Major Production Unit: Pre-Production - Casting: Final Auditions and Decisions

With around a month left until production was due to begin we still needed to cast all of our characters, with more applicants coming through requests for audition tapes were sent. On top of this I searched on both casting sites for other possible actors based on appearance and how far away they lived. I found several who were also contacted:

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/harvey-bassett

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/angus-howard

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/ethan-taylor

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/daniel-shelley

As our Producer was doing this; I went through the profiles of some new applicants and was interested in two in particular:

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/james-percy-smith

http://www.castingcallpro.com/uk/actor/profile/zed-josef

James had a showreel which I was impressed by and our Producer contacted Zed to send us an audition tape. A tape request was also sent to James which we received soon after.

I was very impressed by the auditions but as both were applying for the role of Sean I had to make a decision: ultimately instead of rejecting one I chose Zed for Sean and the role of Archie, Grit's other lead character, was offered to James, to which he happily obliged.

One reason for selecting both actors was for several reasons:

- Both gave strong performances and clearly understood the script and the character.
- They are the exact same height which allowed for the subtle suggestion that Sean and Archie are the same person. Their similar heights also allowed the scripts' face-to-face shots to be framed easily and give a strong sense of physical conflict: neither being the 'bigger' character.
- Their appearances are incredibly close to how I pictured the characters, with exceptions to eye colour and hair styles as I watched the auditions I could see them as the characters.

With Sean and Archie cast all that was left were the roles of Zoe and Perry to fill, along with the News Reporter.

Zoe received the most applications across both casting sites, but one applicant, whom we interviewed via Skype, suggested an actress who she thought would be good for the role. Our Producer contacted her and requested an audition tape if she were interested; she was, and we received the tape a couple of weeks later.

I liked Jennie's performance and she suited the role very well, something that she also mentioned to us. Based on these conditions we agreed that she would be Zoe.

Not long after Jennie was cast we received responses from Ethan and Daniel both of which sent in tapes for review. At the time they were contacted, the roles of Sean and Archie hadn't been cast hence their auditions being for those characters. After reviewing the tapes, it was decided between myself and the Producer that we would cast Daniel as Perry based on his performance and how alike he was to my vision of Perry.

The News Reporter was our last character to cast (the character Trigg being written out of the film by now) and instead of putting out another advert our Producer suggested we look at previous auditions and ultimately agreed on Madeline McQueen: whom came in for a physical audition. She was local and her performance, although not right enough for Zoe, was still welcome to the film's acting roster in a different role.

With our characters casted one major stage of Grit's pre-production was complete.