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My Advice On At Home Self Tape Studios:

While the most important element of a self-tape is your performance, if we can't see you and hear you clearly a wonderful performance is moot. All you need is a simple setup to ensure that a silly technical element won't be the reason why you lose out on a job.

Natural light tends to be best, so if you have a room with a window that faces a wall directly, setting yourself up against that wall with the window in front of you will be lovely (just make sure to avoid direct sunlight hitting you in the face!) If you don't happen to have that or if you are taping after sundown, you can opt for either a ring light (I like this 18" from Neewer) or a set of softbox lights, such as these. A collapsible or "pop-up" backdrop is easiest, and getting one with a stand is very helpful. I recommend grey, as it flatters almost every skin-tone. Something that I consider to be essential is using a lav mic that plugs right into your phone. It requires no set up and makes all the difference, as it not only allows you to keep your speaking voice low and conversational, it ensures that your reader isn't louder than you are, which is distracting. The one I use myself and recommend to all of my students and private clients is this one from Boya, with which you'll likely need a headphone jack adapter. And I don't recommend filming on a fancy camera like a DSLR. Use your phone! We don't need a higher quality video than what your phone can provide, and this makes the process easier, quicker, and less likely to have a technical glitch make our favorite take disappear.

Don’t have access to a friend to read with you in-person? Zoom them in! A stand like this will make it easy to raise your laptop or tablet up to where you’d like your eye-line to be.

Everything in this setup is collapsible and easily stored in a closet, behind or under a couch, etc, so if you don't have a whole extra room to devote to self-tapes, don't worry! You can set up and break down in less than five minutes.