I know it's been awhile since I last blogged; however, this last week for me has been basically filmstuff mixed in with playoff baseball on TV. I've grabbed a spare minute here between classes - and for the first time, I'm trying some "remote" blogging, as I appear to be in a small, forgotten garden on campus that's somehow found great wireless support.
It's peaceful here, the greenery around me kind of a throwback to a simpler time - this place is a little haven where everyone just seems to pass by without notice, and those who do stay tend to ignore each other - in other words, it's a great place for me to blog, because nobody will bother me while I do.
Last week I held some auditions for Wake Up. I ended up travelling all the way to Burlington to hold the auditions, thinking nobodhy would want to come to London - well it turns out, that nobody really wanted to come to Burlington, either. I got a grand total of two people show up over the course of the 5 hours I sat there.. two people out of the 35 that expressed interest, two people willing to audition for a film they all seemed to think was a great premise.
But not all bad came from it. Both were auditioning for different roles, and one of the guys had clearly practiced the lines, cause he nailed the part without any difficulty - and yesterday, I offered him the lead role, which he accepted. The other auditioner was a girl, who did a good job with the character, but I've held off giving the part for now because I'm still waiting on a video audition another girl has sent in the mail. I should get it today, and from there I can make the final decision. I feel obligated to give them both a part - but unfortunately, I know it's not so. In the words of Highlander, there can be only one. The problem I'm faced with is choosing a girl that put the effort to come to audition, or the girl that mentally fits the image I had of the lead female. I know the former will put a good performance in on set - and that's important to me - but also it's not exactly a complicated role, so perhaps the performance isn't the biggest of deals - at least not with words. The latter will fit the part physically, which helps big time,but I have no idea on her acting skills. See my dilemma? I don't want to sell myself out before I even start in the industry (even on this "crude" level) and pick the better looking, less-talented girl. Not that either of them are eyesores. But I have to wait, and hopefully the second audition solves it all.
However, I was faced with the problem of the other two roles to fill. Nobody came, so nobody could get the part, correct? Well incidentally, the girl sending me her audition via the mail actually gave me the best idea to solve that problem- and I emailed everyone that hadn't shown up, letting them know I still had two roles available and would "accept video auditions now". I made the timeline clear, giving them until today to get the tape in to me.
I got two responses from it. The first was a guy saying he wanted to send a reel, which I accepted. The second was another actor, saying.. get this, he was willing to drive out to my location to audition. That made less sense to me, considering how I was closer and he didn't show up, but now he wanted to drive twice as far? Whatever, I said it was fine.
He emailed me back yesterday telling me he was on his way - course, I was in class at this time so I had to scramble to get home for the audition. He showed up at my doorstep, telling me "how far the drive was", which I agreed again with, and auditioned. I gave him the part of the first friend right after the audition, not just out of necessity, but because he was actually good for the role.
I have three of the four roles covered for sure, as of this blogging. I still needed a makeup artist, though.
And that in itself is another story. I asked around some film classmates about one, and got two addresses - I emailed both and got no response, so I started asking again. Another classmate gave me another one, who I fired off and she responded right away. Long story short, I chose her, and have a meeting tomorrow with her. In many ways, it's thrilling. But then I got another email from one of the original two I emailed saying she was on board - it's a shame, but I had to shut her down (and offer her the job i n a future production, just to keep my doors open).
And now I'm a week away from shooting, still looking for the final role, still figuring all the little details out, and still one crew meeting away (but at least I've finalized the crew now, too).
In one week, this all gets done. My leadership will determine if it sucks or if it goes smoothly.
And now if you'll excuse me, I've got a test to write (that I didn't study for, opting instead to blog).
-Mark
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