How to Analyze a Script for an Audition! (Breakdown, Read + Acting Tips)

hi okay i'm really excited for today's video as you guys can see i'm not in my usual setup that's because i'm at my second home yeah i still had to make a video for you guys because i've been gone it's not because i've been lazy and it's not because i've just been slacking off like i usually do on this channel but it's because i was actually working on two different shows they were two abc shows which is a part of like the disney corporation both jobs were guest star top of show roles they're super big so i can't say exactly what shows they are yet i'm pretty sure they will be premiering in december so if you follow me on my instagram you'll have all the information as to like when the episodes come out i'll tell you guys on here but you'll be the first to know on my instagram if you follow me on instagram you already know i was working the light's gone sun turn on the lights turn on the lights thank you today we have a super fun video it's interactive and i worked super hard on it to make up for the time that i've been gone today we are going to learn how to break down read or analyze a script what is a script for today's purposes i'll just be referring to film and television scripts a script is a story written specifically to be translated into film most people who haven't read a script or aren't familiar with it kind of get confused by the specific formatting that it has but i'm gonna help you out and i'm also a screenwriter so don't worry i got you win and actor auditions for the audition they are given sides okay girl well what are sides sides are a piece of the script that contains your character and the scene that you're supposed to act out think of it like your scene is taken aside for you to perform in the audition or on set you have signs on set as well so today we will be going over how to break down an audition script but girl how do i even get an audition in the first place that question brings us to today's sponsor of the video backstage backstage is an online self-submission site where actors can apply for their own auditions and it doesn't matter what actor whether you are a theater actor film television even voice over actors backstage kind of has it all covered they work with companies such as hbo netflix nbc and amazon studios so they'll ensure you get really great quality auditions here's how you can sign up to start getting your own auditions today all you have to do is click the link in the description and you'll be taken to backstage's website use the promo code mikayla to get your first month for five dollars five dollars y'all and you get access to thousands of auditions that's a good deal i've talked about backstage before so it was really cool that they reached out to me so that we could get you guys this amazing deal but anyways let's get on to the video as i said earlier i worked really hard on this video and that's because i actually wrote two different scripts the first one is one that we're going to go over in the video i'll show you how i break down a script analyze it all of that jazz the second one is one that you guys will do on your own using the tips from this video to break down your own script i think we should just get straight into it if you want to follow along with the one that i'm breaking down it'll just be in the description pause the video print it out come back and let's do it together please like this video so more people find this video and my channel can grow and just please like it because i'm giving you these free scripts hoping that it will help you like and subscribe please that would be like really nice of you okay let's go over what we got what do we have so what i did is i created a breakdown so when you get an audition you're gonna have your casting breakdown in the casting breakdown there's the role the project information other characters and your self tape instructions if it's not a self tape it'll be instructions on where the address is to go audition but we're in quarantine we're kind of dealing with self tapes uh and it'll probably be like that for a while let's see what my audition is for yay um it's fake it's for a cheer thing it's for cheer my role i am playing harper lin i'm a female 13 to 17 the two-year captain of the titan high school cheer squad who recently discovers a newfound passion for singing okay she enters into a local singing competition and gets noticed by a talent manager seeking new clients harper has to choose whether she will leave behind her best friend and cheer team for what could be a path to stardom kind bubbly and playful all ethnicities series regular must be a good singer okay so let's look at what's going on here the casting director put that they specifically wanted a female so that's the age range so you can fall within 13 to 17 or you can be older if you're you know 26 you can still audition if you look 13 to 17. it says all ethnicities so what all ethnicities means is that they don't care about your race any person of any race any culture any background can audition for this there's no restrictions it also says series regular now series regular jobs are the ones that most actors will want series regulars are basically the main characters of any tv show they're in every episode and they're at the top of the call sheet they left that the actor must be a good singer if you get