so now that you have a concept, what about the actual casting?
with a set of casting concepts in place, a large amount of the work of team middleman has been focused on the task of finding actors perfect for the roles of the middleman, wendy, lacey, ida and noser: the characters who will comprise our regular series cast.
(and while casting has been the primary thrust of the endeavor, it is not the sole mission: concurrently, a line producer -- the person actually in charge of figuring out how much everything costs, how much of it we actually need, and how to get it there -- has been identified and hired and is busily working with the studio to make budgets, find locations and stages and find suitable candidates for all of our departments: camera, production design, visual effects, animatronic ape costumes, post production, etc. -- but more on this later)
but first, a word about casting directors, as fellow producer lee goldberg points out in his own blog, their job is not to merely put out a casting call, sort through the head shots that come in and then pick the prettiest of the lot. their work is a highly skilled discipline, they have to put their good taste and knowledge of the talent pool to work along with a deep understanding of the script and characters in to truly bring in actors who have a shot at toplining a series for a network: actors with either the proven track record, or the raw promise to carry a series on their shoulders.
and make no mistake -- finding actors capable of handling the demands of leading a series is one of the hardest tasks in town. david caruso may take a lot of ribbing for his idiosyncratic line delivery, but the force of his persona and personality carries one of the most successful shows in the world. the number of failed television series out there -- and failed series leads -- should serve as a clue to how specific the job truly is.
in my case, the task is made all the more interesting by having to cast a relationship as the star of the show: the series may be called “the middleman,” but it’s very much the story of two very different people -- wendy watson and the titular character -- coming together to fight evil. if the relationship between these two leads doesn’t work, the series doesn’t work.
thankfully, i have casting directors amy mcintyre britt and anya colloff and their talented crew on the case -- and their ability to negotiate this byzantine process is impressive.
after putting out the calls and breakdowns (a detailed list of the available parts including descriptions of the characters, the casting breakdowns are distributed to agents who proceed to submit their clients to the casting directors) the casting directors and their associates tend to be buried in an avalanche of headshots -- and in addition to people they know or may have auditioned before, they also find new faces within that avalanche and bring them in to audition.
but the first audition a new actor faces on a series isn’t with the writer, producers or director -- it’s a pre-read for the casting directors, who then select the best (and most promising, and most interesting, and sometimes most out-of-left-field but worthy of a look anyway) for the producer sessions that follow.
everyone out there pretty much knows what an audition looks like -- if only from seeing comedy sketches about auditions -- part of the process here is to keep producers who have a lot of things on their plate (like finding a decent purveyor of animatronic ape costumes) from having to sit through more auditions than they absolutely have to.
not all actors come in this way. many won’t read for casting directors or producers. some, depending on the length of their track record, the tenacity of their agents or their perceived level of fame are what they call “offer only” -- basically, you send them a script and your terms and hope for the best.
other actors you meet based on their previous work and -- if you feel confident that they are right for the role based on what they have done before and you can get along with them -- audition only once, for the final step of the process: a room full of network and studio executives whose job it is to tell the producer whether their choices for the series lead are viable...or not.
so let’s say you are an actor, you have auditioned for the casting directors, they have taken you to the producers, and now the producers like you so much that you are one of their top choices for that much coveted spot of the series lead...they want to stand you up in front of a room full of top-tier network executives along with a very small and select group of others.
what happens next?
first, your agents have to complete what is known as a test deal. a test deal basically means that you have made your contract with the studio -- most of them are three year deals and include agreed upon salary raises and benefits and perks -- before you even have the part.
why? among other things, to make sure that actually getting the part doesn’t triple your asking price -- and to make sure that you do not take another job before your audition (this is especially crucial during pilot season -- the months between january and march, when all the major networks are simultaneously shooting their pilots and the mad scramble to sign up actors takes on charles mackay-an proportions).
with all that business finally settled, the actors selected for a network read then meet the producers and the pilot’s director for a work session -- essentially a rehearsal in which the performance that got everyone so excited in the first place is honed...and the clothes and hairstyle the actor will wear to the network read are discussed and settled on. then -- and only then -- when the producers are sure of who their top choices are, and everyone has agreed in principle to be in the show -- comes the final step of the network audition.
