Casting Brief Q12: Any specific scene that the director wants to audition the characters?

For the entire list of questions go back to

Casting Brief

Question 12: Any specific scene that the director wants to test the characters?

This is as obvious as it gets. Does the director have any specific scene/s that he wants the person to act out in the audition? Something that he thinks would bring out the character, or a scene which is most important towards the film. 

There are times when more than one scene gets auditioned but that usually happens on callbacks. This of course is true only in the case of films. 

The reason for asking this question could also be at times most directors will not be willing to share a key scene with too many people as that could potentially jeopardise the project. To avoid this a dummy scene could be created or even a scene from an existing movie to test the actor's range of emotions.

In advertising, the actor is required to enact the entire part and sometimes in different tones.

A few examples of auditions:

Joaquin Phoenix Audition test footage 'Joker' Behind The Scenes

Sometimes the camera is kept running beyond the scene to test the chemistry of actors.

Outlander - Original Chemistry Test: Sam Heughan (Jamie Fraser) & Caitriona Balife (Claire)

It's not uncommon to do the auditions in mood settings, especially in callbacks. If there are more than one character in the scene then either one of the casting assistant or another actor is called to say the other lines. Most of the time the other dialogues are off-camera but sometimes they are used in the scene.

AUDITION TAPE: Robert Downey Jr. audition for Iron Man

TIP: As an actor look for audition videos of the characters that have done very well in films and you will see what was brought to the table right from the beginning or the improvement that came in the shoot.

You can also look for practice scripts to work on in your free time.

For answers to the previous question go back to
Casting Brief Q11: Reference of role

Read on for the next question
Question 13: Any specific props required for the audition?

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

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Casting Brief Q9: Individual Character Brief

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

Question 9: Individual Character Brief

This is a brief given by the director to the casting director about what they are looking for in each individual character. It is the director's perception of what they want the character to look like or act in a certain manner which would help to enhance the character, this is what the casting director needs to pass on or get out of the actor at the audition.

Sometimes a character brief is written down so that it can be shared with the actor so that they can prepare themselves for the role. These are usually one-page briefs and are not to be followed literately by the actors but the essence of the character is usually summed up in this brief. The briefing of characters in this manner is mostly done in feature films more than advertising. The reason for that is not always the entire set of people being cast will get to read the entire script and in order to understand the character, this description is important. Usually first round of auditions happens only on the basis of one scene that has been given and to be fair to the actor it is important for the actor to know what the role includes.

The brief which like I said is a one-page description, which in short says everything about the character like RAHUL (name of character) who is 28 yrs old, decent looking, coming from a lower-middle-class, has had to struggle for everything in life, right from education to even making friends, he is currently going through a tough time, having lost his job and his girlfriend had dumped him for a richer guy, he now stands at the bus stop where he has just seen a robber hide a bag full of money on the top of the roof, what does Rahul do.. 
The scene given to the actor at the audition is the scene where Rahul is standing at the bus stop. This example shows that the actor has been giving just enough to know how to play the part without revealing too much of the plot of the script. Some times the director's brief could be specifics like maybe the character should try a lisp while talking, or a foreign accent or something like a small limp while walking or even as simple as trying the audition with and without specs.

It is not necessary to have a detailed brief for each of the characters to be cast but helps in giving the casting director some direction to what the director is looking for. It is therefore important for the casting director to have read the entire script and know the story well, cause actors will have a few more questions about the character after reading the brief, of course, the casting director has to be careful while reveling information not to let out too much of the plot of the movie.

There are times when no brief is given as the director wants to see what the actor brings to the table, some of the most memorable characters we see on film are things that the actor would have brought to the audition sometimes even unknowingly.




For the answer to the previous question see
Casting Brief Q8: Competitive Brands

Read on for the next question
Question 10: Any reference to any character/actor?

