Member resources
The audition is the job. It is the only part of this career you get to do every week whether or not anyone hires you, and it is the one thing you can get reliably better at on purpose. This page is everything SAS has on it: the classes, the self-tape kit, the room, finding your own auditions, and several hundred answers straight from the people on the other side of the camera.
Start with the masterclasses Go to the libraryIf you only do one thing: watch Self Tape Mastery, then fix your set-up against it. More auditions are lost on the technical side of a tape than on the acting.
New here? Start this week
Three steps for your first week
The three Level 5 masterclasses: preparing the performance, the tape and the room. Plus a short one on the room itself, and one on finding auditions when nobody is sending them to you.
1Journey 5A · 1h 45m
Performance Preparation - Be Unforgettable On Screen
Learning lines neutrally, building the character and breaking down every scene, so you walk in with real choices.
2Journey 5B · 1h 51m
Self Tape Mastery - You Will Book More
The self-tape masterclass in full. Set-up, framing, sound, readers, and the edit. Watch this before you tape anything else.
3Journey 5C · 1h 31m
In Room Auditions - Tips For A Lost Art
What changes when there are people in the room, and how to use that instead of surviving it.
4Masterclass · 26 min
Nail Your In-The-Room Auditions
The short version: arrival, the waiting room maths and your first take.
5With Kevin E. West · 1h 07m
How To Find Your Own Film & TV Opportunities with Kevin E. West
Where the auditions actually are, and how to get in front of them without waiting on a rep.
Class downloads
Four downloads with each of these masterclasses
Open the masterclass and you will find them under the video: a Class Summary Booklet so you can read it instead of rewatching, a How To Guide laid out in the order you do the work, a Goal Checklist to tick off as you go, and a 50 question Test with the answers at the back.
Short guides pulled straight from the masterclass. Handy to share with an actor friend, too.
Free guide
How to Prepare for an Audition: Kym's 10 Steps
Kym's ten steps from the moment the sides land to the moment you walk in the room.
Free guide
Self Tape Setup at Home: Kym Jackson's Kit List
The backdrop, lighting, framing and export settings Kym uses at home, in a hotel, or with no kit at all.
Free guide
How to Get in Front of Casting Directors
Where casting directors actually meet actors, and the direct pitch that booked Kym a job.
Two-minute answers, straight from the casting directors, agents and managers in our library.
Actor question
Acting Audition Tips: What Casting Directors Told Us
Improvising, props, handshakes and what quietly costs you the role.
Actor question
Self Tape Tips: What Casting Directors Actually Want
Backdrops, readers, slates and second takes, from 21 casting directors.
Actor question
What to Wear to an Audition
Costumes, colours and callbacks, from 25 casting directors.
Actor question
How to Memorize Lines Fast for an Audition
A step by step method, and how off book you really need to be.
Actor question
How to Deal With Audition Nerves
What 14 casting directors would tell a petrified first-timer.
Actor question
Should You Send a Thank You Note After an Audition?
Notes, gifts, follow-ups and apologising after a bad one.
Grouped by where you are in the process. The how-to pieces come first in each group, the rapid-fire answers after.
The set-up, the reader, the framing, the file, and how to send it. Most self-tapes are lost on the technical side before the acting is ever judged.
Lines, sides, nerves, adjustments, what to do with your hands, and how to leave.
Getting off book, breaking down the scene, researching who is casting, and arriving with actual choices.
Self-submission, open calls, and the projects that never reach a breakdown service.
A different job with different rules. Union questions, conflicts, callbacks and bookings.
Recording, exporting, deadlines and the traps specific to voice work.
The process from the inside, and what directors and producers are doing while you are in the room.
Whether they are worth it, how to choose one, and what to do afterwards.
Four collections of rapid-fire answers from working casting directors. Over 700 videos between them, so treat these as something to search rather than watch end to end.
Collection · 164 videos
Casting Directors On Self-Taped Auditions
Every self-tape question, answered by the people who watch them all day.
Collection · 174 videos
Casting Directors On In-Room Auditions
What they want to see the moment you walk through the door.
Collection · 161 videos
Casting Directors On Booking The Role
What separates the actor who books from the four who were also good.
Collection · 205 videos
Casting Directors On Selecting Actors
How the list gets made, and how you get onto it in the first place.
One more thing. Almost every answer on this page from a casting director comes back to the same two ideas: make a real choice, and be easy to work with. Everything else is technique in service of those. If a video contradicts another one, that is not a mistake in the library - different casting offices genuinely want different things, and knowing that is itself the lesson.