Audition scenes
When you’re auditioning actors for a role, the scenes as scripted are sometimes not especially useful.
For example, if most of a character’s scenes are with groups of people talking, the auditioning actor probably won’t to have enough lines to really make an impression. And in television, you may need to cast a part that isn’t especially big in its first episode, but becomes more important later.
Knowing this, casting directors will often try to cobble something together. But a smart writer should also volunteer to write special scenes just for auditions. Sometimes they’re cut-down and rearranged versions of scenes from the script, but it’s also an opportunity to just come up with something new. On movies and shows in which I’m involved with casting, I’ll generally give the casting director specially-prepared sides a few days before auditions begin.
In the Library, I have an additional audition scene from Go for Mannie, whose character didn’t talk much but was crucial to the first act.
And I just added three audition scenes from The Remnants:
Chas, Mia and Wallace auditions
And all the casting sides for the Alaska pilot.
One added bonus of writing new scenes for the audition is that you don’t get completely burned out on the real scenes. After you’ve heard fifty actors read the same ten lines, they become meaningless. You don’t want to be on set hearing them again.
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January 17th, 2009 at 7:53 pm
The Alaska casting side links all lead to “permission denied” errors.
January 17th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
Thanks. Fixed.
January 19th, 2009 at 2:46 pm
I can’t think of a really good comment to this (“Wow” is rather lame, especially since this is probably more like “Duh” for you) but I really appreciate this insight into the process. I had never thought about which scenes an actor would use for an audition (and how certain parts might not have much meat to work with from the actual script).
It occurs to me now, though… I’m assuming you mean this for the principal actors, and not just any extra with a line or two? And might it make sense to write a special scene that combines 1-3 main characters that interact a lot in the movie (instead of separate scenes for each part)?
January 19th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Hey John,
I agree that scripted scenes aren’t always the most useful in casting. I just had the pleasure (and triumph) of directing my first feature film, and not only did I write (I was the writer/director) a couple of scenes especially to cast actors, but I did some fairly intense improv work them, as well.
We had many child actors in the film, and I found that doing improv scenarios with the children worked very well to really understand the actors’ range and to explore the characters on a deeper level. Also, these improv scenes brought out some really powerful moments that could then be integrated into the final performances. It was a wonderful process, I learned so much from it.
Take care, Leena
January 20th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
@Kristan:
In fact, sometimes it’s the characters who only have a few lines which need special scenes. Otherwise, the actors’ audition might consist of two sentences, and you won’t get any sense of them.