For the entire list of casting questions go back to

Casting Brief

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“This isn’t personal, Kay. This is business”, Michael Corleone - The Godfather , (1972)

Wanna be a..... Director

Want to be part of the glamour but don’t know what to do.? Can’t make up your mind if you want to be a Director or a Cinematographer or a Music Director... read on as I give you an insight which no film school will ever tell you. This blog is on if you Wanna be Director.  Most of this is based on my experience in India and figures would vary as time passes.

POST: Director

JOB PROFILE:

A Director is the leader of the project mainly in terms of vision and direction. He is responsible for decision making and it’s his style and effort that shows in the end. He is responsible for the acting, style of shoot, the technical direction, etc. The director is the one who takes it from the story to the screen, he also participates in choosing the team, at least that of the key crew,(mainly the head of the departments) also the cast gets finalised only after the director’s approval. He has meetings with the head of almost all departments before the film goes into production and also has rehearsals with the actors sometimes (if time is available) He uses scripts, storyboards, references when meeting with these departments to show and explain to the team what he feels the film should look and feel like.

Lots of time the director becomes or feels like an answering machine. A yes or no, eg, when costumes come back after the briefing with references then it’s the director who says yes or no to colours, material, and so on and so forth. The same goes for all other departments. The director has also to work with the post team, influencing the grade of the film, with the editor to check for cuts and the flow of the story, etc.

EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

Anyone with a vision can become a director, there are people who become directors based on experience, some on qualification, and some just by the influence they bring. 

Experience can be gained by working closely with good and bad directors, working with different people show you different styles of working, also different production houses also function differently, so it helps in choosing a way that suits your style and also one that is right for production. 

For people who are new to the industry and want to be part of it, there are various courses that one could take up to learn the art. These days one can graduate with a BMM degree – Bachelors in Mass Media, this is a 3-year course and teaches you the basics of all media-related industries including journalism, market research. Although this course does not prepare you for direction, it gives you an overall about media. There are also government-run institutes like the F.T.I.I. - http://www.ftiindia.com/ and private ones that offer specialized and general courses for those who have already done their graduation. One could also choose from courses abroad like 

NYFA

IAFT 

You could also check these site’s out which has a list of schools from across the world

About film schools

The way to choose the best schools to learn is to check the course duration, the syllabus, topics covered, the teachers, their real-life experience with film making, what are the practical’s the course offers, the library, and of course the fees, if one is leaving their country then place to stay and those expenses of upkeep also have to be kept in mind while choosing what’s best for you.  

If you trying to get through this industry then you better hope that you come from a family with a lot of influence in the industry or are just plain rich to finance your ventures.

TIMINGS:

Depending on experience and how quickly he can make decisions the time spent by directors at work may vary. During the shooting phase, the director almost always is there from the start to the end. (except during pre-light) the time and effort of Pre and post vary. 

Documentary directors = since a lot of research goes into documentary’s lots of time the research time is the same as shoot as usually the documentaries are made up of findings and interviews which are usually shot at the first attempt. In other words, the amount of time spent would be equal to the passion for the subject.  

Daily soap / Serials = minimum time few hours a day ranging from 2-6 hours during the planning days, and during shoot depending on the availability of actors and locations the time on the shoot, days are the normal one and half shift, to even 2 shifts sometimes.  

News (non-news episodes) / MTV kind of serials (where the director and producer are the same people) = usually full days ranging from 8 – 12 hours or even more, most f the times these are hired employees so office timings would apply,  the shoot timings are generally ranging from one shift to 2 shifts.

Promos and Advertising = depending on the team provided and the quickness at which the director takes decisions’ time spent could be ranging from 8 – 12 hours to sometimes even 20 hours if things don’t fall in place in pre (especially just before PPM’s and shoot days). During shoot which usually lasts 2- 4 days generally, it’s a similar one and half to 2 shifts.

