 just got a self-tape audition request from my agency, MDT in San Francisco, and it's a software company who is looking for an actor to make videos for their YouTube channel. So these videos would be instructional videos on their product that will live on their YouTube channel for two years, or longer if an additional rate is negotiated after those two years. This is right on my alley. If I don't book this, then they must have been looking for somebody with a completely different look. They even sent an example of a different software company where they're giving the same vibe. So they sent me the script and it's due tomorrow night. It's basically what I'm doing right now on my YouTube channel except I'm going to say step one, step two. I'm just gonna have as much fun as I can and really pay attention to what they're looking for as far as the tone. I look through other commercials that they have on their YouTube channel, the commercials that they actually posted in different places and not just for educational purposes on their YouTube channel. They usually book actors who are not modally and their makeup is usually super supernatural and then dress like I've seen a lot of therapy people dress. Time to memorize. I did post my script in the shower and I brought it with me everywhere because I did have to memorize a bunch of lines within 24 hours. Here I am again, practicing the lines. Just finished memorizing for another 18 minutes and I've been on and off just saying the lines randomly like during lunch I said it once and I'm not all the way there. In handwriting it is almost two pages and it's a little half-deep but I am trying my best to memorize it and I want to do two different takes. I'm gonna get the outfits together for that. I still have a long time so I'm gonna do other work in between and memorize these lines. It's a host audition so I don't necessarily need to do a lot of character analysis because it is very much about my personality. I just have to make sure that I'm nailing down the tone of it. Do I want to emphasize anything in particular? Do I want to have excitement about any sections? This audition is due in six hours. They did put in the email sooner the better but I know I can deliver a way better audition if I just take my time and really get those lines to go into my brain. Since I just memorized I'm gonna play some music, choose my outfits, do something else and then come back to this. Like I mentioned I looked at the commercials that they've done in the past and I saw a lot of very casual clothing and solid colors so I decided to go with this green and this white along with this blue backdrop because it just felt very friendly and effortless. I just did my makeup very natural and I should put my outfit on but then I was like wait my self-tape audition stuff isn't even set up so I'm gonna wear the green dress for the more formal one. It's gonna be like more educational than friendly and then I'm gonna wear this for the more friendly one so let's put this up. If you're interested in what I use to fill myself tapes it does change quite a bit but usually I use a savage paper seamless backdrop. This right here is a 53 inch and the stand is also from savage and because I do have carpet in my bedroom I do have to put a cheeseboard in order to stand on the seamless and for it not to crinkle. My hairstylist recommended this texturizer which is amazing for volume and then also a flexible hairspray which does help me get these waves. This is just what my hair does now after the haircut that I got and then here I'm getting the famous full body shot. I love the way it looks with the seamless. I'm getting so sweaty already. Name high agency what I'm reading for and then both profiles. I was able to get my slate in about seven takes. Nowadays it takes me less time but I was stumbling. Take one. What's up everyone? I'm Velhika and I'm here to explain four, five, you two. Okay so apparently each take is like four minutes. I'm like sweating. Can you see the shiny? What's up everyone? Okay so that take was three minutes but I did stumble and had to retake so maybe it's more like two minutes? I don't know. I'm gonna try another one. What's up everyone? I'm Velhika here to explain what clamor... Wait am I recording? I thought I did a whole take without recording. Okay I think I did a take with like without stopping but you know what I might do since I still have time? I think I'm gonna take a break, eat dinner and do it again and do the other the other style if I have time because I feel like I'm just working myself really really hard and it's hot in here and the lighting is changing a little bit so I'm gonna take a little break. What's up everyone? And here I'm after that I'm trying to get it together. What's up everyone? Nothing? Oh my god I'm running out of coughing but I'm not gonna have time to straighten my hair so I'm gonna try and do this look. I'm gonna be more assertive. It's a little more serious today. Here to explain what's up everyone. Wow that was so chaotic. Okay here's me finally being like that's enough takes. Well the audition has officially been sent over and not that I want nothing like I wanted it to go but it went pretty differently. I'm not ecstatic about it but like I'm happy you can see my personality, the energy's there and just like I wanted it to be a little bit different but that's okay. There will be more. There will be more. I've had some time to think about yesterday. I just watched back the audition again and I still feel okay about it. I was just trying to think about how it could have been better and first of all the amount that I had to memorize for this within about 24 hours was three times more than what I've been practicing so I've been doing a lot of memorizing practice which I am going to do my actor check-in in a second because I have my my planner here but so that was one thing and I did end up using a teleprompter because after I was doing so many takes I was like okay I should just use a teleprompter and then the teleprompter was confusing me because I would say some of it because I didn't know it but then I would look at the teleprompter and be like oh what part am I in? Anyway so I ended up using the teleprompter to help me actually finish it. I think if I would have had at least like two more days to really get it solid in my brain it would have been more genuine and more exciting and fun to watch so I did have COVID in June and I hadn't had a coughing fit like this in a few days to the point where I even told my agents like hey no more coughing fits but when I was filming this audition I don't know if it was like the heat of the room or what but I started having a coughing fit so in those last few takes you do see like my eyes a bit glossy um so that was unfortunate so I know I could have improved that if I like drink tea or something and then for the green dress I did not end up sending in a take with it because based off of the information that they sent the example that they sent I felt like what I was doing of being more serious and more straightforward was just not what they were looking for so I decided you know this one isn't so strong and it's not even what they're asking for so I'm gonna go ahead and not do that one. As far as making it better I don't know how much I could have made it better because of the circumstances of being exhausted and having that coughing fit but something I have done recently that I really like is doing two filming sessions for that self-tape so once I feel like it's ready to be filmed I go and film it a few takes like you saw I did a few takes and then I'll take a break um and then I come back and film it again and usually the second time that I come and film it I just feel a lot more relaxed like okay I've done this I've done this you know filming it I've done it on its feet so usually the second time I do it I feel much better about it like the the lines are more in my in my body in my head like I'm just able to say them a lot better without having to look at the script um I feel more relaxed and more confident like okay I already know I got a couple of good takes last time so these are just bonus and for this one I did end up sending over a take from the second session that's something I used to never do like before when I got up and filmed it I'd be like okay we're using a take from here but recently I decided to do another session and I just felt so much more comfortable and confident um but now I'm like okay this is gonna be part of my routine now now I have to do like now I have to make sure that I have like two chunks in that day in order to film it now let's do the actor check-in if you haven't seen my Saturday vlogs before I do an actor check-in where I talk about the routine that I do every week which is memorize every day do scene study and do industry research and agent research and this week I memorized five times I did scene study twice and then I did agent research twice and I also did a self-tape audition practice and then another thing I've been doing is skating I skated three times this week because I do want to get really good at skating so I can get cast in something where I skate whether it be a commercial film tv whatever so let me know what you guys did this week to improve your acting to get further in your acting career um but at the end of every video I feature another channel and this is today's feature if you guys also want to check out an affordable self-tape kit I made a video about it right here um but thanks so much for watching