Commercial castings will rattle through the scene you are going to do and will very much be a ‘stand there, then look there and do that’ type of direction. Listen to this direction carefully. It may be helpful to repeat it back and cement it in your mind and let the CD know you have it down, they can easily correct you at this stage if you have it wrong.
Set the scene in your mind, if you are in a garden - imagine it. Imagine something familiar so it is clear i.e. your own garden or living room. Take a moment before you start to place yourself there so any miming you have to do is believable. You don’t have long to show the action and feeling in a commercial, so it must be clear.
Think about: your eye-line when looking at other people/objects in the scene, camera framing (how much of a close up will depend how much you can move about and use the space), overall feeling of the scene.
If improvising dialogue in a casting, ALWAYS KEEP POSITIVE - nobody wants to see a sofa advert with a parent telling off a kid or people complaining about something. Negativity, moaning and arguments tend to be the easiest type of improv. so a lot of actors incorrectly go down that road.
Important to remember that improvisation doesn’t have to make sense. If they have specifically asked to see you perform a certain emotion, make sure you get there! If you are improvising with someone who just won’t lead the scene in the way you need for you to organically get there, then just make something up out of context to ensure you show that emotion. The CD will understand that the other actor wasn’t stepping up and appreciate that you took the steps to show what they wanted.
i.e. if they have asked you to get mad when the other actor won’t do what you want, but the other actor keeps agreeing in the scene, just pretend they have said no and get angry anyway. Hopefully the other actor will twig they missed the note and roll with you.
IDENT: You will be asked to look at the camera and say your name and agent - do so with a natural, engaging energy. Sometime they will ask you to show your profile (face the left and then the right side) - hold any long hair into a ponytail when showing profiles or tuck it behind your ears. Sometimes you will be asked to show your hands - hold them in front of your face as the camera will be in a close up and show palms and then turn to show back of hands. You may also be asked a few questions, such as ‘do you drive’ or ‘hanve you done any conflicting commercials’. Answer honestly.