Holding Auditions Help

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derek smith

Need to hold auditions for my Short Film in the coming month...Never done this before, so anyone who has experience in doing this, care to share any advice on how I should organise it.....Should I ask for a scene from the film to be acted out, or a monologue of my choosing that may be relevant??? Any advice greatly appreciated

thanks
 
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Sounds like you want to know what sides to choose. Pick exactly what will show you what you need to determine whether these actors are for your production or not.

Eg. If you need them to cry on command, have a scene with that etc. etc.

Whether it's from your production depends on your preferences. I prefer to pick some scene (or part of) to get you a general gist of how their interpretation of the character is portrayed.

Just remember, this is only part of the trip. You'll work further with these actors to get exactly what you need.

One big thing I suggest: Test to see how they work with your direction. "Ok, I like that. Can you now try it more like this..."
 
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Sweetie said:
Sounds like you want to know what sides to choose. Pick exactly what will show you what you need to determine whether these actors are for your production or not.

Eg. If you need them to cry on command, have a scene with that etc. etc.

Whether it's from your production depends on your preferences. I prefer to pick some scene (or part of) to get you a general gist of how their interpretation of the character is portrayed.

Just remember, this is only part of the trip. You'll work further with these actors to get exactly what you need.

One big thing I suggest: Test to see how they work with your direction. "Ok, I like that. Can you now try it more like this..."
Click to expand...

yeah, was thinking of using one of the scenes for them to act out...but, as the scene is short, i'm goinna use a scene from another film, which uses similar emotions but is longer...like the idea of asking them to work with my directions...going to incorporate that
 
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We have made a dozen no-budget feature films and several shorts. We have found that when we announce the audition, we give the actors as much info about the shoot as possible so that there are no surprises...such as the length of the shoot, how many days, which days of the week, pay/no-pay, shooting in the woods, etc. All of this info will weed out most of the problems ahead of time.

One problem that we have had on each and every production is getting enough qualified actors to fill all of the roles...often the actor who "looks" best is the worst actor, and the one who doesn't "look" the part is the best actor. So we solved the problem with giving all of our actors exactly the same pages for the audition...we could compare apples to apples so to speak. The best actors got the best roles, regardless of their look. (The women, of course, had a different "female" script). We rarely gave them more than 3 pages to memorize.

In the end, around half would not show up for the audition. And of those who did, we lost more because there work/school schedules did NOT match our shoot days. In the end, we always had just "barely enough" actors for all of the roles.

Also, even though all of our films were "no-budget", we always PAID our actors $25/day to
"cover their gas", and we always fed them. This token payment of appreciation REALLY makes
a difference in their attitude and work ethic...it makes the project "look" and "feel" like a PAID gig even though it's only $25. You will discover (as we did) that you get what you pay for.

We also tried to keep our shoot days very short...generally less than 6-hours. Actors like this because it's less dialogue to memorize for the day.
 
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In my college days I've used sides from the script as well as a short improv to see how they can interpret the character. And I agree ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS redirect them even if you like the way they do it the first time. You want actors who can be directed.
 
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On the auditions I've been present at, actors would usually be given sides that represent your movie (either scenes from your screenplay, or similar) and also asked to have a monologue that they have prepared. The latter gives the actor the chance to show a piece that they've had some time with.

Rayandmigdalia has nailed the audition experience on the head, at least in my experience.
 
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