# How to Self-Tape a Monologue: Eyeline, Framing, Slates, and Takes > Where to look when there is no reader, how to frame a monologue, when and how to slate, how many takes to shoot, and how drama-school tapes differ from tapes for agents and casting. - URL: https://www.offbook.com/blog/monologue-self-tape - Published: 2026-10-14 - Last updated: 2026-10-14 The application portal wants your monologue on tape by Friday. You've learned the speech, cleared a wall, and propped your phone on a stack of books. Then you press record, open your mouth, and realize you have no idea where to look. A scene tape has a reader to talk to. A monologue tape has a lens, a blank wall, and you. Most of the trouble actors have with monologue tapes comes from that empty space: eyes that drift around the room, a slate that bleeds into the first line, and twelve takes that get worse after the third. The short version: read the brief before anything else, because a drama school and a casting office want different tapes. Give your eyes one fixed point just beside the lens, at eye height, and keep it there unless the brief says to play to camera. Shoot in landscape, framed from the chest up for most speeches. If the brief asks for a slate, say it straight to the lens, take a beat, then find your eyeline. Shoot up to three takes, watch each one back, and send the one that feels most alive. ## Read the brief first: schools and casting want different tapes Drama-school tapes are usually a package. Guildhall's [first-round guidance](https://www.gsmd.ac.uk/study-with-guildhall/drama/drama-auditions/drama-auditions-preparation-and-advice) asks for an introduction and two monologues in one file, either filmed in one continuous take or edited together. The Oxford School of Drama's [guidance for applicants](https://oxforddrama.ac.uk/apply/) sets the whole tape at six to seven minutes and says the panel will not watch past seven. Other schools want the opposite shape. The University of Alabama's [prescreen page](https://theatredance.ua.edu/all-auditions/acting-musical-theatre-auditions/) asks for each piece as its own file and no separate slate video; each monologue opens with its own slate. Same speech, same actor, completely different upload. That's why the brief comes before the camera. Tapes for agents and casting offices are a different job. Casting directors rarely ask for a monologue at all; when they do, it's often because the script isn't available or the director wants one, as an actor explains in a [Backstage advice column on monologue tapes](https://www.backstage.com/magazine/article/self-tape-monologues-audition-advice-69359/). The same column says agents and managers sometimes ask for one to gauge your ability. Often they want to see you act on camera: an agent quoted in Spotlight's [advice for young performers](https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/young-performers/advice-for-young-performers-from-the-industry/) says it matters to have an acting clip on your profile, especially for screen roles. So before you film, sort the request into one of two piles: - A school tape is judged as an audition for training. Expect a set number of pieces, a time limit, and instructions on the slate or introduction. - A casting or agent tape is judged as a sample of you on screen. Expect fewer written rules; the tape is there to show how you come across on camera. - If the request gives a format, a length, or a file name, those beat every tip in this guide, including the ones below. ## Give your eyes one place to land The default for a monologue tape is to play to someone just off the lens. Toronto Film School's [admission requirements](https://www.torontofilmschool.ca/admissions/admission-requirements/) tell applicants not to look into the lens and to play the monologue to an eyeline just off camera. LIPA's [self-tape guidelines](https://lipa.ac.uk/media/iohhsha2/2026-ukinternational-stage-1-self-tape-baact-baasd-baacp-chefass-guidelines-final.pdf) place the other person slightly to the left or right of the lens. Keeping your eyeline that close opens your face to the camera without staring down it. Close is the key word. Spotlight's [self-tape tips](https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/the-essentials/how-to-fix-common-self-tape-mistakes/) suggest choosing a spot just off camera where the other character would be, without turning your whole head away. The further your eyeline sits from the lens, the more of your face turns to profile, and the less of your eyes the panel sees. Central's [diploma audition guidance](https://www.cssd.ac.uk/short-courses/diplomas/diploma-audition-guidance) also asks for an eyeline slightly off frame, to the side or slightly above. If you place it above, keep it only just above the lens. Some schools allow a second option: Guildhall's guidance says to deliver the monologues either slightly off-frame or directly to camera. When a brief offers a choice, pick one and commit to it for the whole speech. The practical fix is a **target**. Put a small piece of tape or a sticky note beside the lens at your eye height, and talk to it as the person your character needs something from. Guildhall and Oxford both suggest having a friend stand just beside the camera, out of shot, so you have a real face to talk to. If no one is free, the tape mark works fine. ### Who is the speech to? Your eyeline should follow the person the speech is aimed at. Portia's trial speech in *The Merchant of Venice* is said to one man in the courtroom: > The quality of mercy is not strain’d, > It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven > > (William Shakespeare, *The Merchant of Venice*, Act 4, Scene 1) That's one listener, so one target beside the lens. If a speech turns from one person to another, give each listener a fixed spot. Spotlight's [guide to filming young performers' tapes](https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/the-essentials/setting-up-and-filming-young-performer-self-tapes/) suggests one eyeline on each side of the camera rather than looking around for whoever is speaking, and the same idea works for adults. Soliloquies and speeches to the audience are the hard case. On stage, a speech can break the fourth wall when the play calls for it. On tape, the Backstage column suggests playing a stage monologue to an imaginary partner just to the side of the lens. It saves a look into the lens for screen monologues where the script indicates one. If a school's brief allows direct-to-camera, a soliloquy is the piece where it can make sense. If you're unsure, stay just off the lens. ## Frame the speech, not the room Shoot in landscape. Spotlight, LIPA, and Guildhall all say to film in landscape, and a vertical phone video sits in a thin strip in the middle of a panel's screen. Then frame from about the chest to just above your head; Spotlight's main [self-tape guide](https://www.spotlight.com/news-and-advice/the-essentials/how-to-self-tape/) calls