Greater than ever, actors are studying for roles remotely. Not simply through self-tape, however stay with the inventive workforce watching you thru your pc display. So disguise the bizarre doll assortment in your mother’s basement behind your flex backdrop and buckle up as a result of it’s going be this fashion for a short while and I need you to grasp the artwork of on-line auditioning. By means of doing 5 months of on-line TV and movie lessons over Zoom at my studio, I’ve seen how efficient an actor may be over a pc display so long as they’re taking note of the small print, have the proper tools, and perceive the correct etiquette for executing an ideal audition.
Are you aware the place your eye line must be when studying with somebody over Zoom? Are you aware regulate your sound and publicity manually by way of the Zoom setting so that you may be seen and heard clearly? Do you might have a laptop computer with a great HD digital camera? How do you do a standing scene with out balancing your laptop computer on some outdated performing books? Your lighting, framing, web velocity, backdrop, Zoom etiquette, and on-camera performing matter greater than ever. Popping over a pc display is completely different than popping in a self-tape. Are you aware the methods to leap off the display and do you might have the proper tools?
Right here’s all the things you should learn about mastering your subsequent Zoom audition.
1. Use your laptop computer. At all times, all the time do Zoom auditions on a laptop computer and never on a smartphone. Be sure to have the most recent Zoom replace, because it permits for max flexibility for you. You possibly can regulate your publicity, minimize out background noise, and in addition “contact up your look” (my favourite). You possibly can even do a cut up display and have your sides on the pc on the identical time.
2. Spend money on a tripod laptop computer stand. This may can help you elevate and decrease your pc so that you could do each standing and sitting scenes. They go for round $50 on Amazon.
3. Take note of sound. Put on some type of earbud with a microphone when studying because it avoids your dialogue reducing out in Zoom when overlapping along with your traces in a scene. With out earbuds, you’ll miss cues, not hear traces, and it’ll make for a really irritating learn. Additionally, by having the earbud mic near your mouth, it mimics utilizing a lavalier microphone and picks up far more subtlety in your voice. I like Apple Airpods, as they’re much less distracting than enormous over-ear headphones.
4. Improve your web. Now greater than ever your web must be sturdy and constant. Create your Zoom arrange within the space with the perfect wi-fi to keep away from it being glitchy.
5. Make certain your laptop computer digital camera is 1080p. If in case you have an older pc, your digital camera received’t be as crisp at 720p. To repair this, use your smartphone as an online digital camera by downloading EpocCam ($7.99). It’s a complete game-changer, offers crisp, clear video, works seamlessly with Zoom, and can actually make you pop.
6. Know your eye line. You need to recreate the sensation of being in an in-person audition. The easiest way to do that is to look simply left or proper of the digital camera. You possibly can both put a bit of tape on the nook of your laptop computer, and even higher, decrease your Zoom window and put your reader on the highest nook of your display. I believe it’s all the time higher to look somebody within the eye for an audition slightly than taking a look at a bit of tape.
7. Spend money on respectable lighting and a stable backdrop. No digital backdrops of you on a seashore. These may be the identical ones you utilize as your self-tape setup. Spend money on two softboxes, a grey or blue backdrop, a hair gentle, and a backdrop gentle of some form (Google “four-point lighting”) if you wish to actually appear skilled. In an ideal world, you’re utilizing your Zoom setup and your self-tape setup as one space and simply swapping out the tripod along with your laptop computer along with your cellphone or digital camera tripod arrange (these are two completely different sorts of tripods).
8. Personal it. The casting director is now coming into your world, your secure house, and also you’re inviting them to see your artwork. You’re on your private home turf. I all the time used to say to actors earlier than they went into the room for his or her auditions, “act like you’re in your front room.” Now you’re there. Actually. I’ve observed nerves dissolve as actors use the surroundings successfully round them. Most of us are at a desk, which permits us to lean ahead, put our elbows up, creating extra intimacy with the digital camera, drop our voice manner down, and deal with most subtlety. I’ve observed actors utilizing issues on their desks (a pen, a pocket book, a bottle of water) as important components of their scenes. They’re in a position to create their surroundings in a way more vivid manner. I’ve seen actors tape their sides to their ring gentle (no matter works, proper?). They’ll lean again of their snug chair and put their toes up, permitting them to create extra of a physicality round their characters.
*This text appeared initially on Backstage.com on Sept. 2nd, 2020.
