 let's just start with self-tape gear because I have a lot of it and it's what I get the most use out of and what actually makes me money. For self-tape auditions, you can get a 53 inch or an 86 inch. These are Savage Universal seamless paper backdrops. You can make them a lot taller depending on what stand you have. A few things about what I'm gonna mention today, you might do it anyway, but I'm gonna tell you, I made the mistake of buying the cheaper version first and then I bought the cheaper version a second and third time. And then finally, I was like, you know what? I should just get a nicer version that's not going to break. For example, these paper backdrop stands. This one is the more affordable version but then you're gonna keep buying them. So I suggest buying one that is more sturdy that's gonna last a long time. This color is thunder gray and this color is fashion gray but I also really like Studio Blue for self-tape auditions. In the past, I thought 53 inches more than enough but now that I've wanted to have more movement in my self-tapes, I actually think 86 inch is better except if you don't have space. If where you're filming, you just don't have enough space for it, I totally get it. My bedroom, which is where I fill my self-tapes is 10 by 12 feet and it's barely comfortable enough so that I can put this up but they also have pop-up versions. These pop-up backdrops I think are fine and you'll basically get a Studio Blue on one side and fashion gray on the other. Those are fine for the shots that are this close. Great for traveling or saving space because you're just gonna put it on one tripod versus two for the backdrop but when you wanna get a full body shot, a vertical shot, you're going to start noticing these outlines. It's not gonna look as clean and seamless as the seamless papers so those are definitely better for full body shots and these are better if you just don't have a lot of space. But also, you can just put these up without any tripods at all by just taping it up onto your wall. Here's another example of buying the more affordable thing and then having to buy it again and again. So this is an affordable tripod that I bought like three times and finally I was like, you know what, this keeps breaking. It works fine but it keeps breaking and it's just really not sturdy. So I ended up investing in one that is way more sturdy and I've had for at least two years. The tripod does not come with a phone mount but this is metal and it doesn't have any springs so I know it's gonna last a long time. Here is a pop-up reflector and this, I mean, it's a reflector of light so it just helps you get better lighting, super affordable and I just, I like having things like this especially if I'm gonna go take photos outside for those commercial auditions. We have to put our measurements especially if you're doing commercial auditions where they care about your measurements and what you look like. So a fabric tape, measuring tape, what is this called? A soft measuring tape. Eventually they will ask you for your measurements either because they want you to have a certain look but more likely because they want to be able to dress you and buy your wardrobe for you. It's a lot easier to measure your body with this than a metal construction one. Keep these in a place where you will find them or you will end up buying 30 of them. Right now I'm using the microphone that I usually use for my voiceover auditions which is a CAD GXL 2400 USB but this is a mic that I got at a camera store that I attached directly to my phone and I do not need an adapter. And then I have a little dead bunny on top of it of course for in case there's any wind or anything. One of the most frustrating things is when you run out of storage while you are editing or while you are filming a self-tape audition. So for people with Samsung's you can just put a micro SD. People with iPhones you are going to need an adapter and basically never run out of memory. And then while you're editing you also want to have storage. This little baby thing holds my entire 2020 and 21 life experience and self-tape auditions. So I so recommend it does not get hot because it's an SSD. I don't know guys. I just, somebody close to me is good at this stuff and they're right. It doesn't get hot and it's super fast when I'm editing. This next one is almost like a reach. You know, I did get this as a gift because I just couldn't like get myself to be like it's just something you need for yourself tapes but this baby, it's a stabilizer. You don't necessarily need them for your auditions but this would be really nice if you're filming like a UGC audition where you're walking around and want it to be stabilized. Your shots are gonna look so much better. It just feels like a little robot. I love it. And if you're like me and have started some kind of seamless connection, collection, have I formed a connection with these? And if you're like me and have started some kind of collection of seamless papers cause you do need them for some stuff. Maybe you don't need all of them but you do need a couple of colors. Anyways, if you started a collection there is a really cool storage item cause you should store these vertically. There's storage thing that you can mount on your wall and they can look so beautiful. I don't have it right now because this is my bedroom and I'm trying my best not to take over the entirety of it so it still feels like a bedroom for my partner. I almost forgot you guys the ring light that I have used since 2017, 18, I thought died but it didn't. I just plugged it in and I'm actually using it for this video right now. The one I'm using is from a self-tape kit from Casting Workbook but this other light right here is essentially the same thing just a little bit older and that ring light has lasted so many years. Ring lights are pretty good for fill light. Sometimes