December 21, 2006

Social Media, Dance Videos and the Future of Auditions

As things stand today, the Internet is used in only the most limited way for dance auditions - the one exception is the posting of dates and locations for upcoming auditions. There are very, very few dancers who post audition videos on the web and there are almost no producers of music videos, theatrical productions, TV shows or dance companies that turn to the Internet to find new dance talent.

But this situation is about to change. And my guess is that by the end of 2007 many dancers will be creating audition videos specifically for the web.

I think there are a number of developments that will have contributed to this likely development:

1) Reality shows featuring competitions among participants are hugely popular and increasingly embrace the Internet to build audiences, share behind-the-scenes videos and, in some cases, seek user contributions. American Idol is the most obvious example.

2) Dance has gone mainstream with hit shows such as ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" and Fox's "So You Think You Can Dance."

3) Social media, as highlighted in Time's Person of the Year - "You" - has also gone mainstream meaning that millions of people have embraced the idea of creating and uploading their own videos.

4) We're seeing the initial growth in hybrid programs that combine different media and stages. The upcoming TV show Grease, which will premiere on NBC in January, will be a reality show to find the leads for a new Broadway production of this popular musical. The Stand Up or Sit Down comic contest on MySpace sought user submissions and the winning comics got to perform in Las Vegas. (My post about this contest). And,

5) Maybe most important, popular sites such as YouTube are already being used by casting agents and others to encourage dancers to submit video auditions. I provide links below to some of these online dance auditions.

Types of Internet-Based Dance Auditions

Online dance auditions will take two main forms: open and closed.

An open audition will be a completely public affair. Dancers upload their dance videos and the public watches and, maybe, votes on their favorite videos. The producers may then whittle down the list of finalists and ask fans to choose the winner.

A closed audition would take place when a booking agent, for example, wants to attract a large pool of talent but doesn't want to share the submissions with competitors or the public.

My guess is that the first model will be more popular and will often be tied to TV programs, Broadway shows and concerts.

Will fewer dance auditions take place for music videos, theatrical productions, TV shows, and dance companies as a result of an increase in online auditions? Not in most cases. Virtual auditions simply provide a way to reach a larger pool of talent that booking agents might not otherwise have known about. And for dancers, they get to participate in auditions that they might never have traveled to. But in instances where auditions take place exclusively online, clearly there will not be traditional live auditions.

Overall, video auditions will not really work unless the quality of submitted videos goes way up. I've taken a look at a number of uploaded dance audition videos and the technical quality (production value) of the videos is usually horrendous. The lighting is too low, the image of the dancer is too small and the sound quality is terrible. So all participants in this process will want to learn how to create good quality videos - a topic I'll soon write about.

Online Dance Audition Links

Here are some interesting websites I came across related to new developments in online dance auditions that usually feature user-submitted videos. Actually, one of the links is for a casting company that creates online audition profiles of dancers and the last example is an audition for an upcoming drama series that is worth looking at.

- The Flaming Lips created a dance contest on YouTube where they invited fans to submit dance audition videotapes. Winners get to dance on stage with Flaming Lips at a New Year's concert. Here's video invite to contest from Flaming Lips. It hurt me to watch these videos.

- KoldCast is a start-up company that encouragers aspiring entertainers to post their videos in a YouTube group in response to casting calls. There are no submissions at this point.

- Here's a YouTube group for a film called "How They Dance." The producer is seeking dance audition videos from non-professional dancers. The 3 audition videos are actually from the live audition. They are not uploaded by users.

- Stefy will be creating a fan version of their music video "Hey School Boy." They've been holding a contest, "15 Seconds of Fame with STEFY," in conjunction with MTV2 on YouTube, seeking dance submissions from people who want to be featured in this video. The 5 top video auditions will be selected. There are 27 video auditions to date.

- Scene Interactive has an online casting service that features dancer profiles with videos. Producers and directors can be given password access to the full service to review profiles and watch videos - that's what the website says. But it appears that there's public access to all of the profiles. To have a profile created for you, there's a $50 set-up fee and then a $9.95 monthly charge. I watched some of the dancer videos. The images of the dancers seem too small to me to get a good enough view, but I like the plain white background.

- The Interior is an upcoming drama series. There is currently an online casting call for a number of the roles. Anybody who would like to can submit an audition for one of the lead roles. To submit a video, you can download a page from the script or create your own scene and then upload your video to the production's YouTube Group. There are 270 audition videos.

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June 13, 2006

Step Up Movie's Online Audition Call on MySpace

The official site for the upcoming dance movie "Step Up" is on MySpace. An interesting twist is that the public is invited to audition for the film's music video, "Get Up."

On the movie's MySpace page there are now 20 finalists for the "Get Up" video. You can watch these video auditions and choose your favorite five.

This movie promotion combines many of the important online trends in a single package: social networking sites, user-generated content and empowering audiences to determine outcomes.

Thanks to Jo-Anne Green at Networked Performance blog for pointing me to this story.

[Via Step Up to dance on MySpace in Smart Mobs blog.]

