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Many audition studios are converted office spaces with few amenities. You’ll need to transcend these limitations to turn the studio into whatever you need it to be. Sometimes the casting directors will have some furniture or a few set pieces, but ultimately it will be up to you to make the place your family patio, or McDonald’s, or a service station.
Sometimes the copy will tell you where you are: “Here at Jack’s Chili Shack . . .” Sometimes it won’t. If it doesn’t, don’t be afraid to ask. It’s okay to ask questions at your audition. Remember, you aren’t there just to rush through the copy so they can get to the next person. You’re there to get the job.
The environment is always at eye level. Don’t look up and don’t look down (for too long) and don’t get locked into profile. The people watching playback need to see both your eyes. Keep the environment in front of you, about 120 degrees from left to right.
Good actors, using their imagination, can easily turn a chair into a car, a card table into a fancy restaurant, a blank wall into a house. And so can you. I booked a national commercial because I was able to transform a tiny, dark wood-paneled casting studio into the Grand Canyon. I saw the Grand Canyon in my mind’s eye and my eyes conveyed the message.
One aspect of creating the environment is miming. Sometimes at your audition they’ll have the actual product. Sometimes they won’t. If they don’t, you may be asked to mime. Actors who are versed in mime have a distinct advantage over actors who aren’t.
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But you don’t have to be Marcel Marceau to do the kind of miming I’m talking about. Simply practice handling objects: a glass of water, a newspaper, a cup of coffee, a steering wheel. Once you get a sense of how various objects feel in your hand, how big they are, how heavy they are, put them down and then mime holding them.
Same with eating. You may be called upon to take a bite of an air sandwich or to sip from an imaginary cup. This is only hard if you haven’t practiced it.
The thing that makes miming seem real is honesty.
If you take a bite of an air sandwich, not only do you have to chew but you have to swallow as well. If you don’t, and you say your next line, something clicks in the viewer’s mind and they label you as being dishonest. Once that happens, the rest of your audition is tainted. If you take an imaginary drink of water then you have to swallow before you speak. Try taking a real drink of water and see what happens if you don’t swallow before you talk. Yeah, you end up with water all over yourself, which is the equivalent of having egg on your face for not being honest with your miming.
Another part of creating the environment depends on how adept you are at using your body to communicate. Because we have so little time to tell our stories we have to make sure we aren’t sending mixed signals. In order to accomplish this make sure your eyes and your hands are working together. If you point at something, make sure you look at it; and if you look at it, make sure you see it; and when you see it, make sure you have a relationship with it.
And you do have to see it. If you don’t, you’ll split the viewer’s focus: “Should I look at what he’s pointing to or should I look at him?” The goal is to enhance your work, not detract from it.
You don’t have to look at whatever you’re pointing to for long but you do have to look.
This is not advanced physics, just good acting. Even if you have to place something behind you, look at it quickly. Quickly doesn’t mean you don’t see it; it means you see it, you form a quick relationship with it, and then you return to the relationship you have with the person in the camera. “Behind me, at Happy Joe’s Discount Store . . .” Your thumb points over your shoulder as your head turns to look in the direction your thumb is pointing. You see Happy Joe’s Discount Store behind you and you come right back to the camera. You’ve gone from talking to your friend in the camera to having a quick relationship with Happy Joe’s and then back to talking to your friend in the camera, all in less than two seconds. And, as odd as it may sound, we can tell from the back of your head whether or not you saw the thing you were talking about.
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If the words these, those, this, that, here, and/or there appear in the copy, you need to acknowledge the space or object those words represent. Your body language needs to support the copy.
Don’t forget, you need to know how you feel about what you’re talking about and/or looking at. The people watching the playback will pick up on whatever it is you’re feeling. If you’re not thinking, not feeling anything, they’ll know it. This is another reason why substitutions are so crucial.
Here is a piece of single copy to illustrate this.
Omega Batteries
(Long shot. Dead of winter. Desolate stretch of highway. THE WIND HOWLS; the snow blows.)
(A stalled car is parked on the shoulder of the road. A tow truck is parked facing the car. The hood of the car is open and battery cables extend from the tow truck into the open hood of the car.)
(The tow truck driver—a big man in his late thirties, early forties—attaches the battery cables to the car’s battery.)
(The tow truck driver turns to the camera.)
