<p>I'm just wondering--and maybe it's too soon to tell--about the effect of this year's increased number of schools using pre-screens before scheduling auditions.</p>
<p>I'm a parent going through this MT application process with kid #2. The pre-screens certainly added another layer of "stuff to do" to the already-busy time of August/September/October. Guidance counselor, teachers writing recs, dance teacher, accompanist--all commented that this seemed a lot to expect the average kid to put together in the time frame available.</p>
<p>It would be interesting to hear comments about the pre-screening from teachers, coaches, and college officials. Is it here to stay? Did it make a difference? </p>
<p>From my point of view on the university side - its here to stay. We know there were issues, but we are trying to reach out and help make things work as problems arise. In every audition (for anything: college or professional), there are a group of people who are obviously what you are looking for, a group that is very interesting and possibly usable, and a group that just doesn’t fit your needs. It is better for everyone to know if you are in the group that “doesn’t fit our/their needs” before you spend the money for travel to these schools. I think there are numerous benefits for both sides.</p>
<p>For parents/students:
-You can apply to more schools for less (application fees and selected travel vs. both for every school)
-You have an opportunity to put your best foot forward through editing together separate clips and filming on your best day in your ideal setting.
-By knowing ahead of your on campus audition that the school IS interested, you can spend extra time on campus and in the community getting to know the school.
-By knowing that the school IS interested, you can really do your homework on a handful of schools that you know you have a strong chance of getting into.</p>
<p>For the schools:
-They can save the parents money - I think most of us really do feel bad when someone travels a long distance and they just aren’t a good fit.
-They can recruit students outside of their region (i.e. east coast schools have a better chance of getting west coast students)
-They can give audition feedback via email ahead of time to help see what adjustments students can make on their own once they know what the school is looking for (for us this aspect of the process has been VERY useful)
-They can invite fewer people to campus so they can spend more time with those students they are really interested in.
-They can save time - possibly fewer on campus audition days as this progresses
-They get to know the students better - instead of just seeing the student for one audition, the school gets their first impression via video, their second via the on-campus portion, and then if they are really having a hard time making final decisions, they can go back to video and notes to help freshen up their memory.</p>
<p>Yes its difficult, but its also the way the professional theatre industry is starting to move. Everyone is beginning to see the potential of video pre-screening and it will become common place outside of Equity theaters. The skills your child will learn in the process are skills they will need to use for the rest of their lives in this business. The sooner they learn those skills, the better off they will be, and the sooner they’ll start finding work.</p>
<p>I also know, since I work for CCU in the theatre office, that eventually we may have to go to pre-screens simply due to the lack of audition spaces we have on-campus. This year we have 4 audition dates, and the max (and I mean MAXIMUM because it’s crowded) is 60 people per audition. We aren’t quite at that number yet (our November is typically really small for obvious reasons), but our spring auditions are really full this year. </p>
<p>CCU is a huge advocate of seeing auditionees on campus because we hold a full day of tours, talkbacks, and 3 master classes- plus we want you to see the school, meet the ENTIRE faculty, see a show, and see if it’s the right fit for you.</p>
<p>Eventually, however, slots will fill up a lot quicker. We already call a lot of people back on campus from mass auditions like NTDA, SETC, and the Chicago Unifieds. My department chair (kjgc) has said that to accommodate everyone, we eventually may also have to turn to a pre-screen. I’m not suggesting that will be anytime soon for juniors or sophomores looking at CCU, but I understand where other schools are coming from now when they set these up.</p>
<p>When I auditioned in 2010, I remember feeling really comfortable at my OU audition. They’ve operated on a callback system for years. Although I eventually wasn’t accepted to OU, it was nice to be auditioning for a school that already knew/liked you. Also, knowing your only “fighting” for a slot against 150 people versus the 300-500 (or however ridiculous the numbers are now), is a small confidence boost. And lord knows that is something all auditionees need in these rough times. But it also meant that the competition was a lot stiffer because we were all already pre-screened.</p>
<p>Anyway, I have rambled in a few different directions. But I definitely agree with VoiceTeacher. The post above me is extremely informative and, yes- pre-screens are here to stay.</p>
<p>I can certainly understand the advantages of prescreens for both sides. S had to submit 2 last year, and they really weren’t a big deal. It would just be a bit easier if, in the future, the school department heads would get together and agree on one universal format that auditionees can submit to all schools, eg. 2 one-minute contrasting monologues and 16 bars each of an uptempo and a ballad, or whatever. This would make the prescreens less costly and time-consuming for students and their parents, and I don’t think it would impact the ad-coms in any way.</p>