auditions like this but you aren't a singer you're always gonna have to try your best sometimes your agent or your manager won't send you out for it if they know hey she she ain't that good of a singer guys if you are then it's a plus for the casting okay now let's look at project information so the project is called harper has a dream so that's the title of the tv show it's a pilot so what a pilot is is it's the first episode of the whole entire show usually that episode that they pitch to the network to try and get their show picked up the type of show is a multicam episodic and it's a half hour multicam is basically what it sounds like you know you got the cameras abc everywhere but it's on like an open set the 22 minute funny like disney um like sweet life zach and cody jesse like all that stuff that's an example of a half hour sitcom usually you'll be able to establish whether it's a sitcom based on the script format we'll get into that after we read the breakdown so it's filming in los angeles and the union is sag-aftra now i have a video coming out about unions and non-unions so don't worry about it we'll get into that later the writer is michaela lizac hi and the network is cable so let's look at the other characters that we have to watch out for now when casting lists other characters it's super helpful because you'll kind of know your relationship and you'll know the other people in the scene we have mia perez 13 to 17 she's the long time best friend of harper and a member of the titan high school cheer squad mia and harper dreamed of being cheerleaders together since they were little but when harper starts focusing on music and less on their friendship their relationship starts to crumble all ethnicities series regular so again they want any type of girl and they want her to be serious regular the last one is ryan sterling he's a male 13 to 17 he's fierce dedicated and independent ryan has been in dance ever since three years old and has decided to dominate the titan high cheer squad he's a hard worker and will not let anyone get in the way of his success all ethnicities recurring must be a good dancer okay so what does recurring mean a recurring character is a character that appears on a show more than once but they aren't a series regular and the casting has left us some self-tape instructions so if you guys decide to film this with a friend and send it to me so i can feature in a video that would be super super cool okay let's get into the script you're a little wobbly but you know oh okay oh okay i hate going down there okay ladies and gentlemen as you can see i have my camera set up here so what i usually need to break down my script i need a highlighter i need a pencil and i need a pan if you have your own print out you will see that there are four pages and you can also see that four pages is indicated by the one of four it says your character harper science and it also indicates where you should start reading your scene during your audition so the first thing i do before really anything is i take out my highlighter and we got gotta highlight all my lines you wanna know which lines to highlight look at your role name um we're playing harper says it right here so we are going to highlight all of harper's lines some people like to just highlight dialogue i don't i like to just highlight the character name as well you don't have to but that's what we're gonna do so what i want you guys to do while i'm highlighting you can pause it go read the pages yourself come back and we'll discuss it okay okay so now we are all done with highlighting what i like to do after that is i like to read through everything we're starting on page 24 um just of the total script so this has been taken out of the main script so we can see that for a sitcom this is kind of the middle end of the show just because sitcom scripts are at most like 45 pages the tile of episode is leaders find a way i just put it there usually it's right here under a you know show name okay so scene k when you guys are shooting this will just be the scene you're shooting it's just to keep order for the production exterior ext uh means exterior if you see int that means interior come on okay there we go that's good enough exterior so we're outside exterior football field afternoon d3 um that's just like a production note to know like what day it is of like the show so if the characters need to have a different hairstyle because it's a different day or they're wearing different clothes so day three these are the characters in the scene so we have coach jesse harper mia ryan and the cheerleaders which are the extras when you see all caps action lines that usually indicates that you are auditioning for a sitcom the cheer squad stands on the field me and ryan practice their number with a group of girls harper steps onto the field bursting with energy i step onto the field bursting with energy so whenever there's a note specifically about my character i underline it and stepping onto the field that's something important because that kind of tells me as the actor okay i should walk into the scene so if i'm doing a self tape i'm going to come into frame instead of just starting standing still hey guys who's ready to go titans clapping and dancing so what this is this is a parenthetical and so this is a note from the writer they put some action in the parenthetical um just saying what she's doing