DRIVER: I GOT STRANDED ONCE. IT WAS WINTER; I LEFT MY LIGHTS ON. IN THIS WEATHER, IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT AN OMEGA BATTERY, YOU HAVEN’T GOT A CHANCE. THIS WAS ME, I’D MAKE SURE I HAD AN OMEGA.
(The driver taps on the windshield of the car. The car’s engine turns over and roars to life.)
Here’s the same piece of copy after an actor in my class did the prep work.
Problem: People left stranded by a faulty car battery.
Solution: Omega batteries.
Friend: Jack Johnson. He got stranded at his kid’s soccer game last week for this very reason; he left his lights on. Not exactly life or death but he did have four kids that needed to go to four different places afterward.
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Substitution: Car batteries don’t really mean much to me; they start my car, I drive. And one brand is pretty much the same as another. So, I need to use a substitution. I’m a carpenter by trade so I’ll use my new power saw. The fact I got it on sale makes me love it all the more.
Moment Before:
[Jack’s banter: YOU EVER BEEN STRANDED?]
DRIVER: (L2LO—to sympathize) I GOT STRANDED ONCE.
(Negative relationship to being stranded.)
[Jack’s banter: WHAT HAPPENED?]
DRIVER: (L2LO—to recall) IT WAS WINTER; I LEFT MY LIGHTS ON.
(Also negative relationship to the winter and leaving my lights on.)
[Jack’s banter: BAD, HUH?]
DRIVER: (L2LO—to warn with genuine concern) IN THIS WEATHER, IF YOU HAVEN’T GOT AN OMEGA BATTERY, YOU HAVEN’T GOT A CHANCE.
(Physical gesture on “In this weather . . .”—point back over my shoulder to indicate the snowstorm. Negative relationship on the weather. Product is mentioned here too; need to use my substitution and switch to a positive relationship.)
[Jack’s banter: WHAT SHOULD I DO?]
DRIVER: (L2LO—to proclaim) THIS WAS ME, I’D MAKE SURE I HAD AN OMEGA.
(Physical gesture on “This was me . . .”—nod my head toward the driver behind the car’s windshield. Come back to camera for the rest of the line. Product mentioned, use substitution and keep it positive.)
(The driver taps the windshield of the car. The car’s engine turns over and then roars to life.)
(Tag: After the car starts I give a “thumbs-up” to the camera. Again positive relationship—product solves the problem. If the camera is still running I’ll mime detaching and rolling up the cables).
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With this piece of copy, the actor is talking directly to the camera. That means the person he is talking to would be out in the storm with him. This doesn’t necessarily make any sense, but the audience’s ability to suspend their disbelief rests with the actor.
It is the actor’s job to make the unreal real, and the better we are at doing it, the less the audience will question the plausibility of an implausible situation.
Think Star Trek and you’ll realize what I’m talking about. The same thing applies to commercials. Our job isn’t to question the circumstances; our job is to make those circumstances work.
EXERCISE
Read over several pieces of copy and see if you can tell what the environment is. Look for things you can do to “establish” that environment. Remember, keep the environment at eye level and make sure the camera “sees” both of your eyes most of the time.
Make sure you’re not sending mixed signals. Look for the words these, those, this, that, here, and there, and look for ways to physically reference the things those words are referring to. If the words are “this boy” or “that repair shop,” you need to look at them, see them, reference them and have a relationship with them. If you don’t, you’re likely to confuse the people watching the playback.
Pick up a basketball, a slice of pizza, a telephone, and get a sense of how each one feels. Then mime the activity. Pick up a real coffee cup and take a real sip. Then pick up an imaginary cup and take an imaginary sip. Don’t forget to blow on it if it’s hot. And after you take a sip, swallow.
Pick several non-related things: a box of tissue, your Uncle Bill, a box of Wheat Chex, your favorite team winning the World Series. Figure out what feeling you want to convey for each person, object, or situation and then communicate those feelings for each one. Maybe the tissue is Brand X.
Because the camera can see what you’re feeling, what you’re thinking is extremely important. So make sure you engage in an active thought process that produces the feeling you want to convey. When you do, the camera will pick up on that feeling and broadcast it. You don’t have to worry about projecting the feeling; the camera will do it for you. Your job is to generate the feeling; so, please, no overacting!