Casting of actors

Now that the first draft of the script is done, we can now cast all the characters. Everyone in my group agreed beforehand that all of us would act. However, there are 5 characters in the film and only 4 members in our group. So, we have to find a way to resolve that. But, before we find another actor we decided to cast all of us first.

I was task with being the casting director. As I was also the script writer, I understand what traits I want in my character. So, instead of doing a normal casting session, I just picked the people in the group that fit the characters description for two reasons. One, we are not professional actors so it wouldn’t be productive to do it as it wouldn’t matter, and second it is easier to cast people who are already similar to their characters in important features.

Myself, Musa as 'mc': He is a man with few words, does not speak much but when push comes to shove reaches his boiling point and sets off. Although, I would not say I am a person who speaks very little, on the contrary many have said I talk a lot in fact. However, as I have mentioned in previous blog posts, this film taps into some struggles I go through. Moreover, what struggles the main character has went through. I believed I am the only one who can do this role justice as I will know how to behave and act based on the events that transpire. Furthermore, personally I know that my emotions can change in a very short span. You could say going from 0 to 100 which need this trait for the ‘mc’ as through out the film he speaks very little and towards the end reaches his boiling point and finally reacts to what’s happening.

Darren Bertie Fernandez as ‘friend’: I want this character to have a dry sarcastic tone, where it is hard to know when he is joking or not because his delivery is purposely flat. But this does not mean he can’t express emotion. I also want the character to have a deep monotone voice so that the flat delivery sounds better. The person, Darren, I felt fit all those boxes particularly with his deep voice and sarcasm.

Niranjana Dileep as ‘her’: as she is the only girl in our crew, and there is only one girl also in the film. Logically I decided it would be best if she played the role of ‘her’. This does not mean that between them their gender is their only similarity. While I was making the script, I envisioned her to play this character specifically. She is caring but also fair and knows her worth meaning she has dignity. She is soft spoken but also can be assertive and speak up.

Abbas Alichi as 'brother': there is not much unique characteristics I needed for the character. All I wanted was for him to be a male, similar characteristics to my character as their related, taller than me, and can convey that their annoyed by my presence. Okay, the last one was a joke to a certain degree, but Abbas had all those characteristics but the more important thing was to give him a small role as he told me he is a bit nervous in front of camera so I respected his thoughts and let him be a relatively small role in the film.

After all this, I decided that the place names in the script are going to be changed to the actors real names as making up would be just a waste of time as only the main characters name is refered in the opening scene. Plus, I dont think I fit the description to be named Joe or any other popular western regular name.

Now that I have fineshed the research, script and we have casted the characters. All, we have to do now is find the places to film, make the story board and shoot. However, we have mocks coming so we will start doing that in the winter break. So, this also means I won't be posting for some while. Will upload when I find time.