Self Tape and Screen Acting Class in Auckland

Why a Class Built Around the Self Tape

A self tape, or self test, is an audition you record yourself and send to the casting director. It has become the usual first round for screen work, which changes what an actor has to be good at. There is no reader chosen for you, no casting assistant to frame the shot and nobody to tell you the take before was better. You prepare alone, usually against a deadline, and the recording has to stand on its own.

This class exists to make that routine. It gives you regular hours in front of a camera with scripts of the kind you will actually be sent, at the pace auditions arrive in real life.

What Happens in the Class

The class has two strands that feed each other.

• Improvisation. Working without a script trains you to respond to what is in front of you and to stay alive between the lines, which is where a screen performance is often won.
• On camera practice. Fast paced work with television commercial scripts and drama scripts. Commercials ask for a clear idea delivered in seconds. Drama asks for a truthful inner life in a close frame. Practising both builds range and speed.

Underneath both sits the Michael Chekhov technique for screen. Tools such as psychological gesture and atmosphere are useful to a screen actor precisely because they are quick: a gesture rehearsed physically and then held inside gives a close-up something to read without the actor having to push. The technique as a whole is explained on our page about the Michael Chekhov acting technique.

Audition Preparation in Five Steps

Elena also teaches audition preparation as a stand alone workshop: a five step process for preparing effectively and efficiently, even under a tight deadline, using Michael Chekhov screen acting tools. The Friday class is the weekly place to keep practising on camera. When an audition preparation day is scheduled it appears on the acting workshops page.

Who Should Take It

The class suits actors who are auditioning, or about to start, and who want camera time every week rather than once a term. It pairs naturally with one of the intermediate or advanced evening classes, where the technique itself is taught in depth. If you are new to acting altogether, begin with the beginners class and add this one later.

Where Self Tapes Are Sent

Screen work reaches New Zealand actors from local drama and from international productions that shoot here. The New Zealand Film Commission supports the local industry and works to attract international productions, and a self tape lets an actor anywhere in the country be seen for that work without travelling to a casting room.

Dates, Fee and Booking

The self tape class runs on Fridays from 6.30pm to 8.30pm for the seven weeks of the term, in person at Studio 3.2, 1 Cleveland Road, Parnell, Auckland, with no more than 12 actors in the class. The fee is $695 per term including GST, and Equity New Zealand members receive a 10% discount. Term 5 2026 starts on 19 October 2026. Places are limited. Send a booking request and the studio confirms your place by email.