How Do You Prepare for Talent Contests such as AMTC?

When we decided to participate in one of the big talent contests known as AMTC, we felt a combination of excitement and fear.

We were excited about attending, but at the same time, we were not 100% convinced we were doing the right thing. And we’d paid quite a bit of money for it.

If you are still trying to decide whether to attend talent contests such as AMTC and IMTA, refer to my previous posts on Talent Contests and AMTC.

With AMTC talent contests, the sponsoring agency typically provides training for the contestants. Millie Lewis of Charleston, my daughter’s talent agency, was our hosting agency.

Training Classes

We attended weekly sessions at Millie Lewis of Charleston for coaching in commercial, sitcom, monologue, runway, for a group runway event, plus for other competitions.

Each class was several hours long. After getting some initial instruction, the children performed and were critiqued by the instructors.

I always thought the young kids should have gone first and moved to another room to continue working with parents. They often got tired from standing or even sitting for so long,  and some became disruptive.

The Millie Lewis teachers and consultants only had so much time to spend with each child during a class. So I knew the ultimate responsibility for preparing my five-year-old daughter was in my hands.

Additional Preparation

I spent a great deal of time reading the materials and trying to understand all I could about the event. I asked questions about items that were not clear to make sure I understood.

I also spent many hours finding clothing, putting together costumes, editing music, and working on choreography, in addition to rehearsing with my daughter for the various competitions.

We worked with consultants at Millie Lewis to decide on clothing, hairstyles, and makeup for the events. We scheduled a photography session with one of their recommended photographers (not mandatory, but suggested).

We paid for a haircut at their salon, a hairstyling and makeup session, and the photography session on top of the fees paid for the training and attending the event.

If you’ve paid for your child to attend AMTC or one of the similar talent contests, you are probably wondering, “How do you prepare for talent contests?”

You should do the following things:

1. Read all the materials provided to you about the event and training carefully from cover to cover right away. Highlight things that seem important. Look for incomplete information and things you don’t understand and write down detailed questions to ask. Note deadlines for doing certain things, like signing up for additional competitions, and put them on your calendar so you won’t miss them.
2. Ask questions about anything that is not clear (the earlier the better). Arrive before class starts or stay late to ask questions. Don’t trust answers you get from other parents, as they may or may not be a good source of information.  If you can’t get your questions answered before, after, or during class, call and ask your questions over the phone, or make an appointment to discuss them.  Don’t quit until you get the answers you need.
3. Review all the materials available online for preparing for talent contests. For AMTC talent contests, there is the main AMTC site plus an audition site available to help prepare contestants, with some information only available to those who are participating.  Make good use of this information!
4. View videos from previous talent contests.
   Ask at your hosting agency if they have videos from previous events that you can view. They might not let you take the videos out with you, but perhaps they’ll let you view some in their facility.You can find footage posted by previous contestants of talent competitions (check youtube) as well as on the sites for the talent contests themselves. This will give you a good idea of what contestants do in the talent competitions.
5. Make sure you understand exactly what each competition is and which competitions are included in the fees you paid.  This should be explained in the paper work given to you when you sign up. Make sure you have the most up-to-date information as some of the competitions may change from one year to the next.  If you do not understand a particular competition, get more details from your sponsoring agency.
6. Pick out additional competitions that you think your child could do well in. Take a closer look at the competitions that typically have less competitors in your child’s age group and consider those as add-on competitions. Do some preparation long before the enrollment deadline to decide if your child can do well in a particular competition. Also, note the competitions required for each award at the event.
7. Enroll your child in extra competitions if you can afford the additional fees and if you think your child can do well in them.  If you want to compete for certain awards, make sure you enroll your child in the competitions required. There are deadlines for signing up for these, so make sure you don’t miss them.
8. Rehearse regularly at home on your own.  Rehearse on camera to review and improve the performances. Rehearse in front of friends and family. Ask your sponsoring agency to view all of your competitions as far ahead as possible, and get feedback and costuming assistance from them.

Remember that whatever your hosting agency does to prepare you/your child for AMTC or other talent contests, it is only the starting point.

You need to take the responsibility for preparing for the event into your own hands!

Put your heart and soul into the preparation, and remember to do everything you can to help your child become more confident.  Having confidence and showing personality are very important when they go in front of talent agents, talent managers, and casting directors.

For more information related to talent contests and how to help your child become a child actor, be sure to subscribe to Your Young Actor’s Newsletter.