Tips for Attending Auditions

Tips For Attending Auditions

So your child has been called for his first audition! That is fantastic! Now how do you give your child the best possible shot at booking this audition?! Here are some tips for making sure that your child goes in with the highest possible chance of booking the job.

Be on time. Sounds like a no-brainer, but you need to really hear me. Casting directors HATE when you are late, it throws off the timeliness of their whole session and starts your child out with a glaring strike against them. We know there is traffic. There is always traffic. Leave an hour earlier than you think that you have to in case there is traffic. If you get there early, take a walk, get some ice-cream or practice your lines until it’s time to go in. You don’t want to be more than 15-20 minutes early.
Dress for the audition. If the audition is for a kid who plays softball, don’t go in your Sunday best. If the audition is for a teenager at the mall, don’t dress for a date at the club. That doesn’t mean that if the audition is for Game of Thrones, you should dress in a suit of armor! Use common sense and try and dress to the character without actually wearing a costume. Avoid solid black, white and red for television auditions, they look horrible on camera. Avoid anything with a logo. It’s OK to wear a shirt with a mouse on it, Mickey Mouse is not OK.
Keep make-up to a minimum for younger children. No make-up at all if you are 12 and under, unless you have a scratch or blemish that requires a bit of cover-up. 12-16 year olds can wear a bit of lip-gloss and light, light eye make-up. You don’t want your child looking older than they actually are. When we want 10 year old girls, we don’t want them looking 25.
Know your lines. If Casting provided the lines in advance it is because they want you to know it when you come in. You can’t give a great audition when your face is buried in the paper and you’re not looking at the reader or the camera. If the lines are provide when you arrive, do your best to know as much as you can before getting into the room. Sometimes the lines will be in the room on a big board so that you can easily see them or sometimes they will be on a piece of paper. At the very least try glancing down at the page and then looking up for your delivery.
Behave in the waiting room and parents we mean you! Parents should not have their ears pressed against the door of the audition room, you should not be spitting on your child’s hair at this point to slick it down, and you should not speak to casting directors. You should NEVER ask for or expect any feedback from the CD after the audition. Your role is to sign your child in on the sign-in sheet, and wait quietly until they are done and then leave. It may sound harsh, but if you are irritating at the audition there is no way they will choose your child to be on a set for 12 hours where you can possibly irritate the client and the production team.
Above all… RELAX! You are among friends, everyone wants you to to well. You were called in because you are the right type,and they already like your look. There will be many yesses and a whole lotta no’s. Learn from your mistakes and also your successes. If you find that you get callbacks with a certain outfit or a certain hair style, then keep it! The more audition, the better you will get at it. Sile and enjoy the ride!

Do you have a question for Ms. Jackie? Email us your question at webmaster@officialpremiere.com and her next article could be about you.

Jackie Reid owns L’il Angels Unlimited, A Talent Management Company since 1992. They specialize in babies, kids and teens for feature films, television shows, commercials, print and theatre. They are a bi-coastal agency servicing talent for both the NY and LA markets. Like her Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/LilAngelsUnlimited

Getting Discovered

One famous Hollywood legend tells the story of Lana Turner and how she was discovered sipping a Coca-Cola at a soda counter in Hollywood. She went from being a 16 year old girl with big dreams to an Academy Award Nominated actress starring in over 50 movies by sitting in a soda shop looking pretty! If only it were still that easy. Let’s look at some ways to get “discovered” in the modern era.

The most common way to seek representation is to send your picture and resume to agents and managers. Obtain a list of who reps kids in the age group that your child is in and do a mass mailing. If you have a great picture and an interesting resume, you have a shot at being called in for an interview. I have met many kids that way and have found some great ones, so it can be effective. My complaint with that method is that I can’t tell from a picture if a child is talented! Sometimes a beautiful picture yields a child who stares at the floor and won’t talk or a lousy picture brings in a child with a dynamic personality. The only option would be to bring in everyone who sends a picture and interview them all. As much as I would like to, there are not enough hours in the day to do that, I would have to spend all day, every day interviewing and I would have no time to find work for the clients that we do represent. Definitely still try this method as it does work in many instances. However, please realize we are super busy. Sometimes weeks and sometimes months go by without us even looking at the pictures.

