A few months ago I was boarding a plane from LAX to Salt Lake City (on Southwest Airlines cause you know I am not in that tax bracket yet). A really sweet girl, maybe 14, and her mom were boarding alongside me. They had an armful of luggage and one of the many things they were toting was a big old 18″ ring light in a bag. It hardly fit in the overhead bin and clearly made their plane ride more difficult.

Don’t we all know this life way too well? Whether you’re packing a bag for two days or two weeks, you look at your self-tape equipment and think, eh, I haven’t had an audition in weeks, I’ll be fine. This is easier anyway. And, of course, this is when you get three next-day auditions. Or maybe you were this mom and daughter duo, toting all the goods just in case something came up and you were uber prepped…but super inconvenienced.

Ok let’s cut to the chase — I found this iVlog kit on Movo and was so pumped I immediately emailed them because it was too good to be true. I got my kit and have played around with it for a few months now (I always prefer to test things out before showcasing them to you guys). I filmed IG reels like crazy. I filmed tons of content for my upcoming YouTube channel. And last week I finally did the true test of packing the kit for a trip.

I went to Big Bear for some solo time with myself and my oldest pup Willow. I needed to disconnect from work and read books and drink tea and look at trees. But I also picked a very cheap AirBnB date (Sunday to Wednesday) so I knew filming could come up. Now, this is important, when I book out with my agents I do two different kinds of book outs:

• Out of Town and Unavailable — This means exactly what it sounds like. I will not be in LA and I won’t be able to tape auditions. These are usually hard dates like my wedding or a big trip with no internet.
• Out of Town and Able to Tape — A little less strict, I use this when I am willing and able to tape. The word “willing” matters here because sometimes you may be able to tape but that doesn’t mean you have to. Maybe you need a break or some quality time elsewhere and taping would ruin that for you. For me, this means quieter trips with lots of time built-in. Meaning it would not ruin my vacation day or plans if I had to squeeze in a tape (and also the tape could still be good).
• I also include *flexible* on my book out dates if it is a trip I could potentially move around in case of a booking. So not my friend’s wedding trip but maybe my weekend in Palm Springs, ya know?

You have to decide your book out type when you send your email and be really specific! Boundaries matter so much in your relationships and this includes your work relationships. Don’t sacrifice your life in order to be “constantly available”. I don’t know a single agent who dropped someone because they took a long weekend and also kept their agent in the loop about it….k?

Anywho, on this trip, I was open to taping and ended up doing just that on my last day. AND I used the kit microphone to record some VO auditions that came in as well. Not having to find a surface to balance my phone on and not needing to find the most perfect lighting cut down on my stress level immensely! Plus, for the VO work, I plugged the mic directly into my phone and then edited them on my computer. Seamless.

So if you’re looking to travel light but travel prepped, I think this is a worthy investment.

Note: the links in this post are for my affiliate program with Movo. They did not pay me for this promo, however…I told you I was so excited about it lol.