Audition Logs
It’s audition season, friends! That means many of you are about to start entering information into your “audition logs”. And I have one question for you… WHY?
Many of the artists I know are collecting data and then never actually analyzing it. Does that remind you of yourself? If so, rather than mindlessly writing down what color shoes you wore just because someone in college said you were supposed to, give this more thought.
Why do you keep an audition log?
How do you use it to make progress and grow?
What is its purpose?
Other than the quantitative data like who was in the room, what material was presented, etc.. is there qualitative data that would be meaningful for you to collect? And once you collect it, what will you do with it?
Everyone is different, so my way may not be your way, and the info I'm interested in might be different than the info you're interested in. That being said, I’ll kick this off with my idea of what an audition log could look like. Here's a sample I made for a hypothetical client. Feel free to take what works for you and trash what doesn't. I'm using a google form because it is an easy-to-use digital product that allows me a simple way to search and analyze.
Please Note: this is just a sample. Click the picture to go to the actual form. Here's how to make your own Google Form.
Because my hypothetical client knows that she is at her best when she is starting with WHY, she reminds herself of her Golden Circle right out of the gate. (If you are unfamiliar with the concept of the Golden Circle, check out Simon Sinek’s original TED Talk.)
Then she deal with the facts: What she sang, etc.
Then she move on to the feelings: How did this audition make her feel?
Once she hits the “send” button, she is done for now. When she has definitive (not assumed) information about the outcome of the audition, she goes into the spreadsheet Google has auto-populated for her and enters that information. And then she is truly done… until the end of the quarter.
At the end of the quarter, around March 30, we sit down and look at everything she has collected over the last three months. What patterns are we noticing?
Oh wow. I had 7 auditions for Casting Director A this season and 7 auditions for Casting Director X. My average level of fulfillment with CD A was horribly low whereas my level of fulfillment with CD Y was consistently at a 5. If feeling fulfilled is important to me, next quarter I should focus more energy on spending time in a room with CD X.
Or:
Interesting. I sang 'Last Midnight' at 22 EPAs and I received zero callbacks. I sang 'Defying Gravity' at 3 EPAs and received callbacks at all 3. Looks like 'Last Midnight' needs to go, and 'Gravity' needs to come into play more often.
Or:
I always felt so connected with the people behind the table when a director was in the room and so disconnected when a director was not in the room. I really need to step up my game so that I am getting more appointments rather than relying on EPAs. Time for a new strategy.
“Audition season is about to get crazy. So get organized NOW. ”
Set yourself up for success. Collect the data that will be meaningful to you. Schedule the look back date in your calendar. Follow through with analyzing your results so that you can make meaningful changes in your process and progress.
You've got this. Have a great audition season.