Anatomy of an Audition

As I was shooting two ad auditions earlier in the day, I found myself flowing through the steps like if they were muscle memory. I took a moment to acknowledge that this was not how it was when I started — and that I have indeed come a long way from where I was, say, 6 months ago?

I will not lie that I was all cool when I got my first audition — I wasn’t. I was all helter-skelter and didn’t know what to do. But after 2–3 auditions, my consulting instincts kicked in — I began to break down the process and the elements of auditions and sort of devised an audition framework for myself. Interestingly, a lot of my friends have asked me what does shooting an audition look like — so I thought why not share what it entails and what’s the routine that I follow! So here it goes. Note that this process works smoothly for me for ad auditions — I haven’t given a lot of long format (films / shows) self-tapes yet but I believe the framework should sustain even for that, give or take a few things.

Since COVID has struck, this casting — auditioning space has undergone a wave of digital transformation which is both a good and a bad thing for an actor who’s auditioning. Good because you really don’t have to waste time going door to door to casting offices and waiting in long queues for your turn to come, and bad because competition shoots up exponentially — it’s literally a 1-to-many game. In a physical in-person audition, the casting folks would be limited by their capacity to test actors, but with digital — all they have to do is broadcast a message and behold and voila, they have 200 auditions from actors all over the country (and outside!) in their chats. *shrugs*

So, anyway, as an actor… I usually get the following from a casting personnel for an audition:

Script + Character + Voice Brief (shared in most cases) + Reference Test (if any)

An ad script is what the creative agency draws up — it has everything detailed out from various shots to dialogues to voiceovers. As an actor, I will also be informed of the character that I have been called for and a brief description of that would also be indicated (e.g., age group, any personality trait, any specific look — nerdy, glam, etc.). In most cases, the casting directors will also share a voice brief with you describing the essence and intent of the ad and giving creative direction in terms of how should the character be played out and the self-tape be shot. In a few cases, casting directors shoot a reference test themselves or pick any actor’s shared test and circulate it with others so that there’s minimal scope of misinterpreting the requirements.

Now, when I get the above, I take a paper and pen and start drawing up my framework and filling up the details against them.

My framework includes the following parameters:

Costume: Most good casting personnel will mention the expected dress code for the audition. If not, then one can get a sense from the script + voice note. If that’s not the case, then one can still go back and ask if there’s a preference. So I make sure that all of that’s sorted and then I go and pick out my costume. Initially, when I was starting out — I would get confused in terms of what to wear if they’re asking for a certain dress code, but now I’ve further broken down this process for myself and categorized my costumes into the following:

• Casuals
• Semi-Indian
• Indian Formals
• Western Formals

More or less, these cover all the kind of auditions I usually end up getting and now I have a ready combo along with the accessories (mostly earrings and a bag as needed) that I need to wear in the scene . I have started calling them as my “audition clothes”.

Frame: A frame is basically the set-up / background to be used for the scene. Now this is something that I really struggled with living in my Mumbai apartment. There are enough and many guidelines on the internet that say you need a plain white / black / gray neutral background — and then on top of that it should be well-lit. Took me a lot of hit and trials and active scouting to get to a frame that works for me in all cases. Earlier, I was all excited about using the entire space in the house to make the audition look “realistic”, but I realized I was being stupid because the lighting was uncontrolled and that’s one parameter that CHANGES the entire game. So now, I just stick to this one background in my apartment where the lighting is superb and I just adjust my frame to a sitting or standing level and set-up my tripods accordingly. I may put a table here and there if needed but I try to keep things minimal.

# of Scenes / Cuts: Most ads are one-shot meaning everything is happening in one sequence, but then there are a few ads where you have multiple sequences. For instance, the character is waiting outside at bus stop in one sequence, and in the next sequence you have to show that they’re in their living room and sitting on the couch watching TV. So I map out the number of scenes / cuts that I will need in that ad and see if it needs a frame or a costume change or anything else.

