3 Simple Secrets for Professional Looking Self Tape Lighting

Hey, do you need some help creating great lighting for your home auditions? If so, watch this video and you're going to learn exactly how to do this. And if you watch till the very end, I'm going to share with you a lighting system that I really like and you might consider using it as well. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center. Where I help people who are just getting started in the industry, as well as helping people take their career to the next level. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, just click the subscribe button and the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you will know about it. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. That's really helpful. So, First, let me just explain why your lighting is so crucial for home auditions. It's a very simple answer. It's because I can tell you I've spoken with a number of casting directors who have told me that if the lighting is not good and it's hard to really see the actors' faces clearly, you can't see eye colors, there are shadows all over their faces or in the background, They'll just delete it. They just don't have time to try to envision what the actor might really look like. So it is absolutely essential that you've got a really good lighting system. And the nice thing is you don't have to spend a fortune on this. You just need to know what you're doing. So what happened for me was I use a MacBook Pro for all of my auditions, and I had my lighting system set up. Everything looked great. I bought a new MacBook Pro, and I just assumed that the lighting system would work really well again, and it didn't. It looked horrible. It was hard to see my face. There were shadows. To make a long story short, here's what I recommend that you do. And once again, at the very end of the video, I'm going to show you the system that I use that I think is really— it works really well for me. So look, there are some options of just going online and, you know, purchasing lights. You know, sometimes people will, you know, just get anything that's out there, but you really want to know what you're doing. Some people just buy a ring light, and let me just tell you on a side note, you've got to be really careful with ring lights. Because if you don't use it properly, it's going to look really bad. And what I mean by bad is this: if you just have one ring light right behind your camera, you will see all these little diamond-shaped circles in your eyes and you look possessed. You don't want to do that. Once again, I've spoken with some casting directors who have told me they just don't want to deal with it. They delete it. It's too distracting. So if you are going to use only a ring light, although my suggestion is to use other lights as well, but if you are going to use a ring light, just a couple of really quick, quick thoughts. Instead of having the lights facing you right next to you, you've got a couple of options. One is if you are in a place where there is a light-colored wall on the opposite part of the room, what you can do is take the ring light, and instead of having the lights face you, have it face the wall and have the lights bounce off the wall, and then it will help fill your face and you don't get all those crazy diamond looks in your eyes. If you don't have that kind of setup, here's another option. Once again, take the ring light, turn it away from you, and then buy a piece of white tag board. You know, and set it up so that the tag board is at the same level as your face and have the light bounce off the tag board. That also will allow it to fill your face properly and you don't get the crazy rings. Okay. So what I did was this, because I really wasn't sure what was going on. I wasn't sure what kind of lights to buy. So instead of just doing things piecemeal, what I did was I went to a local camera store. Hopefully you can find one near you. And I shot a test just in my home office so that way the people at the store could see what my room looked like. I used the lights that I had that I didn't like, but this way I was able to show people Very specifically what was going on. I told them the size of the room. I even panned the room so they could see it, and I told them what I was using it for. I said it's primarily for auditions for film and TV and TV commercials. So by doing that and getting a chance to speak with a human being who was very knowledgeable about shooting auditions and lighting, They explained to me very specifically what kind of lighting setup I needed, and that changed my life. It was wonderful. Look, besides the fact I liked the idea of supporting a local store, but also this way I could test things out. If things didn't work, they said, you know, just bring them back, it's not an issue. But they were able to Show me very specifically what to do. Okay, so I brought, brought the lights back home, and then here's where your next step comes in. You've got to experiment. You've got to play around with the lights. If you have somebody who will help you, that will make your life easier. So what you could do is sit in front of your— whether you're shooting on your phone, whether you're shooting on a computer, if you're shooting in front of a camera, Set up your lights in a certain way and start recording. Play it back. And if you find that the lighting just isn't perfect, then ask somebody to move, you know, one light at a time and then mark it on the floor. Just, you know, put a little piece of tape, and that way you can record it again, play it back, and you just keep experimenting. It took me weeks to get things to exactly where I wanted them. Just so you know, full disclosure, I don't shoot my auditions here. I shoot it behind a green screen. But I like to make things feel more personal when I'm shooting the quick tip video. So that's why I'm over here, not in front of the green screen. But even when you have the setup and you think you know where everything should be, and I put little pieces of tape on the floor. And I realize sometimes that just doesn't work depending on where you're living. But that way I can easily, even if I have to move the lights, I can easily get them back in place. You know, I'm not starting over. So that's something else to keep in mind. But, you know, the other thing too is even, even when I have my tape set up, I find that I still have to make some minor adjustments. Right. Right before I shoot the actual audition. Now I'll test it out because what you want to do is this: you don't want to use outside lights for any of your auditions. And sometimes people have said to me, well, you know, I've got big windows and the sunshine comes in and it lights up the room nicely. Okay, well, that— first of all, if that works, that's wonderful. What happens if you have to shoot an audition at night? What happens if you have an audition and it's raining outside or it's cloudy outside? You know, you don't want to depend on sunlight to get your lighting to look great. So what I like to do is I close all the curtains in my home office, pull the shades down, turn off all the lights in the room, and all of my lighting is done with my system. And that way I have full control. It does not matter what's going on outside. I can create the lights that I need. And so those are really, really important things to keep in mind so you have full control over it. And look, at some point, who knows, maybe we will start going back into casting directors' offices to audition. I do know some people in Los Angeles who at least for TV commercials are going into casting directors' offices. So far, at least as of today, I haven't been in a casting director's office for any audition, you know, film, TV, or commercial in years. Even, even go-sees, modeling auditions, I've shot them at home. They're just not having them now. That might change, but still, it is essential that you learn how to do this properly. So as you can see here, here's the setup that I have in my home office. And what I do is I do have— you'll see the ring light, you know, which is all the way across the room. It's far enough away that you don't get the crazy little diamonds. So I can use that. And then I've got 2 other lights that you can see once again in this setup. And they are sitting at 45-degree angles. And 45-degree— well, hopefully you can kind of see it. They're coming in on both sides of me. And the other thing too is you need to make sure that your background also is nice and clean. Once again, this is how I shoot my auditions. People don't want to see photographs and things like that in the background. But you might, you might need a 4th light, you know, who knows, to just light the back. Or maybe you can take the lights that you have on the side and maybe you can turn them in a way where it also will fill up the back so that you don't have shadows behind you. It does not have to be a super expensive thing. The lights that I purchased, if I remember, and this was a few years ago, I think it was around $70, if I'm not mistaken, something like that. And that included 2 bulbs, that included the lights, included the stands that the lights are on, and the ring light was not very expensive either. So, you know, for— look, it's an investment, but it's not like you're spending thousands and thousands of dollars having to put this together. So anyhow, I hope this was helpful to you. If you have not done this yet, just a quick reminder, don't forget subscribe, click the notification bell, and if you like the video, you found it helpful, please give it a thumbs up. And I'm also letting you know, please share this link with all of your acting and modeling friends as well. My whole purpose of doing this channel is to create a community of industry professionals who are helping each other by asking questions, sharing information. If you have a specific lighting setup that you can tell people about, please let us know. That would be wonderful. So anyhow, I'm Aaron Marcus. I can't wait to share another quick tip video with you soon. And talk, talk in a little bit. See ya. Bye.