Allurement: Working with Actors

This module gave me a chance to work with actual actors rather than just people in Uni like the live project module. This was a learning experience and was also a little bit less stressful as they had worked on things before and knew how to act, basically!

Jo however was new to acting. Even though she was nervous during auditions, we cast her as she was great for the role and also has cool costumes that would suit the character. I took it slow with her and went through scene by scene and different emotions and how I wanted the scene to look. She learnt her script (the only actor to do this!) and was much more confident while shooting. When she fluffed up her lines, she would say and speak up if she wasn't happy (the other's did not. I like how Jo is a perfectionist.) On Facebook after auditions and casting, she asked me thorough questions about the character and was just really enthusiastic for the project. 

Samantha had worked on a few films before but mostly a radio show (which was a very similar character to Gartha!) so we had to work on toning down her voice and over-exaggeration. She knew of the script, but deviated a lot and walked in at different cues (not sure if this is the actor's job to watch, but also whoever is in charge of continuity). She also had a few props we could use and costume and was just overall patient and lovely to work with.

Nathan is a more qualified actor, working in multiple films and also studying performing arts at Uni. He is a good actor and he knows it. However, he wasn't very professional on set (leaving hats on when he knew he should have taken it off, sighing when we had to do a retake, reading through the script literally as we were filming the scene (which made him deviate a lot and was a nightmare to edit) etc.) But he did turn up on time and acted well. I gave him background and goals, etc. but he did not ask me if it was what I wanted, how he was doing, and just seemed to dismiss my comments. But he's a good actor and is reliable, and was fun to have on set.

Mia was great to work with. Occasionally she was a bit rowdy and complained about some of my direction, but she calmed down after a treat or two (or when given a lunch break). Bit of a diva but very huggable and interested in what was going on. She wanted more screen time but was terrible at continuity. I would like to work with her again.