snowfender
06-17-2009, 12:36 AM
Okay, so I am not totally sure if I am allowed to make a thread like this because I haven't been here too long, but it is just some thing I have noticed. A lot of people are lacking auditions and have no idea why. How do I get more auditions? What am I doing wrong? Well, consider the following:
1. How does my audition thread look?
The most common thread template for auditions is seen here (http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/announcement.php?f=96) and some tips to making it seem nice is seen here (http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=36556). But, feel free to develop your own style. However, make it ORGANIZED. That is a main issue with audition threads. Does your thread look professional? Does it look clean? Is there a lot of unnecessary writing?
People don't want to have to go through 5 minutes of reading just to get to the actual character description or the audition lines. Adding some pictures may help more than you think (will explain later). Do you have correct (or as close to it) spelling and grammar? Not only does a nice-looking audition thread make it MUCH easier for people to audition, it attracts people because it's like, "Oh. This person took the time to organize the auditions nicely. They are probably dedicated and organized in their project as well." I guarantee that an organized audition thread will bring in more auditionees than an unorganized one.
Put spaces in between each different character instead of clumping all the characters together, even putting spaces in between your character's information and their audition lines, can help make your audition thread look neat as well. It keeps your audition from seeming too clumped together.
So this:
Dahlia
Description: She likes to eat pie and gets really angry when she doesn't get her pie, She is an impatient person, but willing to share her pie when asked kindly. One time, she tried to get pie, but there wasnt any pie, she got really angry and went ape mad. She destroyed the whole room and even flipped over a chair. She tried to not destroy the chair, but she destroyed it anyway. one time she ate a pie and it gave her a stomachache she was not really happy about it but she got over it. In the end of the story, she steals a pie but the pie explodes and then she explodes too and it teaches you the lesson of not eating stolen pie the end.
voice: like a woman
1: i like pie i like cherry pie, apple pie,blueberry pie, & ice cream pie
2: where is my pie, where is it??
Versus something like this (just an example of something I personally use):
Dahlia
Gender: Female
Description: She likes to eat pie and gets really angry when she doesn't get her pie. She is an impatient person, but willing to share her pie when asked kindly.
Voice Type: Medium-Low to Medium, Motherly
Line 1: (happy, explaining) I like pie! I like apple pie, cherry pie, blueberry pie, and ice cream pie!
Line 2: (angry) Where is my pie?! WHERE IS IT?!
Obviously, the second one looks a lot neater and will appeal more to people. It'll be much easier to read and therefore much easier to audition for.
2. How do you present your project?
Maybe you are doing a fandub, or maybe your are doing an original project. Well, not everyone has heard of every anime in the world and unless you have published your stories, not many people have heard of your original project.
So how do you describe your project to people in your thread? Do you only have one or two lines that a four year old could describe? Do you have 2 pages worth of writing going in-depth about the whole plot of the entire project? It's hard for people to audition for something if they have no idea what they are auditioning for. If you don't describe the project enough, it's like auditioning for a mystery. If you describe it too much, you turn off a lot of people because they really don't want to read 20 minutes worth of the story just to find out what the project's about. Even if you don't require the reading, don't put too much writing into your project's audition thread. Unfortunately, when people see a bunch of writing, they automatically think "boring."
So if you have over 4 paragraphs just about your project, they will take one look and go to different thread. On the flip side, if you have only 1 or 2 sentences about your project, people will have no idea what the project is even about. How can people be interested in a project if they have no idea what the premise is? Make sure to write a description of your project that is interesting, yet not too long. Leave the auditionees wondering a little themselves how the plot will go, but not too much where they have no idea what is going on in the project.
3. Are you reliable?
Besides organization, I think this is the most important aspect of a good audition thread. Are you known to start 10 different projects, only to cancel shortly after? Have you ever produced anything before? Did you JUST join the VAA? Have you shown signs that you are ready for the commitment of the project ahead of you? Do you even have a script?
If you are going around starting a bunch of projects and never finishing them, of course you are not getting auditions. People don't want to try out or put time and effort into something they think will never become anything. Look at your previous productions. How many of those actually were produced? How many times have you cancelled a project or "put it on hiatus" and never returned to it? If it's over 50%, then people will start to become less and less likely to audition for you.
