Self Taping Tips for Actors
Self-Taping is here to stay.
You must be masters at this and learn to enjoy this process. You are presenting:
Your Image
Your likeability
Your charm
Your professionalism
Your sense-of-humour
Your energy
Your passion
Be someone everyone wants to work with!
OVERACTING AND PROPS - A good rule is NO PROPS or just a cup or whatever is required for the action of the scene. You don't need to recreate the scene with people or props.
When the Casting Director asks for good comedic actors: show it! Even if it's a wry, cheeky smile. Engage, engage, engage - read your notes.
Your SLATE is very important. It's your first chance to make an impression and have a bit of fun. Your NAME is important — say it carefully.
This video by Jackie Lind goes into detail on the best practices to follow in a self-tape. As always with American content, these may differ slightly and on a job-by-job basis in Australia.
Just see how your Casting Director wants it. It is usually in the Guidelines provided by your agent. I suggest recording slate-to-camera first—not last as Jackie says.
Record in LANDSCAPE not Portrait.
Use a completely plain background/wall behind you.
If using a sheet (iron it and no stains please) This is your image!
If you have a pop-up background - make sure it fits the whole scene
Don't be sloppy - This is your image!Read carefully and follow the instructions from the Casting Director.
WHAT TO WEAR
Dress to "suggest" the character but no costumes.
YOUR SLATE - Unless asked otherwise, do it first.
Say your name carefully, don't be boring - You want everyone to fall in love with you within the first 15 seconds! Don't rush, but don't waste time.
Verbal ID (slate) at beginning of your audition
Name
Height
Agent
Dates availability, no conflicts (for TVCs)
LIGHTING
Stand about 1 metre from the wall to avoid shadows.
Room must be well-lit. Natural light is the best on your face. Overhead light is NOT GOOD.
RECORDING & EYELINE
Use a tripod or prop to keep the phone/camera steady (blue tac is a good friend). If you have a tripod, you can get a small attachment to hold your phone.
Find a good reader (if required) who should stand close to the camera a few steps back, but not so close that the focus is on them. Their voice should be much quieter than yours! - There are also good apps to play the reader.
Your eye line will be on the reader. Feel free to move a little and take your eyes off the reader when you make a point, but ignore the camera.
When you are finished DO NOT walk out of camera shot. Stand still with a fade-to-black
Save your file - Your name, Job, Agent. Example: “ChrisLilley_TelstraCommercial_SuzieSteenManagement.mp4”
Don't be afraid to be yourself and stand out. Everyone wants to be excited by your audition.
BIG NOTE: If you have just had a personal problem, let it pass, then gather your best self, and get in there and smile. The camera knows.
Go All the Way!
IF YOU AREN'T WHAT THEY WANT, GIVE THEM WHAT YOU'VE GOT!
This is a scene from a feature film (“All the Way”) I heard about from a Director of Photography (DOP) friend of mine. He said the Director still needed a couple of females about my age to play some interesting roles. One I didn't like, but the other, although I wasn't Hungarian (which they wanted), I just loved and wanted to play badly. I was offered an opportunity to call the Director for an audition. I asked him to just give me a chance to show him what I could do with the character. He rather reluctantly agreed.
I prepared myself with the lines in the script, a great, strong New York (Queens) accent with the big hair and fake, red fingernails and buxom, motherly outfit and arrived for my audition and did my job. Well, they laughed their heads off and loved me and I got the job on the spot and they even worked the shooting schedule around my availability!
So JUST GO FOR IT! What did I have to lose anyway? Even if I hadn't gotten the job, I had a ball playing that character I created even if it was just for a few minutes with an audience of two!
Fear of Failure
The only thing to FEAR is FEAR itself.
Well, isn’t that easy to say when your knees are knocking and your heart is thumping and you have to pee?!
Let’s take it from an Actor’s point of view. I’ve certainly been there and honestly, most of what happens to us (actors) can be related to our “real” lives too. I’ll add a few, possibly overused, quotes here, so forgive me, but I feel them. I think FEAR of FAILURE is where the fear actually comes from. Failure.
