Kodak Time Progress Update - Auditions

Yesterday we held auditions in the uni looking for potential actors and actresses for the project. Last week we approached a theatre group to see who would be interested in auditioning for the roles on Facebook. We had a large quantity of responses at once, so we decided to hold a full open day for those auditioning to come in whatever time they saw fit between half 9 and half 5. It turned out to be a long day but one that was totally worth it as we ended up a lot of options between the 3 groups. 

Going into the auditions I was worried we wouldn't be able to find 8 actors for the paperchase advert I'm directing. I had hoped for 4 actors and 4 actresses to each fill the roles of the caveman/cavewoman, the roman man and woman, the victorian man and woman and the modern man and woman. I've planned ahead incase we didn't get 8 altogether by coming up with a compromise where one actor and one actress would play all of the different characters. This is not at all how I want things to go but I always think its good to have a backup plan. I explained this to everyone who auditioned and all seemed very happy to play all of the characters if it came to it. 

The auditions themselves were rather awkward. Unlike the casting process for an actual short film where you have a script. In that situation you can ask the actors to act out a scene naturally. For these adverts there is no script, so the audition requirements were purely physical and only for around 10 seconds. It seemed a bit degrading as that was all they had to do and many of the people had travelled to get to the auditions but I suppose thats the way it goes. I'm very happy with the amount of people that turned up and they all seemed eager to be involved in some way. 

Fortunately we still have a few people to audition. A few actors couldn't make the auditions in person so agreed to hold auditions over Skype at one point this week, or for them to record themselves auditioning and then send that to us. We are continuing our preparations for costumes and locations this week. Combined with the casting decisions we will be making over the following few days, things are shaping up very nicely as we approach shooting dates.