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April 10, 2006

Product Placement and E-Commerce Technology Offer New Career Opportunities for Dancers

PersonalScreen Media, a new producer of TV programming for the Internet, has introduced technology that enables viewers to get instant access to products, clothing and other items featured within a show. As you watch a show online, you can click on a dress, for example, get a pop-up screen that provides the details and purchase the dress through an integrated e-commerce system.

Click for Larger Image

I think that this type of integrated product placement and e-commerce functionality offers some great opportunities for dancers. Even though this market is very new, it strikes me that dance offers advertisers and retailers a quick and effective way to grab the attention of multi-tasking and easily-distracted Internet users.

You can learn more about PersonalScreen Media in an article in this morning's edition of ClickZ.

For more dance-specific possibilities for integrated e-commerce and product placement, read two recent stories I've written:

- "Nike Offers Marketing Campaign Featuring Hip Hop Dance Video" - Here's an impressive online marketing campaign that features a dance video, a breakdown of dance steps and the ability to buy the clothing worn by the dancers. ClickZ also has a recent article that provides background on the creation of this online Nike campaign.

Dance Video

- "Emerging Digital Dance Careers": In November I wrote about new career opportunities for dancers in the online world. One of the areas I discussed was product placement and a video ad from Nordstrom's that features the Go-Go's. Viewers can watch the video and buy the featured clothing and accessories.

Technorati Tags: ads, audition, career, dance, e-commerce, marketing, video

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April 4, 2006

Dance Audition Links - Part I

This is my first post about how to use the Internet to find dance auditions. In this post I provide my initial impressions of websites with dance audition listings that do not charge you a fee. In upcoming post I'll write about fee-based dance audition listing sites.

Please email me or post comment with your thoughts, additions or corrections.

To get started, I posted messages on three dance message boards saying that I was about to write about how dancers can use the Internet to find auditions. Here are my messages and the responses - Voice of Dance had the largest number of responses:

- Ballet Talk for Dancers

- Critical Dance

- Voice of Dance

Free Audition Listing Sites

(The below listings are not in any particular order - I just listed them as I wrote about each site.)

- Answers4Dancers: A few dance auditions for US East and West Coasts are listed on home page as well as in their free email newsletter. To access the large majority, you'll need to sign-up for their fee-based service. I'll write more about Answers4Dancers in my next post about audition listing sites and services.

- Article19: Page with up-to-date auditions in UK and other European countries.

- Dance Europe: Page of dance auditions in Europe - mostly updated. But some listings are for past events.

- Craiglist: random, scattered, limited number of dance auditions in different cities around the world. Here are sample listings from New York City.

- Pointe Magazine: Message board with audition section. But from my brief browsing, it seems like discussion about auditions and not listings of actual auditions.

- DanceArt.com: Select "Audition Notices" from drop-down list at top of message board. There are posts for auditions but the audition dates appear to have already past for the listings. So not very helpful.

- Dance Magazine: There is no listing of dance auditions - just wanted to include them since their magazine includes extensive audition listings.

- Voice of Dance: Message board with a large number audition listings with primary focus on US West Coast - as with most message board type set-ups, you can't easily figure out when audition dates have passed.

- Critical Dance: Auditions/Opportunities: They list a limited number of company auditions in a single thread, which makes it very tough to find relevant information - most auditions have already passed.

- Elitedance Broadcast Network: Includes links to a large number of audition websites - I should have written about them at the top of this list - but I'm not sure I agree with their rating system. They give Critical Dance a 9 out of 10. I like the Critical Dance message board, but not their audition listings.

- CastingAudition.com: Listings for "dance - live shows" and "dance - filmed/recorded". First searchable database I've come across, but you have to submit your email address and wait for a casting director to get back to you to learn more about a listing that you like - seems like a hassle.

- Dance.net: extensive listing of updated dance auditions in US and Canada with a clear indication of deadline dates.

Technorati Tags: audition, dance, performance

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January 9, 2006

Dance Article in New York Newsday

About two weeks ago Patricia Kitchen, a staff writer at New York Newsday, interviewed me about a post I wrote about emerging digital dance careers. She asked a lot of good questions about how dancers could embrace the Internet to develop new career opportunities.

She wrote an article in yesterday's paper, "Keep your interests in mind," in which she makes brief reference to my post about new careers for dancers.

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November 22, 2005

Emerging Digital Dance Careers

When dancers think about their careers, they think about live performances and live classes. The focus is on dancing in front of other human beings who are present in the same room at the same time.

This notion that dance must be performed in front of real audiences is no longer valid. Dance is about motion in space and time. There's no reason that dance must be limited just to the "real" world.

Over the next five years, there will be such a huge proliferation of digital dance opportunities for professional dancers and instructors that many dancers will soon be earning more money by selling and licensing their performances and classes in digital format than they will from live presentations.

Here's a brief run-down of emerging digital distribution channels and opportunities for dancers:

1) Video Syndication

New companies are emerging that make it possible for anybody to upload video content to the web and make money from advertising when their video is played through hundreds or thousands of different websites. For example, Brightcove, a private company that just received $16.2 million in funding, is creating a syndication network for video programs. Any website can make any selection of videos available from their site. When these videos are played, 15-30 second advertisements are added.

