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AMDA High School Summer Conservatory Placement Videos

Once accepted to the High School Summer Conservatory, students must submit a placement video to gauge talent placement in your chosen session track. Please use the highest quality recording equipment available to you. For best results, place your recording device on a stationary object, such as a table. Please note that all videos will be used for scholarship consideration.

*Students must please submit placement video within 14 days of receiving their acceptance email.

  • What to include:
    • Start your recording device and state:
      • Your full name
      • The major that you have applied for
      • The campus where you were accepted (NY, LA or both LA + NY)
      • The date of your audition recording.
    • Performance requirements
      • Acting including Acting for the Stage and Acting for Film and TV (NY + LA):
        Please prepare two contrasting selections. Each selection should be no more than 2 minutes in length. One of the pieces should be a monologue sourced from a published play. The second selection is "free choice"- you may write and perform an original monologue; perform a poem or stand-up comedy set, or perform a second contrasting monologue from a published play.
      • Vocal Music including Musical Theatre and Pop Star: Recording Artist (NY + LA):
        Please prepare two 16-bar excerpts from two contrasting songs. Your first selection should be from the standard musical theatre repertoire (classic or contemporary). For your second selection, choose a contrasting song from the pop/rock genre or classical voice repertoire. If possible, both selections should be presented with piano accompaniment.
      • Dance Theatre and Commercial Dance (NY + LA):
        Please prepare two contrasting pieces of solo dance movement. Each solo should be no longer than 90 seconds. Your first solo piece should be grounded in classical ballet, jazz or modern technique and demonstrate basic turns, jumps and technical dance vocabulary. The second contrasting solo is "free choice" and may include specialty styles (ex. Hip-hop, Ballroom, Tap, Cultural) or any contrasting dance style.
        • A note to dance theatre applicants: Initial acceptance into the dance theatre program is provisional, pending the review of your placement video. Please send the link to your placement video submission as soon as possible.
    • When you are finished with your audition performance, please announce that you have "reached the end of the submission," restate your name, and stop your recording device.
    • When your placement video is complete, upload it to an UNLISTED YouTube link (click here for instructions) and email this link directly to summervideo@amda.edu with "AMDA Placement Video: Your name, campus, session, and major" in the subject line. For example: "Placement Video: Sally Smith, Los Angeles, Session 1, Dance".
  • If you do not already have a YouTube account:
    • Go to http://www.youtube.com
    • Click Sign In on the top right > Add account > Create an account
    • Fill in all the information
    • Click Next Step
    • Verify your email address by checking the email account that you entered and following the instructions
    • If you do not receive a confirmation email within a few minutes, check your bulk or spam folders
    • On the "How you'll appear" screen loaded from your verification email, click Next step
    • Click Back to YouTube
  • Once you have your account:
    • Click on the grey Upload button located on the top of your screen
    • Click OK to upload with your account or the account you just set up
    • If you recorded the video from an external source and have the video file, you can click, "Select files to upload" in the center of the screen or simply drag your video file into the box.
    • If you have a built-in camera click Webcam capture on the right of your screen to begin recording.
    • In either case (Webcam or uploaded file) make SURE you select "Unlisted" from the privacy settings dropdown menu.
    • Change the Title of the video to "AMDA Audition Video: Your name, major" in the subject line. For example: "Audition Video: Sally Smith, Dance"
    • Click Save Changes
    • Click the left pointing arrow near the top of the screen – "Back to Video Manager"
    • Click Edit next to your audition video and select Info and Settings from the dropdown menu
    • Select and copy the "Video URL" towards the right of the screen
    • Double check that the privacy settings read "Unlisted".
    • Paste the entire Video URL link into the body of an email addressed to summervideo@amda.edu with "AMDA Leveling Video: Your name, campus, session, and major" in the subject line. For example: "Leveling Video: Sally Smith, Los Angeles, Session 1, Dance"
    • Please test the link before you send it. You can log out of YouTube and send the link to a second email address you may have or to a family member

If you have problems uploading your Unlisted video to YouTube, please go to here for help, or contact AMDA's Summer Office Directly at summervideo@amda.edu

* Unlisted videos

"Making a video unlisted means that only people who have the link to the video can view it. To share an unlisted video, just share the link with the people who you'd like to have access to it, and they'll then be able to see it. Unlike private videos, the people you share the video with do not need to have a Google account to see the video, and they can share with more people simply by forwarding the link to them.

Unlisted videos won't appear in any of YouTube's public spaces, like your channel page or search results" (https://support.google.com).