Top Three Auditioning Tips!
Top Three Audition Tips
By James Tillett
1. Make sure your slate is clean.
When you say your name and agency, be sure to remember to speak clearly and distinctly. You may be familiar with your name, but the people watching your video audition are not. Introduce yourself with purpose, like a firm handshake. After all, you’re most likely meeting these people for the first time.
2. Concentrate on the message.
During your audition don’t think about acting. Think about the message. What are they trying to convey? Thus, what are you trying to say? If your character is happy about something, understand why and then be happy, don’t act happy. If you’re supposed to be worried or upset about something, quickly figure out what it is and then be worried about it or upset about it. Don’t just act interested, be interested.
3. Forget about memorizing the script for an audition.
The script is your friend. Use it, don’t fight it. It is much, much more important to show writers, directors and producers that you understand what it is that they are trying to say than it is for you to prove that you can memorize lines. Grab the first line and the last line so you can deliver those directly to the camera, but otherwise use the script as the prompter that it is. This will actually free you up to concentrate on the overall message and your character’s intentions within that message.
A little about James:
Originally from Indianapolis and a graduate of Broad Ripple H.S. and Vincennes University, Jim has worked for over twenty five years in all areas of theatre, film, radio and television.
Starting out locally at WTHR-TV 13 before relocating to Chicago, he has worked as a free-lance actor, narrator, and spokesperson all over the country, performing in hundreds of local, regional and national commercials. (Folks in Indianapolis might remember him as the spokesman for the Central Indiana Ford Dealers.)
In addition to guest roles in film and television, he has performed on stage at, among others, the Royal George and Steppenwolf Theatres in Chicago and the Wagon Wheel Playhouse in Warsaw, Indiana.
Jim has taught “Acting for the Camera” and “Audition Techniques” for Act One Studios in Chicago and also for The Helen Wells Agency in Indianapolis. He recently directed the premiere production of “The Eel Catchers” by local playwright Bennett Ayres at The Theatre on the Square and will direct another of Mr. Ayers’ plays, “Creatures of the Night” for the IndyFringe Festival in August.
Tags: auditioning, modeling, performing, talent