“Acting is really about having the courage to fail in front of people.” —Adam Driver
I’m not so sure I agree with that — as I recall standing backstage waiting to go on and feeling (knowing) this was a bad mistake. Stupid of me really. Well, the show went on and I didn’t mess up, but I sure didn’t feel courageous!
“Failure seldom stops you. What stops you is the Fear of Failure.” —Jack Lemmon
I’ve never thought of my life as being courageous. Confession: I kill spiders. So, no, not courageous, but unwilling to let life pass me by.
My FEAR of FAILURE is STRONG, very strong and embarrassing when it happens — but with a red face and a tired heart, what else is there for me to do? I go on and learn from it. Listen to this I just read that is me and so very many others I just realized, but didn’t appreciate about myself or even acknowledge:
“DID IT ALONE. DID IT BROKE. DID IT SCARED. STILL DOING IT.” —Naveen Sirohi
I’m not going to pat myself on the back because — quite frankly – I didn’t know any better and I still don’t see a reason to stop doing “it”. I’ve survived this long and I’m not known as a Raging Fool — at least as far as I know!
So GET UP - Your COMFORT ZONE will kill you. Life is all about taking risks and seizing opportunities! ✨ Breathe, and don’t try to be perfect.
“You feel unsettled because you know you are meant for so much more. Get out of your own way.”
“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” —Suzy Kassem
How To Find a Talent Agent
This short video is my way of saying that an actor needs to be "interesting", confident enough to make fun of themselves and learn to live with fear of failure - or LET GO OF: Fear of Failure! It's not a failure if you try. It's a lesson learned OR a chance you had to show yourself. You have to be able to HAVE FUN and act.
WHY DIDN'T I BOOK THE JOB? - Failure again....NO!
There are a million reasons why and the biggest one is not that you failed. That is if you tried your best and learned what the Casting Director or other auditionee asked you to do.
WHAT'S MY CHARACTER? WHAT DO "THEY" WANT?
All you can do is try to figure out as much as you can about the character and do what YOU want to do in your own way. "They" see so many tapes, so why not STAND OUT and give it your all.
HONOR THE WRITER
On your first audition or Self Tape - this is not the time to improvise and think you know how the scene could land better. Chances are the Writer will be in the room watching your tape!
SELF TAPES
They are here to stay - like it or not! We all must now embrace the procedure. Take a quick course - ideally a freebie from your Union or an Online Zoom Q & A. Have your set up ready to go when you get the call! It really isn't difficult, honest. My next post is a short video from a Casting Director explaining it in simple steps.
Remember to have hun, honor the Writer and the script, and feel good - you have another opportunity to work on your skills.
An American Actor Recalls 9/11 from Australia
I began my working career in Washington, DC at The White House and am still a patriotic American even though I now reside in Sydney, Australia.
I began my acting career some years later in Los Angeles and became sponsored by Columbia Pictures. Got lucky, I guess. As always, I studied hard, worked hard, loved it, and thrived.
Work and passion led me to Australia where I found it more difficult to be an actor with an American accent, so I went into voice-over work — which I thoroughly enjoyed. I raised a family and went back to my home country as often as possible to "charge my batteries".
SO, THIS HAPPENED ON 9/11 - A True Story
Finally, I booked the lead role in a film. As a well-trained actor, I read the script before I went to sleep. Halfway through, I read the words "The Twin Towers in NYC were next to be bombed.” Of course, in movie-making those kinds of explosions and action are commonplace, so it wasn’t shocking.
Tired. At 10:43pm (Sydney time), I turned on the news. Right before my eyes I saw it happening. No! No! No! Is this a movie? No! I spent the rest of the night on the phone trying to get in touch with ANY of my family and friends in America, including Washington, DC.