Features = depending on the time spent in Pre-production the director would give that much of time per day. Since pre in feature films usually take months the director usually doesn’t need to kill himself at the office every day, time spent could be ranging from 2-4 hours on an average to 6-8 hours on some days. Most of these are time spent in meetings. The shoot lasts sometimes for months, and mostly its the standard one and half shift per day.

PROFITABILITY:

Documentary Directors – depending on if it is commissioned or if it is being done out of passion one could make nothing to a few thousand. Documentaries are rarely very profitable monetarily at least. The commissioned ones, at least some of them do make a decent amount.

Daily soap / Serials – directors here get paid per episode usually, though some do get monthly salaries. Money ranges from 10,000 Rs per episode to 25,000 Rs per episode could go up to 80k approximately which is mostly for weeklies. So on an average, it could range between 40k – 80K for beginners to 80K – 4lacks per month as experience increases.

News / MTV kind of serials – here the amount of money the director makes is in the hands of the director himself, especially if he is a freelancer and not on the payroll. What generally happens is a budget is given to the director and the amount he saves is up to the way he plays and makes deals with the crew they are hiring.

Promos and Advertising – the money made here depends on the deal made with the producer, the two ways are the director chargers a fee for the project (usually when the director is a freelancer or a beginner) or a percentage of the profit. In the first case a director could make 1 to 2 lacks per day of the shoot or a higher deal as agreed between him and the producers. Sometimes the deal also works in percentages of the total budget, 2% - 15% of the figure usually.  As far as percentages go a beginner could make anywhere between 10% - 15% and this could go up to 60% - 80% as experience and demand go up.  

Features – experience plays a huge role in the figure that a director makes. A first time director could make 5- 9 lacks for the film and as experience and hits come his way the figures could go up and there is no end figure that one could say he could make.

THE TEAM:

The director is the captain of the ship and all are the crew that gets hired to work for him. The immediate people who report to him are the direction team which is made up of DA’s and AD’s. The DA – Director’s Assistant sometimes also doubles up as an assistant director, and the number of assistants hired depends on the budget so ranging from 2 – even 7 and 8. The rest of the crew are Production and their team, line prouder and his local team, DOP and his team, camera, lights, grips, gaffer, special equipment like a crane or a Milo, costume’s, hair and make, stunts team, VFX team, transport, caterers, food stylists, and the list goes on and on. The hiring of these is obviously based on the requirement.

So now that you know what it is about being a director you can decide if you want to be one or specialize in some other department. Remember a director like any sportsperson is only as good as his last film, so if you have the talent for it I would say go for it and all the best.

For those who have no time to go to a film school or have already started working check out No Film School for more tips and learning

Auggieism:- What do you call a loyal Auggie... . 

Ans:- Doggie..

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"Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get." - Forrest Gump

SCREENPLAY

So what’s the difference between a script and a screenplay? Well actually not much, a screenplay could be your script but a script is not necessarily your screenplay. A script can be the written text for a play or radio or the basic start (rough draft) for the film. Screenplay on the other hand implies a greater emphasis on the visual aspects of film-making. After you have written your story its time you put it in screenplay format, which also may be called shooting script (at a later stage), if you have the software for it then it's easier as it imports some formats like word directly and converts it into the screenplay format, but if you don’t then here is some rules that make it the standard format, make sure your story is almost locked for henceforward changes can only lead to confusion especially if not followed properly.

BASIC FORMATTING

The font to be used is Courier in 12 point size. The way it's finally structured is usually one page equals one minute of screen time, which means if your screenplay goes up to 120 pages then your film would be 2 hours long. Knowing how long your film is going to be in advance helps in budgeting and also determining if you want a film that is so long or short. There are different things that constitute the screenplay’s layout. It is mainly broken up into two parts action and dialogues. Also part of it is scenes headings, transitions, parentheticals, etc.

