Can't Find a Reader for Your Self-Tape? Do This

In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you how to find free self-tape readers for actors. It's a method you might not have ever tried. I also have a great bonus video for you, the hidden challenges of one-word auditions. Uncover the secret. 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. Look, everybody needs to be able to shoot self-tapes. And yes, I know sometimes people say, well, in TV commercials, sometimes I'm still going into a casting director's office, especially on the East Coast, but it's, it's not that common. And I can just tell you from my experience, I haven't been in a casting director's office since the pandemic. So it's, it's been a very, very long time. Now, there is a new union rule where I'm pretty sure that we have to be given 48 hours from the time we get the, the invitation to audition to actually getting it done and uploading it. So it's not typically— and there are some exceptions to the rule, by the way, but this is, this is strictly for union actors. So that typically will give us a little bit of time to Prepare and find a reader because you absolutely need to have a reader whenever you do an audition. Don't try to do the other lines yourself, record the other lines, the other person's lines, and then just play it back as you're doing the audition, or skip the other people's lines and just say your lines. Casting directors will hate that. So you need to have a reader. So So there are places like WeAudition. It's an online service. As a matter of fact, you could even potentially get hired to be a reader for this company. And I've never used them, but I've heard good things about them. So this is a way that you can find a reader, but you will pay, you know, for the reader. Having said that, there is a way that you can get a reader at absolutely no cost. Now, before, before I share that with you, I've got to tell you, I've got a new website, howtoactamodel.com. You definitely want to go there, sign up. It's all free. You'll even get a great bonus video. It's, you know, 6 Secrets to Mastering Home Auditions. You need, you need to watch this thing, and you get that free when you sign up. So one of, one of the things that I have done is because my wife doesn't like reading with me, and I get it, she's not in the industry, she doesn't have an interest. So, and she's the only one living in our house right now, so I can't just turn to her and say, hey, would you mind reading with me? So, and that's fine, I haven't done that with her for years. Every once in a while Maybe, but normally never. Now, some people will use family, friends. Maybe there is somebody living in your house and they're not actors, and you can use them. I think you'll be better if you have a real actor, somebody who knows what they're doing, read with you. But let me, let me just give you a little secret about that. If you, if you do need to use somebody Who's not an actor, please tell them don't act when you're— when they're reading opposite lines to you. Because typically what will happen is the non-actor will make things much bigger. It's going to sound just unusual. It doesn't sound real or conversational, and it's hard for a casting director to really get a sense of what you can do when something just sounds so bad. So if you are reading with somebody else who's not an actor, ask them to read it dead. So just say the words back to you, and that's, that's fine. What you need to do, and what the trick is, you need to hear in your head how the actual actor in the scene would be talking to you, and you need to react to it. So it's like you hear the words, but you're going to really hear them said differently. So that is a possibility, but here's the best way, and this is the, the one secret that I wanted to share with you. It's a great method, and I've been doing this for years. What I will do is you can find an actor and you send them the sides, the short portion of the script, and you can just email it. And then what you do is you simply And you have 2 choices. If you want to actually see the actor interacting with you, then you need to put a phone, or if you have a camera, something that is at eye level to where you are recording the audition to. So like, for instance, right now I'm on my MacBook Pro. Now when I'm doing auditions, aside from the slate, I would never look straight into the camera. I'm going to be looking camera left. So if I wanted to actually look and see the actor who I'm talking to, you'd have to place your phone or whatever you're going to record it on— or not record it on, but if you're going to be listening to the other person and you want to see them, have the, the device at eye level, camera left. Or if you want to do camera right, that's fine too. Now, I typically don't do that because I am looking so close to the camera when I'm shooting it. I'm not in the camera, but I'm slightly off the camera. It would be hard logistically to like build something up and place my phone up there to watch them. So what I do is I simply have my phone, it's just sitting down right right next to my MacBook Pro. They're on speaker, and I'll do a test ahead of time to make sure that they sound loud enough, it's clear enough, so they can— it gets recorded. It sounds like the person's in the room. And I'm talking here, but I don't see the person at all. But it sounds like they're in the room. It is such a great way to do it. And this way, you can actually, if you want, you can build A community of actors who are there to help each other for whenever there is some kind of audition. You guys can take turns. And I can tell you, when you are a reader for somebody, you're going to learn a lot. You really are. It's just— it's a great experience. And what a wonderful way to build an acting community, an acting family of people who are helping each other. So Yeah, just find another actor. Use— I use my cell phone, put them on speaker, sounds great. Sounds like I'm, you know, I'm talking to the person in the room, and I can keep my eye exactly where I want to keep it the whole time. So I hope that was really helpful to you. If you haven't done this yet, because I do want to also share the bonus video with you, make sure you subscribe to the channel. Click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. If you like it, give it a thumbs up. That's really very helpful. And please share, share the link with fellow actors because that's the whole point here is to continue building a community and a family of actors, you know, and people who just want to help each other and learn from each other and share information with each other. So I do have a bonus video. Let me just take a look and make sure I got the exact name of it. And it's The Hidden Challenges of One-Word Auditions and Uncover the Secret. I can just tell you, sometimes those one-word or a couple-word auditions are much— can be much more difficult than if you have a bunch of dialogue. So anyhow, I want to make sure that you, you get that, watch it, and You know, like I said, if you enjoy it, give it a thumbs up. That would be great. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya. See ya.