God, I hope I get it!

"God, I hope I get it.
I hope I get it.
How many people does he need?
God, I hope I get it.
I hope I get it.
How many boys, how many girls?
Look at all the people!
At all the people.
How many people does he need?
How many boys, how many girls?
How many people does he...?" 

NEEEEEEEED!!!   It's audition time, peeps!

Whether you're auditioning to be a member of the chorus line or the leading part, you have to audition.  It's not the most fun you'll have in this wonderfully crazy world of show business but its arguably the most important.

There are two ways to audition for a singer and/or dancer job on board a cruise ship.  The first is to attend a General Audition.  A general audition is simply a live audition.  This is, in my opinion, the best way to audition.  They see you live and in person.  They hear you singing or watch you dancing right in front of them.  They can call you back and have you sing or dance more for them right then and there.  It's a win-win for both you and the cruise ship company! (To clarify:  "they" are the panel of people conducting the audition.  They usually work for the company and/or represent the cruise ship company you are hoping to work for.)  A general audition is usually announced/posted in advance and will contain fairly detailed instructions for you to follow regarding preparation for and what you should bring to the audition.   Visit the link below to check out a good example of a General Audition notice:

http://www.royalcaribbeanproductions.com/auditions/general

The second audition option is to submit a video audition.  Most, if not all, cruise ship companies will accept video auditions.  A video audition should be no more than 5 minutes in length and showcase as many varieties/styles/genres/songs as possible.  You can video yourself singing in front of a blank wall or if dancing, a dance studio is perfect.  (Don't video yourself against a wall or in a room with a lot going on behind you.  It's too distracting.  You want the viewer to be concentrating on you, not focusing on Grandma's ceramic plate collection hanging on the wall behind you).   I do recommend, if you can, including as much actual performance footage on your audition video as well.  It gives the viewer a much better understanding of you as a live performer if they see you at work.  When editing your video audition, you should place your best clips toward the beginning of the video.  You want to grab their attention right away!  And by 'best' I mean the ones that show you off the best.  Not the best video quality necessarily, although that is important also.  You don't want to send in a video audition that is grainy or out of focus, or include clips that make it difficult to find you in the shot.  That can be distracting for the viewer, too.  Remember, you are not the only one submitting a video.  The casting folks will be reviewing many videos and I can't guarantee they watch every second of every video they receive, so be sure to show them your best stuff up front with footage that is easy and pleasing to watch.

Below is a link to my most recent video promo.  Keep in mind, I would not use this promo video as an audition submission due to it's length.  It's too long to submit as an audition but it's a good template to follow when putting your video together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bPNMv3ugA8Q

Please do not stress if your video isn't professionally produced and edited. It doesn't need to be nor does it have to be.   You're not submitting a film to Sundance.  You will not lose points if it's not perfect.  Make it clear and easy to see and/or hear you, make the transitions from clip to clip as seamless as possible,  make sure it's less than 5 minutes, and you, my friend, have your audition video.

Disclaimer:  I'm not concerning you with a lot of details right now (I'll go into more details as this blog evolves) because I want to give you as much information as I can to get you started, so feel free to post any questions, comments or concerns that you have and I'll try to respond to them and/or cover those points in future postings.