while she's hanging the line clapping and dancing hey hey are you ready to go the squad looks at harper and amusement harper continued so what does this mean what does this mean continued is basically when your dialogue um it's still continuous over an action line so you can see how this separates the two pieces of dialogue so as the squad is looking at me i'm still continuing to say this so there's no need to pause right there hey hey are you ready to and this right here this usually indicates uh it depends on just the writer uh for me and just what i've seen it means that you're being interrupted or something interrupting your speech so are you ready to and then in a parenthetical some action mia pulls her aside so hey hey are you ready to oh okay i guess we're over here now mia harper what are you doing getting my cheer on i want to hype up the squad so when we play later today please don't do it we got spirit yeah yeah we got spirit so as you can see this is a little note for me um i see that i'm cutting her off so just making sure that i kind of go in before she can kind of get this out all right a whistle blows coach jesse40 enters writing on a clipboard okay so there's some noise coach jesse now whenever you see this underline with a number by it this is when a character is first being introduced so she's a new character so coach jesse she's 40. okay drop my pencil maybe we'll have another eyeline i don't know we'll see coach jesse grab your pom-poms stand on your boxes let's go whoo yeah that's right let's go guys okay the girls rushed to their places harper i'm telling you cut it out girl you're a cheerleader you should be pepping me up not pulling me down mia finds her box and stands on it harper can't find hers okay so this is something i should probably know when i'm auditioning like be looking around and you can't find it so that's that's a good little note that the writer left me that's weird and we're also continued okay i don't know why this is continued but just accidental um that's weird this box is ryan i thought we were supposed to be placed next to each other ryan steps onto his platform looking down at heart room uh oh okay so ryan's over here so this means we have a new eyeline so we're gonna have to look at another person we're gonna have to establish that oh how sad the chanting chatter box has no one to cheer with what mia what is he talking about i'm sorry harper i wanted to tell you sooner but i just couldn't tell me what so as you can tell as we're reading through this there's kind of an arc to the scene right so she comes in all happy and then she's kind of getting like wait what and the writer's showing us that tell you that i'm in and you're out wait so i'm not captain anymore you're not on the team anymore mia says ryan is captain now the squad came to consensus ever since you started all that music stuff you haven't been as dedicated to the team okay so this kind of tells us a little bit about our character too we haven't been around so this is some nice information we can take onto this and kind of establish our background i've always been dedicated i got our team to finals last year maybe i missed a few games but so i'm getting interrupted a few you missed four games this month ryan had to fill in while you were out being selfish selfish you know how badly that singing competition meant to me yeah well you didn't even win harper stops taking it back okay there's a note about us i stop and i'm taking it back and then here we have a silent beat okay so i'm gonna take this beat so um what a beat means think of it as a pause so a beat is when a character takes a pause for like one two three so it's like really short but it's a moment of silence and no dialogue or just it's just a moment it's just like a moment you know what i mean so the silent beat is broken by uh coach jesse places everyone let's start with victory mia all i'm saying is maybe you're doing too much you can't be a leader if you aren't there for your team maybe if you thought about someone other than yourself things would be different harper tears up uh-oh gotta bring in the emotions everybody mia is talking about their friendship uh-oh okay so that means this is kind of like this is some there's some subtext in here about our relationship so i guess that i haven't been there for me as a friend okay so we can end here but let's see what else happens after this so here we go harper runs off the field humiliated so this we don't have to worry about we don't have to worry about any of that we just have to worry about everything up here so we broke it down now here's what we're gonna do so what i like to do is i like to take into account everything and i like to write out okay what's important for me what i think are priorities body language emotional okay that's a little cut off but body language and emotional expression are key so even when i go to an in-person audition um i like to write little reminders energy okay so that kind of tells me like when i'm practicing girl have energy because this is a sitcom in sitcoms you need to be high energy you need to be enthusiastic very expressive you're gonna have to be expressive you're gonna have to be loud you're gonna have to be energetic you're gonna have to do all of those things for it to work okay so when i'm approaching dialogue i love to do before thought before thought is the stuff you're thinking in