31st Aug2010

Casting for "Things Worse" a short by James Hoffman

by Faisal

I am producing, and acting in James Hoffman’s latest short, and we are looking for the lead and supporting characters.  Check out the information below, and if you feel like you would like to audition, send us a resume and photo to things <at> lutchmedial.ca.  Thanks!

Felicity Hamer in James Hoffman's video for the United Steel Workers of Montreal

UrbanHanded Works is casting James Hoffman’s new short film “Things Worse”. James’ last projects were music videos for the United Steelworkers of Montreal (check them out here: http://www.uswm.ca/P/AV.htm

The movie is being produced by Faisal Lutchmedial (Useless Things, My Cultural Divide). http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2379515/

We are looking for:

Avery

A sad sack of a man, Avery is an introvert to the extreme who is being forced to come out of his shell by a “friend” with less than noble intentions. Age range (35-45)

Stella

The woman that catches Avery’s eye. Fun and adventurous, maybe everything Avery is not? Around the same age (30-45).

This is a low budget film, so sadly we have no money to pay our cast or crew. That said we hope you can trust us with your time and talent so we can make something great together.

Category : casting call, Things Worse
05th Aug2010

That’s a wrap!

by Faisal

We finished shooting Mr. Crab a few days ago and I am still exhausted from the process.  I can safely say this film was one of the few I have shot where virtually nothing went wrong during the production.  There were some mishaps of course, and we went a little too long on a couple of the days, but for the most part it went off without a hitch.  Key element: Pre-production.

Katarina Soukup, David Eng, and Caroline Bacle did a bang up job in making sure we had everything we needed to make this production work, and I can’t recommend them enough.  Them, along with all of our crew who stepped up when problems came up made the process so smooth.  And importantly it allowed me the luxury of only having directing to think about.

Osheen Harruthoonyan (DoP) was fantastic again (he shot Useless Things and My Heart is Black for me previously), and I am so looking forward to editing together the images we captured.  We worked out the lighting plans and the shots together a long time before the shoot, and somewhat surprisingly didn’t change much from my storyboard (actually, I don’t draw, so it was more like a photo-storyboard really)

And of course our actors, Cindy and Vian Persad, and Ryan Singh were phenomenal, and brought the characters on paper to life.  There was a lot of effort put into our casting, including a couple of trips into Toronto – and I was very happy to find the talent we did.  In actual fact, there were a lot of people who auditioned who were great, some of which I may end up casting in the future.

So, here  we are.  All that work for 6 minutes of screen time.  The new hard drives just arrived at my door.  I’ve got to start working again.

(from left to right) Ryan Singh as Gobin, Cindy Persad as Sandy, and Vian Persad as Rishi.

Category : acting, casting call, cinematography, film, Mr. Crab, producing, short film, Trinidad
02nd Jun2010

Casting Call for "Mr. Crab"

by Faisal

I am looking for actors for my next short film, and I was hoping that someone might know someone else who would be great. If you do know an actor (especially an Indian-Trini) please send this along to them. It’s a paid position – and we’re going to look at people from Toronto and New York (and surrounding areas) to find the right person. So even if they aren’t from Montreal, don’t let it stop them from getting in touch!  We’re shooting July 30th, so please don’t reply after that.

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Green Dragon Productions is looking for actors for its next short film, “Mr. Crab”. Written and Directed by Faisal Lutchmedial who won a Writers Guild of Canada award at the Festival du Nouveau Cinema for the script of Useless Things (his last short, trailer here:http://www.lutchmedial.ca/uselessthings). The short is a drama about a little boy’s relationship with his loving but frightening father, and his attempted escape into a dreamworld.

The characters we need to cast are:

Rishi: A brown skinned 6-9 year old innocent looking boy. Must be able to swim underwater. No accent required.

Gobin: West-Indian (Trinidadian) man, 35-45 years old father of Rishi. Gobin is a caring father, but can be a stern and frightening man. Must be able to do a Trinidadian accent.

Sandy: West-Indian, or Afro-Carribean mother of Rishi. 30-45. Must be able to do a Trinidadian accent.

Please send a photo and resume, and demo if you have it. We are looking at both union and non-union performers.  Send all applications to mrcrab (AT) lutchmedial.ca.

Category : acting, casting call, cinematography, film, film festival, Red camera, short film