The Infernal Devices RQs

To give you guys a head start before the site re-opens, I now present to you...TID Required Monologues for our May Voting Cycle! (I'll also be posting these on Facebook and Tumblr later today.)


Tessa

TID: Tessa: "Perfectly Harmless" — Chapter Sixteen, 350-352 (Begin "Nate...", end "...no place for us in New York, Nate.")

TID: Tessa: "I Won't Do It" — Chapter Nineteen, 435-437 (Begin "I don't want it," end "...knife through my heart.")

Tags: tessaTID, TID

Jessamine

TID: Jessamine: "This Was My House" — Chapter Six, 152-154 (Begin "This was my house")

TID: Jessamine: "Too Handsome to Die" — Chapter Thirteen, 299-300

Tags: jessamineTID, TID

Sophie

TID: Sophie: "Fit To Be Seen" — Chapter Five, 111-112

TID: Sophie: "All Sorts of Things" — Chapter Seven, 156-157

Tags: sophieTID, TID


Will

TID: Will: "Pyxis" — Chapter Four, 85-87 (Begin "Good evening, Thomas," end "...doesn't like to see her work too hard.")

TID: Will: "If You Must Know" — Chapter Five, 106-108 (Begin "Singing the praises," end "...I'll have to befriend Jessamine.")

Tags: willTID, TID

Jem

TID: Jem: "Someone He Trusted" — Chapter Thirteen, 304 (Begin "What Will is trying to say," end "...brother might know.")

TID: Jem: "He's So Stubborn" — Chapter Fifteen, 338-340 (Begin "He's so stubborn," end "...how they were so weak.")

Tags: jemTID, TID

Audition Videos (Follow-Up Poll)

Thank you all so much for your feedback on my Audition Videos post—your comments were very insightful! However, I must confess that I still have no idea what to do about the number of videos featured on our voting pages. Let's take a vote, shall we?


Option #1: Participants edit their final takes of their character's two Required Monologues together (along with their slate) for the Voting Cycle.

Pros: 

• Having one video per person on our voting pages would be less intimidating for voters.
• Voters would still have the benefit of viewing two contrasting monologues for each character.
• Because many can people gauge the talent of an actor within seconds, the second monologue could serve as a potential tie-breaker for voters struggling to choose between several candidates.

Cons:

• As Raina pointed out, Casting Directors are unlikely to watch more than a few seconds of your video. 
• Many of you also stated that you wouldn't watch all the way until the end. (I've never required voters to do that, though—it shouldn't take more than 10-20 seconds to figure out how good of an actor someone is!)
• Not all members have access to a video editor and would need to make arrangements with other members (i.e. swap a video edit for X number of critiques).

Option #2: Participants film and upload their final takes of their character's two Required Monologues separately. (A slate would be required for each.) Both are used for the Voting Cycle.

Pros:

• Voters would continue to have the benefit of viewing two contrasting monologues for each character.
• No editing required.

Cons:

• Having two videos per candidate per character may intimidate and scare off potential voters.

Option #3: Participants film and upload their final takes of their character's two Required Monologues separately. (A slate would be required for each.) Only one—selected at random—is used for the Voting Cycle.

Pros:

• Having one video per person on our voting pages would be less intimidating for voters.
• Voters and Casting Directors will be able to gauge your talent quickly and may not even need to see a second video.
• No editing required.
• Easiest option for me! ;)

Cons:

• Voters wouldn't have the benefit of viewing two contrasting monologues for each character.

Vote away!

Audition Videos

Two things:

• All characters will have 1-2 Required Monologues per Voting Cycle.
• Those Required Monologues will change after each Voting Cycle.

Please let me know your thoughts on the following points and if there's anything you would like me to add to the list. I'm not an actress, so I'd really love to hear from people who know the industry and what Casting Directors would prefer to see.

• Should participants be required to begin their audition videos with a slate? (This involves stating things like your name, age, city, and height.)
• Because there will only be two Required Monologues to film per character, should participants be required to edit their final takes together into one video (along with their slate) for use in our Voting Cycles? 
• The thinking behind this is that having one video per person could make the voting process seem less daunting to voters. It would also make it easier for me to work with your videos when editing Finalist interviews and running promotions.
• You'd only need to edit/slate your best takes of the two monologues required for the Voting Cycle. Videos that you add for critiquing purposes will remain informal.
• Should I require participants to add a pre-made, five-second intro containing the UBC logo and our URL to the beginning of any videos used for our Voting Cycles?  I just made the aforementioned intro and I think it'll make more sense to use it only for videos uploaded to our official channel. Perhaps I'll just ask you guys to link to UBC in your video description per Gabby's suggestion!
• This would be a great way to advertise ourselves on Youtube without being obnoxious.
• Should participants be required to use a reading partner? No reading partner it is!
• Should participants with poor lighting or audio be disqualified?
• Should scenes filmed professionally/on location be admissible in a Voting Cycle, or would this be an unfair disadvantage for those who lack the resources to do the same? I'm leaning toward Gabby's idea of featuring location scenes on the main page and requesting that videos entered in the Voting Cycles be filmed against a solid background.
• How should videos with excessive ad-libbing be handled?

ETA: After reading the comments so far, my idea is this:

When uploading videos for the sole purpose of receiving critiques, no editing or slate is necessary. When you get to the point where your videos are Voting Cycle-ready, you'll need to edit them—and your slate—together. (I'm still thinking about the brief UBC intro; that'll be of more use to us when we lose the ability to do direct uploads later this year.) Gabby is right about privacy issues, so it's up to you on what you include in your slate. At a minimum, I would recommend stating your first name (be it real or fake), age, and country.