Casting

Having the cast round on Friday night was excellent. It was a great opportunity to get to know everyone and bond. Bond does not mean anything weird. Well, at least, not unless you count Richie's anecdote about his landlady. Sunday I was filming some shots for Grove Park Theatre for their upcoming production of Canterbury Tales and Monday I began to edit their footage. This weekend has put me in the mind to reflect on what I have learned about making this movie recently.

I'll talk about my first experiences with shooting and editing another time but first I'm going to talk about a biggie: Casting

Casting was something that I was really worried about. First of all where do I get my cast from? I knew I didn't want to use my existing mates. I wanted to use people who had acted before and would take directions from me without saying "You're not the boss of me!" or just "Bugger off!". But on the other hand I didn't want to approach professional actors, firstly because I thought it unfair to inflict my inexperience on a professional cast and secondly because, well frankly, I couldn't pay them!

So I hit on a solution. I contacted local amateur dramatic societies. I sent a polite email introducing myself as an aspiring film maker, outlining the project and the roles I needed to cast. I thanked them for their time, included my contact details and waited. I heard nothing from one, but Grove Park Theatre in Wrexham forwarded the mail out to their members and the replies started coming.

Cool thing is; actors know other actors some word got around a bit about what I was doing. In a very short space of time I has gone from "How the fuck am I going to cast this?" to "Holy Shit, I have a choice of cast". This brought it's own problems. Namely how do I choose.

This is how I approached it. It may not be the best way but it worked for me. I sent those interested copies of the script. Explained that this was my first picture and that the budget was somewhere in the region of £3.72. I told them i was more concerned about finding people who were on board with the project than Oscar winning performances, I sent them the script to read and said that if knowing all that they were still interested we would meet up. I'd be lying if I told you everyone replied after that but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the vast majority were still interested. So here begineth the auditioning.

I arranged to meet in a pub. A pub with plenty of space at a time that wasn't busy. A pub is not an ideal spot for an audition but it did have some advantages. Firstly I had nowhere else. Secondly it was a public spot and I was meeting people I didn't know who didn't know me so (for the female actors in particular) this hopefully gave out the message that I wasn't some nutter luring them into a private meeting with promises of stardom. That said, I have never promised stardom, just Starbuck's...

...I have just been informed that I am no longer allowed to refer to myself as a writer thanks to that last pun.

Okay, I know that I am hardly a seasoned pro but here is a piece of advise. Do not bullshit the people you are asking to help you out. If this is the first film you've done, tell them that. If there are going to be no creature comforts on set, let them know and if your expectation is nothing more than YouTube don't fucking tell them that you are expecting a premiere in Cannes. I was honest with everyone about my experience, my expectations and my budget, so now everyone knows what to expect and as a result I have a cast who are 100% on board. Richie told me about a piece that he did where the director didn't know one end of a camera from another. That wasn't the problem, the problem was that he gave everyone involved the impression that he was Stephen feckin Spielberg. Hence everyone was pissed off with him from day one.

So i went for honesty. I told them about my experience. None. I told them about the budget. None. I told them about my aspirations. N...No wait I have some of those. I like the script. Other people like the script. If the finished product is good enough then I'd like to try and show it off on the festival circuit. If it's not then I'll have done something that was a learning experience and the next one will be better. At this point everyone was given a get out of jail free card. Not literally, that'd be weird. I told them that if they weren't interested I understood and would not take offence. Thankfully everyone stayed on board. I also told them about the expected timetable for shooting.

So then the spotlight went on them. I got them to tell me a little about themselves and what they had done before and got them to read from the script for the role they were reading for. Last thing I did was take a picture of each of them. Why? Because I have a memory like a fucking sieve.

So then I had a decision to make. To be honest my first decision was a no-brainer. Richie Nolan as Weaver. He is a talented actor who gave a great audition, he looks the part and as far as being able to work with him, well let me just say that post audition we stayed on for a few pints in the pub together. He's also probably reading this so I've got to say these nice things.

Casting Leonard and Lisa was tougher. First consideration was can I work with this person? I based this on just my own gut instinct from the first meeting. In the overwhelming majority of cases the answer was yes. Thankfully Val Kilmer didn't show up so I really had no issue on anyones personality or willingness to take instruction from me.

Second thing to consider was acting ability. I know this seems like a weird choice for number 2 and that surely it should be number one? Yes, well maybe when I am an experienced director I can put it at number one but I am learning so much at the moment and am going to make so many basic fuck ups that I need people who will be understanding of that. That said the quality of talent that was interested was high and everyone I saw had something I could use.

Third last consideration was look. When I say look, what I mean is how they look as a pair. I had to pair up these actors in my head and think about how they appear as a couple. How do they compare in height and age? Do their acting styles compliment each other? I know that how people appear as a couple isn't important in real life, but for a movie unfortunately it is. I mean I don't expect to see Scarlett Johannsen and Ben Kingsley as a screen couple anytime soon. Both fine actors, but together, I just can't see it working.

After all of that, well I just had to go with my instinct. So I cast Chris Jones and Lisa Solari. They're audition was excellent, probably augmented by the the fact that they did it together. They are excellent actors and genuinely great people.

I was fortunate enough to have plenty of talent to choose from and everyone who auditioned brought brought something really interesting to the table, but I have got a cast that I am chuffed with.

Next stop rehearsals.

Mark out.