Self-Tape Editing for Actors: Essential iMovie Tips Casting Directors Expect

Being able to send in a great-looking, properly edited self-tape, it's crucial in today's time period. Casting directors expect it, and it makes actors look very unprofessional when it's not edited properly. So what I'm going to be showing you here is it's a really simple process of using iMovie And I'm going to show you exactly how to do it. If you watch this to the very end, I've got a really good bonus video for you. It's how long after an audition do actors have to wait before they hear back? And it's, it's the truth, you know, about, about the casting world and what really takes place. So I know you're going to enjoy it. 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. You know, this just kind of reminds me, a million years ago, we almost never had the opportunity to record an audition. The only time I did was if I was booked out and I couldn't attend The live audition. If it was too far away and I couldn't make it there, every once in a while they would allow you to shoot an audition. And basically I had a camcorder, I would shoot it, I would run over to the FedEx place and drop it off and spend about, I don't know, $25, $30 overnighting it. And boy, the world has really changed. Everybody really should know how to shoot great-looking self-tapes. Now, how to create the self-tape, that's a whole separate workshop. This one is specifically about editing. And I, I've been very fortunate and probably been, I don't know, 30 times I've been hired as a casting director. It's a local company for me. They do infomercials and they've asked me to find actors. And even some really good actors have sent me auditions. Actually, the auditions were very good, but they looked horrible. The editing was terrible, and I just assumed they just didn't know. Now, for me, I was fine with that because, look, I'm an actor and I have a heart, and I certainly don't want somebody not to get the opportunity because they don't have the right information. Other casting directors, you know, sometimes they're, they're not so giving, and you don't do things properly, you do things that look unprofessional, and they might not even look at it. So let me show you step by step. We'll just do a slate, how to do a proper edit in a slate. One other thing I just wanted to mention, actually a couple of things I just wanted to mention quickly. I would never shoot an audition or a slate with this background. I always use a green screen. Just since, since all my quick tip videos are pretty much are all shot here, I just wanted to keep things consistent. But I did want to let you know this would be a horrible background. There's just too much going on back there. Just a couple other really, really quick things. I also wanted to make sure that you know you can get onto my special email list Just by going to howtoactandmodel.com and just sign up and you'll be on my special list. I send out really helpful acting and industry-related information. And if you haven't done this yet, don't forget, subscribe to this channel, click the notification bell so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. And if you like it, give it a thumbs up because that's actually very helpful. Okay, let's get started. Here's what's happening. I'm shooting this in Zoom and I'm going to walk you through the process and I'm going to just show you what things you absolutely need to do. And it's really very simple. If you do have an iPhone, you can use iMovie and edit on your phone. I don't. I much prefer my MacBook Pro, but I know a lot of people who shoot everything and edit on their phone. It's the same process. Or if you're using a laptop, this is what you're going to use. Okay, so, so let's say you just shot your slate, and sometimes they want the slate in a separate file. Sometimes they want it at the beginning, sometimes they want it at the end. There's no one way that these things are done. So let me show you what I do. So I already shot the slate. It is sitting on my desktop. So the very first thing I need to do is bring it into iMovie. So I'm just going to grab this over here and just drag it— drag it— grab it and drop it down here. So let me show you a couple things that I like to do first. There is this little thing right here, and I'm going— it's in the settings. I'm going to open it up. And as you can see here, watch. So here, this is just the, the entire slate. And you can see here it's like 19 seconds. So just to make editing easier, I'm going to go over to the Settings button and expand it a little bit. So now you're going to see this is where it begins. But here's where part of the editing is essential. And this is where it takes place. And I've seen, seen Too many auditions begin this way. Watch. Being able— Okay, so that is not good. There's too much dead space right there. So— oh, actually, you know what I did? It's, it's the same concept