Casting Brief

Why are you trying so hard to fit in when you are born to stand out? - Ian, What a Girl Wants (2003)


What goes on when a director brief's the casting director?
What are the questions that could get asked?

Here is a clue to what happens at the briefing session, directors (starting off), Assistant directors (D.A's or A.D's involved), to casting directors read on to find out what you should prepare for at the Casting Brief and actors as well should also know so that they are not wasting time doing auditions that are not suited to them. In the meanwhile actor's looking for work do check out Facebook links to pages that have Posted on Casting / Modeling Jobs.

The briefing to the casting director would happen only after all parties have read the script, screenplay, or storyboard. Everyone should know what they are getting into before this meeting or call. Notes should be made and breakdown lists have to be kept ready before this meeting. This prep before this meeting could be as short as a few minutes like in the case of advertising, to a no of days like in the case of feature films.

Once the prep is done the meeting is called for, both parties should have done their back work or there will be more of these meetings. These are some of the questions that should get asked at this meeting, these are not in any particular order

Question 1: Casting of how many characters are to be done?

Question 2: Age of each of the characters?

Question 3: Sex of the character? - Male or female or...

Question 4: Dates for the shoot and shortlist?

Question 5: Is there a budget individually or totally? 

Question 6: Who will take care of the requirements of the audition?

Question 7: Is there a contract to be made?

Question 8: Which competitive brands worked on by the actor are to be kept in mind?

Question 9: Individual character brief?

Question 10: Anything in the role, to be done, that might require a warning?

Question 11: Any reference to any character/actor?

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

Question 13: Any specific props required for the audition?

Question 14: Any specific costume/look required for the audition?

Question 15: Will there be a call back for actors?

There could be more questions asked basis on the answers that you get, but these questions should cover call the basics that need to be asked at the first briefing. 

Each of these questions has an explanation to them which will be posted in the following blogs, when posted these questions will get converted to links to each.

Auggieism:- What do you say when auggie is staring at a beauty? 

Ans:- Oggieling... 

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Careers in filmmaking - Post Production

"We wants it, we needs it. Must have the precious. They stole it from us. Sneaky little hobbitses. Wicked, tricksy, false!" - Gollum, Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. (2002)

Career Choice – Post Production

Pre-Production not your cup of tea, so here are some of the things you could do in post-production.

POST - PRODUCTION

Post Production Supervisor – Key link in coordinating the entire process from after shoot till the project ends. Does not need to know how to operate the various systems, but some amount of technical knowledge does help. It could be freelance or inhouse with either a production house or even a Posthouse.

Offline Editor – the person who cuts the rushes to a viewable sequence in accordance with the director’s vision. It could be freelance or associated with a post-production studio.

Assistant Offline Editor – Assists the editor, main job role would be digitising the rushes, sorting it, sound syncing, making subclips  etc. Usually a trainee who wants to become an editor.

Online Editor – works on high resolution systems, not so much for cutting the film but used for compositing, tittling, cleanups etc. mostly is associated with a studio very rarely do u find freelance online editors. 

Colourist – sets the colour tone to the film. Is always associated with a Post Production House.

Machine Room Technician –  works in the machine room of a studio, is responsible for connections from offline, online rooms to recorders, players, hard disks etc.

Booking Manager – the person who manages the booking to all the rooms present at the post house, job done by more than one person at bigger studios.

Studio Manager – handles all the client and editor related complaints or suggestions and making sure that work flows smoothly. Mainly like a P.R. role.

Visual effects supervisor  (Vfx) – Usually the head of the graphics department, or the person who is heading the project, could also be the expert on that particular job. Knows how to work the software mostly.

3D Graphic’s – person or a team of people who work on 3D graphic software's.

2D Grpahic’s – person or a team that works on 2D graphics, sometimes the person knows both 2D and 3D. 

Music Director – the person who controls the direction of the music on all levels, not necessarily the composer of the piece.

Composer – the person who could use both instruments and software's to compose a music track, background score.  

Arranger – has to make sure that every aspect of the music piece is well harmonized. Could work on an original or an existing piece of music. Sometimes the music director or the composer also plays this role.

Sound Engineer – records voices at dubs, lays tracks from the music director mixes it all down to a proper balance that is required.

Foley Artist - Creates sound effects that cant be captured during film making, sounds like footsteps, clothes rustling, door closing etc. its any sound that could be part of the scene.

Singer – Sings either the main voice or in a chorus.

Voice Over Artist (VO) – the person who dubs the voice either in place of the actor or the voice for the product window like in advertising. Short forms are MVO and FVO for males and females respectively.

Language Co-ordinator for VO – a person who co-ordinates and arranges for VO artists in different languages according to the requirement at the recording studios. Sometimes also arranges for a language supervisor.

Language Supervisor – Someone who supervises the language pronunciation, and also makes necessary to the translations if necessary. Sometimes the language scriptwriter also doubles up as the supervisor.

Of course, most of these titles have assistants to them. There are more jobs to post-production, like a Promo Producer in a Television network or Publicist in a feature film. Still can't decide what to do then maybe its journalism, advertising agency, channel, etc is where you need to be.

Auggieism:- What do you say when Auggie is overeating?

Ans:- Hoggie..

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