GW: ACTOR MEETING AND RUN THROUGH

I met up with my actor for the part of modern day Ben Wright an old friend and colleague Brian Rolfe who was the head of performing arts at Suffolk New College.  Whilst thinking of the piece I always had Brian in mind as not only is the right age but has the right demeanor and look for the character that I am after. I had approached him and given him a skinny on the idea and his role a few weeks earlier and the meeting was to flesh out the details and clarify the project for him.

Before the meeting I did some prep so as to make sure that I had a good level of professionalism as Brian was giving up his time for free. I have not done all that much work with actors so the process was going to be a steep learning curve. So I considered and made notes on all of the following areas.

• A completed synopsis of the whole piece and specifically this element of it.
• A copy of the timeline of events so Brian could contextualise the piece.
• Polished the treatment for the whole idea and this piece and took a copy.
• Overview of the character of Ben Wright. Biography, character, temperament, motivations, background and backstory.
• Potential shoot dates.
• Potential locations, costumes etc.

I had a very productive meeting and the really positive thing was that Brian was able to get under the skin of the character almost instantly and understand his motivations, personality and character describing them to me exactly as I intended. Brian was happy to use the location of his outhouse he uses to work in at the bottom of the garden which with some set dressing will be exactly what I had in mind. We also discussed wardrobe and shoot dates were put in as was a date for a copy of the script (as of yet a work in progress).

 Things to consider moving forward.

• Check location will be OK for light, sound and space upon my return. Consider other locations.
• Pursue an idea for a second shoot. A Youtube manifesto from a disguised Ben.
• Reading around about working with actors to extend my knowledge base.
• More on getting naturalistic performances as this is of the utmost importance to this film.
• Get script completed and with Brian by Monday 13th August.
• Shoot dates put in for Weds 15th & Thurs 16th August.
• Start work on pre-production for the shoots. Storyboards, call sheet, etc.
• Source kit and crew for the shoot dates.
• Develp Mise-En_Scene. Prop[s costume etc needed for set dressing.