We recently discovered this great article written by Khara Hanlon about the 10 Things Casting Directors Want You to Know. We thought that our talent as well as prospective talent would find this information very useful so we figured we would share.
- Don\’t worry about the words. The script is not the most important part of a role. It’s the personality of the character and if you can nail that, then you will be one step closer the role.
- Ask questions – but only if you really need to. Before your reading begins, most casting directors ask if you have any questions. Unless you are very lost on a certain aspect of the character, it is best you say `no\’ and jump right in – wowing them with your audition. It is your responsibility to be as prepared as possible for your audition.
- Listen and react. When in an audition, don\’t make it about you, make it about the other person you are interacting with. This way you will best ‘listen` and ‘react` properly.
- Get it right the first time. Blow them away in the very first audition. If you are great on take one, then the casting director will have no reason to question whether or not to hire you.
- Be flexible. If the casting director wants you to try again with some direction from them, be sure to take what they say and run with it. Being about to take direction well is a very important attribute for an actor.
- Know what you look like on the monitor. A lot of the time, your normal movements are magnified by the camera. Borrow a camcorder from someone and video tape yourself doing a monolog. This way you will be able to pick out the nuances everyone else sees and can fix them.
- Know where to look. When finding what to act towards, do not look into the camera or the reader. The best thing to do is to let your eyes wander slightly, but find a focal point to always come back to. Think of it like a conversation. When you are talking to someone, you are not making complete eye contact the entire time. You retreat, and then come back.
- They ARE paying attention to you. Generally, the person who makes the final decision on casting is not the person who is in the actual audition with you. There is usually someone who watches the video at their best convenience, which means even if you think you are out of the game, there is great possibility that your chance is not over yet. The final say could be by someone who is not even present.
- Keep the moment going. Be sure to not stop the action before it is done. After the last line, keep the emotion going all the way through until the casting director says cut. A lot of times, they like to make you wait to see how you are when you aren\’t talking and just reacting.
- You\’re a person first, an actor second. We really think this point by Khara is very important. A lot of times, it is a close call of who to hire between two actors. Who wins? The one with the better personality. People want to work with people who are easy to get along with, you want to be that person.
These ten ideas from Khara Hanlon are very useful and should be taken into account with every audition. Hanlon also mentioned Tiny Tidbits of Truth from the Pros in her article. We will be tweeting those periodically on our Twitter account here over the next week. Feel free to take a look!
For more information from The Diamond Agency, call 407-830-4040.