The casting call day is progressing and now you’re ready to meet you actors in your fist acting auditions!

The audition itself:

When you’re assistant brings in the auditioning actor for the first time, introduce yourself. Don’t hide behind a table all aloof, get up and shake hands, bow, curtsey, whatever is your thing, but interact. You are the charismatic director after all and you want to create the right impression.

Introduce your own assistant actor, if you have one. Run through the process or you’re assistant might have already done it.

What is the process? It’s this:

The actor, having read the script pages, will have begun the process of interpretation of the material. They can now begin to audition for you. You can explain that you want to see what their initial impression is and what they bring to it. Explain also that you will run through the material at least three times so you are not going to kick them out after the first attempt. This will help Bob or Meryl to relax and steady themselves. Bob will need to hold the pages in his hand too as no-one can memorise that quick.

Watch the first attempt.

It will probably be disjointed, rushed, out of rhythm. It’s hard to remember that no-one else is as familiar with these words as you and how the characters sound and act in your mind’s eye. You will have to let go somewhat, of any pre-conceived ideas about how someone should sound or look like as this just limits you and could cut you off from finding someone who is really good but doesn’t “look right”. Of course there are certain parameters for how a character should look but try not to be too stubborn about it. Be open to whatever comes up.

Give some feedback

You’re going to be a director, you’ll have to get used to giving feedback all the time. Be as positive as you can without bull-shitting.Now you will have to come up with a suggestion about how to play the scene. Depending upon your script analysis that you have already spent time doing (right?), you will have an idea on how the scene should go. This idea should now inform your directorial choice. Is the scene tense, violent, romantic? There will be layers of subtlety within the writing, subtext and mood changes that you won’t be able to do justice to in this short period of time but you will need to find a way to bring the essence of the scene to light and communicate this to the actor.

Give ‘playable‘ directions

Depending on your material, give them a playable direction. For instance, the scene is tense with two men who don’t trust each other. The direction is “You’re impatient to leave. You have to get out of this room.”

Obviously you don’t want them to physically leave the room and if the actor walks out the door, assume you haven’t explained yourself properly. So staying in the room, how does the actor communicate that feeling of frustration and of being trapped through his spoken words and his body language?

Don’t use directions such as “be afraid, be nervous.” This is ok if you’re making a cartoon but not if you’re dealing with real people, (check out Judith Weston’s book, “Directing actors”).

Watching the next attempt

Continue to work with the actor, giving feedback and more playable directions. If you are close to what you want, then carry on along that way. If not, try the complete opposite.

In the case of the above example you could say, “Intimidate this other guy, make him leave the room!” Again, don’t use something like “be angry, be aggressive”. These types of directions have no goal, they are just states. They can mean many different things and lead to questions such as “how angry, how aggressive?” Try to combine direction with goals, objectives, purpose. This gives an actor something to grasp.

Remember to have fun with it; this type of collaboration is a creative process and an exciting one.

At the end of each audition thank the person involved for their time and effort.

Summary of the process:

1. First read through: actors interpretation
2. Second read through: with basic playable direction from you.
3. Third read through: observations from the previous two attempts, try opposite direction.
4. Fourth read through: go crazy.

How do you manage those acting auditions? Here’s part 2 of all the casting call process.

The day of the audition:

1. Arrive early.
2. Set-up the space
3. Camera set-up.
4. Brief your ‘assisting’ actor.
5. Have your assistant prepare the ‘sides’.

Arrive before the actors!

Set-up

Get to your audition venue and set-up. Clear the space you’re using and make room for your candidates.

Do you have a camera?

It is a great idea to have a camera at the location to record the performances. This is necessary for reminding yourself later of each audition and watching for nuance and insight that you might have missed on the day. Ideally, have someone else operate.

The camera should be static and a wide enough angle to capture full body shots of all the actors involved plus all of their movement. You don’t want close-ups; you should be watching faces with your eyes, not hiding behind a lens. Later on you can review whether the actors are using their bodies well, whether they are stiff, uncomfortable with physical closeness, have ticks etc, all this will be on the camera footage.

Just to add, your location should be lit brightly enough for filming and you should state that the footage shot will not be used for anything other than private viewing, i.e. for purposes of reviewing these auditions.

Having another actor present

If possible get another person, preferably another actor or if not an actor somebody with some life about them, who can read well and put some emotion into it. Don’t get a friend who is afraid to read out loud. It is better not to read yourself as part of your awareness is taken up with conscious processing of the lines and you as the director need to focus on the subtlety of performance.

Having another actor there also helps you to direct the auditionees because you can prime your actor-assistant with instructions to make it different, change their lines, move differently and so on. This is all to see how your candidates adapt and react to new, surprise or subtle changes in direction.

Make notes

Make notes on each audition, marking down your instinctive impressions about the person performing, whether they followed your direction and so on. The most important quality for an actor is being able to “listen” not just to you and your instructions but to the other actor they are working with. Really good actors are always listening which is another way of saying they respond in the moment to what’s happening, they react to the people in their environment. So you could say that you want “reactors” not actors.

The material

Have your assistant hand out the “sides”, which are the one or two pages of material to perform. It would be good, ideal even, to have pages from your own script. The benefit of using your own script is it gives the actors a chance to assess your film for its content, don’t forget they might choose not to do it! Many actors will obviously be looking for good show-reel footage and even if desperate won’t do just anything for the sake of it. Often it is a good idea to use well written, established dialogue material that you’re familiar with. Not that your stuff isn’t well written, I’m sure it is.

(You could send the audition piece to people via email but this only works if everyone gets it. Those that do get it will have more time to work on the lines, if they choose to, whereas some who don’t get it are then put at a disadvantage come the audition. If everyone sees the material for the first time when they arrive then it is a level playing field and more accurate for you to judge.)