If you are new to the VAA, show us what you had worked with before. Did you ever mix your own dubs? AMV's even? Show us samples that you are working on with your own project. If you show up, brand new, never posted before, and decide to do a full movie dub or an entire series based on your 40 chapter novel without showing us any of your previous experience, yes, people are going to be a little reluctant to audition for you. Do you know what you are going to do with the project once it gets started? Do you have a plan on how to mix, how to get the sound effects, the videos, etc.? Or were you just excited to do your project without even thinking about all that stuff? Before you begin your audition thread, take some time to plan all of it out. And at LEAST have your script planned out. You don't have to have the final script ready (though most people prefer it), but don't start a project with just your idea... your idea is not helpful when it comes to sending out scripts.
It helps to also bump your project up. Not so much so that every 20 minutes you are bumping it up- you do need patience with it- but enough so people see that you are dedicated and active in your project. Who wants to audition for a project that the producer doesn't even care about?
Also, not necessary, but I feel like getting more involved in the community yourself (posting here or there, auditioning for a few things, or commenting on other people) will get people to know you better. They will see that you are interested in sticking around the community and not just starting an audition thread only to disappear for the next 10 months.
4. Do you have a deadline?
Do you have a deadline, or is it "sometime around July" or "until I get enough auditions"? Is it first come, first serve? Is the deadline in less than a week or over 2 months? People like deadlines because they know when to organize their own schedule so that they can audition. However, if you give an unspecified deadline, a lot of people have no idea when they should audition, so they either put it off or they scram to audition because they feel like you might suddenly put a random deadline on there. So you either get no auditions or a few hurried auditions.
If it's first come, first serve, a lot of people are put off by that. Yeah, maybe you think you got the perfect voice. But what if there was someone even better for the part? You'll never know. Personally, I remember I thought I had the perfect voice for a project up until the very last day, when someone else auditioned. There always might be someone better for the part. Or, there might not be. But it's always more helpful to wait. Even if you don't find someone better, maybe you discover that the Person X didn't sound like Character A, but has the PERFECT voice for Character B, even if they didn't audition for that other character. Plus, having more characters open for auditions = more people likely to be interested. They will be more interested in the project since they see that Character A is still open, and Character A is a person they have ALWAYS wanted to voice.
And if you make your audition deadline TOO long, people will put it off forever. They'll think they have a long time, so they won't audition, resulting in less and less people really interested in the project in general since they put it in the back of their heads. It's nice to have a long deadline, but too long will make people not audition as quickly or people will forget. Having a deadline around 2-6 weeks (depending on how many people you are casting- more characters put a longer deadline) would be ideal. Having too short of a deadline (within a week) makes people feel too rushed or they don't have enough to plan for your audition.
5. Does your project seem attractive?
If your project was a person, would you hit on them at a bar? (Haha.:facefault) So this kind of goes with organization and the second question. But do you have pictures or only walls of text? Are your pictures so big that they stretch the screen? When you describe your project, do you act like you care? Is your project based off a popular anime/game? If it is an original project, does it seem interesting? Is it unique? Did you gear it towards females or males? How many female/male parts did you write in?
For pictures, it's nice to have pictures because then people will have something to visually imagine... plus, a lot of people are more visual people than text people. If you have 10+ roles with no pictures and not too much of a description, how will people know what kind of thing you are looking for? Pictures in general, especially if they are sized in an organized way, will make people see that you took time to actually make your audition process look nice, ultimately that you are a good producer. If your pictures are huge, it's hard for people to read your descriptions and lines. Make sure your pictures are nicely sized, if not all the same size.
Make sure that you have an interesting plot. Have you ever watched a movie trailer for a movie that seemed absolutely cliche and dull? Doesn't exactly make you want to jump up and buy some tickets to go see it on opening night, does it? The same goes for audition threads. Have a friend or someone read your work, or get a script editor. They will help you make sure your script is appealing. If your project is based off of a popular anime or game or something, it is very likely you will get a handful of auditions no matter what. However, by following everything, I think you'd get even more auditions!
If your project is not based off of something popular, make sure you gear the auditions so that the people who are interested in the project will want to audition. So, if you write a romantic comedy geared toward females yet you only have 2 female parts and 9 male parts, you might get a ton of female auditions but not as many male auditions. On the VAA, there's already an imbalance between females and males- there are definitely more females than males. Though there are plenty of good male actors, it is hard to see them audition for something that doesn't interest them.
