Self-tape guide

How to self-tape at home, with or without a reader

Camera, light, frame, slate, and the part every guide skips: who reads the other lines when nobody is free. A ten-minute setup, a reader that is always available, and the mistakes casting directors mention most.

Use qbuddy as your readerThe setup

Free to start. Upload the sides, pick your role, the other character reads in a natural voice.

What the reader sounds like

Beatrice and Benedick from Much Ado About Nothing, read by qbuddy.

Beatrice

Benedick

The setup, in ten minutes

  1. Phone at eye level, horizontal unless the brief says vertical. A tripod, a stack of books, anything that does not move. Back camera if you can be bothered to frame blind; it is better than the front one.
  2. Light from the front. A window you face, or a lamp behind the camera. Never a window behind you. A ring light is fine; a desk lamp with a sheet of paper over it is fine.
  3. A plain background. A wall, a sheet, a curtain, in a colour you are not wearing. Nothing that tells the story of your flat.
  4. Sound before everything. Turn off the fridge, close the window, record a test and listen with headphones. A cheap lapel microphone beats any camera upgrade.
  5. Frame from just above the head to mid-chest for dialogue, a little wider if the scene moves. Eyeline just beside the lens, where the reader sits.

The reader problem

A self-tape is a dialogue with someone who is not in the frame. The reader sits beside the lens, gives you the cue quietly and without acting, and the take lives or dies on whether the cue arrives on time. Every guide says get a reader. None says what to do at eleven at night when the tape is due at nine and everyone you know is asleep.

The usual answer is to record the other lines yourself and play them back with gaps. It half works: the gaps are never the right length, and you are listening to your own bad version of the scene. The better answer is a reader that waits. In qbuddy you upload the sides (a PDF, scans included, or a text file), pick your role, and the other character reads in a natural voice; cue mode plays their line, waits until you have said yours, then plays the next. Put that phone beside the lens at ear height, a touch quieter than you, and record the take on a second device.

Two things to get right: the reader’s volume, low enough that your voice leads the recording; and your eyeline, on the reader, not on the screen. Try the mechanism below with a real scene.

Your role

Your line

I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.

1 / 11

Self-tape framing

A mid-shot, an eyeline just beside the lens, and a reader sitting where the other character would be.

  • Mid-shot for dialogue. From a little above your head to mid-chest, with about a hand’s width of space above your hair. Go wider only if the scene stands up, sits down or moves, and then set the wider frame before you start and leave the camera alone.
  • Lens at your eye level. Height matters more than the tripod. Above you it shrinks you, below you it films your ceiling.
  • Eyeline a few centimetres off the lens. Look at the reader, not into the camera, and never at your own picture on the screen. Pick the side the scene wants and keep it for the whole take.
  • Keep the reader close to the camera. The further out they sit, the further your eyes travel from the lens and the less of your face the camera gets. Off camera, at your eye height, just beside the lens. If your reader is a second phone playing the cues, same place, at ear height, a touch quieter than you.
  • One size for the whole tape. Landscape unless the brief says otherwise, and the same frame for every scene: two scenes shot at two different sizes look like two different tapes.
  • No zoom, no reframing mid-take. If you want a closer version, shoot the scene again.

Slate, file, send

Slate only if asked, and then exactly what is asked: usually name, height, location, agent, sometimes a profile turn. Say it to the lens, in your own voice, and stop. Name the file the way the brief says, or Surname_Firstname_Role_Project when it says nothing. Export at the resolution requested, upload to the link, and do not send a second version unless they ask.

Audition tapes for UK castings

How the brief arrives, what an ident is, and how to send the file so it actually opens.

Self-tape auditions in the UK usually start with a brief from your agent or from Spotlight, and agents working through systems like Tagmin forward it with the sides attached. That brief is the specification: which scenes, how many files, orientation, ident, file names, where to upload, and by when. Read it twice and follow it exactly, including the parts you would have done differently. If something genuinely cannot be done, say so in the email rather than solving it quietly in your own way.

