How to Film Yourself — Self-Tapes and Social Video
A free guide from Common Closet Project
Being able to film yourself well is now part of the job. Casting happens by self-tape. Work is found through short video. Artists who can produce a clean, watchable clip at home get seen more often than artists who cannot — regardless of talent. This guide covers what actually matters, and none of what does not.
You need less equipment than you think
A recent phone, a window, and a quiet room are enough. In order of impact: light, then sound, then framing, then camera. Buying a better camera before fixing light and sound changes nothing.
Light
Face a window. Do not stand with a window behind you. Overhead ceiling light alone will put shadows under your eyes and read as amateur on any screen. If you film after dark, put a single soft lamp slightly above eye level and in front of you, and turn off everything behind you.
Look at your eyes in the test clip. If there is a small reflection of the light in them, your lighting is working.
Sound
Sound is where most self-tapes are lost. Record in the smallest carpeted room you have. Close the windows. Turn off the fridge if you can hear it. Keep the phone within about two metres. If you own wired earbuds with a microphone, use them — they beat the phone microphone in almost every room.
Record ten seconds and listen back on headphones before you film anything real.
Framing
For self-tapes: mid-chest to just above the head, camera at eye level, phone horizontal unless the casting notice says otherwise. Plain wall behind you — grey, blue or a neutral tone. No posters, no bed, no doorway.
For social video: vertical, face filling more of the frame, eye level still. Same rules for light and sound.
Put the phone on a stack of books if you do not own a tripod. Do not hold it.
What to wear on camera
This is the part artists underestimate, and the part our Styling program exists for. On camera, clothing does half the work of characterisation before you speak.
- Avoid tight patterns, thin stripes and small checks — they shimmer on video.
- Avoid pure white and pure black; mid-tones hold detail.
- Choose a colour that separates you from the wall behind you.
- Dress toward the role, not as the role. A suggestion of the character reads as judgement; a costume reads as trying too hard.
Artists in our Voices program get access to curated wardrobe and hands-on styling for exactly these moments.
Performance for a small frame
The camera is close. Scale down. What plays at the back of a theatre reads as shouting on a laptop screen. Keep your eyeline just beside the lens if you are being read to, and on the lens only when the material is addressed to camera.
Do three takes and stop. The fourth take is almost never better than the second, and self-tapes filmed for an hour start to look filmed for an hour.
Before you send it
- Watch it once with sound off — does your face read clearly?
- Watch it once with your eyes closed — is the audio clean?
- Check the file name matches exactly what was requested.
- Send the format asked for. Do not improvise.
For social media, the first second is the whole decision
Start on your face, mid-sentence, already speaking. No title card, no logo, no slow build. Say the thing you would say if you had one sentence. Post consistently in one register rather than occasionally in many.
Why we publish this
Common Closet Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit working in service of human expression. We provide wardrobe, styling and visibility support to performers, models, actors and image-makers, free of charge. As generated media becomes ordinary, the work of human artists needs to be seen — clearly, and on their own terms. This guide, like everything we do, costs nothing.
Apply to the Voices program
Models, performers and actors can apply for wardrobe, styling and visibility support. There is no cost and no obligation.