8:30am (Sydney time), the film’s producer calls to ask me if I was still on for the "wardrobe witting". WHAT? I freaked out at him, and in my state of mindless pain and madness, I assumed the writers and producers were all terrorists.
The script was changed and the film got made as the world mourned. And I cried between takes.
That's just my story. Honestly, throughout many years, I have actually found peace in acting in the worst of times. It is an all-encompassing "job" for me and gives me blind freedom to be "someplace else".
A scene from The Amusement Bomber.
Living With A Slob
It's August 2021 and we here in Sydney, Australia are in a(nother) serious LOCKDOWN because of the COVID-19 virus and the Delta Strain which is moving so fast that everyone has been asked to ISOLATE, stay in their own homes, and not go out or mingle or visit others unless it's to buy food or get their COVID-19 vaccination.
Then there are those who gather in massive groups who PROTEST the Lockdown and further spread the virus to each other who go home and spread it to their families and on and on. It's just creepy. So it brought to mind that as we live in this "new" society we look at the person who is in lockdown with us who hasn't showered in weeks or changed clothes.
Why? This reminds me of a film…
Throwback to this "Witches of Eastwick" scene...
Seems to fit in these COVID-19 lockdown days
Lady dresses up to go to the mailbox (Where else can she go to show off her online purchases?)
Lady re-enters home to find her man/son/partner/roommate still in trackies. "Witches of Eastwick" comes to mind.....
Enjoy! Feel free to send it to others, if you feel the need! ;)
Disneyland & Emotions
What does Disneyland have to do with acting? Other than the wonderful people who play the characters… It’s a feeling. Something sublime that is a feeling that has no explanation, it just is a feeling and experience that moves you surprisingly effortless. Ah, to feel that when acting. Living in Australia, when we went to America with our children, I wanted to give them the best and most exciting time.
Gosh, I have been to Disneyland and Disney World so many times. When we’re with the kids, I couldn’t bear another line-waiting time for rides. Although, I did rush to get autographs for my kids from Mickey & Minnie! But I must say, to all my “I’m doing it for the kids”, when I walked through the entrance, I felt a wave of love and happiness just float through me. Unexpectedly. Maybe it was the happiness of my children, but much more. It surprisingly hit me. That’s the experience Disney wants you to have.
So... when you are acting with another person, it is so wonderful when you feel that unsuspected surprise just sneak up on you. A thrill of sorts. But more a reality in your feeling. It’s what I call “tunnel-vision”. You’re there! It doesn’t blind you or scare you; it’s more like a focus run free.
I wish for you to have my tunnel vision running free. Just let go and don’t analyze! Freedom, feeling, and honesty with insight from within rather than analysing every movement. Just let it happen.
My kids at Disneyland in Los Angeles. 1996.
Unconditional Love
What has this got to do with acting?
When you find unconditional love (whether you want it or not), when it comes your way, it's so powerful that you and your heart will never be the same.
Not to minimise unconditional love (EVER), I feel that the deepness of this feeling can never be minimised.
If you have never felt this, then imagine you have or what it’s like if you can.
It is the height of all emotions. And when we are acting, we try to find these truthful emotions to give our character real life.
Want it, imagine it, feel it, remember the feeling or just open yourself up to whatever is happening and the emotions that could go with it.
We’ve all had “good” and “bad”; highs and lows in our lives. Imagine the unconditional, if you can, and your character will bloom, grow and become alive.
This can scare the Hell out of you, but you will feel beyond trying to imitate.
Me and my son Derek as a newborn.
THE WASHINGTON D.C. RIOTS in 1968
The intersection of O Street NW and 7th St NW in Washington D.C. during the riots in April 1968. (Photographer unknown/Underwood Archives)
The Washington, D.C., riots of 1968 were a four-day period of civic uprising following the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968.
The police tried to keep the White House safe by keeping the protesters to 14th Street. The White House is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue — where I worked.
I was 17 when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and the riots started.
