Usually my grandma takes me to auditions, including taping sessions for auditions. Today, she had a meeting, so my grandpa took me.

When Grandma takes me to an audition, she always checks to make sure my hair is combed right (it isn’t in this picture), and she always reminds me what to wear to auditions. Grandpa didn’t remind me.

So I forgot, and wore a blue shirt to a blue-screen shoot. The audition was actually pretty good — but as you can see in this screen capture of the “slate” I recorded tonight,  you can barely see me because of what I was wearing.

If there is time, I am going to have to film this whole audition again, because I forgot and wore the wrong clothes. Most of the time, you can’t film the audition at home with an iPad, iPhone, or small video camera. The casting people want good lighting and professional quality tapes — so we usually pay someone to film auditions. It’s not cheap: about $75-100 each.  So having to do it over when the first take was really pretty good, just because I was wearing the wrong clothes, is a bad thing.

For some reason, I have a hard time not giggling whenever I do my slate at the end of an audition taping. (A slate is when you say your name, age, height, city, state, agent’s name, and so on.  They take a close up of your face, then the camera pans out to show your whole body, and then it zooms back in on your face. Sometimes they add a title or caption that spells out your name, the name of the role you’re auditioning for, and the contact information for your agent.) I think I giggle because the audition is almost over, and I know it went well, and I feel like smiling or laughing because I’m happy — especially after a hard scene where I had to cry, or look scared or very sad.

In this audition, I was standing by a dead bird, and my mother thinks I killed it — but I am trying to tell her that it was that way when I found it. Not a happy scene. So when it was over, I just started giggling. That’s another “oops”.  It’s ok to smile during your slate, but you’re not supposed to giggle.

My grandmother says one day I will pay more attention to what I wear. Right now, I’m all about comfort, though, and I don’t really like getting all dressed up. But I don’t think I will make this mistake again!