I'm doing my first casting call... suggestions?

ExtremeSleuth

ExtremeSleuth

Veteran
This is my first casting call. I'm doing it for my TimeFest entry. I used to just get my friends to be in the movie, so I haven't gone through this yet...

What should I bring with me other than the camera, and scripts for the actors? Any suggestions on what to do?
 
It helps to bring someone to read dialog with the actor or actress who is auditioning. This leaves you free to focus on their audition.

No matter how great their reading is, always have them do it a different way. Give them some direction, like 'try it with more anger'. The purpose is to see if they have some range, and also to see how well they take direction.

When you roll tape on them, make sure the camera is close enough to capture good sound. And make them say their name and contact info on-tape, just in case you should happen to lose their resume. It also helps when matching the audition to the resume.

Good luck!
 
One other thing about casting.....

A pet peeve of mine is indie movies where the whole cast looks like fashion models -- 'beautiful people'. Unless it's important to the role, don't put so much emphasis on the people who are the most attractive. Supporting roles are often an excellent place to use quirky, interesting, 'character'-type actors. A cast full of beautiful people is, to my mind, the sign of an amateurish production.

But that's just my opinion. :)
 
chapelgrovefilms said:
One other thing about casting.....

A pet peeve of mine is indie movies where the whole cast looks like fashion models -- 'beautiful people'
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A quote from "Audition" by Michael Shurtleff: "Most casting mistakes are based on appearance". BTW, he's the guy who cast Dustin Hoffman in "Goodbye Columbus" when the director asked him to find a tall blonde athletic type.
 
I am a casting director in Florida.. We have a camera to film the auditions and we also have someone there to film the auditions, someone to read the auditions, someone to take notes on the talent on a laptop. We have a runner who brings the talent in and we had a secretary to sign talent in.. This was such a smooth casting that there was hardly any waiting.
If you have any more questions feel free to email.. namcbride@gmail.com
 
ZFarms Productions said:
This is my first casting call. I'm doing it for my TimeFest entry. I used to just get my friends to be in the movie, so I haven't gone through this yet...

What should I bring with me other than the camera, and scripts for the actors? Any suggestions on what to do?
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Read my thread here:

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/showthread.php?t=108831

It details the entire casting process, including how I got over 10,000 actors and 400 celebs to submit for my micro-budget feature film.

And what no casting director wants you to know is that we don't need casting directors.
 
Casting a movie isn't easy

Casting a movie isn't easy

Casting was a lot harder than I thought. I had a really cool and savvy casting director (Stream Gardner), but I made the mistake of an over anxious filmmaker of wanting to sit in. All I did was hurt casting. After sitting through hours I lost focus later in the day. I might have missed some good talent.

The 2nd time around we took a different approach. We had actors submit their auditions on DVD. We made sides available and they handled the rest. After viewing the submissions we invited actors to a traditional casting call, which I did not sit in. I only showed up on the final casting call.
 
ZFarms Productions said:
This is my first casting call. I'm doing it for my TimeFest entry. I used to just get my friends to be in the movie, so I haven't gone through this yet...

What should I bring with me other than the camera, and scripts for the actors? Any suggestions on what to do?
Click to expand...

bring a casting director and assistant. as the director, you should be focused entirely on each person's audition. the casting director and assistant should be the ones to take headshots and write down names and notes about the performance - not you. if you're writing notes, you're not looking at the performance.

one camera plus the camera operator is enough for a casting call. you do not want to have a large crew there, as it often makes the auditions impersonal and strange for the actors auditioning for your film. I'd say no more than four people, five at most. any more than that and you risk disrupting the calm of the actors.

don't bring full scripts for the actors, bring sides. a side is essentially one part of the script (usually a small description of the scene plus the dialogue) that is important for a character. you use the sides to filter out people who suck. don't be afraid to get people who suck out of your audition. actors do this hundreds, thousands of times - they understand that if they're wasting your time, they're wasting their own time. give them the side, tell them to slate, have them read through with your casting assistant or director or even another actor, and if they suck, thank them and take their side and show them the door. the last thing you want to do is do three or four readings with someone you know isn't good enough for the role, just wastes everyone's time.

this is one that people often overlook. bring FOOD for yourself and your crew. auditions are hectic, rarely is there time to put everything on hold and go out for lunch or dinner or something. snack foods like granola bars, candy, and even cold sandwiches can make a long audition seem not so long. but nothing hot or that will overbear on people's smell.
 
Prodigi Pictures said:
And what no casting director wants you to know is that we don't need casting directors.
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You know I adore you but on this one point I really have to disagree. Even if I don't do it full time, between teaching, having been an agent and doing casting I can honestly say most Directors get so caught up on looks or a reading that they never break down and really understand the resume of the actor they are looking at.

One of the things casting is good at...being the devils advocate to the director. Reminding the director about resumes and how to understand what it means.

Case in point...I did a casting and we had to place 8 speaking talent, 16 featured and 10 photography only talent.

There was 1 woman who was great in the audition and the director was certain he wanted her. I knew her reading was good but I also knew her resume showed very little background.

He did not care but was not thinking about how little time they had to shoot. I tried to help him view the resume on this woman and the other 2 he had in the final running. Both of the other 2 had huge backgrounds on the type of shoot he was doing. I warned him that if he took the 1st woman he might have some issues.

Shooting day 1 they re-wrote the script and the woman fell apart. That day went in to double over time because she did not have a background to handle what went down.

They ended up paying tons of money to crew for overtime because the Director was so certain she was perfect because her audition was great. And it was a great audition but had he picked one of the other 2 women...both would have handled the changes with ease and the production would not have doubled their costs for the day.

Casting people ARE that outside influence that can save a productions backside and bottom line. Now...if the director has some staff who know how to break down a resume as good as a casting person...they may be ok, but in the mean time...casting people can and do make a difference.

That IS just MHO.
 
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