Pilot Season…
Two simple words send a shiver down the spine of thousands of actors every year…
Why does the annual madness known as Pilot Season cause shivers?
I’ll tell you in just a sec…
But more importantly…
How can you avoid the 4 BIG mistakes those shivers will cause you to make?
Don’t worry…I’ve got ya covered
Let’s dig in…
Pilot Season, Harry Potter & The Dark Forest
As an actor, if you’ve been through Pilot Season before, you feel schizophrenic, exhausted, and full of self-doubt all at the same time while you’re simultaneously trying to convince network executives, producers and casting directors that you’re a self-confident, artistic genius who should star in their show.
If you’ve never been through it before, you’ve no doubt heard the horror stories…
And you sort of feel like you’re Harry Potter walking through the dark forest.
You don’t know what terrors lie ahead, but you know it’s not good, and you wish you had that wonderful magic wand in your pocket to make everything OK.
In the hopes of helping you avoid the schizophrenic, exhausted self-doubt and/or the Harry Potter in the dark forest phenomenon, here are 4 of the biggest Pilot Season mistakes most actors make and how you can easily avoid them.
4 Lethal Pilot Season Mistakes and The Fixes
Pilot Season Mistake #1: Treating It Like An Episodic Audition
It may look like an episodic audition. After all, it is for a television series.
But a pilot audition has nuances and quirks that an episodic audition does not have.
Often the sides are voluminous. Many times there is an excessive amount of exposition, as the writers are trying to lay the groundwork and backstory for what’s to come in the whole season ahead.
So, yes, it’s a TV audition and all those rules do apply. But it’s not a guest star.
For a Series Regular audition they are really looking for a lot more of YOU in the role.
They want to see what YOU — unique individual YOU — will look like as their character for many years to come.
So, it’s really important to learn how to be uber-confident in any audition and be fully present in your auditions so that YOU coming shining through any character that you read.
Don’t be afraid to show who you are in the character. It’s what they want to see.CLICK TO TWEET
They don’t want to see yet another actor reading the role EXACTLY like every other actor. Casting Directors want to see your unique thang that only YOU can bring to a role.
When you find the right role and it finds YOU, that’s where the magic happens.
