Audition Day: Part Two -This is the Job
The second and last round of auditions is today.
The secret sauce to my auditions, at least for me and this size of the project, isn’t how much the person can act.
I’m looking for compatibility.
Compatibility in the character. Compatibility in communication. Weeding out the folks who automatically ‘have a problem’. You know the kinds: always late, can’t do this, can’t do that, had trouble doing this, had trouble doing that. You can act your ass off and be the next Marlon Brando, but if you can’t follow instructions and be somewhere on schedule, then you’re no good to me, or the project. This I learned from years as a manager and supervisor.
On set, I can get you to where you need to be with your emotions to perform. I can’t solve basic common sense.
That said, I need to reel back an earlier thought I said in a previous blog post about ‘needing to hit the three-pointer’. What I’m doing to get this film off the ground does not have to meet those lofty goals of immediate success. It would be nice, but it’s not critical. I won’t lose my home over it. I won’t be on the street if I don’t win big.
This film is another job. Maybe even considered a second job.
No different than the one I do on a day-to-day basis with the right success to get a bi-weekly paycheck. Interviewing them. Sorting them out and hiring the right fit to accomplish a short project. I can do this same thing to keep and maintain my day job. I can do that for this one.
And once this job is finished and wrapped, it will be time for the next one.
Then the next one.
This is what is called a career-managed expectation.