There’s the open call where an agent or manager advertises a day and time for prospective new clients to come by and audition. Again, this is something I do on a regular basis and have found great talent. The downside here is that you are showing up with hundreds of candidates and waiting on a line for hours to be seen for 1-2 minutes.

Another way that has cropped up in the last few years is the Casting Director workshop. This is where you pay a fee and take a one-day class with a well-known casting director. You work on scripts and get direction and advice on how you are performing them. This is a great opportunity for several reasons. You get a child with no credits in front of a major casting director, whom they normally wouldn’t get a chance to meet. The child gets feedback and advice from a highly respected professional and that is invaluable. Best of all, if your child does a good job they are now on the radar of the casting director for future jobs! I cannot tell you the number of times that a casting director has brought in a client for a major feature film or television show after working with them at a workshop. This method however is not free like the first two options.

Another fairly new way of getting your child out there is an industry professional showcase, such as Premiere. This is a weeklong immersion where your child gets group classes with Disney and Nickelodeon stars for Improvisation, Monologue, and group scenes. The kids then spend 2 days demonstrating their talent in front of agents, managers and casting directors from many different markets including New York and Los Angeles. They have the opportunity to do monologues, commercials, 2-person scenes, soap scenes, runway modeling, and sing in front of 50-75 of these professionals. The week culminates in callbacks where the professionals “callback” the children that they are interested in to discuss the next move. This could mean future representation or an upcoming audition. This is the most costly of the options, but you are getting a significant bang for your buck. You have 50-75 industry professionals who are actively looking to expand their rosters from all different markets in the same arena looking at your child perform in various situations. It is really an incredible opportunity to be seen by multiple movers and shakers.

There are other ways to get seen which I have not touched upon, such as acting classes, referrals from friends and community theatre. And don’t rule out sitting at a soda counter on Sunset Blvd! There is no clear right or wrong way to go about it. Whatever your path to greatness is, I wish you luck and success and remember….SMILE AND HAVE FUN!!!

Do you have a question for Ms. Jackie? Email us your question at webmaster@officialpremiere.com and her next article could be about you.

Optimizing Time

Optimizing Your Time at Premiere

You got the phone call that you were waiting for… your child was accepted to attend Premiere! You jump, you dance, and you celebrate! But then anxiety slowly creeps in…you start to wonder: What are the industry professionals looking for? What can I do to make my child stand out?

Here are some tips to make your child more marketable to agents and managers.

Your work starts before you pack your bags. The first thing you need to do is get a great picture of your child. The photo should be of your child alone in the picture, close-up, plain background, no hats and no sunglasses, smiling and looking into the camera. The picture should be clear and good quality. A blurry picture taken on your cell phone is not acceptable! You will need 80-100 copies of this photo, in size 8 X 10.

You will need a resume. We realize your child hasn’t worked in this industry before and agents/managers don’t expect to see credits here. What we would to see is your child’s name, date of birth, and your contact info, including phone number and email address. A list of skills i.e. dancing, singing, karate, bike riding, ice-skating, hula-hooping, ear wiggling, backflips, etc. Create a section on the resume for any extracurricular classes your child has taken and for how long. For example: Swimming 4 years, drum lessons 1 year, acting class 2 years. We want to see and know everything your child can do!

You will trim the resume down to 8 X 10 size so that it is the exact size of the picture and staple it FACE UP on the back of the picture. Staple all 4 corners.

PRACTICE your lines for your competitions! The kids who get my attention have their lines memorized and do them with enthusiastic energy. They smile and look like they’re having fun performing. Smile and make eye contact with the judges.

