CASTING
I will put it bluntly— Casting is our make or break on this piece. Not only do we need to find compelling folks that are in control of their craft and comfortable with the material; we are also asking them to contribute their own stories for our script, share the screen with their real loved ones, and be willing to go in relatively blind to our process.
We need an ace casting director. Someone who knows how to search for trained actors and non-actors alike. Someone who shares our vision for what this piece has the potential to be. I have been dying to work with the NYC based Susan Shopmaker— who, I am hoping because of the strikes, might be available for us.
I am glad we were on the same page about the number of talent. I think 3-4 pairs would be ideal.
I would leave the logistics of the process to the casting director, but one idea I had is that we field self tapes from the actors in a monologue exercise based on their own experiences and hold off on including loved ones at first— it will give us a sense of their tone and approach to the material, while giving us the opportunity to start to put together different combinations to create variety in the stories and dialog for the piece without the bias of their pairing.
reveal the full concept of the spot yet. This is so we get a sense of the relationship between the two of them— perhaps proposing that the tape is the two of them having a conversation about their relationship to self-bullying.
discussing the full extent of the concept, with an important note being that we keep their loved one somewhat in the dark about the process of the day.
That allows a responsible amount of time for them to consider if they want to be involved given the sensitive nature of the material.
After that we go from there.