Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Weeks 1-2- Cold Reading Practice
The past two weeks, we have practiced cold reading for auditions. What do you think you
have learned about your auditioning process? How much did you consider your first impression with casting directors
before you began this class? Set personal goals that you want to work on over the next few weeks
that can help strengthen your cold reading experience. Be prepared to share one of your goals in class.
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I feel like I know so much more about the auditioning process now. The few commercials and photoshoots I have done in the past I never had to audition for. Ive only auditioned for small projects here at KU so I wasn't familiar with the process at all. I didn't know what to expect from casting directors but now i know how brutally honest they can be. My goal for the next few weeks is to give it my all when I audition and to feel completely comfortable with getting in front of everyone. Ive done many public speaking competitions but auditioning is another ball game!
ReplyDelete-wendy
I have gained a significant amount of knowledge just being here at KU and working with the professors. I have learned that your auditioning process is just like a job, and just a like job, you must be professional, prepared, and efficient at what you do. What I've learned just recently is that you need to be prepared for whatever might be thrown your way. You must have the essentials, like for example; A resume, multiple head shots, a list of monologues to draw from, as well as knowing your acting type. All these things are crucial to auditioning in the professional world. When a casting director asks you a question like do you have another monologue, you must be able to answer yes, because most likely they're asking you that because they like what you've been doing and want more. The more things your able to do, the better off you are when auditioning. Working on your craft and having a refined package is a MUST for the professional world, but it's what has to happen in order to get work. Just recently, I've learned just how important first impressions really are. Just a couple months ago I went to an actor's workshop, and at that workshop were some big producers who work in KC. One of the biggest things I took from the workshop is that first impressions are all you have. You only have one shot to impress the casting director or whoever's in the room. You must be able to go into an audition and command the space. Staying calm, being prepared, and most importantly being yourself is your job as an actor. I've thought about how it might be important, but know I know that it's probably the most important thing about auditioning in the professional world. With this knowledge that I've been obtaining here at KU, I feel like I am on a great path to getting into professional acting. It makes me a bit anxious, but excited to just step into an audition and kill it, no matter what is thrown my way. Auditioning is like a game, and just like a game, you can either get played or play it to your advantage.
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ReplyDeleteAlthough I missed the first week of class, it is safe to say that I am absolutely enthralled by the work we are delving into. Up until this point I have had the personal experience of learning what works and what doesn't work, the hard way. Even after booking my first professional show four years ago I can still remember how mistaken I was and how blessed I was to be cast. Since than, I have done many auditions (cattle call, private call, appointment) and always wondered,"How was I?, Do I know what I'm doing?!". Although cast, I wondered what the people who were really booking high profile jobs possessed that I did not. Now I see what that is. Here, I can see that we are in a safe environment where, thank goodness, we can make mistakes, take chances, and take our curiosity for the work to the next level. It is one thing to study the psychological gesture, Chubbuck, Laban, or any other technique; it is a completely different task to put this into practice in a situation where you must impress 1, 2, maybe 10 people! I remember this summer I was auditioning for the national tour of In The Heights. I made it to final callbacks and once there I fell on my face. I let my nerves get the best of me, forgot my training, and fell back to old habits. This was heartbreaking but taught me a valuable lesson: nerves get the best of me. This semester, however, I had a lot of success booking commercial and film because of the type of work we were doing here at KU. Just in this work week (Monday) I could see the nerves starting to enter my body, but being able to practice and work through that this semester will be incredible and I hope to really have a solid domination over audition nerves at the end of the semester.
