 my name is Belgica and I'm an actress and today I'm going to talk about how to ask somebody to be your reader for your self-tape audition. I have been doing a few videos about readers recently and I thought this was a really good one because especially if you're new you might not prepare with a reader, you might not ask somebody in advance or have a couple of go-to people. Having a reader that is a text away is so important so you can nail your audition, you can get some more bookings and be prepared. It's part of being prepared just like you bought a ring light or a backdrop. You need to prepare by having a go-to reader and I wanted to share with you some of the things that I have done in the past in order to make sure I had a successful efficient self-tape audition as well as what I like to do in order to be a good reader. First, I want to remind you to not be afraid to say no to somebody. If somebody approaches you and says, hey, I need a go-to audition reader, will you be mine and I'll be yours. Don't be afraid to say no because if you don't want to, you don't want to for whatever reason it is, you don't necessarily like the person or you don't have the time. You might think I don't have that many auditions where I have to, where I need a reader and it wouldn't be a good trade. Don't be afraid to say no because there's plenty of other ways that they can find a reader. Now, if somebody says no to you also don't be offended because who cares? They don't want to be your reader. Oh well, move on. There's plenty of other people that are going to be able to be your reader. When you approach somebody to be your reader, you need to be prepared in also reciprocating that. So telling them, if you tell them I will also be your reader, you better make sure that when they are asking you if you're available and you are available, make sure you're helping them read or make sure you try and also help them out because of course they're eventually not going to want to be your reader if you're not reciprocating that. And when you ask them, communicate what you're going to want them for. Are you going to want them for rehearsals or only for self-tape auditions? And when you do have them for self-tape auditions, you can tell them, oh, I'll want your feedback sometimes of how I'm doing it or please. I don't want any kind of coaching any feedback because some people do that. Some people will give you feedback even when you don't ask it. So maybe you do it a certain way and they say, hey, what if in this part you do it like this and they give you a line reading? I personally don't like that, but some people do it. And that's when I would say, hey, I appreciate it, but let me play with the lines. Oh, I got it. Thank you. It can be a little bit difficult to communicate that to people and which is why I like to have a go-to person. So you don't have to go through any variables and figure out what this person is like during when they're readers. And if you have go-to people, you know how they're like, you know, if you do want feedback that they can give you feedback or not, you can also communicate with them if you're going to want them to be on book for you. So if you forget a line and or say a line wrong, are you going to want them to correct you or not? And how much time? This one is very, very important. When you ask somebody to be your reader, you want to give them the exact time. Hey, can you please help me with this self-tape audition for this feature? It's five pages long, so it might take us 45 minutes. It might take us 30 minutes. Only you know how many takes you're actually going to have to do once you're doing the, once you're actually filming the self-tape. So be prepared. Please be prepared before you go to shoot it with your reader because you're not going to want to tell them, Hey, it'll only take 30 minutes because what if they have a meeting and 45 minutes and they agreed to help you and then you're not even halfway done and you have to cut that and figure out how else to film it. So make sure you are prepared and you use them for the time that you told them that you were going to have them for. If this is something that you are pre-planning, let's say for tomorrow and they agree, okay, we will meet tomorrow at five. Just in case, because it is pretty last minute, make sure you text them about an hour before to let them know, Hey, just wanted to confirm you're still available in an hour that way if they forgot and they're at a grocery store or something and you're reminding them, they can say, Oh yes, I need to make sure I'm back home and my groceries are in my fridge so I can go help them and be a reader and make sure you send them the script as soon as possible so they can have a chance to at least read it once so they can be better prepared. Not everybody likes to read or cares to read the script before helping somebody when they're a reader. I like to so that I can make sure if I need to give them some time, you know, if they if they wanted me to have a long pause after a line or something like that, something specific, I am familiar with the script so I can help them out. I do really enjoy being a reader with my actor friends that I know really well because I have either already acted with them or collaborated with them in some way and I know how much of the feedback they want from me or I feel that they can actually communicate with me if I'm telling them too much or not enough. I try in general as a reader to not do anything except read. I've been a reader for a few of my friends and I have experienced different readers, non-actors and actors and it really just depends on me how it goes because I'm usually able to communicate pretty well with my reader and tell them what I need from them or what I don't need from them and sometimes I get a little frustrated if I need a break I tell them I need a break usually when I get frustrated it's because of me it's because I haven't completely memorized the lines or I'm really stressed out or I don't think I can do it or something like that but in general be nice to your reader, send your reader a thank you text, a thank you email, thank you whatever a gift card, whatever you want and yes I absolutely think you should always have a reader when you are doing an audition where it is a scene where there's more text than just the text that you are saying. I have a whole playlist on self-tape auditions if you want to go see that it's right here and at the end of every video I feature another channel this is today's feature if you would like to be featured on my next video make sure you're subscribed like this video and leave me a comment.