GRAD FILM
This week we had the pub location scout planned with Poppy but ended up scrapping this for the time being as Louis found two pubs called the Old Bell and Swanys Bar which are far closer and if they work then there would be no need to go around. I visited these and had a conversation with the bar manager for both as the owners were not in. I explained our proposal and left contact details and dates to be passed on. Unfortunately I thought that Swanys Bar would not be as good a fit as Old Bell but hoped to hear from both.
Throughout the week we heard back via email from Swanys Bar but due to my thoughts on The Old Bell being a better fit, I wanted to follow up with them before I replied to Swanys email. After a few unanswered calls I managed to find out when the owner would be in so I could come and have a chat with him in person. When I went to do this, the owner, Chris, was more than interested in helping us out for no charge other than the pints used in the filming process. From there I set in the dates and times to be Tuesday the 19th from 9am to around 5-6pm.
We also had our second meeting with the Production designers. They were not particularly reachable the following week due to them being on set for a different film so I gave them specific instructions on what was expected from them the week of the shoot. They came to the meeting with some amazon links and stock photos of the props but we ushered them to use more budget friendly routes with more specific photos, like asking around for props and using Meadowshare and Facebook marketplace.
I also had to push out the lock up locations further using a range of different websites and pushed out the call for the car as for little interest in the ones we had already contacted.
This week we also had our soon to be confirmed casting zoom with our Finley and Johnny actors. Which resultingly ended in being cast as Lee Ian Mofatt for Finely and Jonny Tulloch for Johnny. I also liaised with them regarding any time schedule issues and any food allergies and preferences to add to the call out and menu options.
We unfortunately were finding it very difficult to find our Lucas so I made a list of all acting schools and group classes in Edinburgh and with the help of Hao, a second year film student, Louis, Hao and I went around putting up a casting call poster in the hopes of people involved in these places reaching out. This also included going to the acting departments offices for Edinburgh Napier in the hopes that they would pass it on to their students.
I also reached out to the Royal Conservatoire where I made the connection to a woman called Helen who very kindly passed on the casting call to her students as well. I also had a look through the Royal Conservatoire actors and messaged her about contacts for specific ones that were of interest, and if they had agents I went straight to them, this included Infinity Artists and Insight Management and Production which either came back to me saying that they were not available or that we would have to pay a large sum to have them casted, which was unfortunately not in budget for our film.
