Today I sat as the director on the infamous casting couch, admiring the various talent trying out for a role in our film! Did it tinge me with arrogance? Quite the opposite, I sat rooting for each person that walked through the door to be the stunning answer to one of our roles. And even if I had strutted off that couch with a haughty swagger, reality set in quite rapidly as I quickly became the guy standing in the rain, fretting at my inabilty to open a plastic bag to pick up dog pooh while two labs strain their leashes in opposite directions. Ironically I am missing tonight’s acting class audition training because we were auditioning people for PELOTON.
One of the best lessons for any actor is probably to sit on the casting side of the camera. We actors tend to get very nervous before auditions: Am I even right for the part? Did I forget to zip my fly? Do they want someone taller? With darker eyes? Or walking out upset that I stressed the words to be instead of not to be, dammit! Eventually you get rejected enough times that you finally learn it is just a process and it requires training and should not be taken personally. It’s truly an existential disaster in the making: actors acting a part, but they don’t know what the director/producers want and are being judged, measured and compared by an audition room that is creating a cast around characters that do not yet exist and have not been cast yet either. The truth is that from the casting side, everyone, from the casting agent whose job it is to get the actors, to the producers, directors, everyone wants the right person to walk in the door and fill a role, solve what is otherwise a problem, i.e. we need a cast, please, please, please! My needing to be walked at midnight labradors for a cast!
The actual process involves this preliminary week when talent agencies send in who they think is right for the roles we have sent them. Then we watch each actor come in… and usually as they walk in the door, you can tell who is trained well, who is nervous, etc… and then someone surprises you, or you like a look, but for a different part. After the preliminary rounds, all the actors who we want to see for specific parts are given a “call back.” This time they come in and more of the production team is present to watch the characters, compare actors next to each other and hopefully find an answer to our casting woes. If not, we keep looking for actors.
Being the writer in the audition room is a mildly schizophrenic place to be: I want to enjoy the performances but when the lines don’t work or the scene is flat I want to strangle the writer (oops, that’s me). Did have lots of good ideas on revisions today. It’s really exciting and I am looking forward to round two tomorrow. We saw a few really great people today and I can already tell the difficult part will eventually be deciding between several people all of whom will bring a different look, feel and performance to the film. (And kudos to the actors from my acting class, they all kicked ass).
On a not so exciting note, I am flailing on the revision of PELOTON. The damn opening sequence is not yet what I want it to be… compelling, exciting, something that makes any viewer turn off their phone and settle deeper into their chair for the rest of the ride. The type of opening where lovers push each other’s hands away because the film grabs them more delightedly, more…no, never mind…. just believe me, it’s not happening.
So I started thinking of my favorite opening scenes, scenes that made me lose track of anything else and glue my attention firmly to the screen experience at hand. Now, every single film list is merely an opinion, and these are some of mine. Other great one’s exist and I am sure I am forgetting certain ones. But for now, today, at this moment, these are some film openings that grab your lapels with kung-fu like grips and say WATCH THIS! (this list does not correlate with my favorite films)
TOUCH OF EVIL — OK, even though the list is not in a numerical order, this mind blowing scene, which must have given Hitchcock a hard-on (or perhaps a whiff of jealousy?), ranks in top 1, 2 or 3. Hitchcock went on to say that if a cafe scene is boring, put a bomb under the table (or something like that)… and how can you not be on the edge of your seat for this famous three minute tracking shot:
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER — HOLY CRAP! And add Bono’s voice…. how can you turn away from the rest of this incredible film based around true events (one of the great tear jerking endings as well)
APOCALYPSE NOW — Just watch that ceiling fan dissolve. One of the best any day:
ROCKY — It’s on the list tonight, maybe not next week, but tonight, just the opening title as ROCKY scrolls across with the most inspiring, soul stoking, trumpet fanfares ever into the compassionate portrait of Jesus in a smoke filled, late night, skid row boxing arena where Rocky battles a head butting thug in front of the word “Resurrection.” SOOO GOOOOOD. ”You’re a bum!” right after he bums a half smoked cigarette. Gorgeous.
CHARIOTS OF FIRE — there’s no explosion, but those last words in the ceremony nostalgically transporting us onto a beach so many decades before gets me every time:
THE RIGHT STUFF — The whole movie, just watch the whole goddamn movie. It’s that good. (or at least through Yeager hitting Mach 1)
THE SPY WHO LOVED ME — you never forget your first time… yes, this was my first Bond film in a theater and this scene was my “You had me at parachuting off the cliff with the union jack,” moment, the music, etc. (Sean Connery still rules as Bond)
HURT LOCKER — like I said, this was a list of opening scenes that just grabbed you… at this point I stopped eating my take out food as the sound, lighting, edits all demanded my attention. Fantastic.
GALLIPOLI — Well, can’t find it on youtube, so here’s the ending, which if you see the opening, breaks your heart all the more so…. stunning film. (yes, that’s mel gibson running, circa 1980)
HENRY V — Give Shakespeare credit, his words, words, words are incredible from both sides of the stage, but give Branagh credit for this gripping prologue that Sir Derek Jacoby uses to show off his Shakespeare training:
And also making the list tonight, but you can watch the whole movie because I’m tired of searching youtube:
Cinema Paradiso – if only because it is so perfect when you come to the end of the movie and make sense of it all… aaahh.
Inglorious Basterds — Tarantino proves he can take simple table dialogue between two men and build a tension you can cut with playdough.
BRAVEHEART — The whole childhood scene that pays off when he displays the thistle years later…. too good.
And on that note, WALK THE LINE, the thumping sound of prisoner’s boots tapping out the rhythm of the song, and Cash/Phoenix, touching the saw tooth, the edge that takes him back to childhood and all the way back to that moment… again, word of the night, brilliant.
OK, that ends my diatribe. I’m inspired myself and heading back into the world of revisions,
Ever yours, ever mine (what film and how did it open?????)
Giovanni
