Casting Director

Derek
Ence
Comm.
2660
Pre-production Role:
Casting Director
In writing this paper, I find it
more suitable to focus on an aspect of feature pre-production, instead of
documentary. The reason for this is
casting for films is in most cases not a major portion of the pre-production
process in a documentary. It is, however, an extremely important role in the
case of a feature or narrative film. A film can be excellent in all other
aspects, but if it does not have the right cast to bring emotion and depth to
the script, the end product will be nothing but sub-par. I chose to research
the role of a casting director because I am most interested in the casting
process. I hope to someday have a career in this field of the filmmaking
process. I found some compelling sources for my research, but the most helpful
was a friend of mine who is an aspiring actor.
Brandon Pearson is an acquaintance
of mine who lives in Los Angeles. He divides his time between writing, stage
acting, and auditioning for possible roles in film or television. He has been
attempting to break into the acting business for several years, and as a result
has been involved in numerous casting calls. The majority of his film
experience relates to ads and commercials, having been casted in a few of them
himself. I contacted Brandon through email to ask him a few questions relating
to his experience in casting calls for television commercials. From what he
tells me, the process of casting is painstaking, even for something so short
and relatively simple as a commercial. On any given casting call, there can be
hundreds of actors present for roles in television commercials. Brandon finds
it funny that casting for these ads is so arduous, considering that after the
ad is over those who viewed it at home will not even know the names of the
actors or casting directors involved.
Though possibly hundreds of people
may show up for these casting calls, in most cases very few are chosen to be in
any given ad. Brandon describes the process as “whittling down the field and
finding possible prospects while eliminating the ones who show least talent or
promise.” According to Brandon, if you make it through the preliminary calls
and auditions, the casting directors give you a final call to tell you that you
clinched a role and the actor feels euphoric. Though Brandon has not yet been
cast in any major features, he is using his roles in television ads as a
stepping stone to build acting experience in order to help him collect a
portfolio of roles that future casting directors and producers may notice. He
has also been involved in many stage productions, often acting in lead roles.
About two years ago I bought Francis
Ford Coppola’s film The Outsiders on
DVD. The casting director who worked for the film was Fred Roos. On the DVD
special features there is an in depth look at the casting process Roos went
through for this film. This look into his methods is what first piqued my
interest in pursuing a career as a casting director. Roos attended film school
at UCLA, and his first job in the industry was working in the mail room at MCA.
He was persistent and worked his way up in the industry. He eventually became
one of the most sought after casting directors in the industry. Roos has worked
on many ground breaking films, such as American
Graffiti, The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, and of course The Outsiders to name a few.
According to Roos, he works very
closely with the director and collaborates with him/her in order to ensure
effectiveness in their casting and picking the right people for their project.
Roos says the traditional method for casting is bringing actors in one by one
and having them read for a part individually. He and Coppola noticed the young
actors auditioning for The Outsiders
were getting very nervous and not performing to the best of their ability, so
they decided to break the mold. They brought in large groups of the actors,
mostly in their late teens or early twenties, and decided to have them all read
together on a sound stage. Initially this made the actors even more nervous,
considering none of them had ever been thrown into a situation like this
before. Roos and Coppola were able to use these unconventional methods to see
the true potential in the actors and were able to assemble a terrific cast.
Many of the actors cast for the film went on to become leading men and women
and major Hollywood stars as a result of their parts in the film.
Casting is an integral part of the
filmmaking process and, as mentioned before, can either make or break a film.
The role of the casting director is obviously essential in this process, though
casting decisions can be made through various avenues. According to
filmmakernyc.com, the director is almost always present throughout the casting
process. If the director cannot work well with any member of the cast, that
lack of chemistry resonates and will be painfully obvious on screen by a bad
acting performance. These days, there are many directors who have the ability
and respect to cast most major parts in their films. Christopher Nolan, for
example, casts many of the bigger parts in his films on his own. He tends to
use the same actors for his films and is able to fully utilize an actor’s
abilities to make the best of their performance.
Studio executives also play a big
part in the casting process. Many times when a studio is using a script to
develop a film, the executives make lists of certain actors who have box office
draw that can take on the leading roles. Of course their decisions are never
set in stone, and they will work closely with the director, producers, and
casting director in order to cast the right talent for the roles. Many times
the actors who were first choices for the studio executives, directors,
producers, or casting directors have to be replaced because of the talent’s
devotion to other roles or time constraints, in which case they have to cast
someone else for the part. The casting director mostly handles the casting for
smaller roles or extras.
Filmmakernyc.com claims no matter
who is casting the roles of a film, it is very important that the directors and
casting directors develop good rapport with the talent and their agents. The
Screen Actors Guild is vital in this process as well. All of these people and
organizations must work together and communicate effectively if they are to
produce a film worth seeing. A good film is made through the collaborations of
many different people who are all working together for a common goal. When all
of these people are able to combine their efforts efficiently and perform their
work to the best of their ability, their films become works of art because of
their communication and devotion in producing a project.