people hate that it gives you these circles in your eyes, I really don't care. And you can use reflectors to make it better or additional lighting depending on your situation but I do love ring lights because without them this is what we would look like. Not as fun. What do you wanna know next? Books, let's talk about books. The power of the actor is a really good book. I have mostly taken in person acting classes and to be honest, I'm like heavily obsessed with the miser technique but this book is just from the beginning it already has like the 12 tools. Basically all of the things that you learn in an acting class this one has like all of the basic things like your inner monologue and your objective and the moment before and the moment after. They explain this in a really simple way, easy way. So the power in actor recommend this book for sure for anybody. Even if you do like one technique I think you should try a bunch of different ones because I am very guilty of going to an acting classic to audit a class and being like, I love it. And then I go to another one and I was like, I'm like, wait, this one's better. If you've ever completed the Meissner training this will remind you of all of the little things and I really like it. Recommend this book. Even if you've never taken it, just do it. This is another one. Maybe read this one first and then this one. This one reads a little harder. If you've never done acting you're gonna be like, what is he talking about? This one I have an audible and I've listened to so many times. Jenna Fisher is from the office of course and this is the actor's, what is it called? The actor's life, a survival guide. It reminds you like keep working hard. I'm likely not gonna be easy. Maybe you'll be like an overnight success and you know, book a show in your 20s or whatever. Maybe you'll do it in your 60s, who knows? But it gives you a good idea of just what to expect. Acting is not linear so just keep working hard and speaking of working hard I love this book as an actor, atomic habits. It's very, very good for keeping you inspired and going and I think even when you fall off a little bit of working hard towards acting this one will put you back on. Let's just stay with like the inspirational stuff. I love it as an actor because it helps you approach creativity and a lot of people say, oh, I'm not creative and I've honestly never believed that because I love crafting and I love acting but also just getting creative in other ways and this is so fun in exploring your creativity and allowing you to like tell yourself like, yeah, I'm creative, I can do it. This one as an actor I think is really important but again, just as a human in general, the mastery of love that I need to read it again. It's been a few years but it's stuck with me so much because it helps you understand relationships and how to just like let it go. You know, you love somebody, let it go. You don't expect whatever from them just allow them to give them their love. However, they're capable of doing it. This is good for creating your characters and understanding your characters of people that you are playing. This one I've had since college. I had to read it in college about auditions. I mean, it's pretty like self-explanatory. This book is a monologue book and it is unique because it's a monologue for Latinx people. Even if you are not Latinx, I think you should read it and discover other playwrights because they have like a photo of the playwright and then they have some information about the playwright. List of plays and then websites and then a couple of monologues. The five minute journal is really great. Another really great present for pretty much anybody. And this one has sections for the morning and the night. So you can really reflect on what you wanna do today and what happened today. That was great or what you can do to improve your day. And that one I love so much. It's a little pricey but it's also really good quality. It's nice and thick. It comes in different colors. So after you know how to act and get cast and whatever, you're gonna have to go to set. So let's take a look at my onset must-haves because there are a few things that I'm like, this just makes me feel more professional and more prepared and organized. And then there's a few things that I've added recently to my wish list that somebody can maybe get me. If not, I can just buy for myself. I feel so much more professional. When I take a garment bag, this one is like $15, $20. And I have another one that is so fancy and I can take traveling and that's the one on my wish list right now. But a garment bag will make you look so much more professional and organized. You can put it on a bunch of hangers, put your hangers through this loop. You can put your name here. Also just peek in case somebody else has a garment bag. You can peek and be like, okay, that one is mine. And it has section for two shoes. And it just really makes me feel like good, professional, good walking on to set. Like I got my garment bag and my backpack, my water bottle. If somebody's getting your water bottle for you, it's really helpful if you just have your name on it because you don't have to be like, oh, it's the black one. A lot of people have black water bottles so you can be like, it's the one with my name. It's the blue shiny one with my name on it. I love makeup artists. I really do, but I'm always nervous to see if like the makeup artist that I'm gonna work with today is actually gonna be like completely sanitary and have the things that I need. And one of the things that they usually don't have because like it'd be a lot to have this for everybody is like a whole nail kit to make sure that your nails are fine. Clipping your nails or just making them look better than they are looking or if you get a hang now. So one of these little guys and this glass nail file. So much