Casting/ Auditions - A guide
- Thread starter jpbankesmercer
- Start date
Loki
Veteran
Thought I might chime in with my own experiences.
last year, June 2005, I started casting for the first, casting in the "proper" way, as in not just getting people to act in my work..
I learned a great deal from this experience. Since I had written the script, when I put the casting call out I encouraged anyone responding to the ad to also read the full script (it was a short 14 pages).
I found this very useful for many reasons, the main thing being, that they would develop their own interpreatation of my writing. I obviously had pre-conceived idea's about how i wanted them to act, and too look etc.. but they were able to bring me a more developed idea of the character, something I don't think you get from just reading sides, or just having them do an unrelated monologue.
This also allowed me to test them on how well they took my direction. During my auditions you can easily accuse me of telling people exactly the same thing... ie: "Ok lets have you do it one more time.. but more playful" ... I found that giving a simple direction was often enough to show me if I could work with this person.
An actor that is a great performer is one thing, but if they won't listen to the director, or they can't take direction well and apply it to a performance, then how can you work with them during rehearsals and on set to get the finer points across?
Those are some valueable things I learned while casting my first "semi-pro" short film.
Onto my next.
This past January, I was cating for a new project (one I shot this past feb that can be read about Here).
A trap I fell into on my first outting (though the script lent itself to this more forgivingly than this new project) was that I almost cast my new project way too young. Chalk it up to inexperience, but I was seeing a lot of girls and guys that were close to my age (in terms of looks anyways). I knew the ages of the characters I had in my mind when I wrote the film.. but I still almost mis-cast. It took an outside person to really drive this home, and I went back and re-cast the film. I think I fell into this trap because I am still learning, and I am still young; but also I think, in my mind I figured that if they were around my age, it would be easier to work with them, which wasn't the case of course, but it is something to consider.
Another nuance, I discovered during casting for this film was the difference between people that could interpret my words, and people that could bring my words to life.
Specifically I mean, the people that ad-lib lines, I found that to be a good indicator of who was more comfortable with doing improv work. Now you may think this is a stretch, but I have seen many of the people auditioning before (for other projects.. and for my own) and I have seen many of them do improve, and I noticed this trend.
I was very specific with my word choice, and my dialogue for the film, and I made it clear that I didn't want it changed, it was written that way because it had meaning for the story (I am usually fairly lax on this, as I like what people bring to the table a lot of times that I didn't write.. but not in this case).
Casting is a really fun part of the process, and probably the most crucial. Whats the point in making a film if the actors are awful, or they are just not right for the part. It is just a big expensive waste of time.
I am gonna wrap this up.. just wanted to give a little bit of insight into my experiences.
peas.
last year, June 2005, I started casting for the first, casting in the "proper" way, as in not just getting people to act in my work..
I learned a great deal from this experience. Since I had written the script, when I put the casting call out I encouraged anyone responding to the ad to also read the full script (it was a short 14 pages).
I found this very useful for many reasons, the main thing being, that they would develop their own interpreatation of my writing. I obviously had pre-conceived idea's about how i wanted them to act, and too look etc.. but they were able to bring me a more developed idea of the character, something I don't think you get from just reading sides, or just having them do an unrelated monologue.
This also allowed me to test them on how well they took my direction. During my auditions you can easily accuse me of telling people exactly the same thing... ie: "Ok lets have you do it one more time.. but more playful" ... I found that giving a simple direction was often enough to show me if I could work with this person.
An actor that is a great performer is one thing, but if they won't listen to the director, or they can't take direction well and apply it to a performance, then how can you work with them during rehearsals and on set to get the finer points across?
Those are some valueable things I learned while casting my first "semi-pro" short film.
Onto my next.
This past January, I was cating for a new project (one I shot this past feb that can be read about Here).
A trap I fell into on my first outting (though the script lent itself to this more forgivingly than this new project) was that I almost cast my new project way too young. Chalk it up to inexperience, but I was seeing a lot of girls and guys that were close to my age (in terms of looks anyways). I knew the ages of the characters I had in my mind when I wrote the film.. but I still almost mis-cast. It took an outside person to really drive this home, and I went back and re-cast the film. I think I fell into this trap because I am still learning, and I am still young; but also I think, in my mind I figured that if they were around my age, it would be easier to work with them, which wasn't the case of course, but it is something to consider.
Another nuance, I discovered during casting for this film was the difference between people that could interpret my words, and people that could bring my words to life.
Specifically I mean, the people that ad-lib lines, I found that to be a good indicator of who was more comfortable with doing improv work. Now you may think this is a stretch, but I have seen many of the people auditioning before (for other projects.. and for my own) and I have seen many of them do improve, and I noticed this trend.
I was very specific with my word choice, and my dialogue for the film, and I made it clear that I didn't want it changed, it was written that way because it had meaning for the story (I am usually fairly lax on this, as I like what people bring to the table a lot of times that I didn't write.. but not in this case).
Casting is a really fun part of the process, and probably the most crucial. Whats the point in making a film if the actors are awful, or they are just not right for the part. It is just a big expensive waste of time.
I am gonna wrap this up.. just wanted to give a little bit of insight into my experiences.
peas.
Mark Harris
Pain in the ass
Green Hornet said:
Right, well that's why I specified "for my work." Not that I think every project should always be cast this way. But for the things I am doing now, which are generally like little sit-coms, or bugs bunny cartoons, and less like "films," I like to look for people who already have the qualities of the characters. Or already have something unique to bring to the character.
I don't think this is a contest about who can cast the best. I've made notes from this thread, which I want to look out for on my next audition. As I stated above, I'm just adding one more idea to the mix, to see if it gives other people something to work on.
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Green Hornet said:
Spot on! People can surprise you mad. I was working on a short when during a break, my friend/camera-man asked me if I would shoot him in a mock scene just to see if he could act. I didnt really think he could do it, but i rolled the camera. Man! I rewound the tape several times later, just to see how well he expressed the feelings without a single line of dialogue. (Should I mention that i recently called him up to act in my feature and he had the audacity to refuse... Wasnt someone saying something about caging actors?...)
Everyone has their own casting technique, but for me, generally I like to see how well an actor conveys the mood that I am trying to create. I would often give a preview of the setting and mood of a character, and eiether let the actors read a mock-script or make-up their own. Eiether way, its not so much what they say that matters, but how they say it.
As strange as it may sound, i try to fit the "looks" into the story if i find the right person but with different looks rather than fit the "acting" into the story if the looks are right. I think people dont really care if a person is two inches taller than what he was suppossed to be in the script as long as he (or she) can create the ambience.
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zoostory
Well-known member
It's quite simple really. Directing is about understanding life. Understanding people, things, events. Why things happen? Why people do what they do? Which leads to the inevitable method saying "what do I want?"
There's more to this, but I'll leave it up to you. But overall, I don't think anyone can truly say what they want their actors to be or not be. That is an ultimatum in a theoretical void. Not a practical world. What you want, is what your gut tells you feels right.
There's more to this, but I'll leave it up to you. But overall, I don't think anyone can truly say what they want their actors to be or not be. That is an ultimatum in a theoretical void. Not a practical world. What you want, is what your gut tells you feels right.
Brandon Rice
Distributed Producer
Hey, just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents here. We just cast our film a few weeks ago, and were extremely blessed with some amazing talent! We had 9 roles to cast for speaking parts, and we saw about 20 people at the auditions. We watched the tapes back and knew right then and there who we would be casting. We had a readthrough and loved all the performances. We got really blessed!