How Auditions Work | Acting & Audition Tips

happy New Year hi actors it's Wendy Lane Wright the Hollywood talent manager freezing my flipping ass off in my office I have no heat in here today it's just so cold in California Y and I just wanted to wish you all a very very very happy New Year um New Year is is a time to start thinking about okay where am I in my life and where do I want to get to and I want you guys to understand that you can get wherever you really set your heart and your mind to go just make sure you make a very specific plan and stick to it no matter what don't quit don't give up don't doubt yourself just take the action if you don't take the action you won't get the results and you got to put timelines on your on your actions if you say you're going to get new headshots um by January 15th or by February 30th put a timeline that makes you do it by that time a lot of people fail in this business because they think too much they overthink everything you know how do I know what to do how do I know if this is the right scene how do I know if this is the right photographer how do I know if this is the right uh agent how do I know if I'm good enough how do I know it's too much thinking okay things get done by taking action when you take the action you will learn something from it you'll either learn you did it right or you did it wrong and you need to learn those things so set some very specific goals I'm going to take these head shots I'm going to take these acting classes I'm going to work on getting these specific agents I'm going to work on getting together with these prod producers and writers and do some projects of my own um I'm going to try to get on these TV shows with these casting directors and these the dates I'm going to do this and that and that and really make a calendar put it in your calendar I'm going to do this Workshop this day I'm going to uh you know do my writing on my play I'm working on this day I'm going to take my head shots this day you got to put it in your calendar and do it just like you do your your workout you know your exercise routine or your yoga or or or you're going to go out with a friend you know if it's not on your calendar you're not going to do it okay so don't just wing it get your calendar together all right so what I wanted to talk to you this morning about is the auditioning process a lot of you guys really don't know how this process works so I'm going to explain it to you when you're auditioning for television it is very very quick because the breakdown comes out for the role on Monday let's say they audition Tuesday and Wednesday and they decide to cast it you know Thursday Friday they're casting it and they start shooting the next Monday so within a week they've made their decisions and they're already shooting so if you are getting an audition for a TV show you're going to know by the end of the week whether you got it or not um you usually go in for an audition if the casting director doesn't know you you're going to go in for a pre-read um auditions are typically called pre-read okay the they pre-read you before you go to producers so the casting director brings you in with 50 other people and they audition you and the ones that are right for the role get a call call back and you might have two or three call backs but once you have a call back you're now going to meet with the producers and that's called the producer session now actors that are very familiar to the casting director they skip the pre-read they skip the audition and they go straight to the callbacks to the producers um that's c those are actors that casting directors have worked with before have cast before or they're very familiar with their work actors that they're not quite sure if it's the right for the role they don't take them to producers until they know for sure so that's why you have to go in an audition now if you are if it's a co-star role a small role for TV they generally don't ask actors to tape because the decisions are made so quickly it's such a small role they don't bother taping you have to fly in for it blah blah blah if it's a guest star role a bigger role a meteor role they will sometimes take tapes from actors around the country for roles if it's for series regular role they absolutely will take tapes so they will look at all the tapes and determine whether or not they want to bring you in for an audition if you come in for an audition you will have to pay for that yourself and then you will come in an audition and if they want you to call come back you usually have to pay for the call back uh if you come in for the producer session sometimes they pay for it for you to come in to do the producer session if you live out of the state okay um once you get past the producer sessions and let's say they've narrowed it down to Five actors let's say the breakdown went out 2,000 actors sent their head shot in they auditioned 50 and five went to the producers out of those five The Producers love those five they don't know which ones they're going to pick yet they signed a contract with all five of them and then the network Executives get involved the producers and the network Executives sit down and look at the actors and they pick which ones they want okay so the casting director is there to weed out all the wrong people weed out people that aren't right for the job and bring people to producers that really are right for the project now that's how television works and I could get more complicated and I will just for a second if it's for a series regular role the network decides who gets the role and those projects are shot into Pilots uh those Pilots go to the upfronts in New York where the C where the advertisers decide which shows they're going to advertise on and the advertisers really have to approve of the actors that are going to be representing their product in the TV show weird huh so really this whole thing comes down to money who are the advertisers going to back which actors are going to bring in uh viewers that are going to buy products okay it's complicated but let's just talk about your auditions let's say you're going up for a TV show prepare do your uh do your audition really learn how to audition learn what the moment before is learn what your character really needs and wants learn how to make contact real personal contact with the reader and just do your very best and the rest of it's completely out of your hands okay who the audition who the casting director brings back who knows you know whether you're too short Too Tall too