In 2007, Andy Henry contributed a great POV on “Casting the Snapshot.” When I reached out to Andy recently about contributing another POV (now that he’s transitioned from being an associate in arguably the busiest TV casting office in town to working in feature film casting), we discussed how much has changed in the past few years, in terms of how we get our jobs done. At the top of the list is the emergence of self-taping as a viable start to the auditioning process. Andy has so much to say on the topic that he has contributed a fantastic two-parter for us! First up, the equipment. Next installment, the read itself.
The Art of Self-Taping
In the past few years, it has become more and more common for those of us on the casting side of things to ask actors to put themselves on tape. Whether it is because you were on vacation or out of town working when we wanted to see you here in LA, or the film is casting in another part of the country or world, or even that we just don’t have time to pre-read everyone but told your agent, “We would be happy to look at a self-tape,” it is becoming more and more common — and thus more and more crucial — to know how to put yourself on tape in a manner that makes our lives easy and sells you in the best possible way. Here, in two parts, are my thoughts on the whole process.
Equipment and Technical Needs
The Camera: You do NOT need some fancy HD, 3D, pro-level camera, but please also don’t shoot with your web cam, Flip, iPhone, or iPad. You want to be sure that the picture is crisp and clear, that the color is more or less true to life, and that the resolution is good enough that we can expand your reading to fit out computer screen. For $200 to $400, you should be able to pick up a decent camcorder that will last you for many auditions to come. I find that it is much easier to use a camera that records onto SD cards (or the like) instead of tapes; it makes the import and editing phase much faster. BUT, if you are a Mac user, you need to be sure that the camera shoots in a format that is Mac-friendly. Sony and Panasonic are pretty universal and shoot good quality video that will work with either Mac or PC with the right software, but you end up paying a bit more for the brand name. PC users get more bang for the buck with Cannon or JVC, but the file format is not at all Mac-friendly. Personally, I recommend the Sanyo Xacti family of cameras; they are relatively cheap, compact, shoot good looking video, and — best of all — shoot in QuickTime format so that all you have to do is pop the card out of the camera, into the computer, edit them in QuickTime Pro, and you are done. (Case in point, I just imported, edited, and posted 35 minutes of footage in under five minutes.)
An external microphone is generally not necessary, but you do want to be sure that the onboard mic is of good quality (one of the big reasons to avoid webcams, etc.). Also, place whoever is reading with you a couple of feet behind (and slightly to the side) of the camera so that they are not significantly louder than you. If your camera has a zoom mic setting, that is probably the best choice, but play around with it before you tape your scene; you want to be sure that you can be heard clearly. If you DO use an external mic, you may need to experiment with the placement of your reader, possibly putting them slighting in front of the camera (but not in frame please). We do want to hear him or her to an extent as well, so again, run some tests first.
And please buy a tripod. Splurge a little, as the really cheap ones “stick” when you move them. But a Blair Witch audition is unlikely to get you the job. And please turn off the motion stabilization on the camera. No need to get into the technical reasons why, but if you are using the tripod, this will actually ADD movement and wobble to the shot.
The Room: Should be quiet (duh), well lit (duh, again), and free from distractions (for both the watcher and the camera’s autofocus). Microphones pick up background noise that our ears often ignore, especially if noise that is in the direction the camera is shooting. So ask your roommate to turn off the TV, stop arguing with his girlfriend, or whatever. And if you live on a busy street, try to shoot with the camera facing AWAY from it.
Turn on all the lights that are not in the frame of the camera and see how you look. (Lights in the frame will screw with the camera.) A great investment in lighting is a cheap work light from Home Depot. Place it at or slightly below eye level, about 15 to 25 degrees off the axis of the camera to bring out your eyes, give your face definition without too much shadowing, and make you look so much better. Just be sure to turn on the rest of the lights in the room as well, otherwise it will be all shadows in the background. Be sure to white balance the camera once all the lights are on (see your instruction manual for that one).
Last investment: a cheap blue-grey bed sheet from Target (some texture is fine, but no stripes please) to hang on the wall behind you. This covers up pictures, books, reflective TVs, etc., that may draw our attention. It also keeps the color of the wall from throwing off the white balance of your camera. Most importantly, your camera’s over-active autofocus will not have only you to latch onto. The number of readings I have seen where the bookshelf is in perfect focus but the actor is fuzzy….
