How to Audition for a Commercial

Maybe it's your first audition ever or your first time auditioning for a commercial. Or maybe you've been to an audition and felt like you didn't know what was going on. This article will help you with the knowledge you need to be confident and focus on a great performance.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Plan your drive. Plot the route to the casting office on Google Maps and print it out for reference. If it gives two time estimates, assume the longer one.

2. Learn your lines, if you have any. Sometimes you may be told there are no lines, you may have them mailed to you, or you may be told to download them from a specific Web site. If not, go to www.lacasting.com, look for and click on the word "Sides", and then search by the name of the character, casting director, or project. If you find the sides there, you can download them for free. If not, check www.showfax.com and www.nowcasting.com. Both have free sides available for subscribers. Non-subscribers can download from Showfax for a small fee.
   
   If the sides are available online, you are expected to memorize them before you get to the casting office, but print them out and have them IN YOUR HAND during the audition, just in case.
   
   If you can't find them online, get to the audition location well before your appointed time, look for them there, and study them before signing in.

3. Look the part. Unless told otherwise, dress for the role as much as possible. Practice appropriate grooming; a man on a fishing trip might have some stubble and slightly mussed hair, but a corporate CFO would be clean shaven and have every hair in place.

4. Take your headshots and bar code with you. Your headshots should have current resumes attached to them. Get your bar code from www.castingfrontier.com before you go. Some casting directors have phased out headshots and resume in favor of the bar code, but some ask for both.

5. Take money for parking. Casting offices rarely provide parking for actors, so you may have to park at a meter or in a parking structure. Also allow time to walk to the office.

6. Sign in before your appointment time, but not before you're ready. Make sure that you know your lines and that your hair, makeup, and clothes are ready for the camera.

7. Be friendly - but not too friendly. Be warm and polite to everyone you meet at the casting office, but don't shake anyone's hand unless they offer you theirs.

8. Listen carefully to instructions. The people running the casting session want you to look good, because that makes them look good, but they don't want to waste a lot of time with actors who don't follow directions.

9. If the session runner offers you a rehearsal, take it, and if they don't offer, ask. If they're in a hurry they may so no, but it's not going to hurt any. Doing a rehearsal can help both of you make sure you know what's expected of you before anything is recorded on tape.

10. Accept notes graciously. If the session runner asks you dial back your performance or turn it up a bit, it's not to be rude and it doesn't mean your a bad actor, they're just trying to help you give the right performance for this spot. Thank them for the suggestion and put it to use.

11. Slate like a professional. When the session runner asks you to slate, that means look directly into the camera and state your name. What you are actually doing is introducing yourself to the casting director who will be watching the tape later, so do it like you are happy to meet them. Don't fidget or look away.

12. Be a team player. If you have been paired up with another actor for the audition, the casting director wants to see you work with them, not against them. Try to connect with them as if they really are your spouse or sibling or business associate or whatever the scene calls for (but don't touch another actor unless you've agreed to it in advance).
    
    Sometimes an audition will be based on improv. Usually the casting director wants to see how you interact with other people, so just work together. If you make the other person look good, you make yourself look good, so don't be a scene-stealer or worry too much about being funny. Also, keep it clean and steer clear of race, religion, sex, and politics.

13. Maintain your eye line. Whether you are delivering lines to another actor or straight at the camera, maintaining eye contact throughout will create a much stronger impression. It's usually better to get one or two words wrong than break eye contact. But if you completely forget your next line, pause, look at the sides in your hand, reestablish eye contact and continue. Do not apologize or show any sign of embarrassment and NEVER stop the scene until the session runner says "cut." Even when you finish your lines, stay in character and maintain eye contact.

14. Be ready for the callback (a second audition). Keep the sides so you'll have them if you get called back. Also keep a record of any notes the session runner gave you, and what you wore to the audition. If you get called back for a second audition - which might be in front of the writer, director, casting director, ad agency representative, and client - you want to do and look the same as you did the first time. The casting director does not want to be surprised at that point.

Resources

• How to Get Commercial Auditions
• How to Get a Meeting With a Talent Agent
• How to Start Performing Improv
• How to Make an Actor's Resume
• How to Get Great Headshots

[starlet67]

on 2/13/2009 Great article...very informative and well-written! 5*