your head to get that emotion out and to get the line out organically without saying it i will usually write it before whatever i have to say so like in my head i'm kind of being like alright hey guys who's ready to go titans you know what i'm saying so all right like that's kind of pushing me as an actor like like thinking like all right okay hey guys you know what i mean like getting that energy building up so all right is going to be in my head hey guys who's ready to and then i'll write little things to show me how i'm supposed to say it um what like what the line is suggesting really acting you have to kind of read the script over and hear it in your head and when you hear the scene um then you'll be able to know how to say it and give it color and give it levels but i always try and look for different ways of making it not bland so somebody could read this like hey guys who's ready to go titans hey hey are you ready to go like it's very boring because you're saying everything in a similar fashion whereas we could say hey guys who's ready to go titans you see how we have some emphasis on certain words some words are kind of tucked under there that's kind of how you have to approach it and so that's what we're gonna do right now okay so hey guys who's so kind of dragging it out just you can write little symbols that work for you um who's ready to go titans who's ready to go titans so i kind of like wrote it the way i would say it um like little symbols if that makes sense but you always want to look for emphasis clapping and dancing okay so i gotta clap and i gotta dance okay so i'll be clapping okay hey hey are you ready go okay and if you don't know cheers like i don't know cheers but just make up whatever works for you hey hey are you ready to go and that's going to be kind of like you know i kind of emphasize that i kind of drag it out okay they look at me in amusement but i'm still continuing hey hey are you ready to hey hey are you ready to so she pulls me so this kind of gives me um so i would probably say like shift over okay so she's pulling me i can just kind of like do like like a like okay i guess we're over here now this is kind of interrupting that flow is what the writer is saying harper what are you doing getting my cheer on so there's an exclamation mark so we're still excited i want to hype up the squad so when we play later today okay so there's some there's an ellipses okay so that okay so maybe it's like a little inside thing they have so um i'm gonna play later today so i'll probably drag out my line i want to hype up the squad so when we play later today please don't do it we got spirit yeah yeah we got spirit okay so just being you know energetic that's just what we have here i can even put like inner thought like girl i'm getting my cheer on i want to hype up the squad we got spirit whistle blows okay so you can either you can take into account this action that's going on uh so you can acknowledge it uh i don't think i probably would but you can no yeah i guess you can when she says grab your pom-poms all right whoa yeah that's right let's go guys i would maybe even add in a little bit of claps like yeah okay let's go guys something like that to just give it like more energy harper i'm telling you cut it out okay so there'd be something wrong there's something wrong she's telling me to stop like she seems a little urgent but i'm not catching on so we're not gonna really acknowledge that is what the writer's telling me because i'm still energetic girl so like a kind of like a scoff is what i'm feeling oh girl you're a cheerleader you should be pepping me up you should be pepping me up not pulling me down pepping me up and kind of when you see like you can even shift your your pitch you should be pepping me up not pulling me down and you can see how my pitch goes you should be pepping me up not pulling me down like down up so it kind of gives it like some flavor you know what i'm saying as an actor you want to be nice to look at you know visually but you also want your voice to convey i mean you ever watch a show but you're not watching a show you're listening to it you want your voice to be able to convey this story as well mia finds her boss's channel i can't find hers okay so we're gonna have a little moment before we say this so this is kind of like okay we're continued but i need to have like a little beat so beat to search i swear i write better than this usually so i'm kind of feeling like a like a lol that's why i'm feeling my head like lol that's weird this box says ryan i thought we were supposed to be placed next to each other this is this is where we start to see the shift this is important this is where we're arching in the scene now she's realizing something's off that line the writer's telling us okay we're shifting man we're going we're going somewhere else so we gotta change our emotions okay ryan steps onto his platform looking down at harper and then we have a new island so we gotta look somewhere else okay not at mia okay not at the coach we gotta look at ryan oh how sad the chanting chatter box has no one to cheer with so confused what uh mia what is he talking about and like you're kind of getting a little more worried so we're worried we're worried we're worried we're kind of getting on the edge of worried i'm so sorry harper i wanted to tell you sooner but i just couldn't uh oh uh-oh so that's kind of