Aaron Marcus shares three ways to improve your audition submissions: respond quickly, label your files with your name and contact info, and include contact details on your resume. He also suggests using Google Voice for a dedicated business number.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget to click the subscription button and also the little bell notification button. And that way, every time I upload a new video, you'll be notified. Hey, so let me tell you, I was just in a really interesting situation where a company asked me to help find other actors for a video they are producing, which is great for me. Look, for me to have an opportunity to help fellow actors get a job, That's, that's something I love doing. So I learned some, some very interesting things by this. And look, the fact is there's nothing anybody can tell you that's going to guarantee you're going to book a job. You know, that's— that would be crazy. But what I am going to share with you in this video are 3 things that you can do to help increase your chances of booking the job and also presenting yourself in a more professional way as an actor. So number one, you always want to try to get your audition back to the agent or the client or the casting director as quickly as you can. Now, of course, you're not going to rush it and just slop something together just to get it back to them quickly, but you don't want to wait till the last minute either because sometimes projects, they'll finish casting before the deadline. And so you don't want to be in that kind of situation. And I actually, I did see that happen. So make sure you get it back as quickly as you possibly can. Number 2, you've got to be identifiable. And so if you're shooting a home audition, if you weren't told to slate and you weren't given any kind of instructions about labeling your video, Always make sure you've got your name labeled, and I like a phone number. And matter of fact, that is specifically what I asked for as people were sending their auditions back to me. Then I was forwarding them to the client, and there were a number of people who would send me videos, and they were labeled as with the date, with the name of the project There was no name, and most of the time people didn't slate, which— and I didn't ask them to slate, and that's fine. So I'm watching a video, I have no idea who it is. So look, I just— because I, I, I'm trying to help, you know, the actors as much as I can. What I did was everybody sent me a resume and headshots, so I went back, studied the headshots, tried to match up the video that I saw with the headshot, and then I would type in their name. But I can tell you, a lot of casting directors simply wouldn't have the time, you know, to do something like that. So make sure if you are given specific instructions as far as how to label your video, the file, make sure you do that. And if you're not given information, make sure you put your name and contact information so that way people can easily reach you. Very last thing on your resume, This really surprised me. There were— I wouldn't say a lot, but there were a number of people who sent me resumes that did not have any contact information in there. And I was just shocked. They would have their name and credits, and there was no way that I could reach that person. So make sure you always have a phone number, email address in your resume. Now, sometimes I know people have said, well, my agent doesn't like me. to put my personal contact information in there because they're afraid that I'm going to go directly to a client. Oh, okay, I understand that. Well, then put your agent's information, but you've, you've got to have some way for, for us to get back in touch with you. So anyhow, those are the 3 quick things. Make sure you get things back as quickly as you can. Make sure you label things well so you, you can be reached. And make sure you've got contact information. On a really quick note, there is something— if you don't want to give out your personal cell phone number, there is something called Google Voice, and it's google.com/voice. And you can actually get a free phone number that you can use for business. And what you do is you— all you have to do is go to that website and put in a zip code. You'll get a list of a few different Google Voice numbers that you can choose from, and that becomes your Google Voice number. You set that one up, you have all of the phone calls that are, that are sent to that phone number forwarded to your cell phone. Your cell phone will ring differently if they leave a message. If you don't pick it up, you'll get a text message. It's really, it's pretty cool. So anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. And very last thing, love to ask you to help support the Acting and Modeling Quick Tip channel, there is a donation button at the bottom, and it's just something I ask. Love to have you be a part of it, support it, make a donation, whatever you feel is, is comfortable for you. I greatly appreciate it. There's a PayPal link, it's really simple. And feel free to share this with other people as well throughout your social media. I mean, look, that's why I'm doing this, just to help spread Great information to others. And I would love to get a comment from you. Let me know if there are any specific things that you do when you are submitting a home audition that you find really helpful. Or, you know, was there anything that I said in here that was new for you? Yeah, please just share that with others so we can all learn from you as well. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