though. That wasn't the slate. That was what I shot at the very beginning for this quick tip video. Here, let me show you the slate. And I'm going to open things up just a little bit here. Okay, getting late. My name is Aaron Marcus. I am 6 feet— There you go. So you'll notice here, there, there's a lot of empty space, and you can see where the sound comes in right down here. So all I'm going to do is go back here. There's a nice smile. I'm seeing here, this is the spot where I want to get started. So all I'm going to do is click right here. And here's your next step. I go into Modify, which is on top. And then I do split screen. I'm sorry, split clip. Sorry, split clip. And then you'll notice this section of 3.2 seconds has been separated from the audition. So just so you can see it again, let me show you. This is— it's just dead space. There's nothing going on here. You don't want a casting director to have to sit there and watch nothing. So what I'm going to do is just click in there, highlight it, and then hit delete. Boom. So now Here's the beginning of my slate. Hi, my name is Aaron. Oh, that's great. That's exactly what I wanted to have happen. Now let's go to the ending because you need to cut the very beginning. You need to cut the end. And by the way, you don't want to show any kind of production skills that you might have. You don't want music in the background. You don't want things fading in and out. Make it simple. That's all you want, because then people start looking at other things besides your audition. So let me just let it play from here. My home base is Baltimore, Maryland. Boom. Okay, so I'm going to pause it right there. I think that would be a good place to stop everything. And once again, you'll see this whole thing gets highlighted, but I'm going to go back up to modify. I'm going to go to split clip. And now this is the section that I want taken away because at the very end here, let me just show you what happens at the very end. So I do that. I'm looking away and then I stop recording. And sometimes people will just send in everything and you don't want that. So all I'm going to do is Because I did the split clip, I'm going to highlight that again and hit delete. And that's it. Now you're going to see, hi, my name is Aaron Marcus. I am 6 feet tall. I am Dr. Brown. Oh yeah, and let me just jump in for one second. You know, sometimes they will ask you, so, um, you know, slate your name, your height, the role you're reading for. And where you're, you know, where you're based, where you're located. This has nothing to do with editing, but I think it's something that's really good, and I love doing this. Instead of saying, you know, I'm reading for the role of Dr. Brown, I don't do that. I am Dr. Brown. I'm letting them know I am Dr. Brown, not just reading for the role. So it's a really subtle thing, but it's a powerful message that I like to share in there. So anyhow, here, I'll just show you that thing again. Mm-hmm. And my— oh, Dr. Brown. Ah, let me go back just a little. I am Dr. Brown. There we go. I am. And my home base is Baltimore, Maryland. Okay, now it's done. So the very next step, and it's a really simple one, let's just say this was the entire slate. I'm just going to highlight it. And then you'll notice there's a little square with an arrow pointing up, and it says Share. So click on that. And then I'm going to go to Export File. There are 4 things that pop up. It says Email, YouTube and Facebook, Save Current Frame, and Export File. You want to export that file. And this is just showing you the just general formats, the resolution, the quality, compress. I never make any changes. I just keep everything the same. I go to next. And then I'm going to, however they wanted me to label this. So maybe it's here, maybe it's slate. I'm just making this up. It'd be helpful if I spelled it correctly. Slate. And maybe it's an underscore. I'll do Aaron_Marcus, or however they want me to do it. And then this is going to my desktop. And then I just click save. And that's it. That's all you have to do. So remember, shoot it. And then you're going to import it. And if you have any problems dragging it in, you can just go to File, Import Media. And it's down here. I would highly recommend that you go into the settings to make things either bigger or smaller. I would open them up just so you can see what needs to be taken out at the very beginning and the very end. It's just Modify, Split Clip. Delete the parts that you don't want and then export it. And that's it. Hey, if you have any suggestions for ways of editing, or maybe if it's a different program, please share it here so that we can learn from you. Hey, I completely forgot, um, for the bonus video, just look right up here and it's all about How long do actors really have to wait after an audition before they find out what happens? I'm Aaron Marcus and can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.