Production of “In the Heat” began this week. The pile of notes is daunting enough, but suffice it to say, we're on our way. For those of you in the know, “In the Heat” is a short film developed by Anthony ILacqua and Gio Toninelo. The screenplay was designed in a “modular” fashion. Broken down, it's 5 smaller parts which can be easily shot and with minimal set design. We plan to shoot this on the streets and downtown locations in Denver, Colorado. It's relatively small cast: two major characters, Thomas and Marion and three secondary characters.
We did the casting call and auditions this week. If you want to know more about our process please see Choosing the right cast. We went into this audition with a few goals in mind. First, we wanted to find our Thomas and our Marion. Second, even though we auditioned for two parts, we wanted to met dozens of people. Third, we really wanted to practice our processes: camera work, pitching ability and script design. Above all else, a big part of this exercise was to meet people and do things. Not a bad way to start.
This is all reflection. During the morning while still at the studio we were nervous. I paced. Gio mentioned butterflies. What were we so worried about? Well, I felt vulnerable because this was my script people were reading. What if no one showed up? What if, what if, what if? And the very idea of being in a room with strangers was a little unnerving too.
We rented a small, and I do mean small, conference room at Shift. As we were setting up, Travis, Gio and I, two cameras, lights, associated tripods, pretty much filled the room. It was cozy, to say the least. We auditioned single actors for most of the day, and by the afternoon we auditioned them in pairs. Squeezing five people into this room was impressive, and as long as no one moved, it was successful.
The auditions were a success. After all, the normal stuff: what if they laugh at the script, what if there isn't anyone there to laugh at the script, what if, what if, what if? things worked out well. The biggest successes are these: we have our cast. We have the beginnings of our network and that is the basis of our community. So far, it's been fun.