Casting with Emmanuelle

In the midst of real-life craziness, I'm meeting my casting gal Emmanuelle Anatolin at Rizzo's Cafe in Oakland. I've already sent her a CD of potentials, and we have a whole bunch more to view online. I trust her judgment and know she'll have some insight about working with the team we pick out. Our ideal scenario is to have 4 candidates for each role, and narrow down the key roles to 2 people for the follow up casting call. I'm hoping to cast the secondary and background actors all at once -- view the card and resume, shoot them at the casting on video, and then a quick decision: How do they interact and how do they look on film?

My key crew is a team I worked with years ago on Emmanuelle's film, Ode to Donuts. Shooting was fun and a great learning experience for all of us. She had a great cast and did a lot of work to get them to work together well. The film ended up 180 degrees from what we thought we shot, but it was a good creative effort for her, and yes, O's little part with the donuts is still in the final cut. That's sweet.

While producing and directing your own short film is a challenge on its own, it's clear I've taken on a giant gorilla while doing it with a full-time job, a home life in disarray, and now, I've just crashed my car and will have to spent a chunk of money I've planned for the film to get it repaired. These are the hurdles we overcome during the process, I suppose. I've decided to drink more tea to keep it calm. Chamomile is my new friend, if only because it slows the machine down...

Today is the Big Ass BBQ. For those in the know, it's a big day. And so I will drive down to Oakland, do some casting work, and then head into the great fiesta, drink in hand, hopefully to rock out a little and play some music with my posse, the amazing TWO STICKS. My DP and Art Director will be there as well. But no film talk allowed. It's a party, my friends.

Until next time...