Here is an example of a screenplay

 

SCENE AND PAGE NUMBERING

Now as we see from this example, your screenplay will have page numbers on the top and scenes are assigned numbers alongside the scene headers, a new number is assigned every time there is a new scene which usually when there is a location change or the day has changed. The scene numbers provide a convenient way for the various production departments to reference individual scenes. The page numbers on the top help when there are revisions and the production can replace you with the revised pages, for example pages 5, 7, 12, and 35. So the whole script has not to be reprinted as a new draft. These page numbers have to be locked after the first draft as that becomes the reference point for all departments. If the length of the new pages are longer then it moves into 35A, 35B, or if the scene is deleted and there is no other scene on that page then a fresh page of 35 with OMITTED is given so as to avoid confusion of a missing page at a later stage, the reason for also submitting only these revised pages is to avoid the different departments to rewrite all the handwritten notes all over again in the new draft.

Revision pages are distributed on colored paper, a different color for each set of revisions, with each changed line marked by an asterisk in the right margin of the page. The progression of colors varies from one production house to the next, a standard sequence would be: white, blue, pink, yellow, green, gold, salmon, cherry, white (this time is known as "double white"), and back to blue ("double blue"). Usually, before the start of the filming process, a final draft is given out with all scenes and pages renumbered. The other way to also do it especially if the coloured paper is not easily available is to keep an index at the end of the script and a note made each time the pages go through revision. 

Example

PAGE	DRAFT NO
5	2
7	2
12	3
35	3

It is best that scene and page numbers are maintained throughout because too many changes could lead to some departments missing out or overlooking some of the changes. When a numbered scene is split across pages, (CONTINUED) appears at the bottom of the prior page, and CONTINUED: appears at the top of the subsequent page.

Each new scene is numbered differently so that any part of the script can be referred to by their scene numbers, scenes which are broken up into an edit pattern so that it moves back and forth from locations continue to have the same scene number, like a phone conversation that cuts back and forth to 2 different people at different locations but is still the same scene, for shooting purposes these are sometimes numbered as 7a, 7b, 7c or 7.1, 7.2, 7.3 this usually depends on what is comfortable with the production house and assistant directors.

SCENE TITLES

Scene titles also known as slugs tells the reader that the story has changed in location or time. It tells the reader where and when the action appears and the line comprises three parts:

INT. or EXT. - is the scene an interior or exterior scene?

LOCATION - where does the action take place?

DAY or NIGHT - what is the time of day?

EXAMPLES

• 11. EXT. MUMBAI MONTAGE – DAY
• 12. INT. SHARMAS VILLA – NIGHT

ACTION AND DIALOGUES

Action is the part which usually follows the scene title, it is usually written in the present tense. This part tells the reader what is happening in the scene, at times it also includes camera movements, lighting pattern, or costume description, etc, The dialogue are the lines the characters speak. The name of the character is written in all caps followed by the dialogue

EXAMPLE

SHARMA

Mumbai logo ne aaj tak mumbai ko

kya diya..?? meine ye sab diya hai

Mumbai ko. Ye sab mera hai..

When the dialogue is split across more than one page then (MORE) or (CONT'D) appears below the portion of dialogue on the first page, the remaining dialogue is headed by the character's name, which is extended by cont’d e.g. SHARMA (CONT'D). Sometimes the character speaks continuously with action lines splitting the dialogues, for such situations parentheticals can be used in the subsequent speeches. Parentheticals are positioned the same as standard ones, below the character's name and indented from the dialogue. Some writers use (CONT'D) beside the character's name for dialogues that are split between action (the same as for dialogue split across pages). Many writers choose not to indicate consecutive dialogue at all.

There is lot more to know but with this much of knowledge one can easily write your first screenplay. So now that your screenplay is ready just remember one thing, if your story aint’ good, your wasting time on the screenplay’s technicalities is useless.

Auggieism:- What to you say when Auggie is singing his heart out.....

Ans:- crockie..

