Talent Advice

Artificial

Artificial

I'm looking to create a short that has two teenage girls as characters. Still being in school, I could have no problem finding two friends that would be more than happy to volunteer. But, I don't want two people that aren't going to take it seriously and gain nothing from it. At the same time, I'd like to offer the spots to two people who are serious about acting and would like to get some practice.

Is it gonna be easier working with two people that already have a chemistry, but no acting experience? Or would it be easier with two people who have never met, but have the experience? I just need them to act natural(having a "girly" conversation with each other) for the most part, then just showing a little bit of concern and fear.
 
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If you want someone who will take it seriously, choose wisely.

For young people, the best way to work out if they're going to take it seriously is whether they have a track record in acting already and ask their references.

We had 3 young Production Assistants a few weeks back in my team. One didn't bother to turn up, one had to leave early due to a social outing and the third one wanted to also leave early. The first one I don't care about and never inquired why they didn't turn up. The second was more interested in hanging with friends than filming, though I was informed of his early departure the day before the shoot, though he was good at any task he was given. The third one was just trying it out on a film set to work out whether she wanted to get into filmmaking or psychology. The point I'm trying to make is it's hard to work out people's motivation. Past results tend to dictate future results, so the safest thing is to get people who are experienced.

If you're shooting everything on one session/day, then it isn't going to be too much of an issue to replace them. You're just out a little bit of time and it may be a good idea to bring an extra or two and they can be your backup. If it is a multi-day shoot and you need them for everything, whether you can rely upon them is going to be more important to you.

Is it gonna be easier working with two people that already have a chemistry, but no acting experience? Or would it be easier with two people who have never met, but have the experience?
Click to expand...

It's always easier working with people with experience. The last thing you want is your actor to walk out saying, "This isn't as much fun as I thought it would be." It happens.
 
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Most schools have a drama department, so you may want to look there or at another school. If you have done thorough preproduction you should be able to attract talent of your own age group and enthusiasm. It's been an awful long time since high school for me (my oldest graduated HS three years ago), but even though the drama crowd may not all be best friends they are all used to working with one another, so the "chemistry" is partly there already.

The whole point of film, of which acting is a part, is to create a believable illusion. That is the job of the actors, to create a believable relationship.


Just as a side story... When I was a working musician I was in a band where the drummer and I absolutely loathed each other. But, to paraphrase the Godfather, "It's business, not personal." He was a great drummer; I could ALWAYS rely on him to be there at beat one. It was rather bizarre; we didn't like each other much, but we performed together very well indeed. That's what being a pro is all about.
 
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I couldn't imagine just blowing off something I told someone I'd do that was a serious thing, unless I had an emergency that I needed to allot time to. I'd have an even more difficult time doing it with something related to film making. But, I definitely see where you're coming from.

It's gonna be a one day shoot, hopefully less than a couple hours. So, if someone flakes on me I can just postpone it to another day. No biggie for me; I have free time out the wazoo right now.

I'm hoping to have my friend who has been in drama for 4 years to be my character on another short that I'm making. It's gonna be very similar to this one, so it'll be more of a test run so I can get a hang of things.

With everything that has been said, I'm leaning towards finding two people that are experienced for multiple reasons.
- I get experience with film making
- Someone else gets acting experience
- I improve people skills
- Someone else gets people skills
- I get producer experience (finding talent, meeting potential talent, etc.)
- Someone else gets to meet new people
- I get to meet new people(that are girls my age! :rolleyes:)
 
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I once tried to use people I knew for movies. It never worked out. They either flaked out on me last minute, or tried to disrespect me. Silly me, I gave them another shot. One girl talked to me the night before the shoot, swearing she would be there the next day.

She no call, no showed. She was supposed to be the main actress. I ended up recasting the entire production with REAL actors. It cost me money, but dang it, the movie was made.

Learn from me. Don't cast people you know, unless they are HUNGRY. I mean desperately wanting to do ANYTHING to be in your film. Even then, DON'T DO IT.
 
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