Aaron Marcus walks through shooting a professional home audition for a pharmaceutical commercial, showing what casting directors want to see: clear eyes, skin tone, and an uncluttered background. He breaks down the gear, lighting, and framing needed to look polished without spending much money.
Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and normally I'm not this dressed up for my quick tip videos, but I just got finished doing an online audition as a doctor. So if you're watching this on YouTube, don't forget, if you haven't done this, please subscribe and also click the little bell, the notification button, and that way every time I upload a new video, you'll be notified. So look, actors were always auditioning from home, especially in today's time period. And I want to let you know that models, you got to know how to shoot great home auditions as well. And I had done this a few times in the past, but now it's happening even more. So I just got a request For a go-see, which is the audition for commercial models, but I had to shoot it at home. And here was the interesting part. Well, first of all, that part was pretty interesting, but it was what they asked me, what they wanted to see in the go-see. And so basically they wanted me to tell them About what I like to do aside from work. You know, what are some of my hobbies? What TV shows do I like to watch? They just wanted to get a sense of who I was. So here's what I thought. This is— it was a pharmaceutical go-see, and it was somebody certainly my age category. And so I decided— and it was all true. I mean, I would have made things up, but it was I didn't need to. I decided, look, this is medication for people who want to be able to do things outside, be able to do activities. And so that's primarily what I talked about as far as hobbies. I like to run, which I do. I just the day before came back from my, like, a 10-mile walk, which I like doing. And so all those things seem to make sense. And so that's why I mentioned it to them. I also, when they asked about television shows, I mentioned 3 different shows. One, I mentioned The Wire, which I truly believe is— it was on HBO— one of the greatest shows ever made. And I also wanted to get in there that I had a part. I was— I worked on one episode. So just to kind of give myself a little bit more credibility, to let them know, yeah, I mean, I'm an actor as well. I also wanted to let them know that I'm more worldly. There's a show which I really love, it's called Luther on BBC. And then I decided to do one that was a little bit more my age. Category. And so it's called Last Tango in Paris. And, um, didn't love the ending, but the show itself, I really— there were some really, really nice things in it. Not every episode was fantastic, but I enjoyed it a lot. And so I mentioned all those things, and then at the end they wanted us to do a 360. Now I sit down whenever I do, um, uh, my auditions, so I'm seated right now. So in order for me to do the 360, I actually had to spin my Myself in the chair so they can see the front, they can see my back. And so I am on hold for this job. We'll see. I asked the agent and there are a few people who are on hold for the job, so at least that's a good sign. Certainly it's a lot better than not being put on hold, but who knows? I've been on hold for projects before, plenty of times where, you know, you just get released. But here's the other thing too. That's why it's so crucial for, you know, actors but also for models to learn how to shoot great home auditions. Because if your audition just doesn't look good, then it's hard to be taken seriously. And the better you can look the better your audition is going to be. You know, they want to make sure that they can see your eye color. They can make sure they get a sense of skin tone. They don't want things in the background that are— it's going to be distracting for them to look at. So anyhow, I'm going to place a link on here. It's actually— it's not a hypertext link, but it's, it's a— it will give you the link that you can Just type into your browser if you would like to learn how to shoot great home auditions. And it's a really important video for everybody to watch and know about. And you'll learn everything from what kind of equipment do you need, techniques to use, ways to set up your lights, how to do things inexpensively and very reasonably. So anyhow, you can use the link below and you can order the video. And you'll find that you can either stream it, you can download it and watch it without Wi-Fi for as long as you want. But anyhow, everybody needs to learn how to shoot home auditions, both actors and models. And so I'm curious if you have recently had a home audition, tell us about it. You know, what worked, what didn't work? Were there any strategies you used? What kind of equipment do you use? What do you find that's helpful? Are there things that you ran into problems with? Look, that, that's why I'm doing these quick tip videos so that we can all be part of this acting and modeling family where we're sharing information with each other. I mean, as you can imagine, I spend a lot of time putting these things together and editing them and then uploading them. So please share your information as well so we can have conversations here and other people can learn from you as well. And me, you know, look, I I've been doing this for over 34 years, but I always want to learn new things from other people. So anyhow, that's what I wanted to share with you today, the importance of shooting home auditions, even for models. And I can't wait to talk with you again soon. Don't forget, if you haven't subscribed, make sure you do. Click the little bell, the notification button, and please share this with other people throughout your social media pages. Just help spread the word so we have a bigger community of people helping each other. Okay guys, talk to you soon. Bye.
