they ended up booking big roles from auditions they thought went terribly. They only got the sides last minute, or didn’t have time to prepare, and so they went into the audition expecting nothing to come from it. And then, boom! They end up booking their biggest role yet. This is because they didn’t over-prepare. They allowed themselves to play around and be loose in the moment. They didn’t put that extra pressure on themselves to book the role because they knew they had a scapegoat to blame: they didn’t have enough time to practice! They were more relaxed than usual, and just allowed the result of the scene to be discovered within that performance. Meryl Streep has a famous quote:

“Sometimes under-preparation is very good because it instills fear and fear is galvanizing. It makes you break out of yourself. If you’re prepared, then you think you’re ready, and if you think you’re ready, then you’re not ready.”

We’re by no means advising you to forget about your preparation altogether, because it’s definitely important that you prepare, but there’s something to be said for not being so rehearsed that there’s no room for spontaneity.

Be ready to jump and forget your preparation when the scene starts: You can rehearse and practice all you want, but when that scene starts, you’re going to forget about everything you did to prepare for it. It’s just going to be about being present in that moment. This again, goes back to the point about understanding your character and the circumstances (obstacles) they’re facing. If you know those deeper facets of the scene and the script then you’ll have a better chance of staying in the moment and driving the scene in the direction that you’re expected to. Sure it’s going to be a little nerve-wracking, your heart is going to flutter like a butterfly, and your palms are going to turn into little pools of sweat, but that’s what acting is all about. You want to be excited, a little nervous, and be able to deliver an exciting and enthralling performance. You just have to trust your instincts, go for it, and don’t expect the perfect performance every single time.

Like with anything, often the lead up is the most nerve-wracking part. You build it all up in your head, play out worst-case scenarios and catastrophic results, until you’re exhausted and freaked out. You have to find a way to relax, and put the appropriate work in, but most importantly, understand that it’s not going to go perfectly every time. There’s times you’re not going to feel good about your audition but you can always take pride in the fact that you did your best to prepare your A-Game for audition day. Who knows, the auditions you didn’t think went very well will probably be the ones you end up booking anyways.

5 Reasons Why You Should Never Pursue Acting To Be Famous

Posted on August 26, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

“I want to be an actor!” Even just admitting those words is a huge step in the direction of your dreams. For a lot of people it’s a scary step because it finally becomes real when you say it out loud. All your fears, doubts, insecurities, and disapproving opinions of others come rushing to […]

“I want to be an actor!” Even just admitting those words is a huge step in the direction of your dreams. For a lot of people it’s a scary step because it finally becomes real when you say it out loud. All your fears, doubts, insecurities, and disapproving opinions of others come rushing to the forefront. But it’s that all too important first step. Just before you go any further, you have to ask yourself this very important question:

“Why do I want to become an actor?”

If your answer is that you want to be in magazines, date supermodels, own an island in the Caribbean, and walk red carpets, then you probably need to think again before you walk down the acting path. The biggest mistake you can make is get into the business because you want to be famous or you want to be a celebrity. You have to be in this business for the love of the craft. For the love of taking on new roles and characters, for the pure joy that you get from telling stories and helping play a small part in telling some important ones. You goal has to be in service of the craft and the art form you’re cultivating. Ultimately, your drive in this business has to stem from a place of pure passion.

So what are some of the dangers of pursuing an acting career when you’re chasing fame?

Reaching the level of A-list Hollywood movie star is rare: The harsh reality is that very few actors will ever reach that A-list Hollywood movie star level. The term “starving artist” has to be a label that you aren’t afraid of, because for a period of time you will struggle to make a living as an actor. There are very few actors out there who were lucky enough to drop right into it and be successful immediately. I’m sure you’ll hear stories of guys like Johnny Depp, Leo Dicaprio, and James Franco who killed it from the start, but they’re rare cases. You need to dream big, so there’s no problem with wanting to be an A-list Hollywood movie star because you’ll know you achieved great success in the business if you get there. But you have to love it enough that you’d be willing to put in a lot of work and push through the years of being a struggling actor, or a middle class actor and not get depressed and discouraged. If you want to be famous, you will give up or get angry when things don’t work out the way you fantasized them in your head.

Your role selection might lead you down a bad path: Let’s just say, if you’re in it for the money and fame, you might take some roles that are “artistic suicide’. Yes you need to pay the bills, so of course you will take whatever role you can get in the beginning, but once you start to see some success, you can go after those roles that really challenge you as an artist. If you’re in the business for the wrong reasons, you might take the more commercial role that pays you more money and gets more attention, but doesn’t really challenge you or interest you as a performer. So if your intentions aren’t coming from an authentic place, you might end up with a career that isn’t all that respectable. When you see a lot of big name actors taking time away from film careers to do a play, or taking a smaller and grittier role in an indie film, you know they’re really in the business for the love of the game.

The business is a grind: There’s no way to sugarcoat it, the film industry is amazing, but it’s cutthroat and it’s a grind. Being an actor isn’t all about having assistants and people doting on you all the time. Days on set are long and they can be exhausting. If you don’t love it, it might be a nightmare for you when your call time on set is 6am. You have to love the process of what it takes to create something, whether it’s a film, a show, or a commercial. Acting is all about the process and being a vessel to help execute a creative vision. It will be easy to lose sight of these things, or not even be aware of them, if you’re only concerned with being “the next big thing”.