Dance companies and dance instructors can take advantage of this video distribution network by uploading performances and classes. Each time a video is played, the dancers get a cut of the revenue.

2) Integrated Product Placement

Online video advertising is going to grow like crazy. In part to support the increase in available video content as I just described. Some online video ads will be discrete video segments of up to one minute in length. But most advertisements will be in the form of product placements that are integrated into a storyline, a music video or a dance piece.

Watch this video ad from Nordstrom department store. What you'll be watching is a video remix of the popular music video from the 80's "Our Lips are Sealed" from the Go-Go's. Clips of models wearing Nordstrom clothes and accessories are interspersed with the actual video of the Go-Go Girls. And the featured products are displayed right below the video clip so that you can buy them online from the retailer.

This type of promotional marketing is perfect for dancers. Advertisers need a way to get online viewers to actually watch their video ads - a difficult proposition in any medium. And featuring professional dancers performing different styles of dance is a great way to draw the attention of multi-tasking, easily distracted viewers.

3) Remote Dance Classes

As Internet bandwidth continues to improve, there will be more opportunities for dance classes to be distributed in real-time to distant locations.

Western Michigan University and Case Western Reserve University have teamed-up to deliver dance kinesiology classes over Internet2, the new high-speed Internet. Jane Baas, associate professor of dance at Case teaches this course on the science and mechanics of dance via the university's videoconference facilities.

This type of distributed real-time class instruction offers huge opportunities for delivering dance educational programs at the college and university level as well as to dance studios and even private homes.

As more people purchase wide-screen high-definition TVs (HDTV) and have access to high-speed Internet connections, it no longer is difficult or far-fetched for a group of friends to get together at home and have a remote instructor lead a dance class.

4) Portable, Transferable Media

Recently I've posted stories asking why dance companies aren't sharing video clips via Apple's iTunes so that owners of the new iPods could watch these dance performances on the go ("Dance and the 99 Cent Video" and "Where Are the Dance Podcasts?".

TV programs are already being sold inexpensively through iTunes and there is no reason that dance performances and classes cannot be sold through this distribution channel as well.

And what is likely to further accelerate this move toward portable digital content is that TiVo, the maker of a digital video recorder (DVR), just entered deals with Apple iTunes and Sony Playstation Portable so that TiVo recorded programs can be transferred to these mobile devices.

While it is not clear yet how a dance company would sell performances or classes for download by TiVo and transfer to a mobile device, this e-commerce functionality cannot be far away.

5) Computer Games

The graphics and versatility of computer game consoles and games continues to improve and in the process will eventually offer more opportunities for dancers.

Today Microsoft launched its new video game console Xbox 360, which features improved graphics quality and is HDTV compatible. According to Wired article, the graphics are not yet photorealistic, but still very impressive.

Sample Xbox graphics

While most games are action-packed sports contests or shoot'm up adventures, a less violent breed of interactive games will inevitably gain greater popularity. Already Dance Dance Revolution is a huge hit but features directional information not actual dancers.

What's bound to be on the horizon are almost photorealistic games that feature dancers or cheerleaders participating in multi-player dance competitions and, hopefully, other dance-related storylines.

As these dance-themed games take-off, there will be a greater need for dancers to be featured in these interactive gaming experiences.

6) Virtual Worlds

Are you ready to perform a dance program in an online 3D virtual world?

Well recently, a participant in the Project Entropia role-playing game, with more than 300,000 players, spent $100,000 - real US dollars - to purchase a virtual piece of land with the intention of building a resort.

Jon Jacobs, known in Entropia as Neverdie, will call his entertainment oasis Club Neverdie. Gamers, in the form of their customized avatars, will come to this new club and spend real dollars (in the form of Entropia currency) to socialize and watch live performances.

As millions more join these virtual environments, more entertainment of all types will be needed including dance performances. And since there is real money to be made and the visual quality of these environments is verging on lifelike, there's no reason not to figure out how to create your own digital dance performance company.

Other virtual worlds include Second Life and There.

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November 17, 2005

Dance Videos for Auditions

Some questions:

1) What percentage of dancers create videos (DVD/VHS) for their auditions?

2) How do dancers create these videos and how much money do they spend?

3) Does creating a good quality video make a big difference in terms of the odds of getting a job?

4) If you don't have an audition video are you at a disadvantage?

5) What are dance companies/shows/schools/others looking for in a good video?

6) Are there many auditions where you can submit a video instead of performing at a live audition? What are pros and cons?

I was thinking about these questions as I was searching for articles and resources that had to do with either making dance audition videos or guidelines for submitting these videos:

- Dance Magazine article by Eric Wolfram, "Fast Forward: 12 Tips to a Winning Audition Video"

- Photo and video tips for dancers from Mark Twain

- Jazz Dance video specifications for NFAA.ARTS Awards

- Video audition guidelines for Rockette Summer Intensive (PDF)

- Summer Dance Institute auditions

- Julliard Summer Dance Intensive video/DVD requirements

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