Before you start your project, think what kind of audience you are looking for. If you want to write towards females, make sure you have a good amount of females in the project. If you are trying to dub Tokyo Mew Mew (or whatever it's called), don't expect for a bunch of males to jump all over the project.
6. How many characters are you auditioning for?
Are you auditioning 30+ characters? 2 Main characters but 10 extras?
A lot of people don't like to audition for just extras. It's boring! People like auditioning for actual characters. So... how do you fill the hole? Instead of listing a bunch of characters for you audition, list the characters that need specific voice types. Cast multiple extras through your auditions- no need to list them. Having too many characters put up, especially characters with line that say "Yo!" or something short like that, can put people off and make your auditions seem clunky.
7. What are your audition lines?
What kind of audition lines do you have? Are they ridiculously long? Are they one or two words? Do they show off your character's personality? Are the lines interesting? How many lines are you making people do?
Use lines that are important to show of your character's personality, or are key to your character. Say, your character is often hyper and happy- you'd want to have a line that has your character being hyper and happy. If your character is usually hyper and happy but has a scene where he/she is depressed and upset, also put a line where they are upset. Not only will this help get a grasp of your character and how they act, it grabs people's attentions. They will see that your characters have emotions or character types that they want to try out for.
Audition lines are very important in the audition- they are what gives you as the producer an idea what your auditionees will sound like. So if you have a one word audition line, it's often tough for both you to really see what your auditionees can do and for the auditionees to show of what they can do. Similarly, audition lines with no emotions (like "I'm going over to Sarah's house.") or without any importance (like "I'll be right back") can be boring and won't capture people, making them not want to audition.
Incredibly long lines can put people off. If you audition line is over a paragraph... probably not the best idea to use as an audition line (unless it is an important line- then feel free to and try not to have too many of them). Having 2-4 lines would usually be best, as you don't want to make people work TOO much just in the audition process by having 7 lines but you don't want to have too little so that they're barely even auditioning.
All right, that's about all I have to say. Feel free to add more, because I'm sure I haven't covered it all. Anyway, these aren't going to gaurantee you 80 people auditioning for your project, but they will help to get at least a few more auditionees (hopefully =x). I hope this has helped!
1. How does my audition thread look?
The most common thread template for auditions is seen here (http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/announcement.php?f=96) and some tips to making it seem nice is seen here (http://voiceactingalliance.com/board/showthread.php?t=36556). But, feel free to develop your own style. However, make it ORGANIZED. That is a main issue with audition threads. Does your thread look professional? Does it look clean? Is there a lot of unnecessary writing?
People don't want to have to go through 5 minutes of reading just to get to the actual character description or the audition lines. Adding some pictures may help more than you think (will explain later). Do you have correct (or as close to it) spelling and grammar? Not only does a nice-looking audition thread make it MUCH easier for people to audition, it attracts people because it's like, "Oh. This person took the time to organize the auditions nicely. They are probably dedicated and organized in their project as well." I guarantee that an organized audition thread will bring in more auditionees than an unorganized one.
Put spaces in between each different character instead of clumping all the characters together, even putting spaces in between your character's information and their audition lines, can help make your audition thread look neat as well. It keeps your audition from seeming too clumped together.
So this:
Dahlia
Description: She likes to eat pie and gets really angry when she doesn't get her pie, She is an impatient person, but willing to share her pie when asked kindly. One time, she tried to get pie, but there wasnt any pie, she got really angry and went ape mad. She destroyed the whole room and even flipped over a chair. She tried to not destroy the chair, but she destroyed it anyway. one time she ate a pie and it gave her a stomachache she was not really happy about it but she got over it. In the end of the story, she steals a pie but the pie explodes and then she explodes too and it teaches you the lesson of not eating stolen pie the end.
voice: like a woman
1: i like pie i like cherry pie, apple pie,blueberry pie, & ice cream pie
2: where is my pie, where is it??
Versus something like this (just an example of something I personally use):
Dahlia
Gender: Female
Description: She likes to eat pie and gets really angry when she doesn't get her pie. She is an impatient person, but willing to share her pie when asked kindly.
Voice Type: Medium-Low to Medium, Motherly
Line 1: (happy, explaining) I like pie! I like apple pie, cherry pie, blueberry pie, and ice cream pie!
