Acting coach Aaron Marcus explains why the slate matters in auditions. He recommends slating as yourself in a warm, friendly way to show casting directors your personality, then shifting into character to demonstrate versatility and the ability to take direction.
Hi, here's another acting and modeling quick tip with me, Aaron Marcus. So this is going to be, uh, how to slate part 2. So just to let you know, the slate is such an important part of your audition. You can actually lose people by not slating properly. And one of the questions that comes up, and this is going to be your call, I'll tell you both sides of it and then I'll tell you how I go about doing it. There are 2 different philosophies. With slating. One set of people will tell you, look, you should slate in character. So if the character is nervous, if the character is angry, if the character is grumpy, that's how you want to slate. The other rule of thumb is slate as yourself in a nice, warm, friendly kind of way, as if you're introducing yourself to someone at a party. Look away for a second, get into character, and then come back and do the audition. And so look, there is no one right or wrong way of doing that. My preference is to slate, uh, as I am, to give them an opportunity to see me a little bit. Like, it might be, hi, I'm Aaron Marcus, and, you know, then I'll look away And then what happens by doing it this way is that people can see that I can act. Sometimes if you slate in character, they might be thinking, you know, this person really looks right for the part, seems to be the part. But changes happen on sets, and directions will be given to you sometimes that will change the way that you read your lines. They want to make sure that you're an actor. They want to make sure that you can make those kinds of adjustments. So that's why I like to slate as myself, give people a sense of who I am, go into character, and then start the read. And that way they know that I'm really an actor. If you are watching this on YouTube, please give it a thumbs up. If you're watching this on my facebook.com/howtomodel page, like it. Feel free to share this with other people. And, um, Yeah, if you want to get more acting and modeling information, visit my website, howtoactandmodel.org. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I look forward to talking with you again soon.
