By Jane Deitch and Glenn Bexfield, Casting Directors (Bexfield Deitch Associates)

If you’re a producer desperately trying to make your film, more often than not you’re desperately stretching your miniscule budget to cover all creative bases. You’ll shave a bit off this, cut back a bit on that, reluctantly admit that maybe the helicopter shot is a tad on the ambitious side. Perhaps you say to yourself who can I shave from the production team? Unit PR? Can’t do that because no one will see my film… Surely you don’t need a casting director? Isn’t that something that you can handle yourself? Ring round a few agents, set up some casting sessions?

Most top film producers choose not to. For one simple reason: A good casting director is a key part of the team and offers unparalleled creative support to the director and practical, financial support to the producer. i.e. they save the Producer money!

But that’s not all: an experienced casting director offers a panoply of skills, and in this article, hopefully we can provide a little guidance on what these skills are, and how you can make best use of them!

1. Knowledge of actors

That’s our job – Spotlight is seared into our brains! We go to West End theatre, Regional theatre, Fringe theatre, Student theatre – trawling for talent. (In the same way we’ll now be adding One Fat Cigar as part of our armoury to view showreels and have knowledge of new talent – particularly on the international market.) It’s our area of expertise – employing a casting director gives you access to a huge store of knowledge, covering all areas of the media.

2. Imagination / Creativity

The best casting directors are able to think creatively, offer suggestions that may seem wild but can often give the film a real commercial boost.  A piece of surprise casting can work to make a piece stand out in the (very crowded) marketplace.

If brought on board early enough, a casting director can be an excellent sounding board for the director/writer during the development of the script. We read hundreds of scripts and can offer character suggestions which may make certain roles more appealing to a “star” name. Also, we can suggest economies of scale by the merging of certain roles, or by pointing out expensive  one-liners.

Sometimes we can also make you aware at this point if, in our opinion, a role may be non-castable (or at least so specific in its brief as to make the available choices extremely limited). This can avoid an expensive search later which may ultimately prove fruitless or result in a sub-standard performance.

3. Pragmatism

Amazingly, not everyone is gagging to work on your project! An awful lot of time is wasted by making unrealistic approaches. A good casting director will, at the right time, offer sage advice and draw upon previous experience to know when approaches will be in vain. That’s not to say that, on occasion, you won’t  snag a Hollywood star, but the casting director will facilitate this in the right and proper professional manner. When a script is sent out again and again and again to actors who are very unlikely to accept, the currency of the script is gradually diminished and instead of an exciting new project, it becomes the film that no-one will touch.

4. Contacts and Negotiation skills

Now, be honest! Do you really want to spend most of your days in pre-production setting up auditions, sorting out availabilities and negotiating deals with agents? Do you want to spend hours back and forth haggling about availability? fees? billing? trailers? travel? accommodation? back-end? dvd commentary? festival attendances? visas? Have you got the time to play hard-ball and be a diplomat all at once?

And be in no doubt, a casting director can save you money! We don’t have a one-off relationship with the agents just for your film – our relationships have been built up over years and are founded on mutual trust and respect. Because both parties want that to continue, we draw upon massive goodwill and co-operation and will deliver sound, fair deals beneficial to all. These relationships have the added advantage of an ongoing dialogue with the agents allowing us to know when certain “exciting” artists are looking for something that fits with your script.

Be aware, also, that agents would much rather deal with a casting director than directly with a producer and director. We can get much further in pursuing certain artists.

5. Judgement

Good casting directors have an instinct for performance. In casting sessions, a busy director, with his/her mind on a million things at once, can sometimes dismiss an auditionee after one reading because they didn’t give what the director wanted straight away. It’s our job to see beyond that and not let the potentially perfect candidates slip through the net.

We are also there as a sort of control mechanism. Good casting sets a piece apart, but bad casting can destroy it. Directors are loyal people and often like to work with the same actors again and again. This can work – but often it results in actors being shoe-horned into roles for which they are not right. Bad for the film – bad for the actor. The casting director should aim to steer the director away from such decisions.

6. Efficiency

Casting Directors take the strain of this whole process. Allow us to make suggestions for you to consider, allow us to do all the checking on the actors in which you’re interested, allow us to set up auditions, run casting sessions and introduce you to lots of talented actors, allow us to deal with the agents, negotiate the deals and to deliver a great cast.

Not to employ a casting director is a false economy – it really is a time-consuming and often tricky business to do it right. Having a casting professional in place strengthens the overall impression of a project in good shape, engenders confidence in the agents that this is a project of worth and facilitates an often fraught  process.

Next time: How the Casting Process works!

http://www.bexfielddeitch.co.uk

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