The Casting Call

Unlike usual productions, my casting call involves nothing more than an actual phone call.

"Hey, dude, wanna be in my movie?"

"Er... fuck it, why not?"

As Rodriguez once said, when you don't have a budget, base your film around things and people you have access to. So I've been calling all my friends that I know could act or had the look/personality that would suit the characters in the movie.

Technically I should've worked backwards, figuring out which locations I could easily shoot in and which friends of mine would be willing to act, but I'd been crying wolf a lot about making a movie and was worried some people might be cynical by now, so I just wrote the script. All I needed to know was whether or not Nazneen would be willing to be in it. No Nazneen, no movie. Once she's on, everything else would fall into place.

At least, that's what I hoped.

Surprisingly, a lot of the people I've been asking so far have been really up for it, and I've filled up most of the 18-25 age range roles. But there are still the parents to cast. One thing I don't want to do is cast people I don't know too well. But I don't know many people that could pass as parents, and the few that I do don't look like strict parents. I know them through the music scene and they look more like hippies. I asked one of the lady's in the office who looks the part but she says she's shy, wants some time to think about. Dammit.

One person I do know who'd fit the age range is Hassan Peter Brown, an Englishman who I reckon looks a bit like Bowie. When I was writing my pontianak script I had him in mind as the father figure because I thought it'd be cool to have a caucasian believing more in local myth, folklore and religion than his cynical son. I then started wondering whether he could work as Jo's father and worked out a backstory to the character:

Back in the day, when Jo's father married Jo's mother he converted to Islam purely to get married but didn't put much stock in it. They lived in London and Jo's father went on his merry way being a merry Englishman, not changing much, whilst Jo's mother always stressed the importance of teaching Jo about Malaysia and Islam. Jo's mother was also the one that got Jo into writing, always encouraging him.

When Jo was 15, tragedy struck. Jo's father was a bit tipsy behind the wheel whilst driving with Jo's mother and crashed the car. Jo's father survived, Jo's mother didn't. Guilt ridden, he moved to Malaysia, became a more practising Muslim and tried to instill the same teachings to Jo that Jo's mother did. However, since Jo had been studying in England all his life he let Jo stay on to continue his studies, but by hook or by crook Jo had to come back to his 'roots' by the time he finished his degree. He returned to a strict, devout Muslim father and a head full of angst and confusion.

Sounds like enough emotional drive. Before, Jo's parents only appeared once, and they didn't seem to different to Diane's parents. Now there's a bit more flavour in the pot. I sms-ed Hassan last night and he agreed, which means another cast member on board. I've just got Diane's parents to cast. Those ones have to be regular Malay parents.

In terms of location, however, Adrian still hasn't replied my e-mail. Eek. The third draft looks like it's gonna have the most changes. First draft was the idea. Second draft was the added layer. Third draft will be the actual, executable script. Then, confirm all the locations, have a few rehearsals, leave to England for a bit of Method-acting style research and we shoot in mid-June.

This pre-production crap is an annoying amount of hard work.