It was horrible to see the smoke getting closer and closer to me. The White House Guards kept telling us to go home. I had work to do, so they dragged me out and offered to walk me home. I said, "no thanks I just live up on 17th Street". I was escorted to my apartment, they said to run and not to go through Lafayette Park (right across from the White House where I would sit to feed the squirrels).
DC was in lockdown at 8pm. I either had to get out or go somewhere else and stay for 4 days. My roommate had a friend in Arlington, Virginia, so we went there and from the top of the hill we could see our town burning up in smoke and tanks moving through our beautiful home.
It was Cherry Blossom Season too. We wondered if our apartment and The White House would be there when we were allowed back and if the World would ever be the same again. Trembling at 17 years old, working at The White House during the Vietnam War and finding solace from the madness in the Cherry Blossoms.
2020 COVID-19 and Riots again for the injustice of human beings. I am safe in Australia now from the riots, but I am crying giant tears. The World of human injustice is still here and I can do nothing.
Find Your Happy Place
My kids Derek and Jackie hugging before he left to go back to the USA. (Photo by Erik Steen)
That can be difficult in these times. Have you seen the news from Minnesota? Is the COVID-19 still here? Have you gotten any auditions lately? That’s what exists and we have to face it. So let’s face it and then carry on and use this time to strike back and be better than ever. As a Person, as an Actor.
Listen to some new music, read some new books, take some online classes, be mindful - PREPARE yourself for when the calls from your agent start coming in again, or when you want to do a new project. Make your own content — that will be an eye-opener… WHICH IS WHAT YOU NEED. Eyes wide open. Life to learn, life to be experienced — life. That’s your “draw card” when you need to tune in to a character or feel the "feels". It’s very clear that the world can’t survive without entertainment. We won’t let it.
So “you’re welcome”, world. Gotta get people to their Happy Places - and/or - Deep and Meaningfuls! Work on that.
In The Beginning
When I began my career I was under the impression that everyone had to like me and I had to be friendly and look really good. I kinda missed the point I think. Modelling is where I started, but an audition is an audition and needs to be treated professionally, of course, but there’s no need to suck up to the auditioners. Please don’t!
While I was still feeling my way around this business (while certainly holding down another paying job so I could eat!), my agent called me for an audition. At the time, I was living in Los Angeles. I made sure I looked my best and got to the audition on time and found a long line of actors/models sitting in the hallway waiting for their names to be called. Ever been there? Ugh!
My name was finally called and I walked into a room filled with American Clients (I think they travel in pods), a camera, and a casting director. Oh shit! I smiled and did what I was told. There was no dialogue as it was a TV commercial and only took a minute or two before the opportunity was over. It was an ad for Johnson & Johnson. Well, I actually happened to use J&J baby powder back then. So, since the audition was so quick, as I left I felt it only to my benefit to say “I have that on today.” BAD CHOICE! BAD! Perhaps too friendly for a room of bored casting people. AND, feeling sorry for the others sitting waiting, I later found out the commercial was for a feminine hygiene product. Yup, tampons. I was certainly red-faced!
So much for my friendly smile and chatter about the awesomeness of their product. Awk! I crawled back to my car, speeding away hoping no one knew I was alive.
So kids — no need to schmooze. Go in, do your job, shut up, and leave!!
Suzie’s modelling headshot from 1975.
My Four Stages of COVID-19
DENIAL - What? I don’t believe this. Talent was cancelled as were jobs. Well, I still have my regular client to count on to pay the bills. We can handle this, but ouch!
BOOM - Saturday AM my regular client called to cancel all actors TFN. OMG this is REAL. Can’t last for long. I’ve never been not working my butt off in my life. Yes, it can last that long and all entertainment is dead.
DEPRESSION - As reality is settling in I cry and cry and cry. And I’d like to say I was scared — but I’m too proud to admit that! I did some sleeping too.
TIME ON MY HANDS - There are a lot of fulfilling projects I would like to have had time to bring to fruition and hopefully enjoy the process - as long as I have someone to assist me with the technical side of things. As everyone else is not working, I have people to assist! Although my son (my technical wizard) is in America, we now FaceTime every day and I am writing my 2nd BLOG and have recorded two PODCASTS!
