Friday, July 30, 2010

A Good Problem to Have

I am in the midst of jumping a major hurdle this week with the help of Tenner, Paskal and Rudnicke, who is generously donating their time and office space to cast Salvaging. We had a great session on Wednesday and just finished our call backs today. It has been an exhilarating two days where I got to witness much of the great talent that Chicago has to offer to bring the script to life. It's pretty much the first time that I've heard the words read aloud outside of my own head and it was quite a thrill.

It was also great to watch the casting process, which can be a bit of a mystery, unfold. I was a little unsure of how it would go as I've only been lucky enough to use a casting company once before. I think I was probably just as nervous as some of the actors who came in but I figured that no one knows the script as well as I do and that's my most important asset in this process. Melissa, our casting director, did a great job of selecting talent based on different looks and approaches to the story and she helped communicate a lot to the actors which put me at ease right away.

But she may have done too good of a job because now the problem is who do I choose? For most of the roles, I could easily picture it going two or three different ways and the choice is going to be difficult. But I'm pretty confidant I will be alright whichever way it works out and, as the title above states, it's a good problem to have, right?

Joe

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Picture This

Just a quick note this time. A friend of mine, Fill Marc Sagadraca, who I met through my wife, is an amazing artist and he offered to help me out by storyboarding Salvaging. He's been sending me a few scenes as he gets time to complete them between hard days working on The Simpsons. I've seen many storyboards and it turns out Fill Marc is quite a pro! It has been very cool to see the script come to life. Thanks Fill Marc.

Here's a few shots to let you see what I'm talking about.