Audition Taping is Here to Stay
Believe me, I will be elated when actors are allowed to come back into our space. I can’t wait to work with them, give feedback, and take away all the heavy-lifting from taped auditions. That being said...taped auditions will never go away. Here’s why:
Lots of options.
When we see people in person, we have a finite number of slots we can use. If it’s a small commercial and we’re only doing a look-see, that’s 5m per person, so we can see as many as twelve people per hour. For longer auditions, we can’t see as many. When we have clients that need lots of options, self-taping will be the answer.
Yes, we have to upload folks and watch their tapes, but we can do that a lot faster than in-person casting. When you’re in-person, you have to walk in the room, we explain the audition to you, record a take, re-direct, record a second take, and get you out of the room. I could sit back and watch two to three auditions in that time. We can literally see two to three times more people with taping.
No small roles...
Just kidding, there are small roles. For the roles that don’t need a lot of hand-holding (pizza delivery guy, lady at the bank, etc.) like under 5 roles, it’s a lot easier for us to grab a tape than to spend hours recording folks in person. Instead of spending the time to see people say, “Hey, who ordered the pizza,” we can spend that time with leading characters, giving them more takes, etc.
“But Sarah! I want to come in person even though I’m a pizza delivery guy!” I hear you! I want all my clients to have unlimited time and money. Unfortunately, they give me a budget and a timeline, and I have to spend their dollars in the most effective way I can. Sometimes that means that the pizza guy has to send a tape, friend.
Limitations.
Especially when our doors are open again, we will have a finite amount of space. If we already have our audition rooms booked, client callbacks in our space, etc., we can’t double book ourselves with time and space we don’t have. Again, clients have a budget and a timeline. If we are booked on the day that they have to have tapes, we can request them from talent instead.
When clients have small budgets, it’s a lot easier for us to request tapes and save them some money on our casting fee. I’d rather they put that money back into their talent fees, and request tapes, than my office to make more money while actors get short changed.
At the end of the day, most of us want to be back in person. I can’t wait to have you all back in the space, but rest assured, investing in a self-taping set up will pay off in the end. Self tapes aren’t going anywhere. It’s a great time to learn how to perfect them and try to enjoy them as much as you can.
Good luck out there!
Sarah