Key Expressions & Emotions: Mostly for ads, while we do get scripts — as an actor, we are expected to improvise our audition because the script is written for the product but the audition has to be designed for the character that you are playing. Usually in the voice briefs, the casting personnel will direct you in terms of how you can adapt your audition and will also mention the expressions and emotions they are looking for. So I make note of those key expressions and emotions and make sure that as I am improvising a scene, I’m guided by them. For instance, in an audition that I shot today, my brief said that the character is waiting for a response and is “BORED”, then finally there’s a response and she looks into the screen and all “happy” and “excited” on seeing XX. So, I make sure that I am transitioning between these emotions as I play around with my lines.

Blocking / Eyeline / Face Angle: Blocking is basically the movement that you’ll do in the scene without going outside of the frame. The other important thing to take care of an audition is your eyeline and face angle. When you’re shooting a scene for an audition vs you actually doing the scene for a camera on a real set, there’s a big difference in terms of the range of motion your body / face / eyes can have. You have to give your front profile as much as possible as you do the scene. Many scenes will require you either to talk to one person or more who could be scattered around in the room so you need to smartly mark your points of person to the left / right / above & below the camera such that there’s an illusion that gets created that you’re addressing somebody different everytime and at the same time, you’re not losing your front facial profile. So while I am prepping for the scene, I note this down as well — this make things much quicker when I have to actually get down to shoot my audition.

Props: Something that I learnt after a few auditions was that you should always be doing something in the scene, use your hands to work with objects. So, I make sure I have relevant props around like a pen, or a phone, or a glass or a laptop — whatever can enhance the scene.

Duration: Since ad auditions are more fluid, one can tend to just go on and on. I remember submitting a 1 min 20 seconds audition for a part that would have flashed on the screen for a mere 3 seconds. Of course, I was politely told by the casting personnel to keep it under a minute. Since then, I make sure that at the longest, my audition has to be upto 1 minute. But if it’s a smaller brief, I need to keep it crisper and sharper. And what helps me in keeping it tight is knowing exactly what I have to do in terms of the requirements.

And my audition process flow looks like this:

Prep -> Collect Props → Set-up Tripod & Frame → Make- Up & Hair→ Change into costume → Hear the brief once more → Record Audition → Record Intro → Edit → Send

Earlier, I used to aim for the perfect audition and just keep on reshooting till I would get a shot where I was more or less satisfied. Then I realized that it was a big drain on my time and energy and reduced the number of takes to 5–6, and then further got it down to 2–3. Today, I did one with just one take but that’s usually not advised. For efficient operations, I think 2–3 work well for me. I try to take two takes with variations (i.e. a different tone / interpretation of the scene) and then a third one just for safety.

Another thing that you have to submit with an audition self-tape is an intro video in a certain format where share your basic details such as age, height, current location, languages known, availability on the shoot dates and if one has done any competitive brands before. One may also choose to embellish the introduction with some interesting nuggets about oneself — however, it’s appreciated to keep the intro video under a minute. My target is to shoot it in one take, but at times it takes me 2–3 takes because I end up blooping. However, I’m getting more efficient with it. At times, I try to make sure that even if my audition is not in point — my introduction video is because how it works is that this gets into the databases of casting agencies and production houses and if they’re any savvy with their data, they will in most likelihood revisit their database for any future requirement — chances of me getting called for another job will increase.

Lastly, and something that I learnt the hard way — never shoot an audition in the night because the lighting is just messed up. Even if the casting personnel insists that there’s an urgency, it is better to not submit one than to push forward a clip where you’re looking like Frankestein. After a lot of hit and trials, I have figured what light works for me — and clearly self-generated yellow light from the ring lights isn’t the best. So I stick to my time slots religiously if I have to do a self-tape and do not shoot before or after those hours.

So, I started making these incremental changes to my process once the volume of auditions that I was getting started increasing. I began to look at this whole ritual like an operations problem and tried to cut down on all the slack points to make it as streamlined, efficient and stress-free for myself. Now I am at a place where I can say that things pretty much run for me in an auto-pilot mode as far as ads go. :)

Hope you took away something new from this post! Do let me know in the comments.