The Find

While doing this location research we also had begin planning for our casting calls. For me this was particularly challenging because I was already struggling to describe the film's tone to faculty, and now I was expected to describe the characters and tone without using the working script of the film since I wanted to keep specific details under wraps. It also didn't help that we weren't allowed to post casting calls until after a casting workshop and without proper approval from the school and it was about 3 weeks before I would have to film; in that time I would have to post the call, have a reasonable submission window, have call backs, decide, confirm, sign, and rehearse on top of the other prep work I had to do for my film and the other films. So I got to work.

Before we had the casting workshop I was already planning on posting to social media to find a Jordan for my film. Now the last time I posted a casting call to social media I didn't really have too much success in get many different self-tapes, but I with the ethos of the film school attached and the knowledge that my classmates were probably going to repost the casting call, I felt more comfortable this time around. I also had in the back of my mind that I was going to reach out to specific people and ask them to audition if they connected with the premise. 

Different from last time as well, I would now need to include A LOT more information; so much information in fact that I would have to make a carousel post instead of just a singular frame with all the information. While that may now seem like a big difference, the idea that now whenever I or someone else would repost via their story, they'd only be getting part of the whole and whatever impression someone would get had to stick with them. Also in knowing that the post would be a carousel, I felt obligated to include a poster that further create an identity for the film, provide information, and catch viewers' attention. Naturally, I then posed the question "How do I make a poster without cast or location confirmed while also personalizing the poster to feel like me?"

Little did I know the answer would be sitting just outside of my eye-line. My prop Urn had just come in and was beneath my desk, and suddenly it clicked. I cleared my desk and grabbed my camera. It was time for a photoshoot. I grabbed anything that looked textured, antique, and unique and placed them along my desk. I placed the Urn somewhere along the middle and checked my frame; it was too dark. I pull my floor lamp over, but it was still too dark. I pulled out my chair and turned it 90 degrees so that my lamp could lean on the back of the chair and have the light be closer. It was was still too dark, so I just raised the ISO.

With lighting that worked it was all about framing, object arrangement, and focus. I took many photos and I put saved them to my computer, picked the best one, realized that I didn't leave room in the frame for a title card, so I found a paper texture online, threw it into photoshop with my favorite picture, added the title and exported the cover image for the post. With that done I waited until the workshop took my notes, and got home to finish the other slides of the post. I reused the paper texture, but this time across the entire frame, added some text and copy and pasted the character information from the character sheet I sent to get approved by the school. And It was around this point I realized that I didn't know what I was going to do for the self-tapes.

I couldn't repeat what I did for In His Eyes; for that I wrote up a sort of prolong scene that wouldn't be in the final movie, but I didn't think that would work for I Lost What's Mine because the dialogue that I want in the final movie is supposed to be a uniquely different interaction for Jordan. Not to mention that dialogue scene alone in the script isn't a wholistic representation of Jordan's character since there's supposed to be an level of grief and denial of that grief, but also what ever I would have to give for the self-tape would need some level of humor to gauge the comedic parts of the script. Basically I would be shooting myself in the foot, by not including the dialogue that was present in the most recent draft along with some additional subtext, since that was the most wholistic version of the character. With that said I put on my steel toe boots, and began searching the internet for a scene that had grief and humor, but also the specific kind that I wanted. This process would go on to take a few days. One scene I remember liking, but didn't land on was a scene from It's What's Inside, but my main issue with it was it's length for a self tape. 

It was around day four, that I felt I was hitting a wall, and when I remembered I needed to grab a scene for Lucille so I phoned a friend(s). I texted my buddy John (resident Arrested Development enjoyer) and asked him if there was a scene with Lucille (from Arrested Development) where she'd most resemble the Lucille (from I Lost What's Mine) of my script. I also texted my classmate Carlos (Mr. Motion Picture) because if there was anyone with a wide knowledge of films that might have a scene or more that would resemble the tone I wanted for my film, it'd be Mr. Motion Picture himself. In the end, John was busy, and Carlos came through recommending Thunder Road (2018). 

From there I learned of the short film that served as a proof of concept for Thunder Road  (2018), Thunder Road (2016), so I watched that it was a monologue! It also struck the tone I wanted for I Lose What's Mine which helped too. After some transcribing and trimming, I now had a monologue for Jordan. Maybe it was a little bit too long, but fuck it had enough of a basis for a character. Now I just had to watch Arrested Development compilations with Lucille, and luckily it didn't take long; found a scene short and sweet where Lucille was actually greedy and snarky, and that was that. Best of all, this is now irrefutable proof that John Brown is in fact not helpful when it comes to helping making a film, and this statement will never come back to bite me in the ass.

