Filmmaking- Auditions

The next stage in our filmmaking process is to cast actors in the role of our characters. There are four main characters been Evan and Cassidy and then their two children, but we need Evan and Cassidy at different ages. So we needed to cast:

• Evan and Cassidy age 9-13
• Evan and Cassidy age 16-20
• Evan and Cassidy age 25-30
• Katie and Jake (Evan and Cassidy's children) age 9-13

These are our main roles to cast and we've come to the conclusion that who ever plays Evan and Cassidy age 9-13, can also play Katie and Jake age 9-13. This will save us time and effort trying to find someone suitable and appropriate looking for the role when we can just use the same kids but change their appearance a little. So now we're looking to cast only six people for our roles in the commercial. Last year a few people on our course and how are in my group, had the chance to go and film audition tapes for a stage school of young actors, the actors range from children to teenagers and I was able to get in contact with the woman who runs the class. Gaynor was very helpful and eager to help me cast my roles and had actors who were appropriate to play Evan and Cassidy age 9-13 and Evan and Cassidy age 16-20. We were able to organise an audition for these actors at the stage school and went down one saturday to meet and audition them for the roles. 

The four actors were:

1. Conor auditioning for the role of Evan age 9-13
2. Lewis auditioning for the role of Evan age 16-20
3. Chloe auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 9-13
4. Sadie auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 16-20

  

The first actor was Conor auditioning for Evan age 9-13,  Conor's appearance looked well as he seems like the type of kid who would spend time outdoors playing sports etc. Conor would be playing the youngest version of Evan and therefore anyone else playing older would need to look like Conor. We gave all the actors a similar monologue to read for us called 'Dreaming of Dragons' and in some places Conor seemed a little wooden and lost for words, but there are some auditioning nerves and also we none of these roles in the commercial are speaking roles so there is no dialogue for Conor to give. Me and my producer Simon were both pleased with the audition and were happy to cast Conor in the role of Evan. 

The second actor was Lewis auditioning for Evan age 16-20, Lewis's appearance was similar to Conor's and was believable that these two could be brothers or related and therefore would work as an onscreen continuation of the character Evan. Lewis fit the role and performed the same monologue with quite some confidence and movement, showing experience in stage or theatre work. Having casted Conor as the younger Evan, me and Simon felt comfortable casting Lewis as Evan age 16-20 for the commercial. 

The third actor/actress to audition was Chloe who was for the role of Cassidy age 9-13, Chloe would be playing the youngest version of Cassidy and therefore setting the appearance and tone for later actresses to play. Chloe's appearance was quite well suited for our commercial because she seems like with the suitable clothes, she could fit in well in any time period, which would help for when we are setting it. She's also young enough to match Conor's age and at the adventurous age where you would play outside and ride bikes etc. Chloe's performance was very powerful and well delivered, she was very strong with her dialogue and obvious signs of theatre experience. Both me and Simon were impressed with Chloe's audition and casted her in the role of Cassidy age 9-13.   

The fourth and final actor/actress to audition was Sadie, who was auditioning for the role of Cassidy age 16-20 which is the teenage stage of Chloe's character. Off the mark we judged Sadie on her likeness to Chloe and if it was believable that Chloe would grow up to look like Sadie and we agreed that the similarities were strong and that on screen it would be a believable transition for child to teenager. Sadie is twenty years old but we felt like we could get away with playing her a few years younger, to match Lewis's age and look. Sadie instantly seemed the most experienced and you could tell this from the way she put herself across. Her performance with the monologue was strong and direct, like the others you could tell the stage background and she had great speech and dialogue techniques which caught you in gained your attention. All this combined made me and Simon accept she was the obvious choice to play Cassidy age 16-20. 

Four of the six main roles have no been casted and that leaves us with Evan and Cassidy age 25-30 to finish the casting for the commercial. We know have more knowledge and now know what to look for in these castings as the younger versions of these characters have already been cast, so we just need to find actors and actresses similar to our actors here.