Oh, the humanity...

April 12, 2010 7:29 PM

Sarantos Studios acting demo tapes...261 of them. (via Dangerous Minds)
posted by madamjujujive (35 comments total)

I will not watch the movies that the people who make moves make. But I would watch movies with these people in them.
posted by koeselitz at 7:34 PM on April 12, 2010

I would LOVE to work with some of these people.
posted by scrowdid at 7:38 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

You will not like me . . . great job!
posted by nola at 7:44 PM on April 12, 2010

Two hundred and sixty one is not enough.
posted by clarknova at 7:46 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

So far, this is the FPP of the year.
posted by dobbs at 7:55 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Wow. William Shatner is really a pretty good actor.
posted by XMLicious at 8:03 PM on April 12, 2010 [4 favorites]

I took a class from Sarantos once. It was useful for what it was, a place to start just to see what acting was like.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:15 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Thank goodness I took the class from Sarantos before Youtube.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:16 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Metafilter: You could stop at five or six sites (...)
...or just one!
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 8:28 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

Wow, I really believed she was Brittney!
posted by Slack-a-gogo at 8:32 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

Deliciously scary. Love it. Thank you, madamjujujive.
posted by stringbean at 8:37 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I love you, madamjujujive.
posted by melissa may at 8:38 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I don't get it. Did all those people actually sign a release giving Sarantos Studios the right to humiliate them at will by posting their demo tapes?

I look forward to, say, the posting on Flickr of the full set of Yale nude freshman posture photographs. With a MeFi FPP de rigueur of course.
posted by Creosote at 8:39 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

... what's the source of the song fragment that Ann Marie Boyle sings? It's the closest thing to professional on any of these tapes.
posted by Creosote at 8:44 PM on April 12, 2010

I applaud them all. Many of them were done a disservice when no-one gave them a quick poof in the face with an eight inch diameter shine-busting powder puff, like they do before all the takes in the Bugs Bunny cartoons about movie making.
posted by StickyCarpet at 8:53 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think that I like Bill Dollear
posted by anazgnos at 8:58 PM on April 12, 2010

sorry, link to tape of Ann Marie Boyle song (toward the end)
posted by Creosote at 9:02 PM on April 12, 2010

Creosote: “I don't get it. Did all those people actually sign a release giving Sarantos Studios the right to humiliate them at will by posting their demo tapes?”

If you think any of these are humiliating, you should watch a few more. They're awesome. Seriously.

I said it already, but I'll say it again: these are the people that are supposed to be in movies.
posted by koeselitz at 9:05 PM on April 12, 2010 [1 favorite]

They probably payed a fee in part based on Sarantos Studios getting them exposure on the internet. I'll bet more than one will get some kind of gig out of this, at least as a speaking extra. If any of them suck really bad, then that's just more glory on them for having the nerve to get out there even though they suck.
posted by StickyCarpet at 9:12 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I thought this one would go a different direction, especially after she changed her father's soiled clothes.
posted by erniepan at 9:24 PM on April 12, 2010

[to answer my own question, I'm guessing she's singing something by Hildegard von Bingen. An early music geek always trumps an actress in my book anyway.]
posted by Creosote at 9:25 PM on April 12, 2010

Dear people of Sarantos, I admire your guts if not your skills.
posted by chairface at 9:39 PM on April 12, 2010 [3 favorites]

Ordering them by "Most Viewed" is like assembling your own heartbreaking clown car.

Is it customary for folks in this situation to choose their own monologues? The ones these folks choose, even if I liked them in the media they arose from (oh hi Buffy death scene), don't seem to work in regards to letting someone play more than one emotional beat.
posted by greenland at 10:05 PM on April 12, 2010 [2 favorites]

I thought this one would go a different direction, especially after she changed her father's soiled clothes.

That scene illustrates what I love about this kind of thing. No disrespect to her, guts and all, but that monologue really sets into relief the utterly tremendous amount of talent it would take to actually sell all the shadings of emotion that would be needed to really bring that to life.
posted by StickyCarpet at 10:14 PM on April 12, 2010

Hey, it's the cast of After Last Season!

Also, Metafilter: like assembling your own heartbreaking clown car.
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:39 AM on April 13, 2010

I thought this one would go a different direction

"Very often the bed's soiled, so I change him, and sponge him, and bring the clothes downstairs."

"That's a great act! What do you call it?"
posted by Horace Rumpole at 4:46 AM on April 13, 2010 [3 favorites]

Sarantos Studios: If you aren't wiggling your eyebrows, you aren't acting.
posted by DU at 4:57 AM on April 13, 2010 [2 favorites]

Ok, this one is actually awesome for the voice alone... if that was overlaid with the movie preview it would be perfect.
posted by odinsdream at 5:57 AM on April 13, 2010

I love that I'm part of the same big ol' human family as all these folks, but I really want to say that the Velvet Marvin & the Tammi Underground mashup at the top of Dangerous Minds right now is really blowing my mind.
posted by mediareport at 6:22 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

They state a reason for posting the clips on their facebook page:

We teach acting to anyone 14 years of age and up. We post acting demo videos of our students on the internet so casting directors of low budget feature films and student films can view those demos and perhaps cast the student.

If any of them suck really bad, then that's just more glory on them for having the nerve to get out there even though they suck.

It takes a lot just to do this, especially in a city teeming with actors. And some do indeed start at the level of suck. More power to all of them.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:14 AM on April 13, 2010 [1 favorite]

Well I really liked Tim Kreuger.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 8:15 AM on April 13, 2010

Tommy Russell. The man your man could smell like if he stopped using lady-scented bodywash and switched to a rancid mixture of vaseline and jism.
posted by drlith at 8:34 AM on April 13, 2010

I thought I'd gotten my fill of ham at Easter dinner... evidently not.

But really, I wonder... the over-actors, the under-actors, the mumblers, the fast-talkers, the eyebrow-wigglers, the wrong-emphasizers... does that sound natural to them?
posted by uncleozzy at 9:17 AM on April 13, 2010

Now this is some turgid monologing'
posted by delmoi at 9:57 AM on April 13, 2010

The editing is weirder than the acting on some of these. The Bill Dollear clip is like Tim and Eric cutting After Last Season 2.
posted by anazgnos at 12:22 PM on April 13, 2010