Morning kicked off with a session on Casting by Rob Spera (imdb details: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0818237/) whose opening advice was some of the best I have heard: 'Eyes may be the most important piece of casting.'
He talked through the issue that in the first 30 seconds of casting the decision is probably made the next 9 minutes and 30 seconds is generally a courtesy to the actors - however keep your eyes and ears open as you can be surprised.
He went through his key atributes when casting:
Head - has the actor working from a pre though plan
Heart - is the actor feeling the part
Sexuality - is the actor using their physicality
Theatre - does the actor 'explode' and do everything physically and externally
Film - does the actor 'implode' ie draw us in through their eyes
Live Truthfully - react to the moment
Reality of Doing - feel natural in movement and action
Indicating - signposts and obvious gestures
Movie Star or TV - is their mystique or is everything obvious
Humour - can add humour and lightness to a scene
Takes Direction - able to listen and assimilate direction into a performance
During the class we had an actor come in, who would have been easy to dismiss as his looks weren't classical LA etc. But the performance, driven through the eyes was great.
The key to the above points was to allow a director to evaluate clearly why they liked or disliked an actor and thus articulate their preferred choice when a studio wants to just put in the pretty boy/girl. Sophie wasn't there for the lesson which was a shame.
In the afternoon all students sat down for a written safety test. Joe Dunn, who was in charge of the test said that we would only get an e mail if we failed. Next day I received an e mail. It said unless you have already received an e mail you have passed! I had not already received an e mail.
Coffee with Sophie and went through the story boards. No production meeting yet, she will organise one for Wednesday morning.
Evening watched a screening of 'The Cutting Edge - the magic of movie editing' Interesting film with conversations with Quentin Tarrantino, Anthonhy Minghella, Walter Murch etc
Nick took a photo of me in the lecture. Next to me is Stephen Leggitt one of the screenwriters.
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