Auditions...

L

LloydC

Veteran
I'm hosting my first audition for actors and I have no idea how to schedule them...

They are only going to read maybe 2-4 pages, so...

should it be 5 minute intervals? 10 minutes?


is it a good idea to group up two actors to read to each other? or just one actor per audition?


any advice on auditioning actors is also much appreciated!

thanks

-Lloyd
 
As an actor (primarily) and director (secondarily??), I can give you some kind of advice. From the director's side, how you work the auditions is absolutely up to you. However, realize that a bad performance from a poor actor will generally mean that you could also get a lackluster performance from a good actor. A scene can only be as good as the worst actor in it. My advice would be to read the actors individually, so they all have a level playing field. Then when you find the actors that you are most interested in, pair them up. You will find that some great actors will not work together well. Maybe they have different senses of humor or different processes for creating their character.

As an actor, there are two important things. First of all make sure that your actors are comfortable in the audition process. Make it very clear what you expect of them. Don't be afraid to direct them in the scene. Not only will it give the actor an idea of what you want from them, but it will also give you as the director some sense of how they will handle taking direction. The other important thing for the actor is to make them excited about the project. Tell them your plans for the film, maybe even give them a shortened version of your pitch. Get them excited. If they are really hyped about the film, not only will they give a better audition because of their enthusiasm, but they will also tell their other actor friends about the audition they just had. That way if you don't find what you need, you will have a whole new slew of actors ready to audition. And if you do find what you need, you will have actors lining up out the door to audition for your next project.

As for time--I would give about 7-10 minutes per group. You don't want to be rushed or behind schedule. Actors get annoyed when schedules are not adhered to. Make sure you have plenty of time. Even if the audition for one actor only takes 2 minutes, you may spend 6 or 7 minutes just talking to another actor about their resume.

I hope that this information is helpful! Any other questions, comments?

J.D.
 
I'd suggest reading each actor individually at first- have a friend or another actor always reading the second role. That way you have a constant to compare each with. Once you have narrowed the field down begin to pair them up. A lot of times you don't have the luxury of reading every potential actor with each other. The good thing is that talented actors know how to work really well with others so go by that standard and your cast should turn out solid.

Noah
 
The exact setup will depend on your project, but here's my latest experience.

I scheduled 15 minute blocks with 2 actors per block. I had mostly youth roles to fill with a handful of adult parts. The actors cast in the roles would be signing on for 5 films, so they would eventually interact with almost every other actor.

Given that scenario, sides were distributed that included two-person scenes that were youth/youth, youth/adult, and adult/adult. The actors were asked to read whichever pages fit the candidates assigned to the current time slot. Additional (non-distributed) sides were also kept on hand to fit the possible combos and allow for cold readings.

For me it was nice to see the actors interact and it wasn't a drawback if a good actor got stuck with a not-so-good one. You can always dismiss the not-so-good one ("We'll be in touch!!") and have a member of the production team run some lines with the potential choice. (If you already have an actor/actors cast, it might be nice to keep them on-hand for this purpose -- or so they can jump in when only 1 person shows up for a particular time-slot).

Personally, I wouldn't plan on anything less than 15 minutes. This lets you get past the introductions etc and actually get some lines read. Some auditions will end early, some will run over, so it gives you some good buffer to play with.

Other than that, I know that running video of all auditions helps a lot... as well as having the actors state their names to the camera. Saves you from digging through a pile of head shots to figure out who people are. I also wrote down time code throughout the process (on the head shot is a good place) so that I could quickly find specific auditions amongst the hours and hours of footage.

Call-backs were less strict on time and involved more people at once. For those I had groups that included one person for each role and just swapped people in and out from the waiting area in order to see different combos of actors together.

I'm sure others on here have great advice and different experiences, but maybe that will help you get started.
 
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