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Auditions: Read ALL The Copy!
Understand Key Points, Or Else ...
By Juan Carlos Bagnell
Audio Engineer
 I worked on two projects recently where quite a few people missed some very key points on some pretty decent auditions. The first one was basic. Producers sent us in a 30-second spot that was WAY over-written. We've seen that before, no big surprise. But the agency did provide time codes at the top.
Only a third of the people auditioning noticed those time codes. The others had prepped a 60-second style read, and were completely unprepared for a faster take.
The person who booked the job came out of the one -third that noticed the time code.
YOU'RE JOKING?
The other audition lapse was a bit more obscure.
We got a great TV spot for a luxury car. Very simply written, sophisticated with a little bit of a wink. They not only had time notes, but little storyboards and descriptions of what was happening in the spot. The twist to the commercial was the music - an old 1990s cheesy hip-hop jam, to allow the spot to not take itself too seriously.
First I was shocked at how many people had completely disregarded the notes and storyboards (I would say almost a third), and had decided to just deliver their best Sloyan or Lyman impressions. Only one person caught the music cue and knew what it was. Guess who booked the job? In this age of Blackberries and iPhones, not looking up a piece of info (in this case a music cue) literally meant the difference between booking a job and not. Juan Carlos Bagnell, aka “Some Audio Guy,” is a veteran audio engineer who writes a highly entertaining and informative blog: Ramblings of Some Audio Guy.
Email: someaudioguy@gmail.com
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