Two Reasons Self Submissions Are Great, And One Big Reason They Can Suck

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and I kind of feel like this video
should be called heard around the
casting office because I basically
picked up a few things just being
members of casting workshop and casting
director and acting and audition prep
and self tape groups on Facebook and on
LinkedIn and attending live going to
those networking events that I’ve been
talking about and I picked up three
things three things that were repeated
over and over again not by actors who
thought they were right but actually by
executive producers and casting
directors who said them and you know you
can if they’re the ones actually
engaging in these practices then it’s
something I want you to know about so
the first thing I heard was from an
executive director of Downton Abbey who
was interviewed on the web and said
words the effect of they love self tapes
and the reason they love self tapes is
that they can watch or in the case of
voice-over casting directors listen to
and I’m using air quotes on both a
hundred submissions in the same time it
takes them to do a ten person live
audition session because they’ll start
watching or start listening and if they
don’t like it they’ll just move on to
the next one and there’s no live actor
to shoo out of the room saying yeah
thank you thank you
could you send the next person in it’s a
very fast process for them because they
know what they’re looking for and he
didn’t say it to be mean or to be nasty
he said it to be truthful and honest and
as someone who has sat on that side of
the casting table before I can tell you
that’s exactly what happens after a
while is no I don’t want that no that’s
not what I’m looking for wait wait hold
on and then you listen to the ones that
piqued your interest but you can’t do
that in a live session so the second
thing that was said by a casting
director who I happened to know and this
was at an actual workshop she said look
self tapes for me are more efficient but
for you they give you the opportunity to
do all those things you wish you could
do in the room itself like go back and
take it again perfect little things that
you thought you could do better you can
work on it as long as you like and you
know the same goes for both on camera
and for voiceover it now what I don’t
want you to do is to take that as a
permission slip to work it to the bone
right do that before you do your actual
on-camera audition and don’t do that at
all when it comes to voiceover you can
overwork things and you can forget what
you really think is important what you
really want to be important as you work
on some minor little thing that’s
frustrating you because you’re not
getting it exactly right I want to say
the word thee not the you know just
don’t don’t don’t do that now this third
one this third one I can only say it
sucks it’s awful but again it was said
to let people know what happens in the
real world and in this case it was a
casting director who said I love the
idea of self tapes because I can simply
tell an agent who is overzealous and
annoying trying to get their actor into
my audition I can tell them great have
them put themselves on tape and then I
will never watch their stuff or I will
never listen to their voiceover audition
because their agent was so pushy or
because they don’t have time or because
they know full well that even though the
agent thinks the person is right for it
that the actor is not right for it and
that word agent can be taken out and
substituted for actor when it comes to
self submissions so there’s good and
there’s not so good when it comes to
self tape and that’s just kind of
I heard around the water cooler by
casting people and executive producers
and I just thought I’d share that with
you tell me what you think about this
comments go below the video I’d love to
hear what you say when you heard that
third one did that kind of make you
cringe that kind of makes I knew it I
knew they were doing don’t let it get to
you but tell me what you think about
that in the comments below if you want
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that box below I’m David H Lawrence the
17th I thank you so much for watching
and I will talk to you tomorrow.