Getting and Working with actors

We needed actors for our short film, so we did some research before we started looking for them.

And again, we went on YouTube:

Film Riot:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMTQXfcbqKg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_1mPcj0KRQ

Famous Directors talking about actors:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDfU5PqoSOo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2PcdO7Da8k

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWmgZlD9jEo

Indy Mogul:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDzxTdijkFY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dC7_TDl_xNg

After we did some research we looked at different local acting schools and contacted them.

The first one was Stage 84:http://www.stage84.com/performingarts.html

We send them an e-mail, saying who we are, what we do and what we need actors for.

A link to our Demo Reel was included as well, so they could see what we are able to do visually.

Unfortunately they didn’t have any actors available, because they were working on other projects.

Here is the e-mail we send to Stage 84

Another acting school we contacted was Articulate in Bradford.http://www.articulatepublicspeaking.co.uk/

We e mailed them a couple of times and we discussed everything with them.Unfortunately they were only able to supply actors by April 2014, which was way to late.So we politely declined their offer.

We finally decided that we had no choice, but to cast people from our school. So we started the casting process

and told people who are interested in acting to come.

The Casting Process

Before we set up a casting date, we did some research on how casting calls work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDjTx-BCL-I

http://www.wikihow.com/Set-up-a-Casting-Call

After we knew what we were doing, we set up a casting date and called people in.

We made a YouTube series on that, where we show the casting tapes and our reactions.Enjoy

Here are the links to our casting calls.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-1bC719M4s

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZEQ3TisgqE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk1W9FkkB4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9yWPNs7GA8A

With this PowerPoint I wanted to show that, we did try to get proper actors and we didn’t really get them, but we couldn’t be more satisfied with the performance of our actors now. You will see what I mean when you watch our short film and see the amazing performance.

After we decided on who to use for our short film, we gave them a contract to sign:

With this contract we made sure, that there are no legal issues with publishing our short film and maybe making money with it (which we probably won’t).

During our shoots we always tried to get out the best performance from our actors.

We tried different approaches to try that, like:

• Giving them a backstory of the character that they are playing

• We rehearsed scenes a day before we shot them, so the lines felt fresh and new to the actor, but the lines were still memorized

• We talked to them and told them what is going in the characters head, like “Steve feels like he owns this place now, because he knows Mr Andersons secret” or “Mr Anderson has a bigger goal in mind, so he doesn’t care about what happens to the students” etc.

• One time we also left the actor alone with the camera while it was recording, so he could show emotion without feeling embarrassed

We will talk about how we worked with actors in a later video, so just check out our channel, or my blog.

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC03ZEMzdGOq8SuSDScjt8Pw

http://titussaltmedia.co.uk/blogs/modaressichahardehipishdaad9258/

Hollywood camerawork is making a series about how to work with actors.

So you should definitely check that out, when its released and if you are willing to spend a reasonable amount of money.

http://www.hollywoodcamerawork.us/da_index.html