Casting played a big part of our film, of course this is because without actors we didn't have a film to shoot. We found that this would be more challenging this term compared to last term as we needed actors. Realising that we didn't have enough time to hold auditions for people, we made a list of people we knew and contacted to ask if they were interested. My plan was to have back-ups in case people dropped out last minute so we got in touch with many people so we could put this in place. As we had experienced casting very recently for our Introduction to TV Studio course (CINE1049, 2017), we prepared for worst case scenarios.
The first draft of our script described our two lead characters with contrasting ages. Mattie was meant to be between the ages of 11 - 16 and Ellen was going to be older, between 25 - 35. In terms of casting, we found this very difficult. As producer as well, casting a child in our film would be a bit more difficult ethically speaking. Because of this, we initially cast Alex's sister as Mattie who is 15. This would have been easier for us as she is a family member of one of our team and Alex was able to ask her parents who permitted this. If she had been in our film, I would have asked her parents to fill out a consent form as she is under the age of 16. Unfortunately, she was not available on the day of filming so we decided as a team that we would cast someone else. In terms of casting Ellen, the age of the character made it harder for us to find an actor. Our group did not really know anyone who would be of this age and act. Because of the difficulties we came across casting Mattie and Ellen as these ages, we made a group decision to change their ages in the script as we knew people our age who were interested in the film. This made it easier for us to cast our characters and, in the end, helped us finalise a great cast. In terms of casting extras to be 'the infected' in our film, many of the people on our course were interested in helping us. They loved the idea of being made into a 'zombie' which worked to our favour.
I took it upon myself to contact all cast via email. I gathered all the emails of the cast from my group members and emailed them with all the details of the film. I included what was required of them on the day of the shoot, such as what to wear, what would be happening, and anything they needed to bring along. I made sure to ask any questions they had to make they feel more comfortable and so they were prepared for the filming day.
On the day of the shoot, one of our lead actors pulled out last minute. This was something that we hadn't prepared for. It happened on the morning of the shoot so we were stuck with only one lead when our script required two. Fortunately, the camera operator of our group was asked by the director to take her place and agreed. Although this was still an inconvenience, it was the best possible solution to our problem. Our director filmed the footage instead. Luckily we were able to resolve this quite quickly, but in the future I would make sure a plan is in place so we had a reserve actor on stand-by in case this happened again. I have learned from this that there must be plans in place for any and every worst case scenario.
Legal & Ethics Guideline
As mentioned earlier, we were going to cast pre-teen/teenager into our film. This would have to be covered ethically and legally by the parents signing consent forms. Also we would've had to guarantee that they did not miss school for this project. Because of this, we agreed that we would film on a weekend which worked for our other cast and crew as well. However, it turned out who we cast could not make it on the day we decided to film because of other commitments. Which ultimately lead to our decision to change the ages of the lead characters.
Also, GOV.UK mentions that supervision would be needed for the child on set, which for us wouldn't have been too much of a problem as we filmed at the parents house. But it was worth thinking about as we were filming in some woods as well, which would require supervision there.
At one point in our film, one of our actors is holding what appears to be a sharp object as protection from the infected person in her property. To make sure this was safe, we used a plastic prop so no one could get injured by this.
A risk assessment was filled out before filming so all potential injuries were assessed and evaluated.
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