Acting : Self Tape and Casting Director Controversy - What Say You? by Richard "RB" Botto

I agree 100% that actors need to supply the most professional looking and sounding self-tape audition as they can. That being said, this should be accomplished by their at-home set up where they have their own space and backdrop to film themselves. There’s no need to spend money going to outside studio space and having to hire readers, etc just to audition. Spend the money on classes and coaching to better your acting skills in general but not for one-off self-tapes that may or may not get you booked. Take responsibility for yourself as a business. Yes, actors you are the business you are in so spend your money wisely as a business owner. Don’t allow others to control you. Think of the money that every audition would cost you if you paid others to do for you what you can do for yourself.

SAG-Aftra was successful in shutting down the pay-to-audition racket and paid casting director reads - which lost several notable (but unethical) CDs their professional designations. I believe that a couple even had criminal charges laid against them. It is the CD's job to find the best talent, not to sell talent services, and certainly not to be concerned with the color balance or framing on an audition reel. Doing so is unethical sleazy and abusive, and that's the best I can say about it. It's akin to pay-to-pitch, which the IIPG and other producers organizations have designated as prohibited practices (excepting only if it is labeled as solely for educational purposes). As a producer I do not work with CDs who charge talent anything at all at any time. But I DO keep their names...

Tammy Hunt, I appreciate the contribution and your thoughts on the matter. I've seen some comments that CD's are dinging actors for recording in their homes - cluttered spaces, bad lighting, etc - and that's why they're seeking out studio space. Valid or overblown IYO?

I have not had that experience with my actors and CD’s for self tapes RB. However, I do make sure all my actors have a good set up at home and I do view the tapes before submitting to casting just to make sure they look and sound the best they possibly can. I certainly would have a problem if a CD had an issue based on what tapes we have approved.

I just listened to a great SAG AFTRA foundation conversation with some top top casting directors (like Avy Kaufman and Doug Abel ) who said at this point they prefer less backdrop & lights so they can focus on the great acting, choices & listening. I personally invested in a very inexpensive backdrop and ring light at the beginning of the pandemic - I record the scene on my iphone - total package way under $100, and we have used it so many times! When I travel I just use what I can find around. I am lucky to have a spouse in the biz to read with, but when he is not avail - I zoom in a buddy and I help other friends all the time to read with them. There is no reason this needs to be about a paywall to audition, and the brilliant Iman Vellani did a self tape with nothing fancy and beat out 1000s of people to play MS MARVEL. Chose to believe in what is possible, not the limitations.

I have many thoughts on the matter. For background, I'm a professional actor, and have been in Atlanta since 2000, and co-founded one of the first taping services in 2010. Self-taping here started in 2005 when regional CDs realized that shows that shot in the Southeast were already entertaining tapes (yes, VHS) from LA actors for certain roles, and there was at least one actor who died while driving 450 miles for an audition. It was common in those years to not only drive around Atlanta for auditions, but to occasionally drive to Wilmington, Nashville, New Orleans, even DC.

And to accommodate, the agencies here set up cameras and started taping actors in-house. I was brought in by my agency to start that. The agencies provided this free service UNTIL the tax incentive kicked in, production started to ramp up, and it became a HUGE burden on the agencies' resources to offer that. So by 2010, a couple taping services (mine included) popped up.

Flash forward to now, and we've been a full-time business for over 12 years. 99.9% of auditions in those 13 years for TV/Film have been tapes. Commercials were all in-person before the pandemic, and are starting to return. So us Atlanta actors have already went through these growing pains that LA and NY are going through. We've had the arguments, lamented the loss of the "human connection", and so forth. And even though we're often the busiest production hub in the country, LA peeps just don't seem to be interested in the expertise we have in this arena.

So we're now watching what was inevitable. And now that this is happening in LA, perhaps there will be movement toward change.

And part of what is/was inevitable is that even when CDs and agents say "tape at home, and find a reader" and downplay the quality, they STILL don't understand all that goes into that. SOOOO many of the actors that come to us do so because they a) don't have space at home to setup (or they have kids, a dog, noisy neighbors, etc), b) don't have a reader available that is an actor (their spouse can help sometimes, but many relationships have been strained in the 10+ years we've been doing this), or c) they just HATE the technical nature of it all. It steals their focus from the craft. And also, I don't know what an average LA working actor has in terms of audition numbers, but Atlanta actors like me who have credits often get 50-150 auditions PER YEAR (and yes, these are all for full-budget network/cable/streaming). That can average out to 4-12 PER MONTH. So dealing with all of that struggle HAS A COST. Maybe not always in dollars, but in time at the very least. So finding a reader for 1 audition a month might be easy. Calling on that person every week? Much tougher.

And even if CDs convinced us all that the iPhone against a solid wall at home was sufficient, then the technically savvy actors will still "level up" the quality. And what will happen (I know because it's what happened here) is that over time, the average quality level increases to the point where the CDs start to get spoiled by "great" lighting and "great sound". Case in point, CD taping instructions here used to say what LA peeps are saying (just use a cell phone at home, have your Grandma read with you, we JUST want to see your acting!). Over many years of getting better and better tapes, CDs now regularly say you MUST have good lighting, your reader MUST be an actor, your background MUST not be distracting, etc.

And because we're actors, my wife and I have made this as affordable as possible. In fact, we have a monthly membership where - if you're efficient - you can pay $40/month and get all your tapings covered. We also don't charge for re-tapes requested by casting, OR zoom sessions.

Wow, long post. Sorry. I just wanted to give some background on the evolution of self-tapes in the Southeast, so that if "nothing changes", you all in LA and NY can see where you're headed...

From both a Canadian and Personal POV, something happened to me when self-taping came in. I lost all of my talent and skill overnight! I haven't had a single booking - or even a call-back - in over 3 years. Meanwhile, I've had a handful of 'indie' roles and 2 theatrical leads, so something is working.

Actors shouldn't be relied upon to be video technical experts, nor use their own house for auditions. One's spouse should not be relied upon as a reader. The speed required to get tapes returned are unreasonable, we don't know who gets the call-back or role, because there's no sign-in. While auditioning is always stressful, one of the lies we are always told is that part of the reason for doing this is building up a relationship with a casting director. However, if you don't know who is seeing the tape, you aren't doing that - you aren't meeting fellow actors to not feel alone - you aren't seeing project directors and producers that may cast you as someone else, as has happened to many of us in a 'live' audition.

Enough of this purgatory - get us back 'in the room'

Steve James I sympathize with everything you said. Having been through this for 13+ years in Atlanta, I've gone through every evolution of self-taping, seesawing back and forth between focusing on the pros and cons. I did see a video posted by someone from LA that was interesting for reflection. She said that before self-taping was ever a thing, actors complained about in-person auditions. Traffic to get there, times being changed last second, waiting in a waiting room for an hour or more, getting only one take with no feedback in the room, the CD never looking up at you during your audition (or even taping your audition), agonizing over what you said before/after the performance, trying to discern whether 1 take is a complement or an insult, and is 2 takes better, and on and on.

Her point was that sometimes there are legitimate points that need to be contended with (like page count for a 24-hour turnaround self-tape), and sometimes we're just not adapting. As artists, that is one of our biggest strengths. We adapt. From the very first acting class, we're taught to react in the moment. So we're all armed with this unique ability to adapt to the present circumstances.

So if we reframe the problem of self-taping as an opportunity to adapt, it can take some of the negativity out of the equation. However, Steve, I don't want that to come across as anything combative, because I do feel your pain.