How Genre can make or break your audition!

Did you ever think that genre could make or break your audition?

In today’s episode we are discussing why you should identify the genre in
your next audition.

From Film auditions to TV auditions, genre could be the one thing that
separates you from the hundreds of Actors auditioning from the same role.

By the time you finish listening, you’ll know:
• How genre effects your accent and character choices
• How you can enhance your audition by identifying the genre
• The best way to learn more about genre

If this episode inspires you then I'd love to hear from you! Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram stories and tag me@katherine_beck_ !

Then follow me on Instagram to go 'behind the scenes' with me and my own journey as an American accent coach and Voiceover Actor.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Ready to master the ALL AMERICAN ACCENT? Grab my free guide to learn how to master the All American accent. Grab my free guide here. 

LEARN MORE FROM KATHERINE BECK:

WEBSITE| INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK | YOUTUBE | TIK TOK

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SHOW TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the All American actors podcast, Episode 42. In today's episode, we are talking about how genre can make or break your audition that's coming up next. Ready to go behind the scenes and learn what it really takes to build a sustainable career as a working actor in the US film and TV industry. Join me Katherine Beck, your all American accent coach, as I give you the insight and inspiration to take action on your career, learn my best tips and tricks to performing with an American accent and hear from working actors and other industry professionals. To give you a comprehensive overview of this biz we call show biz this is the all American actors podcast. Before we jump into today's episode, in just a moment, I want to give a big shout out to Daisy who sent me this five star review and says an amazing free resource worth a million bucks. I am so captivated by this amazing show. I have binged listened to every episode. Keep up the good work. Wow. Thank you, Daisy, thank you so much. I'm so thrilled that you're loving this podcast, so much to binge listen to all the episodes. And yeah, we are up to I can't believe it. We are up to Episode 42. Now, so there is a lot of really great content. So if you're just learning about this podcast, make sure you scroll down and listen to some of the earlier episodes because there's some really great interviews there. And some really great topics, you'll learn a lot. So make sure you check out all the episodes. And you know, my favorite place to listen to podcasts. If it's not my podcast, if I'm listening to somebody else's is in the car. That's probably my number one place where I listen to podcasts. And I'd be curious, where do you listen to your podcast? Let me know. And hey, if you're listening to this specific podcast and you're loving what you hear, make sure to go ahead and do me a favor. 30 seconds is all it's gonna take. Just hit the subscribe button, tap those five stars and just leave a brief review letting me know what you think of the show. It would really help me out get us noticed on Apple and get recognized and heard by actors all over the world. So if you got 30 seconds, go ahead and leave us a review. Okay, so you may or may not know this about me, but I actually went to film school back in the day. Not only did I learn acting in college, but I also went to film school I double majored. And I really wanted to learn about film because I thought, well, gee, if I'm going to be on screen in films and TV, I want to learn about the technical aspects of being on set. So I understand what the director does, and the cinematographer does. And the set designer I wanted to learn all about it. I was so curious. And so one of the classes I took in film school was one of my favorite classes actually was a gangster films class. Yep, that's right. It was a class solely dedicated to watching gangster movies. So we watched everything's and studied everything from the old black and white movies of James Cagney to French Connection to watching Scarface to the Godfather films. And this was really the first time I started to look further look deeper into genre and learn how genre takes us on a specific journey. When we know the genre we know the filmic journey we're about to embark on. And I think for us as actors, it's important to know the genre understand the genre when we get an audition, because there are clues on the page, there are clues there that become ever more important, Lenny, then later in the American accent. Why? Well take, for example, comedy, let's take comedy one step further. And let's say you're auditioning for a sitcom. And now let's get even more specific. Let's say you're auditioning for the office. Now this show originated in the UK, right? And then you may remember that the US also did a version of the show that was quite popular. So if we look at the show, this show specifically is an example same show, but slightly different style based on the comedy, the dialogue, the humor, the characters, the delivery will all be different based on if it's UK, or if it's USA, because the humor is slightly different in the two different countries. So when we are building the accent and building the character into an audition into your scene, it's really important to do some research. So let's say you're auditioning for an American sitcom. Well, if you don't know too much about the format of sitcom, The formula, the structure of an American sitcom, and you don't want too many sitcom shows, well then it will Be good to do your research, right? start watching, observing, and applying what you see and hear. When we can key into the specificity of the genre, it will help us get more specific on the character we are portraying, and therefore more specific with the accent as well. It's all related. And truly, if you can understand the genre, and you can bring that into your audition that can sometimes separate you from the pack, the other actors who maybe didn't put as much thought or attention into the format, the structure of the project, there's your broader category of genre like comedy, drama, action, sci fi, but then you can go even deeper into these genres into the sub genre. So inside of comedy, we've got our sitcom, we've got our dark comedy, and we've got our broad comedy. And each of these styles of comedy are a little bit different. So we're going further into a deeper understanding of the sub genre. And that can be extremely beneficial to you as an actor when you've got these auditions. And if I can give you one piece of advice, it's to go back and start watching old films. The older the better see the evolution of these genres on film, you will learn so much by watching these older films from the writing to the production to the performance, appreciation of the history of film is priceless. One of my greatest memories, from my time in film school was an editing class I took where we physically literally cut and spliced together actual film, we cut and spliced a short film a 16 millimeter film, taped the pieces together, we physically did it, like put the pieces together, splice it with the razor, there's like a machine where you cut the film, and then you would you know, sort of like take this kind of like clear tape and physically tape them together. And that would make your film so you know, to physically work with film at that level, it gives you such an appreciation of the fragility and the craft of this art form. In fact, you know, I think I actually have some of my old films from film school somewhere, I have to dig them up and and put them into a digital copy. That'd be really great to see. Now, you know, while this is not exactly something that's taught anymore, where you can get that hands on with film, everything's digital now, you can still gain an appreciation for film by going back and watching old movies. You're gonna learn so much about films of today by looking at the films of the past. And take Tarantino for example, if you watch his films, you will see references to films of the past, he was a major and probably still is a major film nerd. He knew his history of film for sure. And it shows and is part of what makes him a really unique and iconic filmmaker, and it's what makes his films truly stand out. And isn't that what we want as actors to represent something to be passionate about something to own our craft to stand out from the crowd to create captivating performances that attract the viewer. So get out there and do your research, start watching and learning and observing and see how that impacts your next audition. So that's it for today's episode. It's short, but sweet, because I really want you to get out there and start watching some old movies. That is your homework assignment for the day. And I want you to report back to me tag me in your Instagram stories. And I want to see what you're watching. So take a screenshot pop it on your Instagram stories and tag me in it at Katherine_Beck_ I would love to see what you are watching today. All right, that is it for me. Thanks for listening. Remember, if you have not yet grabbed my free American accent guide that's gonna break down my step by step process to getting you sounding all American. It is yours just head over to Katherine beck.com slash accent. And coming up next week on the show we are going to be talking about sports movies, I'm going to give you some insight onto how to audition for us roles that are all about sports, really understanding the sports that are in the US and how that can give you that athletic edge into booking the roll. Now make sure you share this show with all your actor friends, let them know what's coming up next week and invite them to tune in with you and learn how to become the all American Actor so you can be the working actor you dream to be until then go practice your American accent and I'll see you back here next time.