I booked my first commercial!!!!!

Let me tell you about my first audition for a commercial.

I was asked a few days ago by my agent to put myself on tape for a hair product commercial. I had about 2 days to do it, but I wanted to be one of the first ones to submit to casting. I wanted to be fresh in their minds.

I'm not going to disclose the name of the product, but you will see it soon enough.

I was asked to put myself on tape, showing my hair and talking a little bit about myself, so they could hear my voice. I pondered over how I should do this all day.

I took Cassie's commercial advice, and looked up other hair commercials, most of it from the same hair company I was auditioning for, to understand the style they preferred. I noticed they focused on just the actors' hair A LOT, so I decided to showcase my locks and just smile and giggle and *try* not to feel too cheesy...

On my way home from my soul-sucking day job, I rushed to the salon, made a last-minute coloring appointment and got my hair Debra-Messing-red.

After ensuring my hair was sexy and shampoo-commercial-ready, I ran home to film myself while my hair was still.... fresh (for lack of a better word).

I had my husband turn on all the lights in our apartment & try to find enough white space to film next to, while I fretted over which shirts complemented my newly tomato-colored hair (I ended up with a power-cleavage black Tee).

We filmed me slating where I was from ("Hi, my name is Amber and I'm from Atlanta, GA. This is my audition video. I hope you like what you see!") and smiling my face off whilst flipping my hair in the most compelling way possible.

After taking about 10 shots, I felt comfortable with the last one, so we sent my agent the last 2 videos to choose what to submit to casting himself. (It always helps to have another eye!)

The next day I am encouraged to hear good feedback. They love my hair but they want more. They need to wow the head of the company. They want to use me as their "Glamour Girl" (What does that MEAN?)! I am instructed to take a longer video, flip my hair more, look glamourous, more make up than last time, more hair...

I wanted this commercial so badly.

I went BACK to the salon and paid for a $40 blow out, just to ensure my hair was SEX-Y. I thought, if I'm going to do another video, it has to look even better than the first. I have to KNOW I did absolutely EVERYTHING I could have done to one-up the other 100 girls auditioning. (I bet no one else went to the salon to ensure it's quality, much less TWICE.)

My husband (God Bless being married to an actor!) helped me choose a blue top that made my red hair stand out, and we filmed again.

Here are some of the out takes we DIDN'T submit, because they were awful. He kept messing around in the beginning and we had to goof off to keep me giggly and smiley...

In addition to the videos we took, I sent a bunch of photos from photoshoots I had done in the past to wow the head of the company (since I am out of state, he needs to triple check that I will look right on film). I also had my husband take snapshots of my hair (front, back, sides, all over!) to show them the length.

I hope SOME of this information was helpful on how you self-tape. I am by no means an expert, but in the interest of sharing my experience, hopefully this can prepare you for feeling less awkward on your next self-submission.

Quick Tip: Camera ready

Happy Thanksgiving!

I don't have much time but just to let you know we're still alive here is a quick tip for actors and actresses.

*Don't wear all white or busy prints to an on camera audition, it looks bad on camera.

Here are 2 examples from old photos of me and my man, sorry, not professional, but you get the idea. I would never wear this to an audi!!

See this fabulous-chiquita-banana dress I used to rock? You don't wanna distract from your face like this. ^

See how I blend in the white background? You will to. Chances are, you will be reading in front of a white wall.

*Stick to neutral or flattering solid colors, pink (looks good on every skin tone) blues, greens and black all usually look great. Also note unless you are a blonde you will probably look washed out in yellow. And everyone looks hung over in grey. Unless you really did get sleep the night before your big audi, avoid grey.

Hope this helps! Also I joined dailybooth.com! If you're an exhibitionist like me, check it out, it's free:

http://dailybooth.com/freakygreeneyes

What's your quick tip for looking better on camera?

Preparing a monologue

Being that I live in the middle of nowhere, theatrically speaking, a girl has got to take what she can get.

That being said, I have rarely come across a casting in Las Vegas (where I am currently stationed, for the time being) that not only pays more than the gas it takes to get there but also seems fun.

I came across an odd posting on (where else?) www.Craigslist.org under tv/film/radio jobs. (which believe me, this section is USUALLY blank.)

FRIGHT DOME IS CASTING FOR A MINI-MOVIE / PROMO FOR NEW UPCOMING HORROR ATTRACTION THAT WILL BE OPENING IN OCTOBER!

ACTORS / ACTRESSES MUST:
BE BETWEEN 18 - 35 YEARS OF AGE
 BE IN GOOD PHYSICAL CONDITION
BE ABLE TO DO SCRIPTED DIALOG (APPROX 2 - 3 PAGES)
BE COMFORTABLE WITH HAVING SPECIAL MAKEUP FX DONE TO THEM AND / OR BEING AROUND OTHER SPECIAL MAKE-UP FX.

OPEN AUDITIONS WILL BE HELD ON ONLY AUGUST 1, 2009 FROM 10 AM - 8 PM
- YOU ABSOLUTELY MUST COME TO THE AUDITION AND DO MONOLOGUE / SCRIPT READING TO BE CONSIDERED. NO EXCEPTIONS!
- PLEASE BE PREPARED TO DO A 1 - 2 MINUTE MONOLOGUE / SCRIPT READING WHICH WILL BE PROVIDED ON AUDITION DAY.
- YOU WILL BE VIDEOTAPED DURING THE AUDITION IN ORDER TO HELP WITH THE CASTING DECISIONS
- PLEASE BE SURE A HEAD SHOT / PHOTO AND RESUME WITH YOU TO THE AUDITION.
COMPENSATION IS: $100 - $150 PER DAY DEPENDING ON WHICH PART YOU ARE CAST FOR.

• Location: Las Vegas
• Compensation: $100 - $150

So being the gloriously unemployed aspiring actress that I am at the moment, I took this little gem. A chance to actually prepare ANY monologue I want? Heck yes. 

I am looking for a creepy, scary, 20-25 yr old role. I am looking through some of my favorite monologue sites from high school (the only time I've ever actually needed a monologue) and need some help deciding what to do. Here are some favorite monologue sites of mine:

1) http://www.whysanity.net/monos/female.html  - They update this every year with new monologues and even have some really hard to find movie scenes, and sometime you have to email the owner and ask for them, but 99% are free for reading on the site. No made up monologue crap from a creative writing student. All real movies. No theater here, though. But you're not actually auditioning for film, are you? Where do you think you are? NYC?

2) http://www.monologuearchive.com/  - They have a great organized monologue selection, separated by classical and modern, dramatic and comedy. Very good older, classical selection. They also have a section for kids I have no explored. Mostly play monologues here. (As you can imagine, at 5'9 barefoot, I don't get a lot of disney auditions...)

3) Another great resource is Borders. Got to the literature section and there is a small section of monologue books, monolouge book sfor women, for men, for kids, from classical plays (not much from movies though.) and from different decades. My go to book, and most useful monologue book is a little purple paperback book called "100 women's stage monologues from the 1980's".

For this audition I'll be choosing a film, and a horror or thriller genre. My problem here is I don't watch scary movies. Because they scare me. (Don't judge me!) So I don't have much point of reference. I am looking for a girl in her 20's who is creepy or scary. I'm not going for the damsel in distress, but the villain. 

Any suggestions?

I'll put up the final 2 or 3 I choose up here when I have some good choices.

email me or Direct Message your suggestion to me on twitter (twitter.com/freakygreeneyes)!