digital production

mobile phone submissions

AUDITION VIDEOS

BEHIND THE SCENES SETUPS

Richard Carsey - Piano

Peter Kendall Clark - Baritone

Marcus Smith - Tenor

ON CAMERA 101

As interviews become commonplace, as we saw before, they are a great value add for any artist. Being comfortable and impactful on camera are learned skills. Here are some tips:

  • know your frame - the frame is your reality. Whatever is outside the frame does not exist.

  • keep your energy towards center - if you cross, turn towards center to keep the energy in frame

  • Front to back - if a camera uses a manual/set focal point then you have a plane of focus. This means you can move side to side while remaining in focus, but not forward and backward. Tracking focus allows for all movement.

  • The closer you are to the camera, the larger you seem.

  • The wider the lens, the more lens warp there is at the edges.

  • For waist-up shots, keep your hands in view.

  • Gestures - large/stage gestures are too big for most in-frame shots. Learn subtler meaningful motions.

  • Eye contact depends on the medium. For an interview it is usable. For an opera performance, it’s too much.

  • Keep eyeline at camera-level without making eye contact.

interviews

the best interviews are anecdotal

when did you start singing?

standard baseline go-to.

how did you get into opera?

Similar to the previous, but more narrow. Have a story to tell.

How do you take care of your voice?

This comes up surprisingly often. You can discuss warm ups, beverages, misters/humidifiers, exercise, whatever.

take 15min to go interview each other in pairs or 3s. Come back to talk about what you learned and I will conduct a couple interviews on camera.

If you could sing any one role, any voice type, what would it be?

Go nuts with this. The more ludicrous the better…but be able to tells us WHY.

What is one of your dream roles?

This is within your fach and should be realistic to some extent.

Who is your favorite artist and why?

Always have a classical artist in mind for this, but having a second non-classical artist is a great talking point. One of my artists listens to Whitney Houston and Mary J Blige before every audition.