All about Zoom Audition Preparation

There’s heaps of articles and tutorials on this topic online. You’ll find handy guides over at Backstage and Spotlight as well as YouTube on preparing for your Zoom auditions (I’ve extracted info from various sources and compiled it together).
I have this info kept in my notes on my phone so I can check through in advance of my Zoom audition in the form of a checklist.

I thought all you actor folk out there may be useful find it useful. Happy reading!

The tech set up:
Checking/enhancing your Zoom settings in advance, how to:
Touching up appearance
(yes you can actually do this!)…

1. In the Zoom desktop client, click your profile picture then click Settings.
2. Click the Video tab.
3. Click Touch up my appearance.
4. Use the slider to adjust the effect.

Adjusting for low light:

1. In the Zoom desktop client, click your profile picture then click Settings .
2. Click the Video tab.
3. Enable Adjust for low light.
4. By default, the setting will be set to Auto. However, you can select Manual, and adjust the setting to the desired effect.

Reducing background noise:

In the Zoom desktop client, click your profile picture, then click Settings. tab. Under the Suppress background noise section, select the level of suppression you wish to use: Auto: This is the default setting, and will apply moderate background noise reduction when needed.

Need a your sides handy?… Split screen with script if needed.
Minimise the script so it’s near the top of the screen (left or right) and near the camera. Have the Zoom window minimised, near the camera at the other side of the script.

Laptop Tripod Stand.
Adjustable for sitting or standing auditions. Although at the moment I’m using a stack of books…

Wear some kind of earbud with a microphone

This avoids your dialogue cutting out in Zoom when overlapping with your lines in a scene. Without earbuds, you’ll miss cues, not hear lines. Also, by having the earbud mic close to your mouth, it mimics using a lavalier microphone and picks up much more subtlety in your voice. I have powerbeats headphones and put the cord round the back of my neck so it’s not distracting.

Ideally make sure your laptop camera is 1080p.
If you have an older computer, your camera won’t be as crisp at 720p. To fix this, use your smartphone as a web camera by downloading EpocCam. Although with good lighting 720p looks pretty good.

Eye line.

Recreate the feeling of being in an in-person audition. The best way to do this is to look just left or right of the camera. You can either put a piece of tape on the corner of your laptop, or even better, minimize your Zoom window and put your reader on the top corner of your screen as described in split screen.

Lighting

Four point lighting to go really professional with two soft boxes. I don’t have soft boxes so I used a ring and lamp either side and a spotlight as a back light.


…Ok so I’ve mainly focused on tech here, most importantly…

Prepare your material!!!

As a minimum, read your sides a few times and do the necessary prep to calm anxiety and doubt so you can connect to the scene and roles authentically. As well as knowing the context of the piece and what you are doing!
If you have time… Rehearse (preferably with someone). When you rehearse with another actor you will find your piece comes to life. Its also a good idea to rehearse on Zoom for online auditions (you can even record yourself). With more time and actor to work with you can learn, expand on your preparation, go deeper and play with it.

And, for the CD chat…

Research the project!
Know info about the company, project and people attached.

Have questions in mind.

Questions that you are genuinely interested in knowing the answers too, rather than just for the sake of asking questions. Most CD’s/directors ask if you have any questions though so it’s always a good idea to think about this in advance.

A thought to leave you with!

Oh, and don’t forget they called you in because they are already interested in you so you are not proving yourself, you are collaborating and adding to what they know about you!…

Any other Zoom audition top tips that I haven’t included? I’d love to hear them.