The casting for the party

As I spoke to my teacher and mother about my idea for the film introduction, in which the scene would take place in a party, she recommended me three things:

• Give all actors and the space a unique style according to the time and place, which would be Venezuela 1982.
• For the production, there must be 10 couples in order for the scene to look as party like, therefore 20 people is needed.
• During the filming, they must dance to the song that would appear in the scene in order for the style of dances to match with the music from the scene.
• The characters can speak in Spanish, and English subtitles must be putted, not for the lyrics of the song but just dialogue between characters.
• There can be the use of cursing but I should not overuse it and acknowledge that it might be offensiveness.
• The language should be adapted also to the time and place in order to be correct.
• The dialogue should imply reasons for Juan's attitudes without been to explicit, but rather implying that Juan is not usually so down.
• And special effects such as the sweat from the actors in the dance scene, should be added.

All these details would lead the acting and story to be more comprehensible and believable in 2 min. 

At first, and still kind of is, the idea of filming with a large group of people is kind of overwhelming since I am the director of the project I will have to direct and ask for many times to re shoot scenes, and since most people I contacted, which are my friends, do not mostly like acting, I acknowledge that they may irritate after a while, but still I well thought and chose who are the people I want to be acting on my film intro; as I said on the last post, I already chose who are the protagonists, Juan and Sofia; interpreting the roles of Juana and Ana Sofia :) all with the intention to keep the actors comfortable even in the language since both have as native language, Spanish; although, for the protagonist, Juan will have to interpret a Venezuelan character when he is truly Colombian, or this might change as well.

In addition, for the people I have chosen to be part of my project as actors, I have chosen them according to these standards:

• Looks: Colored skin, dark hair (Hispanic physique).
• Race: Hispanic for the looks and language since all dialogues will be in Spanish.
• Skills: Dance salsa, or be able to be on the beat.
• Attitude: Respectful and be able to follow directions ( even though I even asked friends that I had a long time ago without speaking to, I consider people that i knew I could count on since they would respect the process of production in order to prevent what has already happened in past projects in which people I have asked to participate as actors, have tried to take over how the project will be, which is unacceptable and mostly on this one, also everything must follow the plan I intent for the introduction, this may sound as too closed minded, but I want this production to be done with purpose).

I acknowledge that the people I have asked to act on the film, are not actors nor professionals, they are close or friends that I have, therefore, I acknowledge that I have to be patient during the process and also offer them a comfortable place during the filming since many of them were anxious as they knew they were about to be filmed and possibly shown in front of my class. However, I convinced them by assigning them roles according to their capabilities and willingness. Within the party, I have created characters which are whether elemental to the development of the story or elemental to the environment of the party. in the party, aspects such as couples dancing really close, groups of girlfriends, boys and girls who don't like dancing because they do not know how to, etc...will be included since it is what mostly happens in a party, and mostly when it comes to a Latino party since one gets to see drastically who knows how to dance and who does not, so this may be a pretty intimidating situation for many people.

The actors (my friends) whom I have asked to participate on my film introduction and their assigned roles are:

1. Juan D (Protagonist, Juan)
2. Sofia H (Crush, Ana Sofia)\
3. Luis (Juan's Friend #1, Willie)
4. Fabiola (Willie's Girlfriend, Girl #2)
5. Javier (Main Dancer)
6. Miguel (Dancer #1)
7. Isabella (Girl f #1)
8. Alex (Girl f #2)
9. Camila (Girl f #3)
10. Victoria (Couple #1)
11. Nicolas (Couple #1)
12. Sofia F (Couple #2)
13. Juan Esteban (Couple #2)
14. Andres (Boy #1)
15. Sebastian (Boy #2)
16. Aitor (Boy #3)
17. Amy (Back #3)
18. Esteban (Boy #4)
19. Elianne ( Back #1)
20. Olga (Back #2)
21. AND I WILL ALSO ACT (If I can or is necessary) (Main dancer with  3. Javier)  

• (Most numbers are also marked within the story board if there is any acting, dialogue or appearance required)

I still need to assign who is going to be Juan's Friend #2 whom I choosing to whether play it Andres or Aitor, it all depend on their availability, if they want to and how they match with the protagonist. I asked Juan D, who is going to be the protagonist to make his best friends act as his best friends but in the film, so there could not be such thing needed to be acted but it rather comes natural and more comfortable, I will see how i am going to arrange such character, and how we are going to create friend chemistry between the ones I end up assigning. This chemistry between the characters is elemental during the casting decisions since this will affect how the audience will view them, whether they truly match as friends, and how natural this comes. For the film Factor X, which its story is of a group of friend who make an iconic party, the director decided to send the casted actors for the roles of the three best friends, and send them into a trip so they could become actual friends; I love this idea and necessity of chemistry between the actors, however we'll see how the cast for the friends ends up since for the crush and protagonist relationship, they already know each other and are even friends, also there is no necessity of such "chemistry"  since the purpose is to convey how uninterested Ana Sofia is with Juan. I almost forget, I will ask Juan to sleep really late the night before so he has bags under his eyes and it would give him the look of not feeling good and been emotionally tired; and lastly for the casting, i have chosen as major characters people who are outstanding on how they dance, or match to a character, and if they are assigned as couple is because they will actually dance with their actual partner, therefore, they may feel comfortable and it is a realistic affectionate interaction. 

 Consequently,  this Saturday at 8:00 pm the filming will be done and I have to provide a nice environment for my cast; I need to set up the environment for the living room such as which lights I will end up using, and also which are the outfits that I will ask the actors to strive for, which will be later accommodated as they arrive to the production. I can't wait! it is overwhelming but I think it will be a pretty memorable experience in which lots will be learned and it will be worth it! :)