On October 23rd, I had my post ready to go when I remembered yet again with impeccable timing that I needed a song to accompany the post. After about 30 minutes of searching I half landed on Remember by Air. It wasn't perfect, but I didn't want to use QYURRYUS by The Voidz too early since it inspired the title for the film; half convinced would have to do though, because I needed to get this casting call out TODAY since I wanted to have self tapes due the upcoming Sunday night, so I could schedule call-backs for the following Wednesday.

And with all of that work now done, half way there... I did not expect so much time dedicated to making a post that would go on to be archived within a week, but that's show biz baby. More importantly it's work that I did, and I have no fucking shame talking about the work I put in.

By this point it was a a waiting game, at least for the Jordan self-tapes. While posting to social media served as a quick way to reach a lot of potential Jordans, I am not followed by many older women who live in Tallahassee. For Lucille, I went into the film school's actor data base, curated the filters to fit the character and had my producer, Eddie, reach out to about 10. We got 4 responses back discussing interest, and 3 self tapes in the end. On the Jordan side of things, it wasn't until the final day when the submissions came rolling in, but I had gotten more submissions than what I would've expected which I'm happy about. From there I selected about half of the Jordans to come in for the call backs. For the call backs, my goals were to keep the number of individuals low, so that I can pair each of my Lucilles and Jordans along side each other to get the widest range of chemistry that I could.

Call backs were scheduled for Wednesday, October 30th, since the rest of the week would be packed with traditional classes coming to a close, workshops, other call backs, etc... Since these were a hand selected few, Eddie made sure to share with them the actual working draft of I Lost What's Mine, in order to see how the material get interpreted and realized; the script only included the dialogue scene with some additional background context, but very little. I saw a interview one time with some big director that said whenever they do a casting call and give an actor a working script, they never say anything about the story because that very first audition will be the purest interpretation. That interpretation maybe isn't what a writer/director may think that they want, but it becomes really hard to ignore and it may lead to something better.

For the call backs we structured in a manor of individual readings followed by chemistry readings. The individual readings would serve to introduce Eddie and I to the actor and vise versa. This time would be for questions, confirmations, and a general warm up for the actor before going into the chemistry reads. After going through everyone individually, pairing would begin and we would cycle through everyone. I know not everyone structures their call backs this way, but I personally really like this approach. While on paper it seems very work oriented, I still feel it possible for the personalities of actors to shine through during our walks from the green room to the interview room, and especially through their questions and their answers to the questions Eddie and I have prepared. I also think that this format also lends itself for actors to mingle with each other while in the green room. Every time I went to call up the next person the actors were always talking. Especially when we started the chemistry reads, there were several occasions where the two actors I would come over to call, were already talking to each other by the time to got to the green room (as added context, only Eddie and I knew the pairing schedules, so it really was kind of freaky that would already be showing chemistry before they even got into the room.).

The entire process from the first individual read to the last pairing, took about 45 minutes to an hour, but the process of deciding would go on to take much longer. I had a good problem in that I Could Not pick between two Jordans who I felt both killed it, but they did so in slightly different ways which is what made this such hard decision for me. The film has comedy and an emotional underbelly, and slight difference that these two actors had I felt had the potential in changing how both the humor and grief of the film might be conveyed. I felt one Jordan had more of a physical presence which created a fun surreal kind of feeling while having a desperation to their vocal tone. Meanwhile the other Jordan had a bit of an awkward humor to their performance, but would be able to switch it up on the fly for when Lucille wouldn't budge; there was this slight resentment that I thought was really cool. I was stuck.

I talked with Eddie afterwards we quickly agreed on a Lucille, but Jordan was still up in the air. I remember sharing my dilemma with other groupmate Anissa and with my partner Sam in search of advice, but everyone kept pointing the finger back at me. "It's your film" and like yeah it is my film but there's two of them, and I'm not sure which one is the one; considering the two possibilities I turned to what I originally wanted from this story, what I originally wanted to explore with this project, what experience I wanted to have with this film, and I wasn't entirely sure, but I had gone from 50/50 to 60/40. It was around the weekend when I realized that the 60/40 still hadn't changed, and that that was probably enough. I texted Eddie, he supported the decision, and I called up Armesto.

In terms of Lucille, I tried to call Jennifer Patty to tell her the news, but she wasn't available and Eddie emailed her to invite her onto our production.

Like that the search was done, I found my actors. With the location locked, and actors verbally locked a weight was lifted from my shoulders. And what good timing with Pre-Production week on the horizon...