white too black your eyes are too green you're too fat you're too skinny you look better than the lead nobody knows why you get a call back you know that's that's like a mystery you get it if you get it you get it if you don't you don't but if the casting director loves you and loves your work be guaranteed they will bring you back again and again and again for stuff you're right for and one day you'll book something and they're hoping you do they're hoping they have the right project for you okay that's how TV works let's get to film film is a completely different ball game they're not under a deadline to cast it by the end of the week networks are not necessarily involved uh studios are Studio Executives come into play but a lot of films are independently cast so the casting director weeds through a whole lot of people thousands of people hundreds of tapes to find the few that are really right for the role but that could take all year long because they're not in a crunch like in television they could be months and months in casting okay when you write for the role they'll call you in for callbacks they'll call you in to read with the producer and the directors they'll call you into work with other actors to see how you all fit together that's always called a chemistry read they do that in TV too um and then you know they're looking for collaborators people who are really interested in in working on the project and and making the project successful and actors who are um are there to serve the director's vision because film is a director's medium the film is seen in the mind of the director and the director wants to get what they see onto the film and the actor is there to serve the director to give the director what they need to give the director the emotion they need uh the intensity they need the funny they need the the director is the one who's determining really who's going to work on the project and the producers the people who are putting up the money and so if you AUD for a film you might not know for months and months it's not so important you know I know every actor wants to get the job I just want to get that job but you can't you have no control over who gets the job and why I mean I've heard stories where actors don't get the job because the producer thinks the actor reminds him of his wife that he's divorcing and he doesn't want to work with that person so you have no control over who gets the job all you have control over is how well you train your own Talent how kind and polite and friendly you are to the people you work with how prepared you are when you go into an audition if you have great head shot if you have a really strong demo reel or some really strong clips that show your work so that you can send those out to agents and producers and managers and casting directors when they ask for it and that you are just that you follow through with everything you say you're going to do that you're professional and show up on time and and do good work that you are helpful to everyone you work with and that you keep in touch with the people you meet because people hire people they know and people hire people they like so if you are well known and well-liked and you're collaborator and you show up and try to serve the project you're more likely to get hired than the actor who doesn't know what they're doing who has lousing materials who's just there for themselves and only wants to get famous or you know it's all about them and people don't like that kind of people okay so if you're an actor you really should be in this for the right reasons you know to be a filmmaker to be a Storyteller to serve the cause of the the entire project to be a collaborator and to do great acting work because you love it that's really why you need to be in this business and if you're not in it for those reasons you may want to get into a different business all right you guys listen this is a year of who knows what the hell is possible Anything is Possible um I hope that you re I hope that you achieve the success that you dream of I hope that that voice inside your heart that's telling you to go for it I hope you honor it and um I look forward to being here to help you and guide you along the way remember if you need to talk to me directly and you want a Skype consultation I'm happy to do that and I love doing that it's really smart if you're an actor to make sure that you um talk to someone talk to me talk to someone in the business that you trust who can tell you where you're starting because you got to know where you're starting you know where your talent is right now what training you need to add to that what steps you need to take to get to the next level if you spend time this year doing it all on your own you know you're not going to get as far as you would as if you had a mentor and someone to guide you so take me up on my offer to Skype with you because I will give you a very specific plan that you can follow the next year or two to get ahead to get forward and um read my books because everything I know is in them 25 years of what I know is in them and every time you email me with questions that are in my book already I'm going to tell you to read my book because I don't have time to tell everybody the same exact thing I wrote in my books doesn't make a sense doesn't it and I have lots of free videos here on YouTube there's over 300 of them if you go to my website secrets of a Hollywood talent manager you're going to find so many useful tools free stuff um stuff you can download for free that will help you plan and I really am like the number one advocate for you actors I really love you I want you to be successful and I don't want to waste your time or you to waste your time so you guys if this was helpful to you and if any of my videos are helpful to you always like them post down below let me know what you need what you want to know if you like the video and um follow me on Facebook at secrets of a Hollywood talent manager.com I love you guys see you

Channel: Wendy Alane Wright

Views: 75,350

Keywords: How to become an actor, how to get more auditions, what is a callback?, Audition (Film Subject), How-to (Website Category), what is an audition?, what happens in an audition, acting advice, advice on how to be an actor, lacasting.com, castingnetworks.com, backstage.com, actorsaccess.com, actors access, Pew Die Pie, Jenna Marbles, Katherin Steele, Talent Agent, Manager, Justin Bierber, Selena Gomez, Marvel Movies

Id: AoqIpd5MhHw

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 03 2015