ReplyDeleteThese past two weeks in class have already been extremely helpful to me and that can only be a good sign. The first day when we got sides to cold read, I freaked out inside. I have never auditioned professionally, only for school productions. I know how hard it will be once I start really auditioning and being thrust into that on the first day intimidated me a bit. But, it was all for the best. I was able to do it and I was happy with my first time. I found out that being thrust in the middle of the scene with no prior knowledge can be really difficult. But the reading really helped with that. It allowed me to realize that everything I need is written in the scene. The reading is helping me learn how to handle sides and make sure I read them the way that the writer wants me to read them. Right now, my plan is to really work on connecting to the characters that I have to read for in any way possible. I plan on getting my real headshots taken over spring break when I am in LA with Bjorn, a friend of my Aunt who is a professional make-up artist. I am really excited to get out there and start working my way around and getting the feel for the acting life. I am really excited for this class because I know it is going to give me the tools I need to really start getting out there and auditioning and hopefully booking jobs. Acting is my passion, it is the only thing that makes me truly happy and I will do whatever it takes to act professionally. I know I can do it once I get everything together.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I was absent for the first week of class, I have learned a great deal from just the first day. I thought that I was a fairly confident person before facing the "casting director", but I soon found out that I need to let my confidence show even more. I learned that, basically, confidence is the key to a good audition. That and using only what the playwright/screenwriter put down on the page. Nicole made a great point about not overthinking a role, especially a small one. This means not imbuing the character with undeserved significance when her only task may be to reveal information. If you do that, you will not be cast because you'll outshine the main characters. As far as my personal audition process goes, I learned that I need to be more confident, as I mentioned above, and I learned that I'm good at not doing too much movement, such as miming the environment. I was initially worried that I wasn't doing enough. I've thought a little about my first impression on casting directors. My concern for first impressions is why I have not gotten any tattoos or dyed my hair purple or shaved half my head. I want to appear able to fill a variety of roles, and having an unusual appearance might limit that ability. However, I did not consider exactly how prepared I need to be to make a good first impression on the casting director. I need to have a resume, a headshot that looks exactly like me, down to curly or straight hair, confident answers to all of the director's questions, a thorough knowledge (if possible) of the show or play I'm auditioning for, and, as Caiel mentioned above, an almost inexhaustible list of monologues to draw from at a moment's notice. My goals for improving my cold read auditions are to be less nervous while auditioning through practice, preparation, and breathing, and to not put anything in a script that isn't written on the page. I look forward to this class!
DeleteI take a certain delight in being asked to cold read. This is usually the kind of audition in which I have the most fortune. I get nervous and jittery with a monologue, no matter how practiced. Whereas I usually can discern a script's or a line's meaning in a few minutes or, if need be, a few seconds, and approach it vocally without getting too anxious with the pressure. I also haven't had a lot of trouble in my rapport with casting directors so far, except perhaps one, who was the director of a local SAG film. I made it through auditions and callbacks and humored him in his highly unorthodox (and somewhat full of BS) approach to acting. He was himself an actor, and it was his movie his way--fine. I finally realized we were being manipulated when, on the second callback, he informed his prospective actresses of script changes that added gratuitous nudity, blaming an unseen producer for taking his story out of his hands. This was after the remaining contenders had done an intimate audition scene in bra and underwear at callbacks. I declined breast-baring and walked out. That was my nightmare audition.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I struggle greatly with the cold-read approach, except for a few hindrances with my movements. I've been to a hundred and one film and commercial auditions, and I gain confidence knowing that a lot of other actors struggle with cold reads, making me more of a contender (not to say that I like to profit off of their misfortune... it's just a strength I think I have). I'm definitely going to have more trouble with monologues. This is the primary reason I'm taking this class. I want to center myself and find my focus, releasing all tension before putting myself up for more monologue-audition nightmares.
When I was in high school, I had this strange mentality that the audition was just something you had to get through and that the actual show was when you had to try. Of course I learned early on that that was not the case. An audition should be taken as seriously as any job interview. You need to be professional, focused and confident. You have 5-10 minutes to prove to a complete stranger that you are the absolute best person for the part AND that you are someone easy to work with. It’s also very important to know what kinds of roles you fit into and how you can make that clear to the director/writer in a quick audition. I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on two masterclasses led by director Tazewell Thompson. He always stresses how important your first impression is. You are being judged from the moment you set foot in the room. How you introduce yourself, if you shake hands, HOW you shake hands all matter. Basically, a director can make up his/her mind about you before you even start your “audition.”
ReplyDeleteMy biggest goal that I think this class will help a lot with is maintaining my focus through an audition. I will have a song or monologue down perfectly but as soon as I enter the audition room, my mind goes blank. Nothing ever comes out the way I want it to and I always leave the audition feeling like I didn’t do my best. I believe practice is the only remedy and that is why I feel confident that I will improve through this class.