Line 2: (angry) Where is my pie?! WHERE IS IT?!
Obviously, the second one looks a lot neater and will appeal more to people. It'll be much easier to read and therefore much easier to audition for.
2. How do you present your project?
Maybe you are doing a fandub, or maybe your are doing an original project. Well, not everyone has heard of every anime in the world and unless you have published your stories, not many people have heard of your original project.
So how do you describe your project to people in your thread? Do you only have one or two lines that a four year old could describe? Do you have 2 pages worth of writing going in-depth about the whole plot of the entire project? It's hard for people to audition for something if they have no idea what they are auditioning for. If you don't describe the project enough, it's like auditioning for a mystery. If you describe it too much, you turn off a lot of people because they really don't want to read 20 minutes worth of the story just to find out what the project's about. Even if you don't require the reading, don't put too much writing into your project's audition thread. Unfortunately, when people see a bunch of writing, they automatically think "boring."
So if you have over 4 paragraphs just about your project, they will take one look and go to different thread. On the flip side, if you have only 1 or 2 sentences about your project, people will have no idea what the project is even about. How can people be interested in a project if they have no idea what the premise is? Make sure to write a description of your project that is interesting, yet not too long. Leave the auditionees wondering a little themselves how the plot will go, but not too much where they have no idea what is going on in the project.
3. Are you reliable?
Besides organization, I think this is the most important aspect of a good audition thread. Are you known to start 10 different projects, only to cancel shortly after? Have you ever produced anything before? Did you JUST join the VAA? Have you shown signs that you are ready for the commitment of the project ahead of you? Do you even have a script?
If you are going around starting a bunch of projects and never finishing them, of course you are not getting auditions. People don't want to try out or put time and effort into something they think will never become anything. Look at your previous productions. How many of those actually were produced? How many times have you cancelled a project or "put it on hiatus" and never returned to it? If it's over 50%, then people will start to become less and less likely to audition for you.
If you are new to the VAA, show us what you had worked with before. Did you ever mix your own dubs? AMV's even? Show us samples that you are working on with your own project. If you show up, brand new, never posted before, and decide to do a full movie dub or an entire series based on your 40 chapter novel without showing us any of your previous experience, yes, people are going to be a little reluctant to audition for you. Do you know what you are going to do with the project once it gets started? Do you have a plan on how to mix, how to get the sound effects, the videos, etc.? Or were you just excited to do your project without even thinking about all that stuff? Before you begin your audition thread, take some time to plan all of it out. And at LEAST have your script planned out. You don't have to have the final script ready (though most people prefer it), but don't start a project with just your idea... your idea is not helpful when it comes to sending out scripts.
It helps to also bump your project up. Not so much so that every 20 minutes you are bumping it up- you do need patience with it- but enough so people see that you are dedicated and active in your project. Who wants to audition for a project that the producer doesn't even care about?
Also, not necessary, but I feel like getting more involved in the community yourself (posting here or there, auditioning for a few things, or commenting on other people) will get people to know you better. They will see that you are interested in sticking around the community and not just starting an audition thread only to disappear for the next 10 months.
4. Do you have a deadline?
Do you have a deadline, or is it "sometime around July" or "until I get enough auditions"? Is it first come, first serve? Is the deadline in less than a week or over 2 months? People like deadlines because they know when to organize their own schedule so that they can audition. However, if you give an unspecified deadline, a lot of people have no idea when they should audition, so they either put it off or they scram to audition because they feel like you might suddenly put a random deadline on there. So you either get no auditions or a few hurried auditions.
If it's first come, first serve, a lot of people are put off by that. Yeah, maybe you think you got the perfect voice. But what if there was someone even better for the part? You'll never know. Personally, I remember I thought I had the perfect voice for a project up until the very last day, when someone else auditioned. There always might be someone better for the part. Or, there might not be. But it's always more helpful to wait. Even if you don't find someone better, maybe you discover that the Person X didn't sound like Character A, but has the PERFECT voice for Character B, even if they didn't audition for that other character. Plus, having more characters open for auditions = more people likely to be interested. They will be more interested in the project since they see that Character A is still open, and Character A is a person they have ALWAYS wanted to voice.