<p>I can see how it might make things easier for applicants if there was a single format (sort of like the common application)… I am not sure that is as feasible as it seems, and it might impact the adcoms more than one might think. Because each school is looking for different things I think it is unlikely that the same exact pre-screen format (in terms of what each school is requesting be presented) would be used by all schools. Just as the live audition requirements vary from school to school depending on what a particular school is looking for, the pre-screen materials will likely continue to vary. </p>
<p>Although many program directors do know one another through different professional organizations, each program operates independently and the admissions process for each program is reflective of the program. </p>
<p>However, I can see how one format would make things easier for applicants when sending DVDs. Hopefully the new online submission process might make the varying requirements for each school easier to manage. Uploading each required element separately, rather than editing multiple DVDs with different requirements. </p>
<p>I agree that for many schools the pre-screen requirement is here to stay. Many other schools may choose to require this in the future as well. At JMU (where I teach) we have decided against it for now, but like CCU our audition days filled up faster this year and we have had to add a fourth audition day for MT. We don’t like to see more than 40 - 45 MT auditionees in one day because we want to be able to spend adequate time with each applicant. I don’t believe we will want to add a fifth MT audition day in the future, but we will see. Right now the pre-screen doesn’t feel right for us, but that could be re-examined in the future, particularly with the newer online submission systems.</p>
<p>Just chiming in to agree with MTguyMom about the need for a consistent format for prescreens. It’s already a headache to analyze and prepare for the range of audition materials (length and variety of monologues and songs), but those preparations are primarily the applicant’s job. Preparing video submissions is quite different and, for many folks, will require enlisting the help of friends, teachers, or professionals to shoot and edit the footage. A five-minute edited video will could take hours to produce. I work with students on submitting visual arts portfolios that often must be duplicated in 3-4 different formats–it would be WAY more cumbersome and time consuming to do this in video form. The biggest issue I see is the lack of a level playing field. If a student doesn’t have the skills (or access to help) to produce a decent video, it will prevent them from consideration. If you aren’t applying to a film program per se, this seems irrelevant and unfair. I “get it” that prescreens are helpful but believe that in the interests of common sense and compassion to applicants and their families, the format should be universal as MTguyMom suggests. Surely there is plenty of room for individual programs to individualize their admissions requirements at the time of actual live auditions. I hope this forum can help families and admissions committees have a real conversation about how to make the process manageable for all!</p>
<p>It seems to me that, if we’re to take the schools at their word, the videos don’t have to be anything more than an accurate representation of the student’s voice and physical appearance. So sound quality and accompaniment must be adequate as well as lighting. Hopefully, any student applying to programs such as these will enlist the help of whomever they need. But this is an aspect that I believe has to be a trait of these students anyway - hopefully, they know when they need help and will seek it out. I will say that adding a dance component for one school was more involved in that you have to book the space, any space, to get it done. We also scrapped one portion of that dance video which meant a lot of work not used. Later deadlines for these uploaded prescreens was also helpful.</p>
<p>Also, I think a uniform format could help timewise as far as editing, but I don’t know how so many schools could coordinate, or if they’d even understand the need. Once we had straight in our minds who wants 16 vs 32 bars, under 3 mins combined, no more than 1 minute for such and such, etc the only issue was intros/slates. Some schools wanted them separate from the material, some not. This isn’t a big deal, except that we were quite concerned with wrong editing or accidentally deleting material. As far as certain schools needing to see unique things, they can just ask for the second monologue, separate dance piece, etc as they might for the live audition anyway. Having uniform cut requests, intro format, etc would ease the process. However, I do believe the schools allow for more flexibility than we realize with the greatest concern still being the maximum time of a total submission (perhaps having also to do with the prescreen vendor’s requirements.)</p>
<p>My last thought would be if the schools just switching to prescreening this year for the first time saw any change increase/decrease in the amount of submissions from previous year’s numbers of auditions. I know we decided to pass on one DVD submission because the school wasn’t high on our son’s list and we were consumed with the prescreen videos for the other two schools. All of these programs understand that the application process when a student has to audition means a “double” application process of sorts compared to a traditional academic application. The uploading prescreening/DVD submission makes it a “tripled” process. I will say, for the one school so far where he had the live audition after passing the prescreen, our son had a lot more time with the faculty and he definitely was pleased to have that extra time.</p>
<p>Yes, continuity among pre-screens would be a tremendous benefit to applicants. Although the quality of the DVD does not have to be professional, the footage still needs to get filmed with a camera and accompanist (in most cases) and then transferred to a DVD using appropriate software. I personally cannot create DVDs with my old camcorder so I had to pay someone to make them for me. We taped TWO with slightly different requirements in one day, only to figure out one of the schools required TWO monologues instead of only one. My D was so stressed over the idea of having to set aside time to record again that she simply decided to drop the 2nd school from her list.</p>
