Thursday, October 08, 2009
Building the Virtual Audition Room
Backstage: "If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If you invent a brilliant new technology but no one uses it, how can it make people's lives easier?"
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4 comments:
Now I may not be a casting director, but having someone audition for acting online seems...insufficient. Isn't the whole point of theater that it's right there? Live? Obviously one can be a great actor on the screen, but I would think a casting director would be looking for the connection between an actual person for theater. Not only that, but if someone can submit an audition via online, couldn't one theoretically submit their best, not necessarily the most real and honest, audition.
A comment to Ariel: the article specifically notes that the companies make no efforts to enter into auditions for theatre, since there is no comparison to auditioning in person for live performance jobs.
My major problem with video auditions in the first place are issues of authenticity and spontaneity. When looking at casting sites like AuditionHost and CastIt, actors can refilm and choose their best clip to upload as opposed to what happens spontaneously, like the result of a live audition. The MyStudio system helps to solve this problem, but the issue of national distribution of the audition stalls will keep this system from being fully incorporated into the casting process. I'm still a proponent of live auditions, even for television and film roles, since interaction with a director is so key to the effective judgment of an actor. Leave the audition tapes to reality shows.
(Note: Posted during lunch break, Basic PTM is at 1:30pm today instead of the normal time.)
I think that for the first round(s) this may be sufficient. However, once they get into the final stages of casting, then they may need to get them in person. In terms of peoples schedules, this is definitely beneficial. Since the internet may be accessed even in the wee hours of the morning, this frees up the rest of the day for the clients who are probably still busy during the normal office hours.
To agree with Jacob, this tool only seems useful for a first round of auditions, which is when the audition pool is the largest (and where this will save the most time).
In terms of an actor being able to re-film, refine, and choose their best clip, if I were a casting director, I would assume that the actor would do that, because it wouldn't be in the actor's best interest to do otherwise.
The big issue I see with the online uploads is that the casting director only gets to see the actor performing by his/herself, and they don't interact with any other actors or with the casting director.
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