Self tape setup: backdrop, lighting, sound and camera, from a free setup to a full kit

A good self tape setup is a plain backdrop a few feet behind you, soft light falling on your face from in front, a quiet room, and a phone or camera held steady in landscape at your eye level. You can build it for nothing with a bare wall and a window, or for roughly $100 with a stand, one light and a clip-on microphone; casting cares that it can see and hear you clearly, not what you spent.

This guide is only about the physical setup: where to put the backdrop, the lights, the microphone and the camera, and how to test them. For what a self tape is, the union rules, slating, eyeline and upload limits, read the self-tape auditions guide first. The advice below comes from the casting platforms actors upload to (Breakdown Express's Eco Cast, Casting Frontier and Spotlight), casting directors they quote, and a Los Angeles acting school; where they disagree, both views are given.

The room decides more than the gear. Look for three things:

• Quiet. Spotlight's audio-visual specialist warns that fridges, extractor fans and plumbing "will sound louder on camera than it actually does to your ear", so turn them off or choose a quieter room, and close the windows against traffic (Spotlight). ACX's studio advice adds clocks, computer fans and laptops near the microphone to the list (ACX).
• Light from the front. If you use a window, put the camera between you and the window so you face it. Standing with a window behind you turns you into a silhouette (Spotlight); Casting Frontier also says to keep any light source out of the frame behind you (Casting Frontier).
• Depth. You need room to stand away from the wall so your shadow does not land on it. Spotlight suggests about 1 metre (a little over 3 feet) between you and the wall (Spotlight); Teleprompter.com's backdrop guide suggests at least 5 feet (Teleprompter.com). Start where your room allows and move forward until the shadow behind your head disappears on playback.

Add the camera and a reader standing beside it, and a chest-up self tape usually needs a strip of floor several feet long. A hallway or the long side of a bedroom often works better than the middle of a living room full of echo.

Every platform source asks for the same thing: one plain colour, nothing hanging on it, nothing moving behind you. The colour advice is close but not identical:

• Grey is Spotlight's first choice, and it says not to use bright white "as it reflects a lot of shadows" (Spotlight).
• Any solid non-white colour with little to no clutter is Casting Frontier's rule (Casting Frontier).
• Blue is casting director Michael Testa's preference; he tells actors to invest in "a quality background" (Casting Frontier).
• Light grey, slate blue or muted beige are the neutrals Teleprompter.com suggests, and it says to skip a green screen unless the casting call asks for one (Teleprompter.com).

So grey or a muted blue is the safe default, and a white wall is the thing to avoid if you have a choice. Then check your clothes against it: Eco Cast's help page says to wear a colour that neither blends into the backdrop nor sharply clashes with it (Breakdown Express). Keep a second top in a contrasting colour near your setup.

Which material to use depends on your space:

• A plain wall costs nothing. Eco Cast lists a blank wall as its second choice after a solid-coloured curtain, whose folds add some depth (Breakdown Express). Teleprompter.com notes the catch: you are tied to that one spot (Teleprompter.com).
• Fabric (matte cotton, canvas or muslin) packs away, but wrinkles cast shadows: steam or iron it before you film, because "a wrinkled backdrop, even a neutral one, looks careless" (Teleprompter.com).
• Seamless paper gives the smoothest look and is what studios use, but it tears and creases if handled carelessly (Teleprompter.com).
• A collapsible pop-up folds into a small bag, which suits shared apartments, but its size can limit framing (Teleprompter.com). Check that it covers the frame beyond your head and shoulders at your usual shot size.

Hang fabric or paper so it lies flat: a collapsible backdrop stand, or clips and adhesive hooks across the top and sides, with clamps strong enough not to slip mid-take (Teleprompter.com).

Aim for soft light. Spotlight explains the difference simply: "Soft light is from a large source, which casts few shadows on a subject and is flattering on people's skin tones", while a small source gives hard, sharp shadows; a phone's own light tends to give hard shadows and a hotspot on the skin (Spotlight). A window with daylight, a softbox or a lamp shining through a diffuser is a large source; a bare bulb is not.

1. Kill the overhead light. Eco Cast's help page says overhead fluorescents cast deep shadows that can make you look older and add a yellow-orange tint (Breakdown Express).
2. Place a key light beside the camera, pointed at your face (Breakdown Express). Spotlight puts studio lights 1.5 to 2 metres (about 5 to 6.5 feet) from the performer, farther back for children to avoid glare, and says the priority is that your eyes are well lit (Spotlight).
3. Add a dimmer fill light on the opposite side, a little farther back and aimed at your side (Breakdown Express). In a small room one light may be enough; too much light washes you out (Breakdown Express).
4. Set exposure and colour. Skin should look bright without losing detail, and if skin tones look off, adjust the white balance using your camera's settings (Spotlight).

Phones keep re-adjusting brightness and focus as you move. On an iPhone you can press and hold on your face in the camera view until "AE/AF LOCK" appears, which holds exposure and focus until you tap the screen again (How-To Geek). That article describes it for photos, so record a short test to confirm the lock holds in video mode on your phone.

Daylight changes through the day. If you tape by a window, shoot your test and your takes in the same session so the light matches, and keep a lamp or softbox ready for evening requests.

This is the one setup question where the sources split.

