PRE-PRODUCTION: Audition Days

We held two main audition days, the 12th and 14th of November, and we held an extra audition day on Friday 16th November to give the applicants another day to choose from.

First audition day (Monday 12th November)

After rescheduling some people and agreeing to accept self-tapes for others, we ended up having 3 people in for 3 different characters, after initially suggesting to have all the Tim's and Luke's in, with one Sheila. 

We kept to the same structure with each person. We started by having a general chat with them, in order to get them comfortable around us and to act themselves. We could also get an idea of their personalities by doing this. While we spoke to them they filled out the audition form, keeping it casual. The next part of the audition was to read through their specific parts of the script. Improv wasn't really essential for the audition because the script had enough drama in it for the people to explore anyway, but we were open for them to add their own spin on it. We also asked them to be honest and see what they thought of the script, as we were open to fresh ideas from people who hadn't been working on the project for the past couple of months. 

The first person we had was a candidate for Luke. We asked him to read through Scene 2 to start with, alongside Alex who read the other roles and directions. He read this really well and used the audition space that we had given him, rather than sitting still reading the lines. After this, we asked him to read Scene 5. Again, he portrayed Luke really well and had a good sense of space. The candidate also thought on his feet as he grabbed his rucksack as a prop for the bag with the dead dog inside. I was impressed with this as I wouldn't have even thought about it. We asked him to read the scene again in a different tone to see how versatile he was as Alex explained that he wasn't sure on how he wanted Luke portrayed in terms of his emotion, just yet. However, seeing how the candidate depicted Luke, this has given us an idea of how we want him to be played if this candidate is successful. 

Next was a candidate for Tim. We asked him to read through Scene 1 alongside Alex reading the other roles. He portrayed this really well and used the audition space that was available to him. This was good to see from all our candidates as it was interesting to get a feel of how they would use their body language. This was ideal for Tim in when they hit the dead dog, as Tim is very quick and frantic in trying to help the dog, and then needs to jump up quick when Sheila appears. This candidate for Tim was really good at this and stayed in character while moving around.

Tess was after. The candidate read through Scene 1 with Alex, when Tim breaks into her house. Similarly to the previous candidates, she had a good sense of space and she was good at sarcasm which is needed for a few lines when talking to Tim. After this we asked her to read through it again but with a more caring tone to her voice, as she did the first read with a demanding tone. We liked the first demanding tone, as Tess's character is very authoritative over her little brother, and it's normal to talk to a younger sibling in this tone. However, we wanted to hear a more caring side so Alex could decide what route to take, regarding Tess's portrayal and personality. Lastly, we asked her to read through Scene 10. She portrayed the character of Tess really well throughout both scenes.

As most people had opted for a self-tape due to work and personal commitments, for the first audition day we had gone from 10 people auditioning, to only seeing 3 people on the day. The majority took up the option for the self-tape, 2 people withdrew and 2 people rescheduled to the other audition days. 


Second audition day (Wednesday 14th November)

Like I said before, we kept the same structure for each candidate. We had a friendly chat with them, in order to get them comfortable around us. They filled out the audition form and we were ready to start the audition. 

To start with we had a candidate for Pete. He is the first and person we had auditioning for Pete as the other two opted for self-tapes, therefore, we were very grateful that he came in to meet us personally. To start with we asked him to read through Scene 2 as it's the only one Pete is in, and he only has three lines throughout the whole script. Because of this, the purpose of the audition was more to see how he reacted to it rather than how well he knew the lines. Again, the candidate stood up and used the space around him. Pete's character is very dim, the candidate knew this and portrayed it well, even though he only had three lines. We tried it again but with the candidate giving more of an intimidating tone towards Tim, as he tries to say the work Pete carried out on the van wasn't very good. The candidate used the tone very well and I was very impressed. We knew it was going to be a short audition because of the lack of lines for this character. However, it was very beneficial for us to meet the candidate to see how easy he is to get on with, and to see if we would be able to work with him during the production stage.

