AUDITION SECRETS 001

Sometimes, especially in auditions for film or TV, you’ll be asked to do a cold reading. They will give you a script and expect you to do it right then.
Ninety percent of the time as its peculiar with Nollywood style, you’ll get a few minutes on your own to read it over.

These few minutes are extremely important. Spend them wisely. Don’t read just your lines, do well to read your partners as well and assilmiliate both as you may be asked to switch places in character.

“But what if I don’t get a few minutes alone? What if they want me to read right away??”

Don’t panic. Always ask (politely) if you can have a few minutes outside to read it over. They’ll either say yes or no.

If they say no, then dig in. Be fearless, again be fearless. No auditioners has two heads, what you owe them is respect not fear..
For me i can either be good or too good but in the auditioners perspective, I may be bad, that’s not to dampen my courage but a pointer to work more, if possible ask the auditioners what he thinks you are not getting wrong although this time most auditioners want to get their job done as quickly as possible so as to settle for a cold bottle of beer. (SMH).

Note: Auditions should make you better, if I fails twice, I shouldn’t fail thrice because my mistakes were always pointed out to me.

Read the script over once or twice, be confident but don’t be over confident cos you may end up overdoing things arrogantly,

It’s usually only a couple of pages, so it shouldn’t take long. Take a cognizance of your punch lines that’s your killer blow.

This is important because you’ll be looking up from the page in the audition if you are doing a cold reading . You don’t want to lose your place.

Then, start making choices. Choices about what?

1. Relationship: How do you feel about your scene partner? Do you love them? Do you hate them? Or maybe both?
Notice i didn’t ask, “How are they related to you?” It doesn’t matter that they’re your mother, brother, sister, cousin, rabbi, pastor, or your manager. What matters is how you feel about them at the point of been auditioned together.

2.Conflict: the bigger challenge to acting is not understanding where the conflict of every scene is which is dangerous in audition because you have just a few minutes,
It’s the basis of every story. That’s what makes it interesting. No one wants to watch happy people for two and a half hours. As an actor, your job is to find the conflict in the scene. You want something, she wants the opposite. And only one of you can win. Play into that.

3.Moment Before: It’s true that every scene has a beginning, middle, and end. But for the character, there’s no such thing. So you’ve got to create a moment before (Remember I said create) . What was the character doing, thinking, and feeling right before the scene started?

4. Place: Where are you? Whose territory is this? Who holds the greater authority over the location in the script. Are there other people around? Is it well lit, or really dark? Do you feel safe, or threatened?

5. Behavior
So why should we make choices about these things? Because the more specific you can be when answering these questions, the more specific your behavior will be during the cold reading. And that’s acting. Whats the characters personality trait, temperamental value, Age, affluence. (if possible, find these out from auditioners, if not, create one into the character and express it well)

6. PROJECTION-This is the killer of artists in audition.
Projections is a process by which an artist controls the volume and tempo in various modulations of his speech. If the auditioners cant hear you, you have shot yourself in the leg.

7. Boldness.
Never get involved in any audition if your mental state is weakened by anybody’s presence or preceding events.
Your boldness earns u first place, the auditioners wants to hear you say yes I can even if you got it wrong, so if you are not that bold, let the audition pass for that day else be bold to believe in yourself enough to travel to Lagos and win auditions there.

8. Be DETAILED.
Know your MVT numbers, locations, settings, and actions which are basically those ones in (Brackets) .

I will continue later…. I love you. I wish all of us well in any audition.

Leo Ewuzie – Chairman Actors guild of Nigeria Anambra Chapter.