R+P Post 27: Casting

When he had decided on the band members and their personalities, we had to cast them. We decided to go with our original plan to use all three of us as three of the band members, to ensure that our cast was committed to the project- if we had gotten someone outside the group, there is a chance they would have been less committed to the project and caused issues later down the line. However, we did need a fourth person, so we asked Tom Brown, a mutual friend of all of us, and someone who did Media at AS. Out of everyone we could have picked, he was the best choice, as he is a good actor who fits the role of Terence Kitchener really well, and we know he won't let us down because of our good relationship with him.

The process of casting involved seeing if we could fit the roles assigned to us- especially for the lead singer. To this end, we did a Screen Test to see how we all worked together, if Noa looked and sounded like she was singing the original artist's voice, if everyone could emulate the personality of their band character through their performance, and if we all fit our roles. By the end, we were happy with our casting decisions.

Our Screen Test video. While the performance isn't as refined as we hope the final product will be, something we will be working on with rehearsals and so on, we think that each of us have our roles down to a certain degree, with the correct gestures and facial expressions. Click to play.

Our final cast list is thus as follows:

Casey Tyler- Noa Craig

Noa is a confident performer who has performed in drama productions and similar in the past- she thus knows how to act and isn't camera shy, which is important for the lead singer and personality/face of the band, and is especially important for the happy-go-lucky personality of Casey Tyler- she has a fairly similar personality in real life, and we were able to partially tailor the role to her, but not to the detriment of our overall plans, i.e. had we decided on a different personality for Casey that we liked more but was different from Noa, we would have went with that, especially as Noa is an accomplished actress and would be up for the task. While the song we chose had a female singer, and thus Noa as the only female member of the group seemed like an obvious choice, we didn't want to pick her simply based on that- however, after testing her out in the role, we found she fits very well with the original artist's voice and the atmosphere of the song, as well as with the personality of Casey Tyler and the planned atmosphere of the music video.

Noa in her Casey Tyler band costume. Here she is posing as if for a dramatic promo shot. Click to enlarge.

Hugh Tyler- Jack Edmondson

Jack is a drama student and has been involved with many plays and even musicals in the past. He thus is no stranger to playing the part of a character or a music performer, and being a longtime friend of Noa he works well with her- which is important, as while Hugh likes to act cooler than Casey, he still has to have a good sibling relationship with her while performing, and match her enthusiasm. Jack is a naturally enthusiastic person, so again he fit very well. He actually has had experience playing a guitar in an indie pop music video before, through the Echosmith music video remake task, and thus he also already has experience in a similar role.

Jack in his Hugh Tyler band costume. In this picture, he is trying to capture the cool side of his character, which we can really bring out more when he is alone and we don't have an opportunity to show his relationship with Casey. Click to enlarge.

Guy Chapman- Emilio Francischelli

I was selected for the role of Guy Chapman- as my other two group members are more accomplished actors, it makes sense that they were given the two lead roles- and then out of the two remaining roles we decided on Guy, as I fit his personality, gestures, etc. better than that of Terence. I have had some experience being in a music video and in front of a camera before, for example in the Echosmith remake and other previous media projects, but I am a bit less confident than some of my peers, so the quieter role of Guy suits me very well- I can still act well enough to be convincing, but don't have to be the face of the band. However, I do like to mess around with my friends and am quite outgoing when I get comfortable, so as I build up confidence in the role I should also be able to tackle the mischievous side of Guy's character as well.

Me in my Guy Chapman band costume. Here I am trying to pose as if I am in a promo shoot, in order to build up my confidence and experience in playing the role of Guy in front of the camera. Click to enlarge.

Terence Kitchener- Tom Brown

As we had run out of group members to cast by the time we came to cast Terence, we thus had to cast outside of the group- however, this meant we could choose someone perfect for the role. We decided on Tom, both because of his good relationship with all of us, but also for his experience in being a media student up to AS level and in taking part in many drama productions, often alongside Jack. While we know him as a down-to-earth and friendly person, even when joking about with us and other friends he plays the role of the "straight man" very well- this, combined with his acting skills, means we think he will nail the role of the slightly smug and more serious personality of Terence Kitchener. Our friendship should cover the other side of his character, in which he interacts and has fun with the other band members.

Tom in his Terence Kitchener band costume. In this picture he is attempting to play up the more serious facial expressions associated with his role, and succeeding quite well. Click to enlarge.

Other

As part of the casting process, we also had to cast people as extras in the party scene. As we would be dealing with a large number of people, we decided to make a list for better organisation. This list consisted of people who we all thought might be suitable for the role of a person at a party, while still being reliable. We narrowed this list down to five people after seeing who was available on the days we were thinking about shooting the party shots on, and then worked with them from there in order to secure costume and some basic personality for their characters and so on. The final list consists of Ray Baker (a fellow media student,) Lily Mo Browne (a friend of ours,) Hugo Perrot-Barnaby (a friend of Noa and myself,) Caleb Wycoff-Smith (a friend of Noa,) and Luciano Francischelli (my brother.)

The preliminary list of possible extras. It is extensive, as we created it with the intention of cutting it down to a shortlist, and visible is some evidence of us eliminating people as options for reasons like availability. Click to enlarge.

A group photo showing all four of us, the band members, alongside all five of the extras in their costumes. We know each of these people personally, and not just as acquaintances but as friends and family, so despite the larger number of people to organise, we think we will be able to use our directing and organisational skills to get them to perform how we want them to, while they remain receptive and willing to help. Click to enlarge.