Casting Process
As the Producer, one of my biggest responsibilities is to organise all of the contributors including the cast. Therefore, I have used the script and research into the character profiles to advertise on Mandy.com to find suitable actors for Bobbie, Clive and the Security Guard. I have used Mandy.com (previously Casting Call Pro) before to hire actors on individual projects and found it to be a very easy and simple way of advertising for actors. When you post a job on Mandy you have to write a short description of what the project is and any finer details like the shoot days and the pay. From this, you write descriptions for each individual character that you are looking to cast. They ask you to describe the appearance and age group you are looking for and a brief description of the character themselves so that the applicants can assess whether or not they think they would be right for the character. Below I have put some screenshots of the advert.
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| Project Description |
I have filled out the details describing it as a short film, where the location is and what sort of location it will be, a list of the salary details included and the scheduled shoot dates. I then included a brief description of the project, including a little bit of information about who we are as a team so that the applicants have some idea what the project will entail.
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| Bobbie's Description |
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| Clive's Description |
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| Security Guard's Description |
Here I have screenshot all of the individual character descriptions for the applicants. I have included the character's name, age range, gender and ethnicity which I kept as 'any'. Although, we did have the character's appearances in mind, I decided to leave ethnicity as any so that we didn't restrict the parts too much and make the requirements too strict. For the descriptions, I stated who they were as people, their role requirements and their physical appearance. I wanted to not make it too specific but give the applicants an idea of what each role would require. I am happy with what I included in the adverts and was pleasantly surprised that the project and roles all received plenty of interest.
After posting the adverts, I regularly checked my email for applications and showed these to the group as they came in so we could discuss them. I waited a week or so before making a shortlist of the applicants that we asked to come in for an audition. I shortlisted it down to 6 people in 3 couples. I thought it would be best to audition a potential Bobbie with a potential Clive so that we could assess their chemistry and give them someone to interact with during the audition. I paired them up based on their age ranges and appearance, and on whether I thought they would make good pairings.
Auditions & Selections
I scheduled an hour slot for each audition, leaving us with 3 auditions in total. I had made a short schedule for each audition which included a brief chat about the script and the roles, a script read through and a run through with actions. As several of them had travelled several miles to attend the audition, I felt like it was necessary that we spent some time with all of the applicants so that we could get to know each of them. The 3 pairings were Sophie and Nik, Corinne and Craig and Andrew and Anca. All of the applicants had applied for the roles of Bobbie and Clive, however, I also had Craig in mind for the security guard. Each audition was really successful and all of the applicants seem to enjoy the process and seemed very interested in the project. After the auditions, we had a chat about all of the applicants individually and as a pair and mutually decided that Sophie and Nik were the most suitable for the title roles.
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| Sophie |
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| Nik |
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Craig
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After confirming as a group our casting selections, I emailed all of the applicants to let them all know whether or not they had got the parts. All of those who hadn't were incredibly gracious and were happy with the audition process, and keen to help on any further productions. We decided that Craig would be ideal casting for the security guard as he had the right appearance for the role and told us during the audition that he is usually cast for those kind of roles. He was more than happy to play the security guard for the production and said that he was looking forward to working with us which was reassuring. Overall, the casting and audition process was very successful and i'm pleased we chose to do it. I was confident in my communication with all of the applicants and think that I approached the process in a professional manner.
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