I have a question about pre -screen videos that are basically required everywhere now…1) Do you have to submit a professional video ? Are people just doing them at home, etc? 2) It seems that a pre screen is so questionable. I mean my daughter is a good singer to be sure but only so much comes across over a video quality wise, are they just used to weed out kids that are just really not that great? LOl I am a bit confused by them that’s all! Any info would be great. My D is a sophomore now so time or us to prepare for this but better early to get this info!!
Son filmed his prescreens on a laptop and used a “snowball” microphone. There are threads on this forum that go into more detail about what different equipment folks used. I think it is safe to say most people DYI’d the videos.
You can find audition videos on YouTube and see the wide variety of settings, methods, and levels of quality. Go to YT and search by a school name, year, and the word ‘audition’. As with everything else, this task is accomplished in very different ways by different people. Of course, your daughter will want to put her best foot forward. However, if your kid is a sophomore then there’s no need to be doing anything about this now. It is best to tape them late summer/early fall before senior year and many, many things may change by then in terms of what schools want and how they prefer to receive it. Some schools weed out a majority of applicants this way whereas others only reject the lowest levels of performance. Some of the most elite schools don’t do pre-screening at all.
IMHO, if you can afford it, a college audition coach is a good investment. Any of the reputable ones (you can find many references on these boards) will have great how to instruction. There are also great books written by some coaches. We were also DIYers. Used a small video camera on a stand, used the camera’s mic and accompaniment tracks that S’s voice instructor had recorded. Make sure your light is good. Try to avoid big shadows.
You do not have to submit a professional video. However, most experts recommend doing one as good as you can. We did ours at home using recorded accompaniment. D passed a number of prescreens and received one acceptance directly from a video, so doing one at home (against our bedroom wall using natural light from windows opposite that wall) worked OK for us. We did use a nice HD video camera with a special mic (Rode Videomic). We did very simple edits using Microsoft Movie Maker, no special video software was required.
It does pay to take some time and shoot as many takes as necessary to get the best performance/presentation possible. Doing a video that reflects your best work can be a significant challenge for stage actors, video is different than “live.”
If you search through past threads or use Google, you can find some great advice. Even if you do professional videos for songs and monologues, you will find that some/many programs require personalized statements specifically for that program, so you will end up doing home videos anyway (unless you collect all of those program-specific requirements before you go to the studio).
All that said, a professional video with well-mixed live piano accompaniment is impressive.
Our D had a friend (who is now in film school) tape hers because I was afraid I would do something to mess them up , erase them or worse. She taped them at a dance studio since she had to do the dance portion for some. Her friend made digital files and CDs of everything so we were never in danger of not having a copy. One suggestion that helped us. Like everything else in this process, there was nothing consistent about what each school wanted in their pre-screen. We made a spreadsheet with the name of each school and what they wanted. (16 bars, 32 bars, 2 or 3 monologues, dance, etc…) Make sure to note if you are allowed to edit the pieces together or if you have to do them all in one straight shot. That way, we were able to shoot them all on the same day and have it over and done with!
Since all that should be visible is your child, well-recorded accompaniment tracks are indistinguishable from a live pianist. No manipulation of the image or sound is acceptable (no edits during a song or monologue and no sound mixing).
thank you for all the info. This site is a double edged sword…lots of great info but also a bit overwhelming and the MT threads are a bit discouraging also! With all the competition and expense of the schools and how you have to apply to a million just to get a shot at one…ugh…I am dreading the next 2 years…i better gear up!
One thing we learned from recording videos for summer programs is to make certain that your kid is healthy. When we did the videos for summer programs (they were due in January) we planned to record them during the Christmas break. As luck would have it, my kid caught a very bad upper respiratory infection and sounded terrible for about a month, but our only option was to not get the videos done by the deadlines.
After that we decided that for college prescreens we would do a set of videos early in the summer before senior year (32 bar, 16 bar, and full songs) just to save in the event our kid happened to not be at the healthiest in late summer or early fall when we really wanted to do them.
