How do you manage those acting auditions? Here’s part 2 of all the casting call process.

The day of the audition:

1. Arrive early.
2. Set-up the space
3. Camera set-up.
4. Brief your ‘assisting’ actor.
5. Have your assistant prepare the ‘sides’.

Arrive before the actors!

Set-up

Get to your audition venue and set-up. Clear the space you’re using and make room for your candidates.

Do you have a camera?

It is a great idea to have a camera at the location to record the performances. This is necessary for reminding yourself later of each audition and watching for nuance and insight that you might have missed on the day. Ideally, have someone else operate.

The camera should be static and a wide enough angle to capture full body shots of all the actors involved plus all of their movement. You don’t want close-ups; you should be watching faces with your eyes, not hiding behind a lens. Later on you can review whether the actors are using their bodies well, whether they are stiff, uncomfortable with physical closeness, have ticks etc, all this will be on the camera footage.

Just to add, your location should be lit brightly enough for filming and you should state that the footage shot will not be used for anything other than private viewing, i.e. for purposes of reviewing these auditions.

Having another actor present

If possible get another person, preferably another actor or if not an actor somebody with some life about them, who can read well and put some emotion into it. Don’t get a friend who is afraid to read out loud. It is better not to read yourself as part of your awareness is taken up with conscious processing of the lines and you as the director need to focus on the subtlety of performance.

Having another actor there also helps you to direct the auditionees because you can prime your actor-assistant with instructions to make it different, change their lines, move differently and so on. This is all to see how your candidates adapt and react to new, surprise or subtle changes in direction.

Make notes

Make notes on each audition, marking down your instinctive impressions about the person performing, whether they followed your direction and so on. The most important quality for an actor is being able to “listen” not just to you and your instructions but to the other actor they are working with. Really good actors are always listening which is another way of saying they respond in the moment to what’s happening, they react to the people in their environment. So you could say that you want “reactors” not actors.

The material

Have your assistant hand out the “sides”, which are the one or two pages of material to perform. It would be good, ideal even, to have pages from your own script. The benefit of using your own script is it gives the actors a chance to assess your film for its content, don’t forget they might choose not to do it! Many actors will obviously be looking for good show-reel footage and even if desperate won’t do just anything for the sake of it. Often it is a good idea to use well written, established dialogue material that you’re familiar with. Not that your stuff isn’t well written, I’m sure it is.

(You could send the audition piece to people via email but this only works if everyone gets it. Those that do get it will have more time to work on the lines, if they choose to, whereas some who don’t get it are then put at a disadvantage come the audition. If everyone sees the material for the first time when they arrive then it is a level playing field and more accurate for you to judge.)

So you need to find someone to bring your film to life. You need to run acting auditions but where do you start? Here’s a simple strategy to try when you need to organise those casting calls:

1. Advertise the roles.
2. Organise c.v.’s and show reels to watch.
3. Eliminate the ones you can’t use.
4. Short-list your preferred artists.
5. Organise a location for auditions.
6. Contact your candidates.

Advertising your film

Start by advertising your film, with a basic description of the story and the roles offered, in trade magazines, on-line and so on; that way you will have enough choice for your auditions. Be honest about what kind of film you’re making. If it’s independent and with a small budget then say so. It’s better to let people know what they are getting into up front. I mean, if there is no money to pay artists, are you going to feed them, pay travel expenses? You better do one of these, preferably both!

Organise the paperwork

Wait for those c.v.’s to roll in over the next week or so. Some that are posted to you will come with stamped address envelopes for return. If they are not the actors for you, try and return the c.v.’s if you can, because sending professional pictures to directors can be a costly expense for impoverished actors.

Try and find actors with short film or feature film experience as well as theatre; they will know the ropes to some extent. Look at their skills and hobbies, do you need martial arts, horse riding or rock climbers? Stage combat is a good one if you want to shoot simple fights. Most actors have some experience of this. More complex fighting though will obviously need a fight or stunt coordinator.

Eliminate people you don’t want

It is difficult to choose who to eliminate when you haven’t met anybody but the picture and the C.V. is usually all you have. Some more web savvy people are now posting show reels on-line and this trend should increase but it’s not the norm yet. For your film though, be aware that an actor with only credits in theatre will, generally, have no film vocabulary to work with, they will be unfamiliar with hitting marks for camera, sound levels and so on. They may be wonderful performers on the stage but a possible hindrance on a film set.

Shortlist

Once you’ve narrowed down your list of potential candidates, sort them into male and female. When casting for roles it is better to see all women or all men at the same time in order to better compare gender roles rather than a random mix of boy, girl, boy etc.

Location hunting

Find a location in which to conduct your auditions. It has to have enough space for your actors to move around. Actors will need to move their bodies to relax and demonstrate physicality during the audition. Without this there will be no life and no opportunity for someone to show you what they can do.

Get in touch

Contact the actors you have chosen and let them know your dates and politely ask if they can make it on these times. If your budget is tight they will have to make the day you suggest. If they can’t, you can scratch them from the list. If you have more flexibility, say two days, then they can come to either and this gives them a chance to make arrangements and you more choice over who to eventually cast. Whether you have one day or two, split the day into morning and afternoon. Keep the morning for men and the afternoon for women or vice versa. Have each actor pencilled in at staggered times such as follows:

Day 1

11.00am: first actor “Bruce”
11.20am: second actor “Marlon”
11.40am: third actor “Al”

Lunch break 12.00-12.30pm

12.30pm: fourth actor “Meryl”
12.50pm fifth actor “Madonna”
13.10pm sixth actor “Julia”

Twenty minutes should be a minimum for you to assess each person, if you can spend more time with each person then that would be better. It all depends on how many people you have to see, how much time in the location, how many days etc.

Note: this is the time you will see them but you will want to tell them to arrive fifteen to twenty minutes before their allotted time as this will enable them to read the script and form a basic idea, opinion and approach to their performance. Without this time the audition will be messy and confused as the candidate will be fluffing lines and stumbling all over the place.
Also confirm these times again with the actors to make sure they are coming, either by phone or email.

Give yourself some contingency time too, as inevitably, someone will be lost, late or delayed.