Efficient Callbacks

[citychik]

Efficient Callbacks?

The auditions I held this past Saturday and Monday have left me with a fairly nice embarrassment of riches. I saw so many good actors, I'm having a tough time whittling down my choices.

I have three lead roles: a man & woman will play a couple who live together, and another man plays someone who throws a wrench into the works. The couple are at odds with each other, at a crucial point in their relationship and have different goals. It's important that the actors playing the couple have good chemistry, so no one looks at them and says, "why is she even with him in the first place?" I'm going to hold Callbacks, but I want to do it as efficiently as possible, so my actors don't have to wait around for really long periods.

The problem is that there are three guys I'm considering for the boyfriend, and five women for the girlfriend, and two guys for the other male lead. ALL of these actors gave solid auditions and gave their own unique flavors to the materials, so this will be a challenge!

I'm looking for tips on how to schedule this logistically, if I want to see each Boyfriend paired with each Girlfriend, and then see the Other Guy interact with the girlfriend. I think I'll hold initial callbacks to cast the couple -- then, after I make my decision, I'll bring in the actors who play the other guy to interact with them. But for that "Couples Callback" I can't figure out how to schedule each woman with each guy. Someone told me to just pair them up Best with Best, 2nd Best with 2nd Best, and so on - but I like a few of these folks equally and that doesn't allow me to see different combinations!

Let's say I setup a time for Boyfriend A to come in and do scenes with four Girlfriends, then I schedule Boyfriend B, and Boyfriend C to come in - it seems unfair to ask the actors being considered for Girlfriend to wait around to audition with each Boyfriend (A, B, C)? If each couple has 15 minutes to do a scene together, that's one hour per couple or more.

Suggestions? How would you do it?

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

"Whatever you do, don't settle."

and another amen. The main fault with my last film was the quality of the acting. I had so many balls in the air I didn't give it the attention it deserved, and settled for some mediocore performers.

 

[finderskeepers]

I had the same situation this week by parring groups of actors and actresses together. I just made everyone wait around and deal with it. Nobody complained. We found the perfect actors for the roles. Hopefully, the actors that didn't get cast don't hate us.

 

[citychik]

Okay, here's how the callbacks went. I had my Consulting Producer with me, thankfully, and so she let people in, etc. (at the first auditions I got some actors I know to serve as Readers and sign people in, etc. - I gave them lunch money and a Metrocard for their work, and also considered them for the roles).

Since I know that actors here schedule several auditions in a day, I felt I couldn't just ask them all to wait around too long - that's just me. When I was acting and went to auditions, I hated that kind of treatment. Anyway, I had made an effort to narrow it down but just couldn't have less than five women and three men actors to consider. So my top pick out of the men was paired with two of my top picks for the women, and the next top pick was paired with two women, and my least favorite was paired with one. He was late so the guy before him read with her -- then when he did show up, he read with her, too. He remained my least favorite, so his lateness just made my decision easier. He works as an under-5 on a soap and seemed to think he could get away with it (he was late for his 1st audition, too).

So, I just decided to stop worrying about pairing up everybody with everybody to see the right combination. It was good to see the actors audition with other actors being considered, rather than readers I had hired, because I got to see how one person's performance chances with a different scene partner. I taped everything and made my decision, and now I'm really happy.

 

[Tinalera]

Okay, here's how the callbacks went. I had my Consulting Producer with me, thankfully, and so she let people in, etc. (at the first auditions I got some actors I know to serve as Readers and sign people in, etc. - I gave them lunch money and a Metrocard for their work, and also considered them for the roles).

Since I know that actors here schedule several auditions in a day, I felt I couldn't just ask them all to wait around too long - that's just me. When I was acting and went to auditions, I hated that kind of treatment. Anyway, I had made an effort to narrow it down but just couldn't have less than five women and three men actors to consider. So my top pick out of the men was paired with two of my top picks for the women, and the next top pick was paired with two women, and my least favorite was paired with one. He was late so the guy before him read with her -- then when he did show up, he read with her, too. He remained my least favorite, so his lateness just made my decision easier. He works as an under-5 on a soap and seemed to think he could get away with it (he was late for his 1st audition, too).

So, I just decided to stop worrying about pairing up everybody with everybody to see the right combination. It was good to see the actors audition with other actors being considered, rather than readers I had hired, because I got to see how one person's performance chances with a different scene partner. I taped everything and made my decision, and now I'm really happy.

Isn't it amazing how someone can read a script really well, yet when it comes to "acting" the part, they can seem totally lost. Sounds like things worked out for ya! Good job!

 

[2001 Productions]

Isn't it amazing how someone can read a script really well, yet when it comes to "acting" the part, they can seem totally lost.

Amen! I cast a role for my last project with an actor who gave a great cold read; very natural, had a good look...

...then showed up on set for his 2-day shoot without having memorized A SINGLE LINE of his dialogue! I guess it inhibited his spontaneity or something??? Yeah, he was spontaneous, all right.

Of course it was a location that would've been logistically unrealistic to reschedule, and half the cast/crew had traveled more than 100 miles to reach the place, so re-casting was out of the question. At least I had plenty of room tone with all the lengthy pauses as he tried to remember what he was supposed to be saying.

 

[Gonzo_Entertainment]

Amen! I cast a role for my last project with an actor who gave a great cold read; very natural, had a good look...

...then showed up on set for his 2-day shoot without having memorized A SINGLE LINE of his dialogue! I guess it inhibited his spontaneity or something??? Yeah, he was spontaneous, all right.

Of course it was a location that would've been logistically unrealistic to reschedule, and half the cast/crew had traveled more than 100 miles to reach the place, so re-casting was out of the question. At least I had plenty of room tone with all the lengthy pauses as he tried to remember what he was supposed to be saying.

I literally had to resort to cue cards with on of the secondary performers once. This was a guy with probably 50 stage plays under his belt, never even thought about it being a problem until we started shooting and he couldn't remeber his 5 lines.

 

[citychik]

The actors I chose had most of their sides memorized for the auditions, which indicated to me that they would make an effort to learn it for the shoot. I feel that they don't need to memorize everything beforehand, just know it well enough that they can review it before the scenes and get it right.

 

[Tinalera]

The actors I chose had most of their sides memorized for the auditions, which indicated to me that they would make an effort to learn it for the shoot. I feel that they don't need to memorize everything beforehand, just know it well enough that they can review it before the scenes and get it right.

And that's all you can ask. I think what sometimes happens too is that people who may do theatre don't realize that movies are different. There's a lot more stopping and starting, changing lighting, angles, ect. In some ways its easier memory wise because you only focus on certain small bits, and there's always time to recheck the script, but at the same time harder because theatre actors have a different way of memorizing sometimes.


I've done both sides, so I can appreciate a bit the difficulties. Good to hear things are going smoothly so far Citychik!

 

[finderskeepers]

Sorry kind of a late reply. I just finished casting a feature. What I found was that "casting" is like getting married. If you have to ask "who should I marry" you got the wrong people. You have to fall in love with their performance and then there's no question who gets the part. Just my 2 cents.

 

[hollywoodcity]

You've probably already had your callbacks but I figured I'd chime in anyway. The main purpose of a callback where two actors read together is "chemistry." Chemistry between actors gives your film authenticity. You can choose two amazing actors but if they have no chemistry, it won't work. Y

So, considering that you are looking for chemistry, do not look at it as unfair to keep someone waiting. Basically you are giving the actors multiple opportunities to engage, interact and perform.