7 September 2008
We started our casting process
Posted by admin under: Black Site; Filmmaking; Indiependent Film; Pre Production .
This week, we started our casting process. The first step was to identify the number of actors/parts needed for film. This info comes form our script breakdown. Once we have the number of actors, which includes; leads, supporting and extras. We can post/send the requirements and needs to casting agencies or do the casting ourselves, if the budget is low. Here’s a few character names and descriptions from my film:
- Young Muslim Clerk - A 20 something store clerk in an Incense store
- Driver - A tall government agent in his late 20s with crew cut
- Passenger - A tall government agent in his early 30s
- Maazin - Late 40s middle eastern man with dark features, has a thick accent
- Translator - A young 30 something skinny Egyptian, who speaks both English and Arabic
Once the list was completed we posted the characters and discriptions on two of the biggest actor websites in NYC.
We received close to 1000+ actor headshots and resumes on these two sites. We narrow them down to the look and skills sets, we feel will be a good match for the film. Once we had this list down to a manageable level, we rented out a space and held open auditions. Open auditions are just that, all the actors can come anytime they like between the set hours. So you might have a few people reading for the lead girl, then you might have a few reading for a supporting part. The draw back with this is you might have some major downtimes and some major spikes.
I have done a few casting sessions over the years, so I knew what I needed to hold a successful session.
- The place has to have a few rooms. One room, where the actor can come in and do their audition without distractions and away from other actors. Another room where they can wait, read their lines (SIDES) and sign in.
- A sign in sheet, more on this
- Sides - these are pages from the script, that showcase a particular character for the actor to read
- VIdeo camera and photo camera. I decided I didn’t want to video tape this session because on past projects, I never went back to the tapes after the first audition. Some fellow filmmakers love this because they can see the actor’s over again and find things / performances they might have missed during the casting. To me a more valuable tool is a camera because the actors never look as good as their headshots. Sometimes, the head shot is a good 5-10 years old. We has a few actors come in who didn’t fit the part because they where older in person than on their original head shot.
- Last is patience
Here’s a video of all the actors that came in to audition for my project. Thanks to Leo Curbelo for putting this together.
I’ve created this simple sign in sheet to help me keep track of the actors quicker. On it I would write my notes on what I thought of their audition and if I need to have them come back for a call back. We also included range of dates of the film, so that, if we liked an actor / actress but they had another commitment we can move to the next actor on our list. This way we don’t waste anyones time. Hopefully you find this valuable.
A major lesson I learned from this was most actors don’t come in before 1pm. On the first day we got the majority of the people after 12pm. On the second day, we had 4 people before 1PM.
If you’re not lucky to be in one of the big cities where actors access and nycasting are listed. You can always put your notice on the talent section of craigslist. We had to do that for some of the actors in the film. For some strange reason, we didn’t get alot of latin males and or middle eastern males in either NY Casting and Actor Access. We still need to find a older middle eastern man for a key part in the film.
To post to actors access you have to go to their sister site, breakdown express.
Last, I want to thank everybody for coming in and all the people who help me with casting, Leo, Marcus, Cesar and the amazing Sarah. Thank you all for your help and hard work. Finally, IVI and Stephen for the use of his facility.
Check out Leo’s blog here.