Get That Commercial!

by Doug Lamoreux

Most commercial auditions; that is, auditions for television spots wherein a product will be sold, are done as cold readings. A Production Assistant will give you a script and maybe five or ten minutes to prepare.

Most of the actors you’re competing with (and possibly even you - before you read this article) will try to memorize the script; reciting the lines exactly as written. And they will lose the job!

They will have a lapse in memory sometime during their thirty seconds in the spotlight. They’ll hesitate, stumble or pause at the wrong time and recover badly while the casting director gazes dully. Even if they do manage to correctly memorize the piece; they will deliver exactly that - a stale memorized piece.

The director will scribble a note and, most likely without looking up, say, “Thank you” with all the energy of a Circuit Court Judge giving somebody directions to the Probation Office. They’ve had enough. The actor has blown it and you will too - if you try to memorize the script. Trust me, ten minutes is not enough time to confidently memorize a piece. In fact, if you’d like a recipe for total disaster, try to memorize it! I guarantee you will ruin your audition, lose the job and leave feeling disappointed and embarrassed.

You have only minutes to prepare. How do you avoid all of this and turn audition disaster into success? How do you get that commercial?

There’s a secret that, taken to heart and used religiously at auditions, will put you miles ahead of nearly every other performer at any cold reading commercial audition:

Learn the role; not the lines.

When you get the script, pull out that trusty pen you carry to every audition and for the next sixty seconds forget about being an actor. You will become a surgeon.

Take a moment to read the copy carefully and then dissect it. Don’t concentrate on what the words say, decide what the copy is about. What are you selling? Who are you supposed to be? What is your character? Why is that character excited about the product? How does that character want to sell the product to others?

Find the name of the product. Underline it. Find the descriptive words, the adjectives and adverbs, the colorful words and phrases that highlight the product. Circle them.

Read the copy again. Decide how to emphasize what’s important. Draw slashes where you want to pause for emphasis or a breath. (Yes, plan where you take your breaths!) Pauses, any pauses, either help or hinder your performance. Make them count in a positive way.

You have only minutes to go before you’re on.

Read the commercial again. Now you have an idea of who your character is and how you will proceed. Practice the script with that performance in mind.

Don’t try to memorize it. You can’t and the director doesn’t care. He’s heard it seventy times already and doesn’t care if you say the words verbatim. He wants a performance; something he hasn’t seen already. He wants you to bring out the excitement of the ad, he doesn’t care about the phraseology. He’s looking for a character he can believe in, someone he can trust, someone from whom he’d buy the product.

Get comfortable reading, in character, at performance level. When you’re called, take the script with you, hold it below chest level (where you can see it, but it doesn’t block your face from the camera) and use it as your guide. Don’t fight with the paper, trying to deliver a memorized portion, then drawing it up again to see where you are. Use the script as your guide and deliver a performance.

Do this every time you audition for a commercial, get good at it, and you’ll blow ninety percent of your competition out of the water. As you build confidence, you’ll find that auditioning for commercials; once a nerve wracking, dreadful experience is now an exciting challenge. And you can smile when you see that long line of actors auditioning for the same role you are; knowing only ten percent can even compete with you.

END

Doug Lamoreux is a Chicago area actor/writer with 28 years experience on stage, on television and in film. He is the author of “Lights, Camera, Success: The 14 Secrets You Must Know to Make It in the Entertainment Industry”.

www.lightscamerasuccess.com