better than any nail file I've ever used before, these glass ones. And this one has like a little thing so that you're not smashing it on something and breaking it. Chopsticks, different kinds of chopsticks. There's these really affordable ones, Nivea. And then there's the sugar ones that I absolutely love but are like 10 times the price. Sunscreen, even if you don't think you're going to be outside, you never know. It's so much better to just have sunscreen and put it on because you don't wanna be burnt especially if you're gonna be filming for more than one days and you get a really bad sunburn on day one. Hair clips, so you can just get your hair out of your way as long as you don't mess it up when you're on set. And I have this robe on my wish list because when you go to set, you put on wardrobe and it's really nice and then you have lunch. And then you're gonna film again. So sometimes they ask you to change out of your wardrobe or they just trust you, which they shouldn't trust you. It's food, like anything can happen. So instead of having to change, get a long robe that can cover you completely and then you can protect all of the clothes that you're wearing. Two more things that are on my current wish list is this makeup organizer and this jewelry organizer. That makeup organizer has a mirror around it. For now, I have this cute little pouch that I think I got for Christmas one year that you can just put all of your jewelry in but this one has little pockets all around and then in the middle, it's just a circle. So you can put whatever you want, necklaces or whatever and then you can tie in it. So jewelry organizer. You don't have to take your makeup to set but I'm very paranoid that like something happens to the makeup artist or if the makeup artist doesn't have things for me or if I just don't feel comfortable with them using their stuff because of the way I saw them use it on like three people and didn't weren't clean about it but I usually trust them and let them do my makeup with their stuff. A coloring book. I was gifted this one time when I was traveling well, not this exact one but the same Johanna Brass Ford and I'm about to travel again. So I bought a new one and I think this is really fun to take on set because if there's kids there you can like rip out a page and give it to them or it's just a nice conversation starter and something that you can do and that you'll still feel open. Like it's not like reading a book that they're scared to interrupt you reading the book or this is a good thing to have on set to pass time because sometimes you're waiting a long time and then of course headphones and something on your computer or your phone or you can also take a tablet or something to read your books in if you get tired of like one book. So just having like more things than you think you will need as far as entertaining yourself especially if you are background or especially if you're doing something that's multi-day having stuff to do in between takes or in between scenes is gonna save you because you get so mentally and physically exhausted when you really just have to wait like something at least for me about just waiting around makes me so exhausted and if I have something to do instead of just waiting it like keeps my energy up, it keeps me going more. Props, props are things that you can use for your auditions. Glasses, sometimes they ask for like funky people or people with style so buying different kinds of glasses to just make you look different. An extra phone, you can actually buy a fake like phone online and you can just like have a thing. I just kept my old one for your auditions because sometimes you do need to like be talking or like texting, especially commercial auditions where they wanna see like your hands and how they interact with phones. A clipboard if you are playing a doctor or a teacher or anything it's, you know, a nice little prop. A stethoscope, I can't believe I don't have a stethoscope yet but it is on my list of like fun props to have because I would love to play a doctor or be like a really sassy nurse. Speaking of nurse scrubs, you can go to a thrift store or buy it online but scrubs are not that hard to find and purchase and if you're in commercial or theatrical work, whatever it is very likely that you're going to audition for a nurse or a doctor. So I also have like a longer lab coat for doctor types or pharmaceutical commercials, especially LA and especially the San Francisco Bay area. You often have things we have to be like business casual so definitely have a blazer and some like business casual shirts, business trendy shirts, outfits because you'll need them for the auditions to just like make you feel more in that scene, in that commercial but also sometimes they ask you for wardrobe options and you do not need to buy these things but it's always nice when you can provide some wardrobe options for them to choose from. Unless you are auditioning for somebody who has like personal style edgy, you'll probably need just really simple basic jewelry. So I have like smaller earrings, very small but like just it just gives it a little bit of a, you know, it just makes the outfit a little bit better. Mostly use this for when I go on set but sometimes in an audition I'm like, oh this mom would feel like that or like a Christmas commercial for jewelry you just wanna wear something. So like smaller dainty jewelry. These are just some of the things that I use as an actor. I did make last year during the Christmas season. I made a video on gifts for actors plus the creatives and stuff. So you can go watch this video because I have a lot of other things on there that I love using, including something that I use to do my own manicures because in acting a lot of time they're like shows your hands and your profile. So it's nice to be able to show your hands when they look really nice.