Casting is the most important and strange component of film pre-production. We’re holding auditions right now for ROWS (rowsmovie.com). The first two weeks we set up auditions at Harford Community College (in the coming weeks we’ll be at venues more convenient to Baltimore and DC). We chose HCC because it is close to the filming locations, and it is really a great campus with a cool studio facility at the school of Visual Performing & Applied Arts.

Also, the VPAA people are fantastic. Dean Paul Labe and his colleagues Wayne Hepler, Dan Rappazzo, and Ben Fisler gave us great support with a minimum of red tape. Administrative Specialists Rose Sieracki and Kim Gehring took good care of us, too.

You see many interesting people during auditions. Often they are not “right” for the part, but just as often it makes you want to write a part for them. Sometimes your script-based pre-conceived notions are altered substantially in the process. It always feels kind of awkward (for me) that ultimately, almost all must be rejected. My idea for a short film (next year?) is to see a panel of actors auditioning filmmakers. What if Hollywood worked that way?

Inevitably, the issue of associating your micro-budget feature with SAG comes up. Since SAG created the new Ultra Low Budget Agreement, a special indie-friendly union contract, going with SAG talent is much easier than in the old days of 2001. Especially cool is that you can mix SAG and non-SAG cast in the same project. We’ve seen some fantastic actors, both union and non-union. I love actors. I could audition them for a year and be happy. But we are low-budget, and we can’t afford that kind of time. We’re just two months away from shooting. It’s kind of exciting, living on the edge.

David Warfield