<p>Hi all. I just got off the phone with Ithaca's theatre department. I called to schedule my D's audition date, because typically they start taking appointments on August 1st. I was told that the department is in the process of considering whether or not they will start using pre-screening videos this year. They plan to decide and post information by August 15th.
I am hoping they decide against.... this would be the only school we need a video for!</p>
<p>There is a new department head. Possibly she is in favor of prescreening. There is an advantage to the students and their families, that if the video shows the student is not what they are looking for, they are spared the time, trouble, and expense of auditioning in person. I would like to think that if someone is rejected from the prescreening and feels strongly about auditioning, he or she would be allowed to do so.</p>
<p>Ithaca is also oversubscribed for this year in a big way. A lot more students accepted into Acting and MT are enrolling, than they expected. I’ve heard this called a “bulge year” by people with kids at other schools.</p>
<p>Is there a previous post on the forum about tips/suggestions for submitting dvd’s for pre-screening?</p>
<p>My son and husband visited a couple weeks ago. My son will be applying for tech. They were told there will be pre-screening for tech.</p>
<p>Also remember that we have heard about people bypassing “pre-screening” processes by being “walk-ins” at Unifieds . . .</p>
<p>Therealkevp - wouldn’t that be a little risky? What if there were no spaces left at Unifieds?
I don’t mind making a video really, but I wish we had known before. We’ve been working on essays and monos all summer, and could have easily gotten it done. Now we won’t know until Aug 15 if there is one and what the specs are. My D has a workshop Aug 16 to 19 and another Aug 25 to 31 and then school starts.
Oh well. Theatre people. That’s how they roll. I should be used to it by now. Haha</p>
<p>Dramamom, my son only had one prescreen required and did it in mid-September–it wasn’t bad, really. We taped it one evening after school, spending less than two hours total including set-up, and then he looked over the clips the next day and chose the ones he wanted. If your camera’s like mine (and most I"ve seen), be sure to turn it all the way off between takes so that it creates separate clips rather than one long one (which will happen if you just hit “pause”). It means less editing later. Anyway, the next morning he chose his clips (probably spent about half an hour) and then uploaded the materials. If the school uses Acceptd, the site will walk you through the process, but do make sure that everything has gone through–check back in a few hours just to be sure. Turned out his was not complete and we didn’t find out for about a month. But no harm done, and he still got the audition date he wanted. It sounds worse than it is, really.</p>
<p>Yes, dramamom, it is risky. But sometimes you have to be willing to take risks.</p>
<p>I don’t know about any specific schools, I am just talking in general. Prepare your video, and submit it. But if your video doesn’t get through the pre-screening process, and if you are at Unifieds ANYWAY, and you are looking for places to do walk-in auditions, and you really want to go to that school, it’s worth a try. I have heard of people doing this. If nothing else, it lets the school see that you REALLY want to go that school! And that is something that really does count at auditions for schools, but we don’t mention it much here!</p>
<p>Once you have the monologues taped and uploaded to Accepted, you may find that there are other schools that you hadn’t thought of that you may want to submit it to. It opens possibilities. It is also a good exercise to go through since there is more and more on camera work going on, and it shows you where you are at with your progression with the material. Also, if the applicant happens to be sick and has to cancel an audition, some schools may allow a videotaped audition. In sum, its good to do and good to have.</p>
<p>I just checked the Ithaca website, pre-screen required for acting and MT majors</p>
<p>And it’s to be uploaded via Decision Desk, not acceptd.</p>
<p>Thanks for the update!</p>
<p>Pre-screen for all tech programs as well.</p>