what we're feeling tell me what emphasize what and again you know breaking down a script it just takes with practice like seeing what the writer is wanting you to say and hearing it so that you can say it the right way you have to read it a couple times that's why i said go do this on your own come back let's do this together so i'm not captain anymore uh a little bit of emphasis wait so i'm not captain anymore and kind of see you know it's a question your pitch goes up so don't be the people who's like wait so i'm not captain anymore no wait so i'm not captain anymore it's like it kind of all goes captain anymore so you can hear it like like musically the dialogue has like its own music to it you're not on the team anymore here like your heart kind of drops i would assume even though i don't have dialogue here we still need to see your face changing even with body language like pullback body language is so important you're like hey hey i'm ready to go whatever and then as this shift happens change your body language and it shows the audience visually like what's happening internally okay all that music stuff you haven't been as dedicated to the team i've always been dead so this is definitely emphasized i've always been dedicated i got our team to finals last year i'm me so this is what i'm feeling like i mean maybe i missed maybe what i've always been dedicated so it could be a what before thought you never want your characters to get angry in a sitcom they just don't do that they don't get like very fiercely mad at people just be more confused like especially because she's like bubbly so be like what i've always been dedicated to the team maybe i missed a few games but a few you missed four games this month oh so she calling me out ryan had a feeling while you were out being selfish oh okay selfish wait whoa whoa whoa selfish we're gonna emphasize that because that kind of see how we're catching onto her line when we we catch it and you can tell we have this the exclamation mark in the question mark selfish you know how badly that singing competition meant to me you know how badly that singing competition meant to me see how there's always different ways to say likes you just find the one that works for you this is where you're getting defensive so now instead of being pulled back wait what selfish you know how much that and you're kind of leaning in again because we're about gotta fight no fighting in it 22 minutes ago thank you yeah well you didn't even win oh this hurts us no more defensiveness you know that kind of caught us off guard so now our emotion is whoa why would you say that so we're gonna take a minute since the next line is for your reader you're gonna have to tell them hey can you take a minute like give me like two seconds since she has no more lines anymore she's just feeling the pain and she's internalizing it and then mia comes at her with this right so places everyone all i'm saying is maybe you're doing too much you can't be a leader if you aren't there for your team maybe if you thought about someone other than yourself things would be different wow like in reaction to like stuff she says with this what i'm seeing is like strong eye contact when she's saying this so like that would be a no you want the audience to see that this is hurting her and so she's like looking at her and she's saying all this and then she just walks away and i wrote this i'm not good with sitcoms i'm not good at writing funny so as you can see it got a little dramatic it's more of like you know the climax of the episode and that's the end that's how i break down a script guys now it is time for you guys to do it on your own i left a another script in the description go and see the new script i'll show you what it kind of looks like so it's equally male and female go through it break it down as you can see the formatting is a little different we have a different type of show maybe check and see if you can figure out what kind it is through the project notes it's not formatted the same way but it's all about getting familiar with different types of script formats because they there are different types of script formats go to the link in the description and you're going to do this one on your own taking into account everything we did please like this video because i wrote these especially for you guys and i really appreciate it if you like the video because i wrote y'all a free practicing back to the video bye okay guys that is it for this video be sure to subscribe so that my channel can grow it's so cool that we're at 40 000 like this video so more people can find it and my channel can grow and we can join as a family of actors dude and i will see you guys in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Makayla Lysiak

Views: 221,361

Rating: 4.989409 out of 5

Keywords: How to become an actor, how to read a script, how to breakdown a script, how to analyze a script, how to understand script format, how to read film scripts, how to read television scripts, how to audition, backstage, backstage auditions, casting, self submission, acting audition tips, acting audition help, how to book an audition, how to act realistically, audition tips, Makayla Lysiak, free scripts, free audition scenes, how to become a successful actor, tips, acting advice

Id: duD5VcgBIcY

Length: 26min 59sec (1619 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 25 2020