Casting Issues Part II

So I just pushed production back on my sort film "picket fence". Why, you ask, well casting. The production has had many bumps along the way first; we lost our DP(Director of Photography, the guy who makes the movie look like a movie and not a home video), and then we lost our Editor( the gal in this case who helps the move flow and make sense) the second week of official production. Neither one of those catastrophic changes caused any movement in the production schedule. We have had several financial issues' when it comes to our locations, again did not cause any change in the schedule.

I have now rescheduled production 3 times, and every-time it is the same reason, casting.

I have my leads hand picked, so that is a blessing, what I don't have are the characters that those leads interact with. I have seven speaking roles to fill and about nine-twelve extra's to cast. So I need twenty people. If you just want your friends and family and whom ever to be in your film then that is fine. If you want real life "I-want-to-do-this-because-I-love-it" actors, then you had better get really prepared.

Nuts and Bolts:

• Cast through your local SAG office.(Screen Actors Guild)

Typically SAG has an agreement that will let you cast Union(SAG/AFTRA) talent WITH non-union talent. This agreement is (as far as I have seen) only available if you are attached to a film school of some sort. Mine is through a community college so it is not that hard to do.

• Find a casting location for your non-union auditions

Here is the thing with this, you can go through a film school, usually they will have rooms available to their students. If even a PA on your production is a film student have them set it up if your not a student yourself. If this is not an option, you most likely will have to pay.
Rates vary from place to place, but check out between $50.00 to $100.00 dollers for the first hour with an additional $10.00 every additional hour.

As you can see not cheep. So try to find something through a friend or relative.
The location should have:

1. Men and Women bathrooms separately(no one bathroom situations that is usually bad)
2. A place for the next audition to wait while your casting if your doing a large call(usually for extras and not for main roles. Be sure to buffer your auditions for primary roles by 15 so the person doing the audition does not run into their competition on the way in or way out of the audition. That can lead to all sorts of problems.
   
3. Room, for:

• A camera and tripod
• Some one to read with the actor
• enough room for the actor to move around comfortably

4. Lastly, be sure the environment is temperature friendly, angry hot or cold actor's don't audition well.

On a final not I will say that it has been my biggest struggle to give the actors/casting persons, enough lead time before the audition.

You can kind of procrastinate on many things, but casting is not one of them. Give the people time ,and you will be amazed at the difference it makes in your casting response.