We did record them in late summer/late fall, and again later on in the fall as kid decided to change some of the rep. Obviously, we did ours ourselves but we have quite a bit of professional recording equipment and a dedicated room with proper acoustics. The room acoustics can make a huge difference. I still think it would have been much simpler to have had it done at a studio by a professional. If you are extremely organized and know exactly the cuts you need, it shouldn’t take too long to get clips for most every school.
Some tech-savy kids in our school’s broadcast club that have shot pre-screen video. They love to make a few $$ and this tech stuff comes naturally to them. The tough part is scheduling the location. Dance studio + spot to do vocals and monologue + accompanyment.
Also, one of the best things you can do now is apply to summer programs or any competitions that use videos on the Acceptd and Decision Desk sites. Getting familiar with those sites and learning to upload to them now, when you don’t have a time crunch, will be enormously helpful later.
D did them onstage at her HS - in front of the grand drape. Made a good backdrop- and we were able to get some nice lighting etc.
I guess that I should clarify my comment about “well-mixed live piano accompaniment.” What I should have said was, “well-positioned live piano relative to the singer and the recording microphone so that good balance is achieved.” I believe that for most experts in musical theatre, the difference in a video between a live piano and a recording of a piano played through typical home playback devices is readily distinguishable (but live piano is not required for college audition videos). Kind of like making a copy of a copy on paper. The loss of fidelity is evident. No doubt the loss of piano sound fidelity due to the use of a playback device for accompaniment can be masked by a relatively poor video recording mic.
Oh, snap! I assumed you meant properly balanced and just wanted to clarify for the OP that mixing in post is a no-no. Actually, I was amazed at some of the manipulation in videos posted to YouTube, as well as the cut-away shots to the accompanist’s hands, the slow pans across the altar…so many shot in churches…lots of stuff in the foreground diminishing the applicant, and applicants uncertain what to do with themselves before beginning to sing. If you are going to do this yourself, ask to see clips from this and next year’s seniors at your school. You’ll learn as much from looking at lousy tapes as you will from the spiffy ones.
I noticed a lot of distracting settings in some audition videos shared on YouTube. Videos were made with chaotic backgrounds strewn with laundry and personal items, people wandering around in the shot, even some “photo bomb” type situations. You’d think this would be a no-brainer, but just in case: shoot your prescreen in a space that’s well lit, private, uncluttered, and distraction-free.
I did get really tired of moving our bed across the room and out of the shot as we discovered yet another sort of cut or song required for various programs and had to shoot yet another video.
Hm. A bed sounds cumbersome. Our giant window is in the living room and space in that light only required moving two chairs, a lamp, and an end table. Also the giant painting had to come down off the wall and extra light was needed to balance the sunshine. Out-of-frame piano was closer to the iPhone mic than kid but the accompanist played lightly and the couch muffled it and…never mind. Every pre-screen got a yes so the poor video recording mic must not have been all that bad. (conciliatory smiley face)
The YouTube prescreens that I’ve seen are mostly examples of what not to do. I hired a videographer for my prescreens and although it was handy because no one in my family has equipment to record or edit, it was EXPENSIVE! Because of that, I don’t think I gave myself the time I needed to record great videos. I also wasn’t as prepared as I could have been at that point. Prescreens are the only part of the process where having a coach would have made a drastic difference for me, I think. Also recorded accompaniment is probably the way to go because I only had an hour with the accompanist and barely even had the time to record everything, let alone multiple times. Ooh, also, how you look really matters. Definitely take time on your hair and make-up. There’s a HUGE difference between the videos where I had all morning to get ready and the ones that were filmed after a hectic school day when I had barely even brushed my hair. Huge.
Here is thread on this from last year’s group. See the especially helpful post #13 from VoiceTeacher
We filmed at our church in the community room. Great acoustics and on a Saturday afternoon, no one was there. We were able to work uninterrupted for 4-5 hours and finish all 27 pre-screen pieces (varying lengths of songs x4, 2 monologues, why do you want to attend ___? vids and slates) in one session.