As far as audition types, I think I prefer prepared and cold readings. I like to have a script there. I always screw up monologues, spacing in the middle. My audition for University Theatre was like that- totally screwed up the first monologue and just skipped to the end. The callbacks went rather well though, but even though they told us what scenes we’d read to prepare us, I had a completely different version of the script that didn’t include that scene at all. I came in having prepared for a completely different character, so it really was a cold read. I’ve definitely all ready learning things, from lecture or even just by doing. Right when I started walking around in the cold reading I was like, ‘this is bad, I should stop this.’ It was awkward anyway, but I should’ve figured they’d probably be filming it as a close up and I’d have to stay on my mark. I’m used to finding that invisible person and sticking to them, so it was different when I was told to look at the reader. I had read and heard in my Acting I class that you weren’t supposed to make contact with the people at the table during (especially the casting director) because the eye contact will distract them from our actual performance- and they’ll forget to take notes. Is it different sometimes- like if it’s the casting director (or whomever’s in charge at that time) reading the other part, are we still supposed to look at them?
ReplyDeleteI have learned a lot from the last couple of classes about what it takes to audition and land in the 1% of actors that get booked. I like cold reads because I like being able to try and analyze a piece of text that the casting director took time to choose because I can have an idea of what exactly they are looking for. On the first day of class, I was blown away by how a casting director can act and I realized that for those few minutes that I am auditioning with this person that I must be a version of myself that reflects qualities highlighted in my head shot and resume. I think a huge goal for me will be to always keep my cool during an audition even if things seem to be going less than professionally. I also want to work on making doing justice to the text my main goal and not work too hard trying to do more work than is in the text. It will be a challenge for me to find a middle ground when auditioning with cold reads. I will have to show that I have acting skill but above all that I understand what the writer is asking me to do.
ReplyDeleteOver these past two weeks I have learned that I need to work harder on my cold readings. I don't really like them because I am not good at looking at a text and acting it out with out a lot of prepared time. I figure if I just keep doing cold reads I will get better, eventually. I liked some of the tips you shared with us in class for instance, keeping our spot with our finger so we can look at the casting director. I never really thought much about the casting director before class. It was a lttle intimidating when I stepped up and she seemed doubtfull of my skills from the beggining. My personal gaols is to be able to stay in character the whole cold read and to be able to quickly grab the line and not have to read my side.
ReplyDeleteThe first day we had to walk in and do a cold reading. This was actually fun for me I enjoy doing cold reading instead of performing monologues. My performance was ok, I felt like it was nothing spectacular. The cold reading was held back by the fact that I never took my eyes off the page, which I did not notice this until was pointed out afterwards. Then when I was reading the handout we received the first thing that jumped out at me, that most of my classmates also noticed, was that the author repeatedly said to not make choices that were not in the side that the writer would make all the choices for you. This made sense and I found that if I did this I could have a better audition and portray the character the writer envisioned.
ReplyDeleteOver the past two weeks I have learned that I need to have a lot more confidence in my choices and when doing cold readings. Cold readings have always scared me because I don't have a lot of time to prepare and I have a fear of not being prepared for things. But in all actuality if I practice doing cold readings and get comfortable doing them then I will be prepared.
ReplyDeleteI have learned that you have to have your A-game ready. There is no room for marginal auditions. Not being mentally and physically prepared will cost you your job. I realized just being in our small setting that there is an incredible amount of talent available and primed to make great auditions at a moments notice. I have a better grasp on how to be prepared professionally as far as agents and head shots. What I should expect about industry standards is a good link to measuring your agents talent and work ethic. I feel like there is a lot of opportunity for people to be taken advantage of and I am equipping myself with tools to be able to compete at a higher echelon than my competitors.
ReplyDeleteEven in the few short weeks we've been meeting, I feel like I have learned so much about the auditioning process. Auditioning is definitely paramount to a job interview and in the first minute alone, by way of your energy etc., you could potentially blow it. This is why it is so important to walk into an audition, upbeat, excited, and energetic. This isn't to say you want to take the biggest smile possible- you want to be natural. However, if you walk into a room and look like night of the walking zombies, your probably not going to get the job (unless your Auditioing to be a zombie??).
ReplyDeleteOne of the other things I have learned is the difference between auditioning for film and auditioning for theatre. In yers past my nerves have presented themselves by way of physical action. This is definitely something I have been, and will continue, to work on. Whereas in theatre, a little over-physicality may read well, from the audience. In film, though, you may just look crazy. When auditioning through film, as Sara showed us the other day, you have to show emotion thought your eyes, subtly, but strongly.
Again, I have already learned so much in just the few shot weeks that we have been together. I am excited to continue learning more.