You won’t put in the time: They say that it takes 10 years to really create a body of work as an actor. That’s an entire decade if you weren’t aware. For somebody who’s just starting out in the business, that number can look more daunting than Everest during a windstorm. So it doesn’t seem normal for somebody who doesn’t love it to invest that amount of time for a superficial outcome. Also, you need to train and put in a lot of your own time to build your skills as a performer. Someone who is chasing fame probably won’t go that extra mile to improve the same way somebody who truly loved it would. For this reason, they probably won’t ever be as good and book as many roles. So make sure you love it and are prepared to dedicate yourself to it.

Understandably, an actor needs to crave the spotlight and love the attention to a certain extent. That will require a certain amount of the ego to be involved. There has to be that element in someone who is pursuing this as their career. If there isn’t, you probably won’t be able to rise to the occasion and separate yourself from the competition. And, underneath that dream of seeing your name in lights has to be a completely head over heels love affair for the craft of acting and art of storytelling.

How To Handle Rejection

Posted on July 25, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

“As actors, we have to deal with rejection so much more than any other business. So I don’t care how much of a genius you are, if you don’t have the propensity to be able to get back up every time you get knocked down, then you’re not going to survive.” — Ryan Kwanten […]

If you looked in the manual for “How to Become an Actor”, being able to handle rejection would probably be somewhere on the first page. Being an actor, or trying to become an actor is going to require you to face rejection dead in the face on a regular basis. Rejection just comes with the territory of wanting to be an actor. The only thing you can control is how you handle it, how you move on from it and take it with a grain of salt, without a damaged psyche and dwindling self-confidence.

So what are some of the steps in ensuing damaged control and making sure rejection doesn’t break you? We’ve listed some of the ways to go about it below.

Try not to take it personal: One of the biggest things in the film industry is that there are so many people vying for the same roles and the same opportunities. The industry is a competitive beast. So when you’re going out for a part, there are most likely 1,000 others who look like you and have the same level of talent. Actor, Sylvester Stallone (Rambo) says “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get me going, rather than retreat.“ You can’t take it personally when you aren’t selected for the part, or didn’t get a callback. The casting director’s job is to find the right person for the role; it’s not to make sure nobody’s feelings get hurt. It doesn’t mean they didn’t like you, in fact they may have loved you, but you just didn’t fit the exact criteria for what they were looking for in that role. Its up to you to deliver your best performance and leave the audition at the door.

Listen to what they’re saying: The most honest things are often the hardest for us to take. So when an acting coach, or somebody that sees our work gives us some unpleasant feedback, we really need to do our best to listen to what they’re saying. Bare in mind, there’s a difference between constructive criticism and somebody who’s just trying to break you apart. It’s important that you listen to their feedback and distinguish between the two yourself. If it’s from a trusted source, or somebody you respect, it’s definitely going to be worthwhile to listen to what they said and see what you can apply for the next time to make it better. This is easier said than done, but do your best to not get super emotional and sensitive when somebody rejects you or turns you away. Find out what they think you need to work on, so you can get better.

Get Better: Drake has a famous line from one of his songs, “don’t get bitter, just get better”. This definitely applies to actors as well. When you get rejected, instead of responding with anger and resentment that does nothing but boil your own blood, you need to work on your stuff and become better. Use it as fuel to your fire in improving your craft and becoming a better actor. You need to say to yourself, “Okay, what can I do to get better?” If you can walk away from rejection with that sort of positivity and action, you will eventually start to succeed in a very big way. At the very least, you won’t sit in a pity stooper when you get rejected, but instead, keep your head up and make the best of the situation.

Stay Persistent: Every successful person will tell you that they had to handle rejection on countless occasions. They had to deal with doors being slammed in their face, people telling them they weren’t talented, or were crazy, or people who didn’t believe in them. If you don’t have the ability to bounce back from rejection with unwavering enthusiasm, then you will have a tough time succeeding in an industry as tough as the film industry. Talent Agent, Anne Marie Perrault says, “Prepare yourself that the rejection will come, but be sure that you love what you’re doing and you’re going to continue to work at it and get better until those “No’s” starting turning into Yes’s”. If you commit yourself to it, work hard through training and stay persistent, your success will only be a matter of time.”

Sure rejection sucks and forces us to retreat back into our shells for a while, but it’s all about the bounce back. It’s all about working at it, getting the right mind set, working on your skills, and making sure you have the right attitude so that bounce back time is faster every time. Pretty soon you will develop the thick skin that is required of an actor, and rejection will be nothing more than an opportunity for you to go through another door with someone else who sees the potential in you.

It’s up to you and how you let it affect you. Rejection will only break you if you let it.

National Geographic NAT GEO TV Series Auditions!

Posted on May 21, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

CASTING FOR NEW NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS WEBSERIES Calling all teens (and those who look like teens) between the ages of 16-25yrs. We are casting for a cool new reality/game show for National Geographic Kids. You must be a BIG outgoing personality, loveably crazy, super fun, funny, over-the top, fit, energetic, quick witted – we mean […]

CASTING FOR NEW NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
KIDS WEBSERIES

Calling all teens (and those who look like teens) between the ages of 16-25yrs. We are casting for a cool new reality/game show for National Geographic Kids. You must be a BIG outgoing personality, loveably crazy, super fun, funny, over-the top, fit, energetic, quick witted – we mean really quick witted, and did we say funny! Oh and on this show you have to be totally comfortable going up to strangers and asking them questions.

If you think you are right for our cast then SEND US A VIDEO!

VIDEO GUIDELINES: Do a quick video using your phone or camera – have a friend hold the phone or camera so we can see you. Make sure to speak clearly and not too fast and that you are ‘on camera’ and not somewhere off to the side.

To get the VIDEO SCRIPT: email info@amptalent.com

*Your total video should be no longer than 4 minutes.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 12 Noon. May 30th, 2014

Good luck!