<p>Having just gone through taping a Pre-Screen…it would be REALLY helpful if schools could agree on one standard (like the common app) that could be filmed (hopefully) once and sent in to multiple programs. In most cases, this is an added cost to the student/family on top of the travel and hotel costs for each audition/Unifieds (paying someone to film and/or an accompanist). I would think college reps could tell if they liked a particular student from a “standard” DVD audition and then ask for their specific requirements in the on-site call back. Whether it’s 1 monologue/1 song or 2 of everything + dance…as long as it is consistent it would make it so much better. </p>
<p>I had to film mine twice because the sound quality was not good enough on my first try and the piano overpowered my voice and the lighting was too bright. Luckily I did not have to pay to re-tape it, and the second try was good. It was really hard finding another day/time when we could redo this, though, since we were both insanely busy right then.</p>
<p>My two cents is that whether or not any continuity is ever achieved, what would be helpful going forward are clearer instructions about what the schools really want submitted and how their uploading software (if it is that instead of a DVD) really works. Can things be saved and added onto later or is a one shot deal once you start the upload process? Which formats are acceptable? Do they want things in one file, or separate files for each song, monologue, dance etc… What, for example does “unedited” really mean? </p>
<p>I don’t know about the rest of you, but we had to do several takes to accomodate fire trucks suddenly driving by, younger siblings clomping down the stairs and not knowing what was going on in the middle of a taping, Fedex guys ringing the bell during the best take yet and worse, realizing after all the taping was over, wrapped and ready to upload that “written before year 19XX,” but not “performed on Broadway before 19XX” might be risky so having to reshoot days later with something else entirely but still try to make it look as if it was all part of one “unedited” shoot in case that mattered, etc. etc. etc. Take 5, 6, 7…20+… But no, there was no autotune nor airbrushing. Did this qualify as “unedited”? We hoped so.</p>
<p>Our lighting (a couple of clip lamps stuck to chairs behind the camera) and sound (recorded piano accompaniment from a player on the floor) were certainly not professional. We went with the school’s word that it didn’t matter but crossed our fingers that they meant it and we wouldn’t be blown out of the water by applicants that could and did hire professionals. Things were performed in front of a dark blanket thumbtacked to the wall to kill the back light from the window and “Mom” did the edits which was really a matter of finding the best take and putting it in the “keep” file but our camera is also old, clunky, with drivers that require you to do the equivalent of a “rain dance” to make it work so converting things to current uploadable files was painful to be polite. (I was not polite when trying to make it work believe me.) </p>
<p>In short, our homemade taping was apparently appropriately honest to the process and I guess what they were asking us to do because it worked. Cost us less then $20 in production and mailing costs but believe me several million $ in nervous sweat equity. Hard to avoid the latter whether you do it yourself or bring in the pros. </p>
<p>I hope in future years the prescreening process stays true to “homemade being OK” and in fact encourages it. Closest way to keep the playingfield level.</p>
<p>Yes, it was really difficult to do all of this at a very busy time. We did solve the problem by recording everything we could possibly think we might need all in one session, then I got to learn how to do video editing on my PC. It turned out to not be that difficult after all. I’m not the most tech savvy person and I managed to do it with just the standard software we had and a “firewire adaptor” that enabled my PC to read and convert the video files to something I could use.</p>
<p>So that is my recommendation to those coming behind us next year. Film 16 AND 32 bar cuts of all possible songs and 1 and 2 minute cuts of all possible monologues, and do a choreographed 60 second dance and a 60 second dance demo that is just “steps” that you can do and you will probably have everything you need. Then even if you have to pay someone to transfer the files off your computer and make separate clips of each, you will have them all available for whatever needs you have.</p>
<p>As much as a pain as it is, it’s worth getting used to making videos quickly. Recently my daughter self submitted to a casting director, and then the casting director asked her to video herself singing some required songs. We had to do a quick turn around on that! But thankfully because of all the college video requirements and YoungArts video requirements in the past year, we knew right what to do and got something decent out quickly. The story ends there, however! </p>
<p>I think prescreens are wonderful and I really hope the adjudicators are very tough. The cost, stress, time, and effort is nothing compared to traveling across the country for a program where you have no shot. Last year some schools saw as many as 800 auditionees to accept 50 students. That’s nuts!</p>
<p>I’m a fan of the idea— when I was auditioning for schools my senior year, I was sick for 6 of my 11 auditions ( 4 of the sickies were at Unifieds. I completely lost my voice the day before). Had I turned in pre-screening tapes, I would have had a better chance of getting accepted… and not spent a whole lot of money on trips across the country to schools that weren’t going to accept me.</p>
