Hello beautiful people!
Let’s finally be out of excuses for self-taping on the fly.
When you’re ready.
Kudos to those who are already killing it in the 30-day self-tape challenge group at Facebook and doing it on your own and reporting in about it along the way! I applaud you for taking on this bit of work *during* these 100 days and I know you’re going to be stronger for it.
For those who are just getting started, here’s some more encouragement.
You’ll learn that you are totally castable exactly as you are. You’ll learn what works and what doesn’t from your best angles to your best lighting to your best time of day to be your best in all ways. You’ll learn what styles of clothing are on-brand best for you and your next-tier goals. You’ll get into yourself! Seriously! You’ll enjoy your work more, the more you watch it. And sure enough, we’ll enjoy watching your work more too. This is true even if you’re primarily a stage actor! I promise!
You’ll love getting last-minute auditions because you’ll know you’re going to turn around yours quickly and professionally due to your workout here! You’ll know this is giving you an advantage because so many actors are just not yet on the self-tape train (think about your reluctance… that’s real for everyone and YOU are a ninja. It’s just still at the very beginning for most folks, which means it’s the edge for those who get it done). You’ll get better and faster at getting off-book. You’ll start dropping your attachment to auditions — even ones in the room — because you’ll be doing so many of them at home that it’s all just NBD at this point. That detachment is castable!
You may fall so in love with something you’ve done that you turn it into a series… that gets bought… and that takes you to the next tier. It happens! Why not let it happen to you? Lead with intention, babe!
Even if you decide this is something you’ll come back around to later and try out, you’ll love it and these resources will be here for you, regularly updated! Hooray! Because the last thing we want is for you to finally be ready to do this and then sure you can’t figure out how to start. Yes. Yes you can. Bookmark this day.
- http://aellea.com/movie-scripts
- http://chakoteya.net/StarTrek/episodes.htm
- http://chezjim.com/writing/scenes.html
- http://dailyscript.com
- https://edgestudio.com/script-library
- https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/tagged/screenplay
- https://gointothestory.blcklst.com/script-download-links-9313356d361c#.2gi9bu6vi
- http://hollywoodactingworkshop.com/calendar/sides/commercial-copy
- http://homepages.bw.edu/~jcurtis/Scripts/scripts_project.htm#THE%20SCRIPTS
- http://horrorlair.com/moviescripts_a_f.html
- http://imsdb.com
- https://mocksides.com
- http://monologuedb.com/tag/1-minute-monologues
- http://moviescriptsandscreenplays.com
- https://movies.lovetoknow.com/wiki/Free_Disney_Movie_Scripts
- http://opensourceshakespeare.org
- http://script-o-rama.com/snazzy/dircut.html
- http://scripts.tv-calling.com
- https://sfy.ru
- http://shakespeare.mit.edu
- https://showfax.com
- http://simplyscripts.com
- https://sites.google.com/site/tvwriting/home
- http://stagepage.info/oneactplayscripts/_oneact.html
- https://www.voices.com/blog/voice-over-sample-scripts
- http://whysanity.net/monos
- http://www.actorpoint.com/free_monologues/0mvwtop.html (archive; original site has been removed — right-click on any item to get the PDF)
- http://actorscomedystudio.com/sitcom-sides-for-women (archive; original site has been removed — right-click on any item to get the PDF)
- http://chiff.com/art/theater/scripts.htm (archive; original site has been removed — right-click on any item to get the PDF)
Here are some more ideas beyond trolling the links above! Many of these awesome ideas came out of brainstorming on the part of our spectacular self-taping ninjas in the Facebook group.
- ads off Craigslist — here’s a classic: “My bra: I’d like it back”
- answer “So tell me about yourself” to practice your Brandprov
- be afraid
- be disgusted
- be in intense pain
- be overjoyed
- be sick when you’re not
- be under the influence of alcohol
- bite and smile — take a bite of food or a sip of a drink, then smile, like in commercials
- break up with someone
- create your own scene or monologue
- cry
- discover someone you love is pregnant
- do a movie or play review as a character
- do a piece you’ve done before at a totally different age
- do a poem or sonnet
- do a scene from a play
- do a scene with someone who is sitting down
- do a transcribed scene from a target show (bonus points for gender/age flip)
- do all the Brandprov prompts from the SMFA Hot Sheets (there’s a condensed Brandprov list in my SMFA Networking Gameplan)
- do an ECU and don’t move or blink
- do just one line
- do the worst lines you’ve ever had
- drive and talk
- find out you are cancer-free
- find out you are terminally ill
- fix the formatting on a wonky script you got from an above source (helps you as a writer)
- force yourself to shoot when you’re actually sick to see if you can push through
- gesture
- give us a tour of your self-taping setup
- go outside
- hold a stuffed animal and pretend it’s real
- if you always shoot sitting, try standing up
- if you could have dinner with anyone (alive or dead) who would it be, and why
- improvise a character based on a hat you put on
- interview your pet and speak for them
- introduce your invisible friend
- laugh
- list your assets and liabilities and then make a scene out of one of your liabilities
- meet with a teacher who made an impact on your life and tell them
- model your favorite hat and tell us about it
- propose marriage
- put your phone on the floor and see what happens
- react to the news that someone has passed away
- react to winning millions in the lottery
- react to winning only $10 in the lottery
- read an article from a magazine
- really have to pee
- receive a phone call
- receive a proposal of marriage
- record yourself doing the other part then do a scene with yourself
- research medical shows and try out medical jargon
- research procedurals and try out legal jargon, cop jargon, or political jargon
- say the lines you’ve always wanted to say, but will never be cast to say
- scream
- share what you do for fun
- shoot in a hotel room
- shoot in a store
- shoot in the bathroom
- shoot in your car
- shoot outside
- show us your headshot and talk about why you chose that one
- slate cheerfully, then do a serious or angry piece
- swap out your background
- talk about your best ever vacation
- talk about your pet
- talk about your worst ever vacation
- talk to a person who is just walking in, who then sits down
- talk to your eight-year-old self
- tell a terrible joke, then a good one
- test out different makeup, hair, facial hair, glasses, tops
- test out the focus pull when you move around in the frame
- use dialects your “special skills” section says you can do
- walk into the scene and hit your mark without looking down too much
- whisper
- work out variations on your slate
- work with a prop
Today’s work: Commit to something. Commit to self-taping now. Self-taping in the future. Putting on your calendar when you’ll do some self-taping work. Gathering some material to self-tape. Being a reader for someone else who is self-taping. Meeting up virtually with self-taping buddies. Tweeting about how much you know I’m right about nagging you to get on the self-taping bandwagon NOW. 😉 Something.
For my non-showbiz creatives, your work is to do a brain-dump of ideas for YOUR creative output. Newsletter topics, blog post ideas, products you’d like to create, PDFs you could put together that explain your process as a creator, tweets, ideas for Instagram posts, concepts for short or long-form vid content, livestream topics. Just list and list and list and list and list. Don’t judge what you write down (no suits in the writers room) or talk yourself out of how “no one will care” about any of it. That’s not the task today. Just get out those brain babies so you can see them all in one place!
Extra credit: Share additional resources not mentioned above. Point out any broken links (eep! It happens) from our list above. Suggest some fun prompts to add to the collection above. Yes… that’s the extra credit! Everyone’s gonna be an overachiever today! I just know it.
’til tomorrow… stay ninja!