The Reader: Yes, this does go with the rest of the “equipment.” You want to have someone who is comfortable reading the dialogue with you (so that they are not hindering your flow and timing) and is at least somewhat appropriate for the part they are reading — roughly the right age and feel for the part. (Switching genders is often okay, but when there is supposed to be attraction or sexual tension, it can get quite distracting and add layers of meaning that you don’t want to have in there.) Basically, you want your reader to be there to help you the way the reader in a session would, not draw attention to themselves (good or bad). And again, for the sake of volume, try to have him or her behind the camera by a couple of feet and slightly to the side. This provides the best eye line for you and keeps their volume from over shadowing yours.
Wardrobe: Again, this may seem like an odd inclusion in the equipment section, but the wrong clothing can be VERY distracting or unappealing on tape. Fine horizontal stripes mess with the camera’s refresh rate and make the clothing “dance” around. Extraordinarily bright colors make the camera’s auto white balance freak out and your face turn a deathly shade of blue. White can wash you out, especially if you heeded the lighting notes above (it reflects way too much light) and black tends to flatten you out (shadows don’t show up on black), which is good if you just went to In-n-Out and bad if you are wearing your sexy black cocktail dress. Beyond that, wear what works for you and for the role. (Just be sure that your shirt and the backdrop are not the same color.)
File Type: Regardless of the method you used to record your audition (tape, SD card, camera’s internal memory), we need to files to be sent to us as either .mov, .mp4, .m4v, or .wmv files. There are a number of programs that can be used to edit and convert the raw footage from the camera, but Windows Movie Maker on the PC and iMovie on the Mac work just fine for this. Again, if you can use a camera that shoots in a Quicktime format, you can use Quicktime Pro (on the PC) or Quicktime 7 (on the Mac, not Quicktime 10) to cut, paste, and trim the files and save them as .mp4. Not wanting to get too technical, but setting the file parameters to 320×240, mono sound, 24fps gets good results in a small file size (bumping up to 640×480 makes for a much larger file, but is often worth it). Flash files (.flv) are not usable on a number of programs, so please do not send us those.
Sending the File: Please send us the file; don’t post it to Vimeo, YouTube, or other sites for us to see. Posting on YouTube, even if it is a private post, fills the producers with dread that their precious, secret scenes are out in cyberspace. It also feels cheap and amateurish, like getting headshots done at Sears. (Not that you might not get great shots, but as soon as someone knows they came from Sears, you are pegged as a novice with no clue how the industry “really works.”) Most importantly, we can’t easily download the files from these sites. Most casting offices use a service (EcoCast, Now Casting, CastIt) to share the readings with our producers, studio execs, and such. We often burn DVDs as well. For all of these, we need to have the file on our computer, not just up on some site somewhere.
There are a number or services that you can use to send large files, YouSendIt.com being the most widely used. Please be sure to adjust the file expiration date so that we have at least 60 days to view, download, lose the file, re-download, etc. Things take time — in features and pilots especially — and you want to make it easy for us to go back to watch your tape at any point in the process.
There are some sites that allow you to both stream the readings as well as download them (Breakdown’s EcoCast is a good example), and you are welcome to use those as well. Just be sure that we have the option to download the file or it is close to useless for us.
Of course, you could just go to one of a dozen places in town that does all this for you, but they tend to charge $50 to $100 a shot, and are unlikely to be available late in the evening, so having the equipment and knowing how to use it becomes a worthwhile investment very quickly.
Check back for part two of this POV, where I’ll get into the details of the reading itself, including dos and don’ts for self-taped auditions.
Outstanding information! The only difference in my world would be that we are never burning DVDs for directors anymore (not since 2006 or 2007, anyway). I know that Andy wants the actual vid files (and several of my casting colleagues who work on studio projects do too), but on the micro-budget stuff, we’re sending links around, which means yes, EcoCast and CastIt, but also YouTube and Vimeo, although Andy’s point about directors getting nervous — as well as concerns that an actor might upload footage from the set — is a really important note! This is all developing so quickly for us that we can expect the parameters of everyone’s collective comfort zone to shape up over the next few months. Bottom line, when you’re asked to put yourself on tape, find out what the requesting party wants, in terms of file delivery. Be ready to get your goods to us exactly as requested!
About Andy Henry
Andy Henry is an independent feature film casting director and freelance casting associate with more than 13 years in casting. (Two more years and he gets a set of steak knives!) After more than 450 episodes of TV (including 180 of the hit show CSI), Andy made the switch to the feature film side of business in 2008. Since then, he has worked on both low budget indies and mega-blockbusters. He is also a private acting coach (for more information on coaching, you can email him at: andyhenrycasting@gmail.com).
This contribution originally ran at Bonnie Gillespie’s online column on April 1, 2011.