Strategic casting, what is it?
And who is it for?
We're going to break it down in three steps:
research, casting and collaboration.
Step on it.
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My name is Dallas King, director, writer and producer.
I'm the owner of Red Rabbit pictures.
And I do specialize, in what we call, "genre filmmaking"
which is sci-fi, action, fantasy and horror.
They require something very specific
and is something we call "strategic casting."
Now, I have to put the disclaimer,
what I'm about to say and share
is not going to apply to every film you're trying to do out there.
What is strategic casting?
When you are thinking about doing your feature film,
your short film, your TV pilot,
you're always thinking about
who's going to be the cast?
Now, of course, we want Tom Cruise and Will Smith
and Scarlett Johansson
because they generate viewership.
They generate marketing, publicity for the film, exposure
and probably because they're darn good actors.
A lot of times we can't afford them,
so we have to be very strategic about who we put in our films.
Now, there are something on the rise in industry
and that is social media influencers.
In general,
a lot of these social media influencers are not professional actors,
but they have incredible fan base on Instagram,
Snapchat, Twitter, Youtube, etc.
Where fans are wanting to know about them.
And that's a great start
to why you want to do strategic casting
and bring it in social media influencers in your project.
I'm going to use a couple of my film projects,
one notably "Kiss Kiss"
as a kind of a case sample to what I'm about to talk about.
So we're going to do it three steps.
We're going to start with research, casting and then collaboration.
Step 1. Research.
When to cast,
maybe an influencer and when not to.
I do genre films
and genre films are notoriously known
for what we call "ensamble casting."
That is mixing around,
maybe three, four, five, six, members
who actually share the screen time
for a majority of the film.
Now, in comparison,
something that maybe be a drama, a comedy
or it's actually led by one or maybe two main characters,
who are actually taking 90-80% of the screen time.
I would reconsider not casting a social-media influencer in this role,
just because it does require a great level of experience
and that type of endurance.
I mean, you're talking about a feature film
that could be anywhere from 12 to 40 days of work.
That's very taxing for someone
that's just jumping into this
and it's kind of all fresh to them.
Now, where do we find them?
I use four platforms:
Instagram, Twitter, Youtube and Snapchat.
I employed a couple associate producers,
and together, we all focused on researching
and finding top 250 social media influencers
that would fit in these roles.
In our film, it was an action film,
it was a lot of fighting.
Well, it really helped that we found
particular cast members
that had experience in, maybe, martial arts, yoga,
they were prior athletes
whether in college or high school.
All these counted as them being athletic enough,
to run, to jump, to fake hit, etc.
And that was a first qualifying factor for us.
Now, iou're probably asking yourself,
"Wait, I mentioned nothing about their ability to act."
"- What about the actors?
- It`s perhaps best not to mention the acting."
Well, there is something that I call
"The Schwarzenegger Strategy."
Back in 1982,
there was a film called "Conan The Barbarian."
And what they wanted was this actor
who wasn't an actor yet,
maybe a personality,
and maybe you can say Arnold Schwarzenegger
was the very first influencer
that ever existed in film history.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger.
28 years old, six-foot-two, 240 pounds.
Mr. Olympia for the past five years."
Get a very thick accent,
but he had the physicality,
he had the uniqueness
and he had the personality.
But how could you put him in a film if its
create a lots of dialogue and interactions,
well, if you watch the film
there's something very unique about it.
He was almost completely silent in the film.
And that's because they casted him
for what he looked in his presence on the film
and how he was able to wield the sword.
Now, the step two.
Actually, casting them.
Now, here's the real challenge.
If they have thousands,
hundreds of thousands,
tens of millions of fans,
you can guarantee
that they are being contacted every day.
So how do you stand apart?
"But I'm different than those other guys, Phil."
There's one way to do and that's how you present yourself.
"Because all we care about is getting fucking rich."
So let's say we do an email.
We want to be able to craft a letter that's very professional.
