I love Pulp Fiction. I saw it on a plane, and it was really cute. It’s a thirty-minute film about a group of friends who love cheeseburgers, dancing and the Bible.Wait – what’d I miss? Oh….
Okay then – let’s talk tonality. It’s one of the most important aspects of an audition. I recently attended a workshop in which a casting director from “NCIS” was nice enough to pass around a set of rules (pictured above) for auditioning for her show.
It was amazingly helpful. You see, auditioning is kind of like a helicopter: 1000 parts all working against each other to kill you. So it’s incredibly important, especially in TV auditions, to know the tone of what you’re auditioning for.
For instance, a program like “Bones” seems like a serious procedural show, but if you watch an episode you’ll see it’s actually playful, with a flirty vibe between the two leads.
Meanwhile, sitcoms come in two varieties: “multi camera,” which has a live audience and a heightened sense of stakes – like “The Big Bang Theory,” or “single camera,” shot more intimately like “The Office.” “The Office” is also included in a subsection of one-camera sitcoms which are mockumentary-style, like “Parks & Recreation” and “Modern Family.” And then there’s the improv-based “Curb Your Enthusiasm.”
Here’s the bad news and the good news: the bad is you have to know the tone of every single show on TV or you just won’t book any roles, and the good is you have to know the tone of every single show on TV, so you have to watch them all. Is there any career on the planet that has a more laid-back research method? You can do this one while stuffing your face with Cool Ranch Doritos.
So get crackin’. It’s Thursday – best TV night of the week. And “The Mentalist” ain’t gonna watch itself.