<p>I don’t have the time to read this entire thread tonight, but I will tell you I am saving it and will refer to it at the end of our audition season. I think there are some good points here and some possibilities. Clarifying the language is definitely doable, as well as clarifying that for our school you DO NOT need to hire professionals. We have invited numerous people from living room settings and not invited full blown professional video auditionees. It really is about the performer for us, not the bells and whistles, I do think we can clarify that online for next year.</p>
<p>There is also possibility of a unified rep requirement between some of the schools that already talk through some of the theatre education organizations. The problem I see is that some faculty really want different things and I could see it getting very difficult to agree on what kind of material would show what various profs would like to see. However, I do think its worth bringing up for discussion.</p>
<p>As for the previous question about the number of auditionees: while I do not feel comfortable with disclosing the figures, I will say we have been very pleased with the results of our transition to pre-screening and as far as we are concerned its here to stay at our school.</p>
<p>Thank you for starting this thread and all of the feedback.</p>
<p>VT: Good. I have no doubt so much of the confusion of this year will become second nature in future years. Fortunately, no school this year anyway ever treated any clarifying phone calls as “stupid questions”. Often it was as new to admissions staff as it was to us. Good thing because to be honest, there was plenty of flying the seat of our pants this year where things were new and the last thing that a scrambing applicant would have wanted to run into was being treated like they were asking stupid questions. Every school can and I’m sure will get better with clarifying the language of the instructions.</p>
<p>I was also frustrated with the pre-screen requirement, in part because we needed it for just one school and it was going to be expensive. Even though that one school rejected my son, it turned out to be the best investment we made. Here is why:</p>
<p>It got my son moving and focused on his audition songs very early - we did the taping the second week of September, before his school obligations really got rolling and he started working his voice teacher choosing the songs in early August.</p>
<p>We also used the session to record “audio only” tracks - the pianist was already playing the 36-bar songs the way my son and his teacher had cut them, so she was able to play all 4 songs alone without his voice for us to record digitally. My son then downloaded the music to his Ipod, which he has used to practice with. And since he will need the audio-only tracks for some auditions at Unified, this has helped him feel comfortable singing without the live piano.</p>
<p>Finally (and most humbling) we ditched his monologue. Like most parents on CC, I am a theater-goer but not in the business and so we left the choice of the monologue between my S and his theater teacher: it was all wrong.</p>
<p>I had not seen the whole piece until we shot the pre-screen - and when we played it back I felt terrible that I had not intervened earlier. It was too late to change the video, but I was able to show it to some people (via Your Tube) I trusted and they agreed - it was not the right character for my son.
We pushed him to rethink the piece and he went with a whole new approach for the live auditions. And so far he is 2 for 2 with acceptances.
So if you do a pre-screen, embrace it and squeeze out as much learning as you can.</p>
<p>Santafedad- That’s a tough but very helpful story. I have a young friend (no relation) that went through a similar ordeal. The prescreen failed, so they had other folks look at the video, and then they realized that this girl who is really beautiful and small in a ballerina sort of way, came across as a 10 year old. So they straightened her hair, changed her audition clothes, swapped out the overdone monologue (how is that so called theatre teachers don’t know certain monologues are at the top of the “do not use list”?) and now she seems to be doing much better. So that “annoying” prescreen saved her for the rest of the audition season.<br>
Yay, prescreens!</p>
<p>Of course if all schools go to prescreens, then there’d be no audition season left for those who made a failing prescreen at the beginning. Maybe next year everyone should make a pre - prescreen video and get some comments from folks who really know. I’m only joking a little bit. Juniors- start doing some practice videos with your family camcorder!</p>
<p>Boy, I sure second that recommendation Classicalbk! I SO wish we had known/thought to do the whole thing as a dry run during Junior year. We learned so much, especially during the YA filming and I kept wishing we had time to record it “just one more time” to fix all the things that were wrong the first few times. But although we submitted with almost a week to spare, D was simply DONE with filming and filming and re-filming by that time. Had we had more experience going into it the process would have been so much easier and she would have been happier with the resulting submission!</p>
<p>However, because we had done the YA submissions before the college pre-screens, THAT experience made taping the pre-screens so much easier and it took way fewer takes to get those right.</p>
<p>The other thing is that if you have a year to play with it you can learn to do the video editing yourself and not have to pay someone to do it for you. (By editing I mean cutting just the “takes” you’re going to use from the hours of bad clips you had to re-film due to fire trucks, mistakes and forgetting to push the “stop” button in time! Also putting things on the DVD in the different order each school wants, plus including the proper slating for each school.) It truly is not difficult to do (even if you don’t have a Mac!). But there is a bit of a learning curve.</p>
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