• Against ring lights: Spotlight's audio-visual specialist advises avoiding them because they put reflections in the performer's eyes, and suggests plug-in video softbox lights on stands instead, at around £30 each in the UK (Spotlight).
• For ring lights: casting director Michael Testa calls them "a quick, easy way to provide soft light with uniform brightness on self-tapes", and casting director Caroline Liem suggests setting the ring at a distance that gives the face a flattering glow, adding a standard lamp if the light needs balancing (Casting Frontier).
• Placement if you use one: The Playground, a Los Angeles acting school, puts the ring light directly behind the camera, slightly above eye level, and warns that placing it to the side darkens half the face (The Playground).

Both work. A ring light is compact and quick to set up behind the lens; one or two softboxes give a more natural look without the circle in your eyes, but take more floor space. If you already own a ring light, use it and check playback for the reflection Spotlight objects to. If you are buying from scratch and have the room, a softbox avoids the issue.

Casting Frontier says most smartphones, digital cameras and webcams made since 2010 have good built-in microphones, and to use an external one if you have it (Casting Frontier). The problem is distance: a phone a few feet away hears the room as much as you. The Playground's article says phone mics "pick up room echo, air conditioning noise, and the neighbor's dog" and calls a lavalier (clip-on) microphone the key upgrade (The Playground).

• Clip-on mic. Spotlight names the RØDE smartLav+, which clips to your clothing and works with Apple and Android phones, and the RØDE VideoMic GO for cameras, placed close to you. If the mic cable cannot reach the phone, it suggests a TRRS 3.5mm extension cable (Spotlight).
• Earbud or headphone mic. Spotlight rates an external mic above headphones; if you use a headset mic, set the camera's audio input to it (Spotlight).
• No external mic? Stand closer to the camera and ask your reader not to speak too loudly (Spotlight). Casting director Caroline Liem gives the same advice about a loud reader (Casting Frontier).
• Echo. Add soft surfaces: The Playground suggests a rug or a blanket hung behind the camera (The Playground). Bare walls and hard floors make the room ring.

• Which camera. Casting Frontier says most phones, tablets and computers from the last five to seven years are good enough, recording at 720p (Casting Frontier). Eco Cast's help page is stricter and advises against webcams, preferring a camcorder run by a friend (Breakdown Express). A recent phone on a stand satisfies both.
• Orientation. Landscape, never portrait, unless the request says otherwise (Spotlight, Casting Frontier).
• Hold it still. A tripod keeps the frame steady and frees your reader (The Playground). Don't zoom in or out during a take, and keep the image sharp (Spotlight).
• Framing. Spotlight's casting directors want a tight head-and-shoulders shot (Spotlight). The Playground suggests about two inches of headroom for chest-up shots and about six for full-body shots, with a tape mark on the floor so you stay in place (The Playground).
• Reader. Next to the camera, or directly behind it, so you play toward the lens, and off camera unless casting asks to see them (Breakdown Express).

For camera height, eyeline and how to slate, see the self-tape auditions guide; it covers the shot itself, this page covers what surrounds it.

Jenny Jue, a casting director quoted by Casting Frontier, calls the idea that actors need a studio a "misconception" (Casting Frontier). Build in this order and stop when your test tape looks and sounds clean:

1. $0. The phone you have, propped steady at eye level; a plain wall (grey or blue beats white); a window in front of you; the quietest room, with fans and the fridge off; a blanket on the floor or behind the camera for echo.
2. About $100. The Playground puts a phone-based setup, with a tripod, ring light, lavalier mic and a plain backdrop or wall, at $70 to $115 if you already own the phone, and under $150 in total (The Playground). If you choose one purchase, make it the clip-on mic or a stand, which fix the two most common faults: noise and a moving frame.
3. A full kit. Two softboxes on stands as key and fill, which Spotlight prices at around £30 each in the UK (Spotlight), a backdrop stand with fabric or paper in grey or blue, and a dedicated microphone. Worth it when you tape every week; until then, the money may do more in an on-camera class.

Before each audition, record about 20 seconds in your exact setup, then watch it on a computer and listen on headphones. Check, in order:

1. Is there a shadow on the backdrop behind your head? Step forward or move the light.
2. Are both eyes lit, and is one side of your face much darker than the other? Move the key closer to the camera or add fill.
3. Is your skin bright but not blown out, and a natural colour? Adjust exposure and white balance.
4. Is there a wrinkle, crease, edge of the backdrop or anything else in frame? Fix or reframe.
5. Do you hear a hum, a fan, traffic or echo? Turn it off, close the window, add soft surfaces or clip on the mic.
6. Does your reader drown you out? Move them back or ask them to read quieter.
7. Is the frame landscape, steady and sharp, with room above your head?

Then take a photo of the setup with your light and camera positions, so the next tape takes five minutes to rebuild.

A setup cannot fix the acting. If your tapes look and sound right but still don't land, the next step is practice on camera with feedback. Arlo's on-camera and self-tape classes guide lists Los Angeles classes that work on exactly this, and audition prep classes shows current listings with prices. Many studios let you audit a class before paying, and the LA Acting Class Price Index shows what a class should cost.

To rehearse with real material before your next request, practice monologues and scenes from Offbook, and read cold reading for tapes with a short deadline.