Self Tape Tips: Why Your Audition Gets Stopped After 10 Seconds
Updated: 4 days ago
Most self tapes never get watched all the way through. The ones that do get stopped in the first ten seconds.
And almost never because of the acting.
I've sent hundreds of these as an actor and sat watching thousands of them as a producer, so I've seen this from both sides of the casting table. What kills a self tape is nearly always something small, technical and fixable in about five minutes. Where your reader is standing. What your camera is sitting on. Whether anyone can hear you properly.
Below are ten self tape tips that come straight from the Casting Directors Guild's own guidance. This isn't my opinion about what looks nice. It's what casting directors have written down and asked for.
First, understand who actually watches your tape
This is the bit that explains everything else on this list.
Your tape doesn't go to the director. It goes to the casting director first, and they sort through everything before passing anything up the chain. They are not going to forward a tape that looks unprofessional, because it makes *them* look unprofessional.
So a tape that ignores their guidelines gets filtered out regardless of how good the acting is. You are not being judged on your performance yet. You are being judged on whether you can follow a brief.
That's the whole game in the first ten seconds.
1. Your reader is standing in the wrong place
This is the single most common mistake, and it's the easiest one to fix.
Your reader should be almost straddling the tripod, right beside the lens. Not a few feet off to one side. A few inches too far out and your eyeline drifts, we're onto your profile, and the audition dies right there.
The difference is dramatic when you see it side by side. With the reader beside the lens, we see your whole face. With the reader off to the side, we see the side of your head.
Two things that go with it:
- If you're standing in the scene, your reader stands too.** Otherwise you're gazing downwards and all we see is the top of your head.
- Never let the reader appear in shot.** Not an elbow, not a shadow.
There are exceptions to every rule. But they are exceptions. Casting directors want your eyeline just off the lens.
2. Bad sound loses more tapes than bad lighting
Casting will tolerate mediocre lighting long before they tolerate muddy audio. In the first round your tape is being watched on a laptop, often through headphones, often at speed.
Fixes that cost nothing:
- Record in a quiet room
- Put soft furnishings just out of shot — even a duvet works — to soak up reverb
- Ask your reader to be quieter than you
That last one matters more than people think. Most of the time you're auditioning for screen work, which means you don't need to project. You want to be as quiet as the scene will allow. If your reader is booming over you, that balance is gone.
If you're going to invest anything in your career, invest here. A wireless microphone that clips onto you and plugs into your phone costs around £80. It's localised, it picks up everything you do, and it gives you clean, crisp sound. It will make more difference to your casting rate than almost anything else you could buy.
3. Light from the front — and put the ring light away
In an ideal world you want good lighting as well as good sound.
- **Light from the front.** Never from overhead — it's deeply unflattering.
- **Never shoot with a window or light source behind you.** Find a plain, flat wall.
- **Skip the ring light.** This surprises people, because everyone online tells you to buy one. But they leave those little curved reflections in your eyes, and casting directors and producers really don't like them.
What you actually want is two sources of diffused light, both in front of you.
4. Frame a medium close-up with the camera at eye level
The shot should be:
- A medium close-up — chest or shoulders up
- Eyes about a third of the way down from the top of the frame
- Camera at eye level, or very slightly above. **Never below.**
- Landscape, unless the brief specifically says otherwise
- Locked off on a tripod
That last point is not negotiable. Handheld looks amateurish immediately, and it's the first thing that makes a tape feel like it was thrown together.
5. Never tape into silence
Do not record your side of a scene while imagining the other person's lines. And the apps that let you record the other part and play it back at yourself aren't much better — the rhythm goes, and it sounds robotic.
Acting is reacting. Anyone reading with you is better than no one.
Ideally get another actor. If you don't have one to hand, join a local club, or come and ask in our Facebook group — actors call out for self tape readers there all the time. You will not believe the difference it makes to have a real person opposite you.
Casting directors say the same thing: don't self tape on your own.
6. Read the brief ten times
Remember the tapes that never even get watched? This is why. Not the acting. The admin.
- Wrong file name
- Missing slate or introduction
- Wrong orientation — landscape when they asked for portrait
- The full scene when they asked for a thirty-second cut
Technical requirements to check every time:
- Send an **MOV or MP4** file
- Keep the file size down. There's no point shooting 4K for something that's going to be watched on a laptop
- If you're asked to upload to Vimeo or YouTube, **password protect it** and make sure the **download option is enabled**
And while the brief isn't strictly about acting: find out what accent is wanted, what the style of the show is, what tone they're going for. There are plenty of lessons on this channel about audition technique — this one is deliberately about the mechanics of self taping.