Something you may not realize is that we are also looking at parents. We will have close relationships with the parents of the children that we sign and we want to know that the parents will be easy to deal with. I, personally, do not mind parents stopping me in the lobby and asking me questions. However, I am not too excited by parents, and don’t laugh… who knock on the door to my room to ask me questions or slide their child’s picture under the stall door while I am in the restroom. Trust me we are looking at each and every one of the kids that are presented to us.

The audition process starts as soon as you leave your hotel room. Kids, be nice to your parents and the other kids even when you think no one is watching. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been in the elevator without my badge and see kids yelling at their parents. We’re watching. We notice how you behave. Assume everyone is a judge, smile and be nice to everyone.

Lastly, relax and have fun! Everyone there is rooting for you and wishing to make this a great experience for the whole family. Enjoy yourself and Good luck!

Do you have a question for Ms. Jackie? Email us your question at webmaster@officialpremiere.com and her next article could be about you.

Introducing Ask Jackie

The Start of our Journey

Allow me to introduce myself, you will be hearing from me a lot in the coming months!

You and I are going to take a journey. We are going to talk about life as the parent of a child actor. The do’s, the don’ts, the shoulds, and the musts. Things to avoid and things to embrace. I will be your guide on this journey.

What makes you such an expert, you ask?

Well, I’m Jackie Reid and I own a Talent Management company called L’il Angels Unlimited. I have been a talent manager for over 25 years, I was an agent at a SAG-Franchised agency and most importantly have raised two successful children in the industry.

Let me tell you why I love Premiere. I love the fact that I can see so many talented kids in one place and be able to fill whatever category needs I am lacking. I feel like a kid in a candy store with all the choices of talented kids before me. Here are some snippets of some of the experiences I have had with kids that I met during Premiere.

Nathanael was 6 when he caught my eye during the 2 person scene. He aptitude for acting shone through and his smile warmed my heart. He recently shot a huge guest starring role on the television show Royal Pains this week and shot a commercial for Georgia Electric within a week of meeting him.

Manuela is a bouncy and energetic 8 year girl who got my attention doing the commercial competition. She is adorable and when she smiles, she can sell you anything! She has done a national commercial for Verizon, 2 commercials for The Ad Council, and a commercial for The Children’s Health Fund.

Yairalys is a beautiful 11 year old girl who I met at the photo drop. She introduced herself and I saw that she was a local NY girl. She told me that she is bilingual. I was ecstatic to sign her, as I had no bilingual girls in her age group. She did 2 radio commercials for US Bank that very same week that I met her.

Sebastian is an adorable 10 year old boy whom I fell in love with him watching his monologue. He was a natural comedian and his deep dimples flashed when he smiled. Since he signed with us six months ago, he has booked a commercial for Prestige Motors, an ad campaign for Mercedes Benz and the lead in an upcoming episode of Celebrity Ghost Stories.

Brian is a 9 year old boy who I saw doing his monologue. He was so handsome and friendly and I could see how much work he put into that monologue. He has booked a MasterCard radio campaign and a commercial for the Children’s Health Fund.

I could on and on about the great kids that I found at Premiere. There was John M who landed a lead role in an Off-Broadway play, and Juan Jose who booked his very first audition which was a Spanish radio spot for Publix Supermarkets, or Kimberly who can be seen dancing in her Podemos commercial, or Josh who booked his very first audition… a Nintendo commercial.

I could tell you about the 4 kids that are auditioning this week for the Annie movie, and the 3 kids auditioning for the lead in Chris Rock’s new movie or the kids auditioning for the Broadway show Matilda or the ones auditioning for Hasbro, Fanta, AT&T, TNT, Blue Bloods, Bank of America and others this week…. But I won’t. Because they may be next month’s success stories!

Do you have a question for Ms. Jackie? Email us your question at webmaster@premiereevent.com and her next article could be about you.