Video auditions are here to stay; you won’t see me using them if I can avoid it.
There are valid uses: for pre-screen auditions when the audition pool is too large; for auditionees who have unavoidable or sudden conflicts come up; for auditionees who have a debilitating anxiety around auditions but who are otherwise able to perform admirably. There are probably more.
Here are my reasons for not choosing video auditions.
- I learn so much from the interaction around the audition.
- I don’t want auditionees to spend uncountable hours taping and re-taping their videos to get them perfect (and dealing with the self-criticism that comes with that process).
- I want auditionees to put in as much effort as they care to, but I also want to glimpse a moment. I want to see how auditionees recover from mistakes, how they navigate nerves, how they walk into the room.