How many pages should sides be?

Azmyth

Azmyth

Veteran
When your giving actors sides for auditions, how many pages long should they be? I've got some that are extremely short (less than a page) and some for my bigger roles that are 9 pages long.. should I shorten those up some?
 
How many sides do I need to have available at the actual audition? Like how many copies is appropriate? This is an open call, so there is no way to know how many people will show up.
 
Blaine said:
Kind of hard to say. You'd probably need more in L.A. than in Liberty, KS.
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Yeah I am in South GA.. but this film has gotten local press in the newspaper twice, both times it made front page. I am also going to be on the news here locally this week to talk about it. There's quite the buzz here for a indie film. I know I cannot make enough copies for everyone who shows up, was just looking for a general number to have on hand and I would recycle them as best as I can between actors as they leave.
 
I'd think about 20 to 30 copies and "recycle" them. You're going to give the actors a little time to audition and not everyone will show up at once so there should be enough time for those waiting to sturdy the sides. Of course, you're going to have someone signing people in and setting some sort of organization to the readings, right?
 
Blaine said:
I'd think about 20 to 30 copies and "recycle" them. You're going to give the actors a little time to audition and not everyone will show up at once so there should be enough time for those waiting to sturdy the sides. Of course, you're going to have someone signing people in and setting some sort of organization to the readings, right?
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Yeah, there will be a person at the front desk signing folks in, and providing them with the sides. They will be asked to drop the sides back off at the desk when they are done with their audition. I know a few will probably ignore that and take them with them or trash them or whatever. But I think this way it will work. Now, I just need to find an inexpensive place to get that many copies made.
 
As an actor, it's nice to see the whole script if it's a short film. Getting a sense of the overall story arc is quite useful, and it's a small commitment of time. Otherwise, audition sides should cover a short scene or part thereof - a page or two generally.

For first callbacks and beyond, more and more of the script might be made available IMO, and an actor should be able to see the whole thing regardless of its length before being asked to accept the role.
 
How would I format sides where the character only has a few lines scattered through several different scenes. I'm having to put them together to have enough content for them to audition.
 
Put the relevant segments together, separated by scene. It may be necessary to explain the context to the actors as they audition. This type of reading is often more difficult than a fully "connected" scene, so a little assistance is probably in order.
 
Ted Spencer said:
Put the relevant segments together, separated by scene. It may be necessary to explain the context to the actors as they audition. This type of reading is often more difficult than a fully "connected" scene, so a little assistance is probably in order.
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All the lines are from the same scene, I just have more one than one scene.. They don't start at the "start" of the scene though.. so I have them seperated by dividers. Another quick question. I was planning on having my actors sign releases when they sign in, allowing us to "record" their image during the audition. Is that the only thing I need to have or will I need them to sign other papers?
 
There's no need for releases or signatures of any other documents at an audition, and it might freak people out if you ask for them. You're not going to use the recordings for anything other than choosing an actor (or not) for a given role. Releases are only needed when the footage will be used in a product for commercial purposes or other public display, and you do *not*, *ever* want to do that with audition tapes.
 
Azmyth said:
All the lines are from the same scene, I just have more one than one scene.. They don't start at the "start" of the scene though.. so I have them seperated by dividers.
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I can't quite make sense of the first part of the above, so perhaps you could try explaining it again. The second part is also pretty confusingly worded...

In any case, if what you've got on the page is too fragmented to make a coherent audition read from, you could have the actor read another role to see what they're capable of. Or you could provide a bit of dialog in the character that is written just for the audition. You might also ask them to improvise in character although I tend to be very wary of improv as a casting method unless the film is shot in improv-style. Which I'm also very wary of...

It also occurs to me that a character that is written that intermittently might deserve a second look writing-wise. Is he/she drawn with sufficient substance? Would the scene/story/character work better if a bit more fleshed out dialog-wise? Maybe not, but it might be worth considering.

On the other hand, if it's an inherently intermittent role (like a waitress for example), you could just do the pieces with a reader doing the other lines. Like I said earlier, these kinds of roles can actually be more difficult since there's so little (in the script anyway) to build character on. It will probably be quite useful to see how well the actor can deal with that.
 
Ted Spencer said:
I can't quite make sense of the first part of the above, so perhaps you could try explaining it again. The second part is also pretty confusingly worded...

In any case, if what you've got on the page is too fragmented to make a coherent audition read from, you could have the actor read another role to see what they're capable of. Or you could provide a bit of dialog in the character that is written just for the audition. You might also ask them to improvise in character although I tend to be very wary of improv as a casting method unless the film is shot in improv-style. Which I'm also very wary of...

It also occurs to me that a character that is written that intermittently might deserve a second look writing-wise. Is he/she drawn with sufficient substance? Would the scene/story/character work better if a bit more fleshed out dialog-wise? Maybe not, but it might be worth considering.

On the other hand, if it's an inherently intermittent role (like a waitress for example), you could just do the pieces with a reader doing the other lines. Like I said earlier, these kinds of roles can actually be more difficult since there's so little (in the script anyway) to build character on. It will probably be quite useful to see how well the actor can deal with that.
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Let me try to explain better.

I've taken the pieces of the script I want my actresses to read, and put them in a document to be printed. While some of the lines begin at the start of a "scene". So its easy to tell whats going on. Some of the other lines pick up in the middle of a scene, for the sake of time constraints. Since I don't want them to get confused and think the whole thing is one scene, I've typed out a divider seperating the two on the page. I will give the actor a little info on the parts that don't begin at the start of a scene so they know how to react. Maybe that makes more sense.
 
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