The 1 Audition Sides Mistake Can Kill Your Audition And Not Get Booked

In this video, I'm going to be sharing with you the one sides audition mistake that can kill your audition. And if you watch this video to the end, I'm going to be sharing with you some great techniques of using sides at the audition, what not to do. And actually, I also have a special bonus for you at the very end. I've got a great video about don't fall for this one trap, uh, that most actors do at auditions. Okay, let's get started. Hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to the Actor and Model Quick Tip channel and also the Actor Career Center. What I do here is share information from my 37 years of working as a full-time actor, and I love trying to help other people avoid the, the mistakes that I made, the running around wasting time, wasting money, and just sharing real-life experiences with you that I have found to be really helpful. If you haven't done this yet, don't forget, click the subscribe button, the notification bell, so you always know when a new video has been uploaded. And if you like the video, give it a thumbs up. That's really helpful. So in this video, I'm going to be talking about sides and how to use them at the audition. So the very first thing I want to mention is I just want to make sure you know the terminology. So you've got sides, you've got copy. So copy are the words for a TV commercial, and look, it's the same thing, but they, they call them copy. But that's what they are. They're the words to the commercial. Sides, those are the words you're going to be saying for Films, for television, could be for training films, anything besides TV commercials. So one of the questions that I get asked is, should I use my sides at the audition? And my response is absolutely. Look, I know that sometimes there are some actors who think they want to show the casting director and the director who's going to be watching the audition They are so good, they can memorize this stuff, they don't need sides. Well, look, it's not a crutch, you know, it's not a handicap when you use the sides. I think it's a really good idea to have the sides with you just in case you need them. And look, sometimes we get— or I can tell you for me, I get auditions, you know, the day before, and I've got to shoot them You know, the next day. Sometimes I've got to shoot them that day, and, you know, depending on what, what the sides are like, I might not have time to memorize it. I'll do my best, and I might be pretty close, but I might need to refer to the sides. So no matter what, I always bring sides to an audition or use them if I'm, you know, shooting it at home. And the other thing too is You know, when you, when you have the sides, even if you think you've got everything memorized, you just don't know what might happen during the audition. You know, something might click in your brain and you kind of go a little blank. You might— something might startle you, something might surprise you. Somebody might, you know, the reader might say something in a certain way that just kind of Changes things for you. And so instead of having to stop and think about what your line is, you've got the sides there, so why not use them? It makes sense to me. And I can tell you that out of the thousands of auditions that I've had, I think it was once where— or actually, I should take it back. Once a casting director said, no, we can't have sides. And that was, that was the one time there was a— actually, I don't mind telling you. So for the television show House of Cards, at one point they stopped giving the sides out. They wanted everything memorized. I don't want to go into all the reasons why, but yeah, so for that one you had to be off-book. They just demanded it. That's unusual though. And so I always like having the sides. So let me show you One of the— well, first, before I show you what problem that some actors have and the way they use their sides that can just kill the audition, let me first show you a little tip that I find really, really helpful. So if I have, you know, the sides are on the sheet here, you know, I'm going to highlight, you know, my lines. Look, this is not an audition. video, so I'm not going to go into that stuff. But here's what I like to do. I only have about 4 lines in here. You can see them highlighted. So what I like to do is I'm going to fold things up so that it is as small as possible, and that way I'm not holding on to a really large piece of paper. You know, once again, it's going to depend on the sides. How you can do this. Now here's, here's the problem, and then I'm going to show you a solution to this problem. There are lots of actors who have the sides, and what they do is they don't want to have, you know, show the sides in the camera in any way, so they hold the sides down here, you know, kind of like around where their belly button is. And as they're talking, you know, and doing, you know, doing their lines And then as the reader is, is saying the lines back to them, they'll look down and they can see when they're— that person's lines ends, and then they can come back up and say their lines, and then they can look down and see it and then look back up. Don't do that! You never want to hold the sides down because quite often what people are looking for— casting director and the director— The most important thing in some ways is your reaction to the reader. So when you're looking down here as that person is talking to you, unless you have a really expressive forehead, they're not going to see it. So never, ever, ever, ever, ever hold your sides down and look down like this. What I like to do, and I'm going to show you and then kind of pull it out a little bit so you can see it a little bit better. I hold the sides up like this quite often. Honestly, I kind of hold it in my right hand sometimes or my left. It doesn't really make any difference. And then what I can do is, as I'm talking to the reader, if for any reason I need to refer to the sides, what I can do is this. So I'm talking to somebody and then, you know, then I can kind of take a quick peek over here and I can see the offense of a homicide. And then I can come back and then I can look over here. And what you'll find is, first of all, if for any reason your lines, you know, you had to memorize or you did the best you could, it's just not super fluent at that point. You know, you're not off book yet. By the time you get booked and do the job, of course you're going to be ready to go. But for right now, it's an audition. And so when you are talking, Looking away for a second and coming back. Think about it this way. You don't have to stare when you're having a conversation with somebody. You don't just stare at the person the whole time. I'm talking to you right now. And, you know, I might, you know, look away for a second and I'm going to come back and I'm going to say, look, you never want to just stare at somebody the entire conversation. Now, of course, there are some exceptions to the rule. Depending on the scene, depending on the character, you might just be looking directly. Yeah, but if most of the time you talk to somebody, yeah, it feels right to just look away for a second and then come back. You just do it. It's a natural thing when you're having a conversation. So when you hold the sides up to the side, you can glance over and you can grab it. Now, something that I will do, especially if it's a last-minute thing or it's complicated. I just didn't have the time before I had to do the audition. This is a little bit of an audition technique, but no, that's just how my brain works. I like to grab 3 words at a time, say it to, you know, wherever I need to say it to the person, and then I might grab 3 words, come back, grab 3 words, and come back. And that Try it. You'll find that it's, it's a really comfortable way of doing the audition, of having a conversation with somebody. Because once again, I mean, that's what acting is all about. You're, you're, you're listening to what somebody says to you, and then you react, and then you talk back to them, and you listen. So when you're having this conversation, it's okay. You know, to look away and then come back to them. So anyway, I just like grabbing 3 words at a time. It just feels right. And try it out, you know, just use a cell phone and grab some sides and, uh, or, you know, just take copy from someplace, um, or, you know, look, even if it's just a, you know, a newspaper article. But look, you can easily go online and, and find, you know, sides. But try it out and do me a favor. Let me know if you found this to be a helpful technique after you've tried it. Leave a comment below. Or if you have any tips on how to handle sides, then leave it below because that's the whole point of this channel where people are sharing information with each other so we can all learn from each other, get better, and Or hey, look, somebody might offer a suggestion, it just doesn't work well for you, and that's cool too. Look, that's why I take lots of workshops, and there are some things that people say, I go, nah, that really doesn't work for me. Or I might take bits and pieces of what somebody says and I find that to be helpful. So please leave a comment below and share the link so that other actors, people in the industry, can learn from this video as well. And That's what I want. I want to build this great channel of people helping each other. I promised I was going to share a great video. Don't fall into this audition trap. Just click the little button up here. If you don't see the name of it, there should be like a little i. Just hover over that and you'll have access to this great video. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.