first time having a cast audition, some help?

ernesto

ernesto

Well-known member
So I'm in pre-production for another short film and my most serious and promising short film so far. It's called 20 Dollars, and I'm in the process of organizing an audition for the cast. This is the rough draft for a flyer for the audition, any advice?

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We are two 17 year old local filmmakers hosting an audition for actors/actresses for our next short film.

Title: 20 Dollars.

Synopsis of story: A short thriller in which a woman seeks revenge on her husbands killer only to be surprised by a dramatic twist in the story.

Pay: There will be NO PAY. However, all food will be provided for by us and the talent will be credited, and will receive a final DVD copy of the movie.

Characters

JIM- Male. 18-25 years old. College man who kills ADRIAN and is later killed by KIM. Needed for two shooting days.

ADRIAN- Male. 25-40 years old. KIM's husband who rapes a young woman(No nudity). Must be OK with acting out a rape scene. Needed for one shooting day.

JANE- Female. 18-25 years old. Young woman who is raped (no nudity) by ADRIAN and then tries to defend JIM from KIM. Must be OK with acting out a rape scene. Needed for two shooting days.

KIM- Female. 25-40 years old. ADRIAN's wife who seeks revenge on Jim. Needed for two shooting days.

This short film has a very gripping story and we have very high expectations for it when it is submitted to film festivals nationwide.

If interested please respond to ______ @gmail.com with your name and phone number
 
Well... if this is part of your flyer: " We are two 17 year old local filmmakers hosting an audition for actors/actresses for our next short film." I'd take it off. If you plan to treat everyone professionally then your age shouldn't come into play -- as is it just comes across as an apology or a warning and might scare away potential talent.

Since it is a no-pay gig you might give an idea of how much time is involved for people... one or two weekend days, a full week, etc.
 
Alright, so I'll take out that part. So should I hold an individual audition for each person, or should I have everyone come to one big audition for all parts on a single day?
 
Depends on how much time you're got and how many folks you expect to come out. I'd do it all in a day. You can probably see 4 - 5 people an hour. That's a lot of auditions you can squeeze into a 10 - 12 hour day.

A day of auditions and a day for callbacks would be pretty standard. If you are holding callbacks I'd go ahead and publish that info as well, including the date you plan to have them.
 
Reserve time slots for each person. if 12 people confirm and say their coming and you have a room that you can use for 3 hours thats 4 people an hour which means they each get 15 minute time slots. At least, thats one way to do it.
 
Schedule breaks in between a couple of auditions. It's easy to run over when doing auditions. And have actors confirm their audition time. And since you guys are young find another person to call and communicate with the actors, it's just a little more professional. Create a new email address to run the auditions, you don't want to be using your personal email. You'll get a ton of replies.

Be organized, and realize that you're asking a lot from actors. They don't know you, when they meet you they'll realize you're young, and they may not trust or be willing to take the risks involved in your script. You have to gain their trust. Know what you're doing, what you want, and be ridiculously organized.
 
Hey everyone, thanks a lot for the replies. I'll make sure to be ridiculously organized :).

So from that other thread I gathered that I should have them read a simple part of the script as well as a difficult emotional part. Is this a good method to audition the actors? I'll make sure to tape them as well.

Also, for the rape scene in the movie I plan it to be basically implied, meaning that I'll have the girl yell "Stop!" "Help" "Get away from me!" maybe put the sound of a zipper and maybe show some outlines. It won't be graphic at all. So should I make that more clear on the flyer?

Also, what are some ways that we can show that we are serious about this project even though we are young? Should we just pretend like we don't know we're young? Or should we say something like "even though we're young we're very comitted bla bla bla" ?
 
ernesto said:
Hey everyone, thanks a lot for the replies. I'll make sure to be ridiculously organized :).

So from that other thread I gathered that I should have them read a simple part of the script as well as a difficult emotional part. Is this a good method to audition the actors? I'll make sure to tape them as well.
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no, it is not a good method in and of itself. because all you'd get from that is how well they directed themselves on that particular scene with that particular material. what you want to do is give them one scene. a simple scene depicting the essence of the character. these are called "sides" and are often not even a scene from the script.

have them play it as they prepared it. then, if you like them, see if they listen to your direction when you tell them to read it a different way -- as though their mother just died, or something. that way you will see what separates the bad actors from the good -- how well they listen to you and the people the are performing with. you will be surprised how many actors will read it the exact same way both times. these go in the "no" pile. i've never been disappointed by this method.

my handy-dandy rule of thumb: if they start in with an elaborate pantomime, move on to the next.
 
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When I test an actor on sides or a monologue I will usually ask them to first perform it their way, and then I'll usually totally flip the intentions of the piece. If it's comedic, have them do it serious, ask them to take it in different directions. If this goes well and they respond well to direction, I'll sometimes ask them to perform it without the dialogue, where they hit the beats of the piece. I'll ask them not to rely on pantomime, and even say that they don't need to start from the beginning without dialogue, they can start in the middle, jump to a beat in the end, and move around the whole piece.

I find that the good actors really excel at this exercise and you get the essence of a piece without the dialogue. The bad actors will pantomime. Sometimes I'll let actors do a little pantomime the first time I remove the dialogue, and then I'll ask them not to use their hands but just to use their face and to really internalize the beats of a piece. This is a difficult thing to ask an actor, but I find the really good ones run with this, and the really bad ones without a lot of training and talent will flounder and go back to pantomime.
 
What does 'pantomime' mean? I know it's a type of theatre but I'm not sure what it means on this context.

Also, I should just have individual actors pretending to talk to thin air right? Or do I have them just speak a monologue? Or do have two actors speaking to each other at the same time?


Thanks,

Ernesto.
 
pantomime is when an actor starts interacting with props that aren't there. i've seen everything from simply drinking from an invisible glass to a woman who cooked, served and ate an invisible meal. not only is it a crutch for a weak actor, but it distracts me from watching the performance.

some have the actor speak directly to the camera as though it were the other character. i don't like that. instead, i have the casting director sit beside the camera to read the scene opposite them. it give the person auditioning someone to play off of. and i don't do monologues because I want to see how well they listen (very important) when the other character is delivering their lines.

and someone earlier posted about doing a "silent take". i do those too, in callbacks. they can be very helpful. here's an example of a silent take where I set the scene as two people watching a sunset. simple, right? i whispered in the actress's ear, "you know he's stressed about his father being in the hospital, get him to look at the sunset". and I told the actor, "your father's sick. you've seen a million sunsets, and aren't going to look at this one." this is what happened... WK callback audition
 
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