I’ve alluded to it before, but to restate it like the philosophical preacher that I am… I whole-heartedly believe that a film is much more than what is written on the page of a script.  Whether it’s the depth of visual detail added by a production designer or in this case the richness of true character brought to life by the performance of an actor.

What I’m writing about is experiencing the complete cast read through of the script on Sunday March 11th.  More than a read through, it was a performance that took approximately 2 hours and 10 minutes.  It was just the first round of course with better performances to come, but even the first attempt by our talent brought the texture of performance to the story that I knew would change the vision it projects. 

We received positive feedback about the script and the interesting characters which our actors are excited to portray.  The character is never fully developed until it is performed, that is the contribution of our actors.  If it wasn’t so, actors would be nothing but autonomous robots and the visions of future media being produced with nothing but artificial performers wouldn’t scare us so much.  I look forward working with our actors to create genuinine emotion and response to the situations they face within the story. 

We begin the experience of voice over recording March 31/April 1st.  We will hold a second weekend of recording April 14th and 15th.

After weighting our various options we decided to build a temporary studio in a Member’s condo on the waterfront.  Yes its a bit unusual, but the condo is ultra quiet and spacious.  Our sound team went on a shopping spree this weekend, March 17th, at Goodwill, Home Depot and the Guitar Center.  We built a temporary sound booth for recording.

Jason Centrone in the padded cell we created for recording dialog.

Perhaps the hardest part of the project for me is to make that intimate connection with people that is needed to collaborate on telling a story. 

We gave Open casting a shot and were pleased with the results.  Open casting ran from 12noon until about 6PM on Saturday, February 24th.   We saw 14 candidates and rallied after the casting session at the nearby Chipolte restaurant to make our decisions. We offered parts to 21 actors/actresses.  

To try and make the personal connection, or at least make some progress toward that end, I met with cast members personally this weekend, March 3rd and 4th at Starbucks to discuss each of their roles and the facts for their characters from the backstory and the script.   It was a good chance to get to know more about the actors, what about the project caught their interest and what lies ahead in their futures.

We will hold an all hands social on Sunday March 11 from 1-5PM.  The purpose is to meet each other, have fun and perform characters against each other with a bit of direction.

By Leah Wilcox

Garden set.