And if you make your audition deadline TOO long, people will put it off forever. They'll think they have a long time, so they won't audition, resulting in less and less people really interested in the project in general since they put it in the back of their heads. It's nice to have a long deadline, but too long will make people not audition as quickly or people will forget. Having a deadline around 2-6 weeks (depending on how many people you are casting- more characters put a longer deadline) would be ideal. Having too short of a deadline (within a week) makes people feel too rushed or they don't have enough to plan for your audition.
5. Does your project seem attractive?
If your project was a person, would you hit on them at a bar? (Haha.:facefault) So this kind of goes with organization and the second question. But do you have pictures or only walls of text? Are your pictures so big that they stretch the screen? When you describe your project, do you act like you care? Is your project based off a popular anime/game? If it is an original project, does it seem interesting? Is it unique? Did you gear it towards females or males? How many female/male parts did you write in?
For pictures, it's nice to have pictures because then people will have something to visually imagine... plus, a lot of people are more visual people than text people. If you have 10+ roles with no pictures and not too much of a description, how will people know what kind of thing you are looking for? Pictures in general, especially if they are sized in an organized way, will make people see that you took time to actually make your audition process look nice, ultimately that you are a good producer. If your pictures are huge, it's hard for people to read your descriptions and lines. Make sure your pictures are nicely sized, if not all the same size.
Make sure that you have an interesting plot. Have you ever watched a movie trailer for a movie that seemed absolutely cliche and dull? Doesn't exactly make you want to jump up and buy some tickets to go see it on opening night, does it? The same goes for audition threads. Have a friend or someone read your work, or get a script editor. They will help you make sure your script is appealing. If your project is based off of a popular anime or game or something, it is very likely you will get a handful of auditions no matter what. However, by following everything, I think you'd get even more auditions!
If your project is not based off of something popular, make sure you gear the auditions so that the people who are interested in the project will want to audition. So, if you write a romantic comedy geared toward females yet you only have 2 female parts and 9 male parts, you might get a ton of female auditions but not as many male auditions. On the VAA, there's already an imbalance between females and males- there are definitely more females than males. Though there are plenty of good male actors, it is hard to see them audition for something that doesn't interest them.
Before you start your project, think what kind of audience you are looking for. If you want to write towards females, make sure you have a good amount of females in the project. If you are trying to dub Tokyo Mew Mew (or whatever it's called), don't expect for a bunch of males to jump all over the project.
6. How many characters are you auditioning for?
Are you auditioning 30+ characters? 2 Main characters but 10 extras?
A lot of people don't like to audition for just extras. It's boring! People like auditioning for actual characters. So... how do you fill the hole? Instead of listing a bunch of characters for you audition, list the characters that need specific voice types. Cast multiple extras through your auditions- no need to list them. Having too many characters put up, especially characters with line that say "Yo!" or something short like that, can put people off and make your auditions seem clunky.
7. What are your audition lines?
What kind of audition lines do you have? Are they ridiculously long? Are they one or two words? Do they show off your character's personality? Are the lines interesting? How many lines are you making people do?
Use lines that are important to show of your character's personality, or are key to your character. Say, your character is often hyper and happy- you'd want to have a line that has your character being hyper and happy. If your character is usually hyper and happy but has a scene where he/she is depressed and upset, also put a line where they are upset. Not only will this help get a grasp of your character and how they act, it grabs people's attentions. They will see that your characters have emotions or character types that they want to try out for.
Audition lines are very important in the audition- they are what gives you as the producer an idea what your auditionees will sound like. So if you have a one word audition line, it's often tough for both you to really see what your auditionees can do and for the auditionees to show of what they can do. Similarly, audition lines with no emotions (like "I'm going over to Sarah's house.") or without any importance (like "I'll be right back") can be boring and won't capture people, making them not want to audition.
Incredibly long lines can put people off. If you audition line is over a paragraph... probably not the best idea to use as an audition line (unless it is an important line- then feel free to and try not to have too many of them). Having 2-4 lines would usually be best, as you don't want to make people work TOO much just in the audition process by having 7 lines but you don't want to have too little so that they're barely even auditioning.
All right, that's about all I have to say. Feel free to add more, because I'm sure I haven't covered it all. Anyway, these aren't going to gaurantee you 80 people auditioning for your project, but they will help to get at least a few more auditionees (hopefully =x). I hope this has helped!