this a mid-close shot and makes it the default unless you're told otherwise. Schools sometimes ask for more of you. USC's [BFA Acting application](https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/programs/undergraduate/apply/bfa-acting/) asks for the contemporary piece in close-up, from the top of the head to the chest, and the classical piece as a full-body shot. The Oxford School of Drama's [foundation course](https://oxforddrama.ac.uk/courses/acting-foundation-course/) asks for the introduction in close-up and the speeches from the waist up. Bristol Old Vic Theatre School's [self-tape tips](https://oldvic.ac.uk/self-tape-audition-tips/) suggest a medium close-up for an intimate standing speech and a wider mid-shot if the piece needs movement. When you need a wider shot, move the camera back instead of zooming. LIPA's guidelines say not to use digital zoom; move the camera instead. Zooming on a phone also softens the image. Keep the lens at your eye height, light your face from the front rather than sitting with a window behind you, and use a plain wall. LIPA also asks for the phone's back camera, not a laptop webcam. Then mark the floor. Stand where the frame works, put a strip of tape at your toes, and come back to it before every take. A monologue gives you nothing to react to, so it's easy to drift toward the camera as the speech builds, and a few inches matter in a chest-up frame. ## Slate straight to the lens, then find your eyeline Many school briefs ask for a short introduction or slate, and Guildhall and LIPA want it to the lens. Guildhall asks you to look at the camera for the introduction. LIPA's Stage One guidance asks for your name to camera, with the program you're applying for and the titles of your pieces. USC's [undergraduate admissions page](https://dramaticarts.usc.edu/undergraduate-admissions-new/) and Alabama's prescreen put a slate at the top of each monologue with your name, the play, and the playwright. For casting and agent tapes, slate only when the request asks, and say exactly what it lists. Our guide to [slating for a self-tape](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-slate-for-a-self-tape) has word-for-word examples for common requests. The part that trips actors up is the handoff. You finish your name to the lens, and the first line is already coming out of your mouth while your eyes are still looking for the tape mark. Build in a reset: say the slate, let your eyes drop for a breath, then lift them to your target and start. That beat gives the panel a clean line between you and the character. If you're filming two pieces in one continuous take, Guildhall suggests a brief pause between the end of the first speech and the start of the second. Use it the same way: drop the first character, find the second one's eyeline, and begin. ## Shoot up to three takes, then take a break Spotlight's self-tape guide gives a simple rule: if you can't get it in three takes, stop, take a break, and come back to it. You probably know why. Take nine is rarely better than take two, because by then you're tired, tense, and performing the notes you gave yourself. Change one thing between takes, not five. If the first take was rushed, slow the opening. If the eyeline wandered, move the target closer to the lens. Watch each take with the sound on and then with it off; with no sound, you'll see straight away whether your eyes stayed put. Send one take unless the brief asks for more. Choosing your best is part of the job, so don't hand that job to the panel. If the brief asks for one continuous take, as Bristol Old Vic's BA Acting audition notes for 2024-25 did, don't cut inside it; record the whole run again instead. ### A run sheet for the session 1. Reread the brief and write down the pieces, the time limit, the slate wording, and the file format. 2. Set the phone in landscape at eye height, with light in front of you and a plain wall behind. 3. Frame the shot the brief asks for, then tape a floor mark where you stand. 4. Stick your eyeline target beside the lens at eye height, on the side that suits the speech. 5. Record a ten-second test and play it back to check sound, light, and focus. 6. Shoot up to three full takes: slate to the lens if the brief asks, a breath, then the speech to your target. Watch each one and change one thing before the next. 7. Pick the best take and name the file the way the brief asks. 8. Time the final file with a [monologue timer](https://www.offbook.com/tools/monologue-timer) or your phone, including the slate if the brief counts it. ## Know the speech well enough that your eyes can stay still Most wandering eyelines aren't a camera problem. They're a memory problem. When a line isn't quite there, the eyes go looking for it, up and to the side, and the camera catches every search. Toronto Film School's requirements say plainly not to read the monologue. So learn the speech by its thoughts before you set up the camera. Our guide to [memorizing a monologue](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-memorize-a-monologue) walks through beats, chunking, and testing yourself out loud. If you still need material, the [monologue library](https://www.offbook.com/monologues) has classical speeches with notes, and our guide to [choosing contrasting monologues](https://www.offbook.com/blog/how-to-choose-contrasting-monologues) covers picking a pair for school tapes. A speech lands better on tape when you know what was said to your character just before it. Upload the scene the monologue comes from to Offbook, pick your role, and realistic voices read the other characters' lines, so you rehearse the speech as an answer to something. Start with first-letter cues, then hide the entire script for a final test before you film. Video: [Hide your lines](https://www.offbook.com/learn/hide-your-lines) (1:07) When the words are in your body, your eyes can stay on the target, and the panel sees a person talking to someone. ## Questions actors ask ### How long should a monologue self-tape be? As long as the brief says, and no longer. Toronto Film School asks for one to two minutes, USC asks for each piece under 90 seconds, and Oxford sets a total tape length. If there's no limit, a short, complete speech is safer than a long one. ### Can I sit down for a monologue tape? Yes, if the character would and the brief doesn't say otherwise. Keep the camera at your eye height in the new position and check that your face is still lit. If the piece needs movement, stand and frame a little wider. ### Should I use props or a costume? Usually not. Plain clothes and no props keep the panel's attention on you and the text, and some schools say so in their guidance. If the brief asks for something specific, follow it. ### Do I need a good camera? No. Guildhall says you don't need a professional-grade camera, and LIPA accepts a smartphone if you use the back camera. A steady phone, front light, and a quiet room matter more than the device.