Important New Self Tape Rules SAG AFTRA Negotiated

I just sat through a 2-hour SAG-AFTRA workshop, and I'm going to be sharing with you the new and important self-tape rules that SAG-AFTRA just negotiated that you absolutely need to know about. If you watch this to the end, I also have a really interesting and helpful bonus video for you. It's all about if you are desperate For a reader, for a self-tape, I'm going to be sharing with you 4 amazing tips. Okay, let's get started. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel and the Actor Career Center, where I create, uh, these videos to help my fellow actors. And they're based on my almost 40 years of experience working as a full- If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell. That way you always know when I upload a new video. And if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up. That's actually helpful. So SAG-AFTRA just negotiated some very interesting new rules for self-tape auditions, and I'm gonna Go through them with you. One thing to keep in mind, you know, in case you are not a union member, these still could apply to you because if you live in what's called a right-to-work state, which essentially means you are not forced to join the union, but you're still allowed to work on union jobs and you have to be paid union scale. If it's a union production. And, and I can tell you, I worked on a film, it was in Atlanta, and there were about 7 or 8 of us who had principal roles in this one particular scene. And I know at least 3, 3 of us, or 3 of the actors in the scene, were not union. We all got a trailer, we We all got paid union wages. And so anyhow, even if you're not a union member, you want to listen because this is really helpful. So the first one is that you have 48 hours to deliver the audition. In the past, although I wouldn't say this happened to me that often, but sometimes you would get it, hey, we need it back later today. We need it first thing tomorrow morning. Look, it's always in your best interest to get the audition back as soon as possible, but according to the new union rules, you have 40— a minimum of 48 hours to get it back. The other thing is that I don't know if you've ever experienced this, but sometimes you might get the sides, the short portion of the script that you're auditioning with. It could be 15, 18, 20 pages, and I know some actors say, hey, the more the merrier, please give me as much as you want. It gives me more to play with. I understand that. For, for me, especially if it's a smaller role, I honestly— sometimes I would think, really, you wouldn't get it in 2, 3, 4 pages? You would know that if I was right for the role. But, and it was like, it's just a lot more work to get that done. Everybody has different philosophies with that. But let me just tell you, so the new rule is it can't be more than 8 pages for your first audition. Now, if you have a subsequent audition, let's say you get a callback and they want to send you additional information, yeah, I certainly understand that, and it can be up to 12 pages. Something else, and this is a really, really big one, they cannot force you to memorize the sides for your audition. Now, personally, I always think it's in your best interest to have things memorized if you can. Now look, sometimes you just don't have the time. Sometimes it's complicated, um, the words are complicated, there's a lot going on. Maybe you have a lot going on, you don't have as much time. to put into memorizing everything. Maybe you just don't memorize things quickly. So now you cannot be forced to memorize. Now, most, most of the time, I never had a casting director say it had to be memorized. I, I would try to memorize it the best I could, and I always had the sides with me. And that way, if in the middle of the audition If I'm not remembering, if I needed to, I could quickly glance over. As a matter of fact, I'm going to show you a little technique that I have always used. So I will take the sides, I'll fold them up. If you can see them here a little bit. Sometimes I write them out just because it takes up less room. And then what I do is I use my left thumb and it guides me. Once I finish the line, I go down to the next line, go down to the next line, and I hold the sides. To my side. You don't— never want to hold the sides down here, because when you're looking down here, they can't see your reaction. Because sometimes people think, well, okay, I want to see where that person ends their lines, and then I'll come up and deliver mine. Don't do that, because sometimes the other person's lines are much more important than yours, and they want to see how you react to it. And if you're glancing down here, they just see your forehead, which isn't a good look. So always hold the The sides to the side. And that way— now, I would never be looking directly into the camera either, but let's just say so. I'm looking over here, and that way, you know, I'm having this conversation, I need to glance over. And it even— it looks more natural that way anyway, because when you're having a conversation with somebody, you don't sit there and just stare into their eyes the whole time. You know, you're talking to them and you look away and you come back. So it's the same thing with holding the sides. You're holding the sides, you look away, you come back, and you Talk. So anyhow, you don't have to memorize. The other couple things— there can be no nudity in the audition. The, the most that they can ask of you in the audition is to wear articles of clothing that you would wear To a swimming pool, and that's the extent of it. And I know this might surprise you, I've never been asked to do an audition nude. I, I know that's because, you know, because of my look. I get it. But nope, that's never happened. But look, let me just tell you, I'm really happy about that. That's really important for people. The other thing is You can't be forced to do a stunt, which also is really important. Look, doing a stunt can be extremely dangerous. When I did my stunt on— in my scene with Tom Hanks in A Man Called Otto, they did have a stunt double, but they asked me to do it as well. And I had a very quick lesson with the stunt supervisor. I also met with my stunt double. And by the way, the reason why they wanted They wanted me to do it, I'm just assuming, is because in the scene when I am on a train platform, I have a heart attack and then just fall over onto the tracks. It cuts, it edits much better that way than if they would have to cut it showing the stunt, showing me walking up to the side, cut it, then showing the back of the stunt double who looked enough like me that it would be believable. It was just a very smooth thing, and I could just walk up, keel over, fall down, and land on the tracks. It was a very dangerous stunt. I mean, I fell— it's like 8 feet. And had I not had a very quick lesson and did not have supervision and did not have them around, there's no way I would have done it, because you could break your neck, you could break other bones in your arm, in your ribs, your chest. It's— it was dangerous. I'm really glad I did it. It was a great lesson. Not planning on being a stunt double. And, you know, the thing is, stunt actors get hurt. The guy who did— who was my stunt double, who did it the first couple times, and like I said, they wound up not using his version— He had spinal injuries. from getting gored by a bull because they needed him to get hit by a bull. So anyhow, I'm glad that you are not required to do a stunt for an audition. Let me just see if there is anything else here. No, those were really the main— oh, oh, actually I do take it back. They cannot force you to do a recorded audition. If you do not have the capabilities to shoot a home audition, then what— or you just can't go out and have it done— they have to offer 2 things. One is to allow you either to come in and do it personally in whatever place they have set up, or it's a live audition, still virtual, but it's live. And I, you know, I don't know if they would use Zoom or however they would do it. So if you don't have the equipment, you don't know how to record, they can't force you. Now, you know, having said all that, you know, will it help your chances of getting booked. Honestly, I think it makes it easier for everybody, makes it easier for your agent to submit you. But look, those are the new rules, and I'm very thankful. Look, we were out of work for film and television for 110 days. So anyhow, I'm really happy that they fought this hard for us. And I think these things are really, really important. So anyhow, I just wanted to make sure, and I'm curious if you have had any experience with shooting home auditions, any tips, techniques, things that you can share, please leave them in the comments section so we can learn from you as well. Very— 2 quick things at the end. I did promise if you need a reader, Just look up here. You'll see the link for the video. It's a little i. You also might see another link for a playlist that you can go to because I do have over 400 free videos here. So you can pick and choose whatever one you want. And once again, if you haven't done this yet, please subscribe, click the notification bell. If you like it, give it a thumbs up and share, share this link. with others so we can all learn from each other. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.