Since I've created my first draft for my script I've begun thinking about how I'm going to film my opening two minutes. Firstly I began deciding on who I would have for actors. After speaking with some second years I learnt of a website called 'Casting Call Pro' which allows filmmakers to put up posts and advertise acting roles available and actors can then apply for the roles you've advertised and send in showreels, CV's, audition tapes, etc. and this allows me to decide on the best actors for this role. To start with I created an account and it asks for a 'company' profile and you'll be an employer for this.
This is my 'employer' account that I made. Since I didn't have a company but I do have a YouTube channel that I make videos for in my free time and I have a logo ready for that, I decided to use that as the employer but made sure I explained that the job was for my university project. After this I went on to write up the job for the actors. I explained that the project was a student project and from this it was a non-payment job but I wrote down that the payment would be "A copy of the finished project will be given to the actors to be used for Show Reels and a credit will be given as well. Travel can be covered depending on distance as budget is very low so this will need to be negotiated." by 'budget' I meant my own money, I was happy to offer to pay for the travel but obviously I may not be able to cover huge amounts. Then put the production dates which I choose to be filming on 9th and 11th November.
With the project summary I tried to get all the information the actors would need in there. Explaining that there aren't any costumes provided, only the opening 2 minutes are being filmed and that any clothes worn must have no brands due to product placement and copyright right laws. I also allocated 2 rehearsal dates which were optional for the actors but would give us a chance to work through the script and block it out.
With the character breakdown I used my breakdowns from my pitch since they describe the characters well and breaks them down and explains what I'm looking for acting-wise.
After this I set the close date for the job as the 28th October which gave me over a week to get applications in and then another week to sort through the applications. I received 6 applications for the character 'James' and 4 for the character 'Lily'.
Lily applications
These are the 4 applications that I got for the character 'Lily'. I found that all of these actors were suitable for the character but when looking through the showreels of each of them I finally decided on 'Samantha Perry' for my actor. After reviewing her CV and Showreel, she's had a large amount of work with acting, her showreel shows she can do very natural acting and is very professional. Also can take on a number of roles from her CV.
James applications
Looking through all the applications that came in I found 2 that weren't suitable for this character. Bhasker Patel isn't due to the fact he said he wasn't interested in this job but gave me his details for future projects that we might do. Sumit Raisinghaney was also unsuitable due to the lack of experience he's had with acting, he's a voice actor and hasn't done any recent acting in any way and the only form of showreel he had was a voice reel. As well as these issues, neither of these two actors could pass as Lily's Father if the actor playing 'Lily' was Samantha Perry since the skin colour is different and this wouldn't work for Father and Daughter. This is the same issue with Adris Asghar, although I selected him as maybe as he and Danielle Black could work as Father and Daughter is Samantha doesn't work for Lily. Robert Woodhall just didn't seem to have much acting experience and no showreel or examples of his work but seemed very enthusiastic with his cover letter and also keen to do the role and from this I felt he would be dedicated and would work hard if gotten the role so I set him as maybe in case I couldn't get an actor. The final two I got were both very experience and suitable for this role. Julian Lloyd Patten and Brett Underwood, Julian's showreel was very professional and he has done a huge amount of acting and is a very talented actor, with much experience in TV, short films and student films, he lives in London so travel wouldn't be an issue and is the correct age. Only issue is the same as the unsuitable actors, he couldn't be the father is Samantha was playing 'Lily' due to skin colour again.
Finally I chose my 2 actors:
Brett Underwood for the character James. Brett is a very good actor as I've seen from his showreel, he has plenty of experience in acting both professionally and in student films as well. From his showreel I can also see that he has done a number of different roles and can do a mixture of different character types so he could do this role well. He is available to travel and from his cover letter is very enthusiastic to play this role. After contacting him on Casting Call Pro, he explained he was happy to travel down and asked if I could cover travel expenses of £30 which I agreed to, however he would not be able to make it to the rehearsals and we agreed to do run throughs on the shooting days. I then sent him the script and agreed I would contact him with the filming locations once they'd be confirmed.
Samantha Perry for the character Lily. Highly experienced actor. Excellent showreel and very keen to get involved with the project. She's done a number of different roles and different types of acting and most importantly she looks the right age. Her acting age is 18-25 but in her showreel she plays a character that looks 16 and her height (5' 3") works to the advantage as well. She's available to travel and asking discussing with her, she agreed to drive down to the shoots and I will re-fund her any money from the petrol she pays for. She can make it to rehearsals but agreed that they wouldn't be as effective without Brett. I then sent her the script and agreed I would contact her with the filming locations once they'd be confirmed.
Both these actors could pass for Father and Daughter and that's what I needed the most with the casting.
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