Thought I’d share what a self-tape session looks like nowadays. You can see the screen we purchased behind Don, and the ring light in front of him. Adjusting the light takes a long time, let me tell you. Don’s iPhone is used for taping and it sits in a holder within the ring light, and everything is hooked up to Don’s laptop.
When the set-up looks right (it never looks perfect, believe me!) we go through the lines together, because I read all of the lines in the script other than Don’s. We usually do about 4 takes because something goes wrong; I flub a line, Don gets the word order wrong, that kind of thing. There have been times in the past where we kept flubbing it and got a huge case of the giggles.
After we’re done, all of this gets folded up, put in boxes, and stored up in our office. Self-taping was already becoming a viable option for auditions before the pandemic hit – sometimes actors are working out of town and can’t audition in person. Our friend Guy, who works a lot, now lives full time in the house in Illinois that his father owned. He self-tapes. As you can imagine, nothing happened during the pandemic for a while, but once things slowly started up, everyone self-taped. It’s handy for us because we save the yearly chunk of money we used to have to pay for bus/train travel to and from NYC. Don also saves time. Traveling into the city for an audition takes up most of a day. Now, we can tape for about an hour, then Don edits the tape, and then he sends it to his agent.
The unbearable heat continues for one more day. The lawn is more than overdue for a mowing but we are not foolish enough to try it in this weather. Remember how I said the oppressive heat was enervating? Yesterday, I fell asleep in the middle of the day for over an hour and that never happens unless I’m ill. It felt like I was drugged. Don did the same thing in the office. Cannot wait for this to end!
Stay safe.
Happy Friday.
Your self-taping is quite a process, isn’t it; I had no idea!
So hope for your weather to improve after today; the better days will come. Have a great weekend.
I think it’s goint to be in the low eighties tomorrow, which will be very welcome!
Stay safe, Vicki.
Yes I will take the snow over this oppressive heat.
Are these auditions for stage work?
Mostly film and television at this point. Stage work is beginning much more slowly.
Stay safe, Linda.
Love it…good luck to Don…hope you can be outside soon. Take care…finished the Jane Casey book for Netgalley…intriguing…
I’ve read all of her books and have chatted with her online. I’m a big fan!
Stay safe, Brenda!
If anything good comes out of this pandemic, I think working from home is it. I’m sure there are pros and cons to self taped auditions but seems very convenient to me.
I can just imagine the ‘bloopers’ that can occur when you are taping, and the giggles.
We have a beautiful day here. I have several pounds of tomatoes from our garden and I’m going to try making marinara sauce in my crockpot. Seems like a fairly safe way to spend Friday the 13th.
Stay safe
Sounds like a good plan, Marilyn! Don always says Friday 13th is a lucky day for him.
Stay safe.
That’s quite the process you two have to go through…thanks for explaining it to us. Good luck to Don!
I totally understand your weather…ours finally blew out of here. We will now be enjoying a beautiful Wisconsin weekend. It’s time to mow here, too. Ours hasn’t been mown in two weeks, simply because with the lack of rain it hasn’t needed it until now.
Enjoy your day….stay cool! ;)
Cannot wait for it to go! One more day. Enjoy your beautiful weekend, Donna.
Stay safe.
Thanks for sharing the taping with us, so fascinating!
You’re welcome, Alice.
Stay safe!
Thanks for the shared photo of your setup. When you said “screen” prior, I tried to imagine – should have googled around. That is a nice one – perfect & the idea of the ring of light to allow for cell phone recording – one of those great inventions for times like these.
When I think about too many years ago, even just sound recording, so many more options and devices and no more submitting cassettes or 1/4” tape. Makes me laugh, I just recalled doing a short audition tape for Stiers (at the Globe).
I love it that you get to feed the lines, too.
Hope your weather breaks soon. Ours is warm, but not as difficult as yours right now. How awful in Europe & North Africa. It just goes on and on.
Continue well.
XOXO
Don was just mentioning David Ogden Stiers the other day. He directed Don in Scapino.
Stay safe, Martha!
I think the self taping process is awesome. You can get it done and not have all that travel. good setup. I use my iPhone and a ring light for my YouTube videos, works great. Still hot here but a teensy tiny bit cooler. Still I’m ready for some lower temps and some breezes. Stay safe.
I am really ready! Need to mow tomorrow.
Stay safe, Linda.
Hope the taping goes well and Don gets the job!
For every 30 auditions, you might get one job. It’s a hard business, Ellen.
Stay safe.
Good luck to Don!
Thanks, Linda.
Stay safe.
great set-up and, i am sure, audition. i hope don hears good news soon.
and how wonderful that you can help with the lines. you two are a good team.
thanks for sharing the at-home taping process.
hope you enjoy cooler weather soon.
it should be on the way. at last night’s “field of dreams” baseball game, the temperature thankfully and helpfully dropped (from a sunny 89) more than ten degrees by the time the game started.
did you watch that game? :o except that both teams couldn’t win, it was perfect! eight homers … incredible! i love baseball, have seen a lot of it, but never one like that. and then there was that beautiful sunset! and my brother worked it (he is a freelance videographer) and others in our family watched on tv. :)
going to get them some groceries, go home, take a shower and get to bed. getting up early for an oil change (first come, first served so i’ll be out the door by 6:30 am rather than wait even longer than usual).
hope you have a nice night and stay safe.
kathy in iowa
I watched the opening of it, but we had plans to watch something else, so that’s all I saw. It looked beautiful.
Thanks, Kathy.
Stay safe.
Fascinating. I hope it is successful as well.
Hot in Maine too.
Thanks Kay.
Stay safe.
I never sleep in the day unless I’m sick either and Monday I did. And actually, Sunday after the toddlers left. We were outside in the heat all day and I swear I had heat exhaustion.
Love the taping set-up. I think it’s terrific you can do that, especially these days. Sending good vibes!
I’ve had a nap every day this week because of the heat and the humidity. I simply can’t keep my eyes open!
Stay safe, Jeanie.