7. Hold the scene at both ends
Give yourself a beat to get into the scene before the first line, and hold after the last one.
Casting directors want to see you in repose afterwards. What they absolutely don't want is a hand reaching towards the camera to switch it off.
Give yourself space at both ends and trim it in the edit. If it's too long, cut it back. But shoot the handles.
8. Two takes maximum — and make them different
Two takes. That's the ceiling.
And they should be genuinely different takes, not the same choice performed slightly better. If you send the same interpretation twice, you've told the casting director you couldn't decide. That's a note about you, not about the scene.
Sending five takes says the same thing, louder.
9. Suggest the role, don't dress for it
Casting directors ask you not to dress for the role unless the brief specifically requests it. What you can do is *suggest* it.
- Neutral clothing
- No big logos
- No thin stripes — they strobe on camera
- Hair off the face
- Light make-up if needed, and a little powder if the lights are making you shine
Playing a business person? A shirt with a collar. Playing someone down and out? A t-shirt or a sweatshirt. That's the level. A suggestion, then stop.
10. You have rights, and almost nobody uses them
This is the one that actors are almost never told.
The Casting Directors Guild has a **code of best practice which is mandatory for all of its members**:
- **Six pages of lines** = a minimum **four day** turnaround
- **Three pages of lines** = a minimum **three day** turnaround
- No artist can be asked to learn more than **six pages of lines or two scenes**
- **Actors are not expected to pay for professional readers**
If you receive a request that breaks that code, you can report it to the Casting Directors Guild.
Knowing this doesn't make you difficult. It makes you someone who understands how the industry actually works — which, as it happens, is exactly what casting directors are looking for.
The comedian and the Hollywood actor
Here's why all of this matters more than it looks.
I was casting a film and the casting director suggested a comedian who was trying to move into acting. I really liked him. I thought he'd be fabulous in the part. He'd done some advertising work, so we asked him to self tape.
What came back was him sitting in front of his laptop, reading the lines off the screen. The absolute minimum effort he could have put in.
He was never getting that job.
For the same film, we had an actor who had led a big Hollywood musical and a major American soap. He went to every single length he could to make his self tape right. Filmed in Hollywood, for our film. It was perfect.
That gap has nothing to do with talent.
A self tape tells a producer and a director whether you actually want the part, and whether you'll be reliable on their set. Getting the technical side right is how you say yes to both without saying a word.
Every self tape is really two auditions
Don't forget that you're going up for two jobs every time you self tape.
You're going up for that job. And you're going up for every other job that casting director, producer or director will cast in the future.
So if you don't get this one, that tape might still be the one that makes your career in six months' time. Casting is a long game, and the people watching remember who made their job easier.
And if the rejection stings — and it will — how you handle it is the thing that decides whether you're still doing this in five years.
## Frequently asked questions
### How do you self tape an audition properly?
Set up a locked-off camera at eye level in landscape, frame a medium close-up from the chest up with your eyes a third down the frame, light yourself from the front with two diffused sources, and get a reader to sit right beside the lens. Record in a quiet room and follow the brief exactly for file format, naming and length.
### Where should the reader stand for a self tape?
Almost straddling the tripod, immediately beside the lens. If they're too far to one side your eyeline drifts and you end up playing the scene in profile. If you're standing in the scene, your reader should stand too.
### Should I use a ring light for a self tape?
No. Ring lights leave distinctive curved reflections in your eyes, and casting directors don't like them. Use two diffused light sources in front of you instead.
### How many takes should I send in a self tape?
Two at most, and they should be different interpretations rather than two attempts at the same choice.
### How long should a casting director give me to turn a self tape around?
Under the Casting Directors Guild code of best practice, six pages of lines requires a minimum four day turnaround and three pages requires a minimum three days. You cannot be asked to learn more than six pages or two scenes, and you're not expected to pay for a professional reader.
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*Mark Pegg is a former actor and film producer, and the founder of Acting Academy. New acting lessons every week — join the conversation at [facebook.com/onlineacting](https://facebook.com/onlineacting).*
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