it’s a tricky thing, the network audition. some networks actually have small theater-like spaces for this purpose -- but mostly, these sessions take place in conference rooms: which may not seem like the most conducive place for art (but then again, neither does a soundstage crowded with men and women in ratty work clothes waiting for the take to end so they can return to the real business of moving around cameras, lights and props).
what i find most interesting about that conference room and all that goes on in there is how psychologically taxing it can be. an actor can have a long and distinguished career without ever being forced to go through this exercise. on more than one occasion, i have seen seasoned professionals melt down completely under the glare of the top brass.
there’s also the question of how many actors you as a producer should actually bring to network. if you have a single person in whom you believe, do you just bring him or her in, or do you have a responsibility as a producer who has just been entrusted with many of the network’s precious millions to bring in a quality series to provide a number of choices? there are no hard and fast rules to this, which, i suspect, is what keeps the makers of pepto bismol in business.
once the actors have given their performance, there follows a period of discussion -- usually led by the producer, who articulates his or her feelings about who they prefer and why, or who may simply say “we have an embarrassment of riches here,” and hope the network casts a deciding lot in a difficult decision. ultimately, the network has the say -- and that said, if they don’t approve of the options you have presented, they could just as easily send you back to the casting pool to start your search anew.
or, the opposite could happen -- with great casting directors and the surfeit of gifted actors out there, no clear victor may emerge...in which case you may get sent off to produce a screen test with the actors in order to give the network further opportunity to weigh their decisions.
while all of this discussion is going on, the actors have to live in limbo. most test deals specify a period of five to ten business days before the contract lapses: and i am sure that those five to ten business days are the single most delightful days of an actor's life.
in the course of all of this, there’s also the nascent creative relationship between actors and the writer/producer who will be providing them with the characters they will hopefully be essaying for years to come. if you stop to think about it for a second, you may just realize that everyone in this sometimes manic process is feeling each other out, realizing that in success, they will be spending several years in a creative partnership with the other...and that, as a producer, you are fostering several of these partnerships simultaneously, knowing only one of them is going to make it to the goal.
all of which begs the question...do we have a middleman and wendy?
stay tuned....
(and while casting has been the primary thrust of the endeavor, it is not the sole mission: concurrently, a line producer -- the person actually in charge of figuring out how much everything costs, how much of it we actually need, and how to get it there -- has been identified and hired and is busily working with the studio to make budgets, find locations and stages and find suitable candidates for all of our departments: camera, production design, visual effects, animatronic ape costumes, post production, etc. -- but more on this later)
but first, a word about casting directors, as fellow producer lee goldberg points out in his own blog, their job is not to merely put out a casting call, sort through the head shots that come in and then pick the prettiest of the lot. their work is a highly skilled discipline, they have to put their good taste and knowledge of the talent pool to work along with a deep understanding of the script and characters in to truly bring in actors who have a shot at toplining a series for a network: actors with either the proven track record, or the raw promise to carry a series on their shoulders.
and make no mistake -- finding actors capable of handling the demands of leading a series is one of the hardest tasks in town. david caruso may take a lot of ribbing for his idiosyncratic line delivery, but the force of his persona and personality carries one of the most successful shows in the world. the number of failed television series out there -- and failed series leads -- should serve as a clue to how specific the job truly is.
in my case, the task is made all the more interesting by having to cast a relationship as the star of the show: the series may be called “the middleman,” but it’s very much the story of two very different people -- wendy watson and the titular character -- coming together to fight evil. if the relationship between these two leads doesn’t work, the series doesn’t work.
thankfully, i have casting directors amy mcintyre britt and anya colloff and their talented crew on the case -- and their ability to negotiate this byzantine process is impressive.
after putting out the calls and breakdowns (a detailed list of the available parts including descriptions of the characters, the casting breakdowns are distributed to agents who proceed to submit their clients to the casting directors) the casting directors and their associates tend to be buried in an avalanche of headshots -- and in addition to people they know or may have auditioned before, they also find new faces within that avalanche and bring them in to audition.
