Self-tape

The self-tape is the first audition for most screen roles now, which means it is a skill every working actor needs. A castable tape rests on two things: clean technicals and honest acting. Get the lighting, framing and sound right and casting can see and hear you clearly; make specific, truthful choices and they can see the actor.

Our self-tape classes and guides cover both halves. On the technical side you learn to light your face with a window and a lamp, frame a standard mid-shot, get clear sound in an ordinary room, slate warmly, and name and send a tidy file. On the performance side you learn to play the scene to your reader rather than the lens, calibrate your energy for camera, and give casting two or three genuinely different takes instead of twenty near-identical ones.

The actors who book from tape are almost never the ones with the best kit. They are the ones who tape so often that the setup is automatic, so all their attention is free for the scene. The goal of our self-tape work is exactly that: solve the room once, then think only about the acting.