How to Cast an Indie Film

Video Transcript

"Well, you've got to cast your movie. You have to have auditions with actors. You could put ads out in the local paper. When I lived out in New York, I put an add in "Backstage," which was the actors' newspaper. And I would get so many resumes and photos from actors, it would take me weeks just to open up the envelopes. And, right away, you kind of know what you're looking for, and just based on appearance, kind of as shallow as it is. But you're looking for people who fit the part. So, you're going through it all day, "They won't work. They won't work. They won't work." So, you go through all the headshots, all the resumes, and then you set up-determine who you're going to call, and they'll just show up at the audition. And the auditions usually take, I would put aside two days to do this. And you could rent out like rooms or like a room in a hall or something. Sometimes libraries, you could rent out one of the rooms or something for a couple of hours. But don't do it in your house. Do it like in a separate building, where people could come in, and there's a room, and you could videotape them, maybe, reading a line from a script, and do that. And I wouldn't schedule people specifically for certain times. I would just tell the actors that, "Hey, the audition is on this day between this time and this time. Show up anywhere between there," because you're only going to spend a couple minutes per person. So, if they're waiting, it's not a problem. Actors are used to waiting. So, don't worry about that. But you get a lot of people on tape. And the first time you have the audition, the first day, don't necessarily have them read anything from your script. Have them come prepared with something of their own. And they'll have like a monologue or something they learned in acting school, or something from a play that they were in. And you can get a sense from that just if they can act. Ant then, sometimes when they come in, and they start doing a scene or reading something, it clicks in here, "Oh, they're right for the part." And you know right away that this person is right. So, you'll see while you're casting who fits, who doesn't. And, generally, all the people you picked on the first day, you have them come back, and you kind of narrow it down. And then you call them, tell them they got the part and everything. But then you're going to have to work with their schedule, and from their availability, figure out what your shooting schedule's going to be."