Acting for the Camera by Tony Barr

Author:Tony Barr [Barr, Tony]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-223756-9
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1997-03-16T05:00:00+00:00

24

Cold Reading and Auditions

The audition is a necessary evil. How else are the producer, director, and casting director to determine who is best suited for a particular role? You would like to believe that after you’ve done one or two roles, however small or large, they will be as aware of your excellent talents as you are. Alas! They probably won’t be. They will want to meet you, talk to you for a few minutes to get a sense of your basic quality, and then have you complete your audition by doing a cold reading.

Cold reading is really a misnomer, since it implies that you will be asked to read for a part without being given a chance to study the material first. That almost never happens.

The first thing you need to do is study the scene you are about to read without regard to the fact that you are in it, so that you fully understand it. Then bottom-line the scene. Focus only on that, and work to fulfill the need that the bottom line represents.

One important thing to remember when you go in to audition for a role and you are asked to do a cold reading is to look at the person with whom you are reading as much as possible. Hold the script in such a position that your face is visible and your eyes need to do only a minimum amount of traveling from the other person to the page. Look at the other person for as long as you can as you listen, timing yourself so that a glance to the page will give you your next speech, which you can then deliver without interruption. This way you can maintain a sense of pace and a sense of proper rhythm for the scene, even under cold reading circumstances. Look and listen to all the stimuli as intently as you can. You’ll become very adept at this if you practice.

It’s also important to find a physical position that will give the impression of physical involvement. If you read a highly emotional scene with your legs comfortably crossed, your body is going to contradict what is happening in the scene, and although you may read the lines well you will communicate a sense of only partial participation.

In a cold reading you should also indicate the necessary physical actions, such as hitting someone. (Don’t hit, but take a partial swing with your hand to show that you know it must happen.) You may rise, sit, or move a step or two toward or away from the person with whom you are reading.

Use physicalizations unless you have been specifically instructed otherwise, so that the director and producer will know that you understand all aspects of the scene. If your reading partner gives you nothing, react as if he did what was required. For instance, if you were supposed to have been hit, move your head as if you had been.

Get a clear idea of your needs in the scene.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.