Maybe has some links of your website.
Maybe a reel of your past work.
Maybe a even concept poster of what you're trying to create.
And in some cases, maybe even a look book of what the films about.
And there is one little asset adding onto your information
and that is "is this paid or not paid?"
In fact, it's so important,
you may want to put that at the subject heading of your email or your message.
"I don't care about love, all I care about is money.
That's all I want, baby."
Now, here's one little trick.
If you get one of these influencers casted,
maybe ask, "Hey, who do you know of our list that were contacting?
Or, "Maybe you can suggest someone that we overlooked."
"No!"
Now, you do have to be mindful of some red flags.
"We`ve got some red flags to cover."
So in our case of "Kiss Kiss"
I asked some very specific questions,
such as,
are you ready to be covered in blood for 10 days straight?
And be in the cold for 12 hours.
"It's getting quiet."
And roll around in the dirt and fight.
Because you don't want to get down the road,
on day 8 and they walk off the set
because they can't handle it.
"- That's it. I'm out of here.
- Oh, come on, Dude."
Another red flag that you need to find out
is about what they want.
Example.
Maybe they want to be put up in a four-star hotel
and they want to have first class on the flight.
There's one thing I always very much encourage filmmakers
and producers and directors to say
is be transparent.
Because the worst thing to do is to promise something
and not deliver.
"No, I have dropped the ball.
I did promise that and I haven't delivered."
There's always a negotiation process in doing this.
It could be pay rate.
Something in the film industry that's very common is to offer talent,
a percentage of the profit when the film does make money.
"Yes, that conludes negotiations."
Step 3. Collaboration.
Now, the first part of that collaboration
is actually the working with the influencers on the marketing,
a publicity of the project.
I would encourage first,
that the filmmakers have a strategy
of how they envision marketing the film.
And then working together
and you may find they have way more experience in this category than you do
and can offer some very very good ideas
on how to get the most exposure for your film.
"No, and easy."
Now for "Kiss Kiss"
we actually had somebody on our team
that was a social media director.
And he was able to create and craft a very unique plan
for what we were going to do in the long term.
Part of that plan was to have a videographer
and a photographer on set for every day.
There are whole responsibility was thinking about the marketing
that was going to happen months and years down the line,
so that we can have it.
So what we were able to do is put down in writing a rough draft
of what was expected from the influencers
at the bare minimum to do,
to share to all their fans
and to get engagement.
Keep in mind, you casted non-professional actors.
That is a challenge.
But that's still no reason,
to not get a great performance out of them.
"Why, Liza, Why!"
So it's really important to want establish confidence,
establish trust
and that communication.
In "Kiss Kiss" we had two weeks preparation.
In that time, we had wardrobe and costume fitting.
Make up test.
And because it's an action film,
we had started fight training.
It was in this period
that was able to really see
whether the talent had what it takes
to be the character.
I did have to recast a lot of the talent.
So, I really really encourage,
you always have a back-up plan.
As an example,
I may cast for a character in one sense
and I may have two or three backups.
I didn't tell those backups yet
that they didn't or did have the part.
Keep them on the line
and maybe keep them on the line
to the very very first day of shooting.
Because you just never know
and it's called Murphy's Law.
"- Murphy's Law?
- Murphy's Law doesn't mean that something bad will happen.
What it means is that whatever can happen, will happen."
So we come to the end.
Strategic casting is a very very non-traditional way,
especially in this age of digital filmmaking.
But it's not to say
that traditional casting doesn't still work.
In fact, in my own casting,
I did have my talent come into a room,
I had them read in front of me.
I had them paired up with other actors in all together
to see how they vibed of each other.
With that I leave you with this.
Always, always, prepare for the worst
and hope for the best.
Have a back-up plan.
"Back-up plan."
Have a strategy.
Hopefully, we're going to venture down the rabbit hole
of strategic casting.
You'll remember, research, casting and collaboration.
This is Dallas King signing off.
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