Next, was the candidate for Tim. We kept the same scenes for the candidate to read out as we had in the first audition day, in order to keep the auditions fair. This way we were able to see two different people read through the same scenes to see how different their performances were, and then which one was better. This would have been harder if they read out different scenes. Therefore, we also read through Scene 1 and 4 with this candidate. Similarly, to the other Tim, he used the space around himself well. He showed good authority over Luke, which is what the character for Tim does as he is older and Luke follows and looks up to him. When he was being demanding, he got closer to Alex's face and pointed to him a lot. I thought this was good because getting closer to someones face is what you do when you're being demanding and you do point when telling someone what to do. He also made good eye contact when he got closer to Alex which I liked. We asked him to repeat Scene 4 and use a more sympathetic tone towards the dog, Luke and Sheila. Then we asked him to do it once more and use a more arrogant tone, as if he knew what he was doing to the dog. He portrayed both of these personalities really well also.

Sheila was the next character on our list. We asked her to read through Scene 4 and 5. The first run through went well. She showed emotion about her dead cat. However, we wanted a bit more emotion, so we tried it again. The second time was a lot better and we really believed she was upset about Sooty. The candidate for Sheila portrayed the character really well.

Lastly, we saw the candidate auditioning for Tess. We asked her to read through Scene 1 and 10. She did these both really well. Scene 1 was fine the first time she did it. We asked her to do Scene 10 how she felt best represented the character. After this Alex asked her to be more antagonistic. This was because Scene 10 is at the very end of the film, and by this point Tess is very fed up with Tim after his disastrous day. The candidate portrayed Tess really well this second time and Alex and I were very impressed. 

We were expecting 10 people to attend the second audition day but in the end we only saw 4 of these. Another 4 people weren't able to attend but they accepted the self-tape option, and one person asked to reschedule for Friday 16th November. 


Extra audition day (Friday 16th November)

I set up the third audition day purely as an option for the people who could not make the other two days. We had one candidate for Tess scheduled for today, and I was in contact with a candidate for Sheila who was getting back to me if she could attend or not. The candidate for Sheila was happy with her time slot on the Monday until her circumstances changed. I was happy to reschedule her for the Friday because it would make the day more worthwhile by having two people in rather than just one. 

However, Alex and I were set up and ready to meet the two candidates auditioning for Sheila and Tess but unfortunately neither of them attended the auditions. We also had no warning from either of them. Alex and I both had to leave at 5pm due to work commitments, so as we were leaving I sent them both a message explaining that they had missed the time slot and that we would accept a self-tape if they were still interested in VET-MAN. Then before we left the building, we left a message with reception in case they happened to get to the Studios late. We were very certain that they were not attending the audition though as we had no messages from them. One of the candidates was running late on Monday due to traffic and she messaged me to let me know that she was going to be late. As a result of not hearing from the two candidates due on the Friday, after sending them confirmation emails, we were sure they were not going to attend. 

I was impressed with everyone as I just assumed they would sit in the chair and read the lines. However, they all made a really good effort with their facial and body expressions, they all had a good sense of space, and they were all really friendly. I am looking forward to working with the selected cast. 

Below is the final audition schedule and the names of the people who attended the auditions. These candidates and the ones sending in self-tapes are the people we will be choosing from when deciding on the cast. 

Final audition schedule

Self-tapes

Final self-tape schedule

In total, we had 7 people ask to give in a self-tape. Ideally, we wanted to meet them in person but I wasn't able re-schedule everyone for a day they could make due to their work and personal commitments. 

We had one self-tape sent in from a candidate for Tess. She had recorded herself saying the other characters lines and then we watched her read through her lines. This was very clever and wasn't something I had thought of doing. She portrayed the character of Tess really well. Obviously, we couldn't ask her to do it again in another tone of voice, but we were happy with the way she did it in the video. 

A self-tape for the role of Pete was the next one that was submitted to us. The candidate played Pete really well. He is a big built guy, and the way he used his tone of voice was really good, he sound innocent and really pleased with his work on the side of the van. We were very pleased with this candidate, but Alex wasn't sure if he wanted to keep Pete as a role anymore. I will hear Alex's final decision before emailing the candidates for Pete. 

Lastly, a self-tape for the role of Luke was sent over. He portrayed the character of Luke well but not quite in the same tone as we wanted. But because it was over a self-tape we weren't able to ask him to try it again.

Out of 7 self-tapes I was meant to receive, I was sent 3. However, we were very pleased with everyone we met and the self-tapes we received so I don't think we needed to see all of them.