FILM PROJECT 2 – Casting

While I’ve been writing the script for my short film, I’ve been thinking a lot about actors. Although I know a lot of other groups for this assignment plan on using real actors, either professionals or students, I’ve decided against it and gone with non-actors, specifically some of my close friends. I’ve decided this for a few reasons. Firstly, finding actors online and making sure they fit the part is simply another added stress, as well as having to find an appropriate time for them to all work together also. Another issue that I think having hired actors instead of my friends relates to the parts themselves. I’ve been partly writing each character with a friend to play them in mind. This has given me a clearer vision of what each character will act like, and gives me more room to write that person’s individualities into the character, hopefully drawing something more real out of those performances. The other major reasons I’ve chosen my friends is that I can communicate with them very easily, they’re happy to help out across the day, and majorly, I want a very relaxed and fun environment on set. I want to use a lot of improv, and since these guys all know each other, I think that some fun and interesting improv could come out of it, definitely more so than if I used strangers.

With that being said, here are my final cast and some minor info about each character.

‘John’ – played by John Ishak

I’ve chosen John as my main character as I feel he has an everyman quality about him. My lead is not an eccentric or specifically engaging character in that he is the straight man to the quirky goings-on of the world around him. I feel that John employs these qualities perfectly, and I think he has a good performance in him. He was very excited to join up and when I told him he was interested in the lead he was stoked.

 

‘Dealer’ – played by Callum Rogers

I’ve chosen Callum for a similar reason I chose John for the lead, I think his personality leads perfectly into the character. Callum is always up for some fun, and I know he’s a great improviser, so he was one of the first names that came to me when considering my casting options. I worked with him (and Andrew who I will mention later) before in a part-doco, part-short film project (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuAX8kWjsGs – HIGHLY RECOMMEND!) that I did last semester, and I thought he was wonderful on screen, so here’s hoping for a similar result. The dealer character is a bit wacky, but also a very personable and cool guy. I trust Cal can pull this off and translate his laid back yet intense nature into the part!

‘Jim’ – played by James Hogg

The other major speaking part in the short will be played by James Hogg, another close friend of mine. James’ character is a musician, creating electronic beats in his bedroom as John strolls past on his way into the house. I’ve had similar experiences in real life to this with James, so using him seemed obvious to me. Another fun guy who’s up for anything, he was keen to take part and act. I also wanted to use his music equipment as props in the scene so that was another factor in casting him.

 

My other two actors will be Andrew Goode & Finn Devlin, both playing John & Jim’s unnamed housemates. Their dialogue will be mainly improvised, with some minor talking points to touch on. While I haven’t specifically cast these guys particularly for the roles, they just happen to both be available for when I plan on shooting, and were keen to help out. Andrew is also a fellow Media student so I was very keen on having him on set to help with any technical stuff.