Script, Locations, Actors

Since my last blog entry alot has happened. My first priority was to finish the script. I thought that as long as I had a finished and complete script, that it would be my base from which to build on. So I had finished the script by my deadline of the 10th.

At this time I was still receiving applications from starnow.co.uk. I had 29 altogether now but the majority of the people applying were for the role of Sophie. I was slightly panicking about the lack of promising actors to play David. After some emails to the prospective actors a few had become very interested and were asking for scripts to be sent. One inpaticular was a man called Chris. I believe I have made a big mistake here. Chris had been sending me a few emails asking me about exact shooting dates. I haven't set any shooting dates as of yet due to not having a guaranteed cast. This seemed to be a problem for him and therefore the emails became quite short and to the point. I then proceeded to try and set up an audition for Monday 18th March. Chris seemed to have problems getting to Confetti and wanted his expenses paid. I had previously thought that the 'no money' issue could rear it's ugly head at some point, and true to form it did. After some more correspondence it became apparent that Chris wanted his expenses met which I could not afford. I don't blame him for this because I was asking him to give up days of paid work to appear in a student film. On a more positive note through 'star-now' a women named Samantha had got in touch and was very interested in meeting to discuss the script and character. She was the right age for Sophie and seemed to have alot of good experience in theatre and TV.

Today I had the audition with Samantha. As we were sending each other emails about meeting to discuss the film i had decided to not do a formal audition of camera, reading lines etc. The reason being that I didn't want to shove a camera in her face and force her to read dialogue she hadn't read before because this could be unsettling, boring. I realised that the character of Sophie is someone who has travelled, is a free spirit, and who has been forced by her own social conscience to settle down and find a job. I figured that a character who isn't afraid to travel on her own to all these foriegn places would have to be someone who is friendly, easily approachable, isn't easily intimidated. So it is at this point I decided to make the audition more of a meet and chat. Seeing as your reading this Jamie i should be honest and admit now that I was five minutes late, and she was on time. Not a great start I know. We made our way to the canteen and proceeded to spend the next hour just talking about everything. We spent about ten minutes on the script and film and the rest of the time talking about anything and everything else. It was incredibly insightfull into Sam's own life and it gave me alot of further inspiration in creating new dialogue and action in the script. For example she talked about her favourite drink being cranberry and apple. I instantly thought about the part of the script where Sophie orders a drink, and now I know what drink to make that. So in my mind I basically cast her half way through this conversation.