My suggestion to you is, it’s okay to feel the pain as long as you have to and do absolutely nothing. And I sincerely hope you start to work on anything that brings you joy, personal advancement and - uh duh - and ideally some money to help you stop worrying.
“We are all in this together.” What lovely thought. I call out BS on that one! Someone living in a mansion and having ice cream delivered every day may have some inconvenience, but, they got ice cream and I don’t!
I would like to now introduce you to my son, my Creative Technician and biggest fan of me, my hero — Derek.
Derek on assignment at the W Hotel in Midtown Manhattan.
Silent Confidence
Suzie with Li Cunxin (the real-life person “Mao’s Last Dancer” is based on).
When I was working as a Talent Agent (still am), I auditioned for a Feature Film that needed another Supporting American Actress. Sitting in the waiting room of the Casting Director, of course I hear all these American accents and actors dressed classier than I was. Well, after talking to and reading for the Director, I got the part. What fun!
So, I memorized my lines again and arrived on set to (MY OWN) trailer. I was taken to the wardrobe and hair trailer to get made up like the character. Not my finest look, but hey, I was acting again in a Feature Film!
I was taken to the set and we ran a few rehearsals. Big name American actors I was working with too. I just “did my job”, enjoyed my character and the other actors immensely.
Once again I was taken back down to the makeup/wardrobe trailer and I overhear the ladies talking about “the boys” (hardly boys) said how good she was and they were relieved. I thought they were talking about the girl in the back who played the receptionist. I asked who they were talking about and they looked at me and laughed and said YOU. Duh, of course I was good. I knew that, but these high flying actors didn’t know me.
Ha! I wasn’t ego driven or scared, I was doing my job and doing it well. Why would anyone think anything else? I realized I was the one being judged. Glad I didn’t know that as I had not an inkling that I couldn’t stand up with any actor and rally.
Ta da! Well now, didn’t I pleasantly show them. Ha! To think they had even questioned my ability was a real surprise to me.
So be prepared, have confidence in yourself and do your job! That’s all.
Motivation
Suzie at a “NAFA Chat” by Bruce Beresford on Micromanaging.
When an actor comes to me and wants to discuss his character, I say, ‘It’s in the script.’ If he says, ‘But what’s my motivation?’ I say, ‘Your salary.’
Actors seem to need to know the right questions to ask and are required to do a lot of their own character and script analysis. It’s our job (as actors) and we study for this: to figure out the character’s ‘objective’, the ‘super objective’, the character’s goal, etc., etc. — whomever you listen to or with whom you study. Then the Director has his say — ideally before the actor has read his mind!
This is a full-time job and one must research and become the character and not over-intellectualize. Oh dear, ‘the intellectual actor’. You may think this is a compliment, but it’s not! You must come from the gut and above all — truth.
"Performing for the Camera"?
When I say to some of my newer actors in class “stop acting”, they often respond that they are, indeed, in an acting class. So?
If you catch somebody ‘acting’ in a move, that actor is doing it wrong. The moment he’s caught ‘performing’ for the camera, the actor has blown his cover. He’s no longer a private character in a private world. Now he’s a highly paid actor on contract to speak these lines for the public. Good-bye illusion. Good-bye career."
—Michael Caine, Acting In Film: An Actor’s Take on Movie Making
So? Stop acting. Even in acting class!
Stop Thinking
Yup, the “intellectual actor”, you can get too far into your head and thoughts. It kinda works better of you lose that intellect and just feel the feelings. Hence, jump in fully… without monitoring, editing, or checking. You will be stunned at your inner self coming to the character. A note to you young actors… I lived in my “intellect” for so long — and believe me — I was a stitched up human being. Letting go is awesome! Freedom, I keep screaming that at you! Freedom to do what comes to you. Wonderful!
Do it, don’t do it, just be………………..xx