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THE SCRIPT

“What if I told you that instead of gettin` older, I was gettin` younger than everybody else?” – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

THE BIRTH OF THE STORY

THE FEATURE

Let’s start where this all begins, from an idea, a thought, a dream, a nightmare, a book, or just plain inspired by a movie. So wherever this seed is planted it has to be put down and watered and taken care of so that it grows into the big tree that bears fruits. If you are planning to write for a feature there are 3 important things to the story,

1. The Beginning

2. The Middle.

3. The End

The Beginning is the portion wherein you introduce your characters and the plot. One should remember never to overspend time on establishing the characters or the plot as audiences will tend to get bored quickly. There are also options of starting from the end or the middle and then going into flashback mode and moving forward.

The Middle is where the meat of the film is, this is part which takes the plot up to the heights of the film where it’s supposed to be, the climax, all linkages and setups done earlier in the film come together here.

The End is the conclusion of the movie, The Hero wins or if it’s a sad ending they die, then there are also ends where you leave the seed for further stories. Whatever the case the end is the conclusion of the plot that was set up at the beginning.

Whatever you write, the key to a good end product starts with a good script, twists and turns are key to keep the audience gripped and a twist every 15 mins. of screen time helps just to do that.

Before you get into technical aspects of writing always remember to put down your story in short, then identify the key scenes and moments, and only after that go forward to writing it into a structured format which will help in getting a good screenplay out of it. The key questions one should ask while writing is what makes this story worthy of cinema? Is the plot coming through? Or is it getting hidden in the treatment of the film, who are the characters? Where have they come from? etc

Writing the story in the standard format helps make your work look presentable and professional. There are some technical aspects to it, you can use paper and pen, typewriter or a computer, but there is a format to be kept in mind that will help in the production of the film at a later stage. Some of professional software’s used are Movie Magic screenwriter, Final Draft and many more, you can buy these online but remember to try their trial versions and see if you are comfortable with it before spending your life savings on it, also keep in mind if the software is compatible to others (producer, director etc) which will come in handy during the production stage of the film where the software’s like EP scheduling, and other budgeting will be used. Do a comparison of the software’s that you choose to see what benefits they can give you. What you should also do is check out scripts, screenplays of already released films to get an idea before going about your work.

THE COMMERCIAL WORK

In commercials you don’t have too much of time or rather seconds to build up plots and characters, therefore costumes, locations, makeup etc play a key role in helping you get there faster. The key to writing a good commercial is remembering that the product is the hero and has to stand out in the end. It should make the audience watching want to go out and buy the product.

Doing things differently or sometimes doing just a plain and simple thought can bring about a good liking to the audience. The target audience has to be kept in mind before writing a commercial, also sometimes it has to be part of a bigger campaign and has to fit into the larger scheme of things. The writer also has to keep in mind music and visual effects that can be achieved for raising the standards for the product. At the end of the day if the message is clear then surely the film should work.

TV SERIALS

In tv there are different styles of writing, episodes are what one normally writes for, the story is broken up into seasons, the plan for the entire season is first drawn up and then detailed episodes are written, if it’s a continuous story the writer has to keep the interest going through the episode and yet not lose the overall scheme of things, the style of writing be it comedy or drama, etc is very important in keeping the audience attention.

Then there are also single-story episodes where the characters stay the same but the story beings and ends within the episode. Whatever the kind of serial that one writes for Character build-ups play a key factor for audiences to want to come back and watch more of the serial. Also growth of characters over a long-running series should be definitely kept in mind, especially with kids as they tend to grow a lot faster and begin to look different within a short span of time.

In conclusion, what you write is yours and don’t forget to register your script before you share it with others, getting a professional opinion is a must but make sure you are not the inspiration for someone else.

So whatever you do if you use a software or not just remember that it’s the story that will make it a better film and not the software. So would like to end on a note “Go ahead and sleep, for its in dreams that our Movies come to life.

Auggieism:- What to you call when Auggie is in a very sleepy mood.....

Ans:- Groggie..

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