Sunday, January 18, 2009

Foresight and Hindsight, Colliding

As I mentioned in my last post, there isn't much point in auditioning if you're in a frame of mind and body that you can't pull it off. I wrote that Thursday - but apparently forgot about it by Saturday. Either that, or the opportunity was just good enough to grab up those boot straps again.

Desire to keep moving forward and excessive optimism helped me trick myself into heading into the city yesterday to audition for a great role in an upcoming feature film. The location, people and experience were great; I wasn't.

The travel had me feeling a little strange and heady upon arrival and I was having trouble connecting with the script provided. Also, auditions were running ahead of schedule so I had barely even gotten through one silent read of the script before I was asked to come in and audition with a cold read.

The casting assistant and director were cordial and polite. The casting room threw me entirely off-balance. I have never auditioned in a green screen setting before, and to do so reading cold had me a little disoriented and distracted. Sadly, I think I let it show. Ouch. Oh well.

While I don't think I'll get called for the part, I did learn some things. Mainly, I learned that I need to get better at ignoring my surroundings. Green screen or no green screen, it shouldn't have mattered. Once I made the decision to walk through that door, I should have been good to go even if there was a live studio audience and circus animals milling around.

Secondly, I could have done more to control my time and review of the script - there was one girl who was supposed to go ahead of me who was reading the script when I got there. She felt unprepared to go, and I deferred to her to be nice. I should have held my ground.

Whatever happens, this was the biggest thing I've auditioned for to date and I'm thankful I had the opportunity. While the adventure did set my health back a little bit again, I'm ultimately glad I worked through it and hope that I can apply the lessons moving forward.

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