  • Ident, not slate. UK briefs often call the piece to camera an ident. It is usually your name and your agent, sometimes your height, sometimes a slow turn to each profile. Say it in your own voice, at the start unless you are told otherwise, then stop. The ident is not the audition.
  • Landscape unless told. Hold the phone horizontally by default. Some briefs now ask for vertical, and those say so.
  • Name the file the way they asked. With no instruction, Surname_Firstname_Role_Project. No spaces, no “final_v3”.
  • Send a link, not a huge attachment. The platform’s own upload, WeTransfer, Vimeo or Dropbox. Check the link opens in a private window where you are not signed in, and leave it live: casting may come back to it weeks later. Password protect it only if asked, and then put the password in the same email.
  • One version. Send the tape they asked for, not the best of nine, and do not follow it an hour later with a better one.
  • The reader stays off camera. In the UK the person feeding you the other lines is the reader: quiet, close beside the lens, not acting, not in frame, and never louder than you in the mix.

When a brief lands overnight and everyone who could read for you is asleep or at work, qbuddy can take that job. Upload the sides as a PDF or a text file (a scan saved as a PDF works too), pick your role, and the other characters are read in a natural voice; cue mode plays their line and waits until you have said yours, so the take has your timing rather than a fixed gap. Put that phone beside the lens, record on a second device, and listen back on headphones before you send the link.

Mistakes casting mentions most

  • Reader louder than the actor, or reader acting.
  • Eyes on the screen instead of the reader. Cover the screen with tape if you must.
  • Backlight from a window; face in shadow.
  • Room echo. Soft furnishings fix it; a wardrobe is a recording studio.
  • A costume. Suggest, do not dress up.
  • Extra material. They asked for two scenes; send two scenes.
  • The reader’s hand or shoulder in frame.

A monologue for a self-tape

When the brief is open, pick something under ninety seconds with a clear person you are talking to, and let the reader give you the line before it so the speech starts as an answer. The one-minute monologues and the duologues in the library open in qbuddy with the surrounding lines voiced.

Questions people ask

How do I do a self tape without a reader?
Give the other lines to something that can wait for you. Recording them yourself leaves fixed gaps that are never the right length. qbuddy reads the other character in a natural voice and plays the next cue only after you have spoken, so the take has real timing. Put the phone that plays the cues beside the camera at ear height, a little quieter than you.
Do I need a reader for a self tape?
You need the other lines to arrive on time, from somewhere off camera. Usually that is a person: quiet, close beside the lens, not acting. When nobody is free, an app can do the same job. What does not work is performing both parts yourself, or playing back a recording with fixed gaps, because the gap is never the length your take needs.
Who reads the other lines in a self tape?
A reader, off camera, close to the lens so your eyeline stays near it, quieter than you and without acting. A friend, a partner, a fellow actor, or an app that does the same job. What matters is that the cue arrives on time and you are not producing both voices.
Should the reader be on camera?
No. Only you are in the frame. The reader sits just beside the lens on the side the scene needs, so you look near the camera, not into it.
What do I wear for a self tape?
A plain colour that is not the background and not skin, no logos, no patterns that shimmer on camera. Suggest the character, do not costume it.
How long should a self tape be?
Exactly the sides you were sent, plus a slate if asked. Do not add. If a scene is long, the brief usually says which pages; if it does not, tape the whole thing and keep the file name clean.
How do drama schools want self tapes?
As their pack describes, and the packs are specific: which speeches, in what order, how long, ident or no ident, one continuous take or separate files, usually landscape against a plain background, sometimes with no editing at all. Read the pack in the week you apply, since the requirements change from year to year, and send the version they asked for rather than the most impressive one you shot.
Can I use an app as a reader?
Yes, and for a fast turnaround it is often better than a tired friend at eleven at night. Upload the sides, pick your role, set the phone beside the lens, record on a second device. The voices below are what it sounds like.
Is there a self tape reader app?
Yes. qbuddy reads the other characters in a natural voice and plays the next cue only once you have spoken, so the timing in the take is yours. Upload the sides as a PDF (scans included) or a text file, pick your role, put that phone beside the lens at ear height and a little quieter than you, and record on a second device.

A reader that is always free

Upload the sides, pick your role, put the phone beside the lens. Free to start.

Start free

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