but the first audition a new actor faces on a series isn’t with the writer, producers or director -- it’s a pre-read for the casting directors, who then select the best (and most promising, and most interesting, and sometimes most out-of-left-field but worthy of a look anyway) for the producer sessions that follow.
everyone out there pretty much knows what an audition looks like -- if only from seeing comedy sketches about auditions -- part of the process here is to keep producers who have a lot of things on their plate (like finding a decent purveyor of animatronic ape costumes) from having to sit through more auditions than they absolutely have to.
not all actors come in this way. many won’t read for casting directors or producers. some, depending on the length of their track record, the tenacity of their agents or their perceived level of fame are what they call “offer only” -- basically, you send them a script and your terms and hope for the best.
other actors you meet based on their previous work and -- if you feel confident that they are right for the role based on what they have done before and you can get along with them -- audition only once, for the final step of the process: a room full of network and studio executives whose job it is to tell the producer whether their choices for the series lead are viable...or not.
so let’s say you are an actor, you have auditioned for the casting directors, they have taken you to the producers, and now the producers like you so much that you are one of their top choices for that much coveted spot of the series lead...they want to stand you up in front of a room full of top-tier network executives along with a very small and select group of others.
what happens next?
first, your agents have to complete what is known as a test deal. a test deal basically means that you have made your contract with the studio -- most of them are three year deals and include agreed upon salary raises and benefits and perks -- before you even have the part.
why? among other things, to make sure that actually getting the part doesn’t triple your asking price -- and to make sure that you do not take another job before your audition (this is especially crucial during pilot season -- the months between january and march, when all the major networks are simultaneously shooting their pilots and the mad scramble to sign up actors takes on charles mackay-an proportions).
with all that business finally settled, the actors selected for a network read then meet the producers and the pilot’s director for a work session -- essentially a rehearsal in which the performance that got everyone so excited in the first place is honed...and the clothes and hairstyle the actor will wear to the network read are discussed and settled on. then -- and only then -- when the producers are sure of who their top choices are, and everyone has agreed in principle to be in the show -- comes the final step of the network audition.
it’s a tricky thing, the network audition. some networks actually have small theater-like spaces for this purpose -- but mostly, these sessions take place in conference rooms: which may not seem like the most conducive place for art (but then again, neither does a soundstage crowded with men and women in ratty work clothes waiting for the take to end so they can return to the real business of moving around cameras, lights and props).
what i find most interesting about that conference room and all that goes on in there is how psychologically taxing it can be. an actor can have a long and distinguished career without ever being forced to go through this exercise. on more than one occasion, i have seen seasoned professionals melt down completely under the glare of the top brass.
there’s also the question of how many actors you as a producer should actually bring to network. if you have a single person in whom you believe, do you just bring him or her in, or do you have a responsibility as a producer who has just been entrusted with many of the network’s precious millions to bring in a quality series to provide a number of choices? there are no hard and fast rules to this, which, i suspect, is what keeps the makers of pepto bismol in business.
once the actors have given their performance, there follows a period of discussion -- usually led by the producer, who articulates his or her feelings about who they prefer and why, or who may simply say “we have an embarrassment of riches here,” and hope the network casts a deciding lot in a difficult decision. ultimately, the network has the say -- and that said, if they don’t approve of the options you have presented, they could just as easily send you back to the casting pool to start your search anew.
or, the opposite could happen -- with great casting directors and the surfeit of gifted actors out there, no clear victor may emerge...in which case you may get sent off to produce a screen test with the actors in order to give the network further opportunity to weigh their decisions.
while all of this discussion is going on, the actors have to live in limbo. most test deals specify a period of five to ten business days before the contract lapses: and i am sure that those five to ten business days are the single most delightful days of an actor's life.
in the course of all of this, there’s also the nascent creative relationship between actors and the writer/producer who will be providing them with the characters they will hopefully be essaying for years to come. if you stop to think about it for a second, you may just realize that everyone in this sometimes manic process is feeling each other out, realizing that in success, they will be spending several years in a creative partnership with the other...and that, as a producer, you are fostering several of these partnerships simultaneously, knowing only one of them is going to make it to the goal.
all of which begs the question...do we have a middleman and wendy?
stay tuned....