Auditions or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Script

2009-05-10T17:35:00.000-07:00

Auditions... Shit.

I was worried at first, you know. We spent close to eight months writing the script with only blurry visuals of most of the characters in our heads. Always wondering if there was anyone out there capable of filling these massive shoes we had literally sewn with our bare hands. In the time leading up to A-Day all our unspoken fears weighed heavy on our shoulders. What if we couldn't find the perfect cast? I mean, real movies see hundreds of hopeful potentials before they make their choice. For a single role we may only get to see two or three. Some parts were only auditioned for once. Lucky for us (more so than for them) they were right for the part. The greater deity of casting and auditions must have recognized our mountains of faith and our hours of silent prayer.

Religious or not 'Judge thy neighbor' is the mantra of audition day. The second that person steps through the door you immediately begin to mentally rip everyone fiber of their existence to shreds. Too fat, too tall, too old. And this is before they have even begun reading lines. Some people are literally dead in the water before they've even swum a stroke. By the end of the casting process the Devil has personally prepared a limo for your speedy trip to hell.

But enough with the negative waves...

We have our cast, with the exception of one or two parts. A few of our regulars are coming back, Jeremy Park and Alan Edward Johnson for example. But for the most part the actors are people that we have never worked with before. Tim Strom, known to many only as the PZW Champion Stormbriger, has been enlisted to play the leader of the Devil's Legion - the Tracker.

Tim 'The Stormbringer' Strom getting into the ring

Adam Munro, lead singer of the local band Endangered Ape, has signed on to play the part of Officer Hobbs (one of the only two characters with actual names). This is a little inside joke for friends of ours from grade twelve French class, where we showed a movie called 'La Neige En D'Euil 2' which followed two officers of the law, Officer Johnson and Detective Calvin Hobbs, on the trail of a murder case in the Swiss alps. Everybody dies at the end. Spoiler alert. Sorry, but it's not like you'll ever see it. Shit, I'm rambling. Check out part of Adam's audition below:

Our most famous cast member though is most likely Marek Czuma, also known by his screen name Marek Wiedman. His first screen appearance was in 1987 on the second episode of 21 Jump Street. Since then he has had many roles in television, stage and film. I believe he also did some directing work in there somewhere too. Most recently he was my drama professor at the University of Lethbridge. Check out this clip from 21 Jump Street. He's the man with the thick Polish accent from 3:22-4:45:

Contrary to what I said before about being worried about finding a perfect cast, we do what many in the industry consider taboo. We often write for actors we know. When you're working on 'no-budget' films that's all you can really do. You have to take a look at your available inventory, whether it be costumes, props, sets, or people and use them all to your full advantage. Never rely solely on chance, or hope that people will want to be in a movie they know nothing about. When you're just starting out you have to go to them.

Three of the cast members I had never even met before, but had seen in various performances around town. I sent them each a message asking if they would come audition for our mystery movie, a movie they had never more than a few out of context script pages. Thank God for Facebook and the allure of being a movie star.

Out of the past four movies we've done, Hoodoo Voodoo is only the second to have a casting process. And even then we asked about 70% of the auditionees to come out. Without those people we would not have a movie. One day we hope to repay their kindness and dedication with more than thin layers of canvas and stacks of hot dogs.

The Adventure Begins: Location Scouting

2009-04-23T22:45:00.000-07:00

After a year of beating the molten iron of the Hoodoo Voodoo script over a fiery anvil, it is finally time to submerse it in a mound of cold Canadian snow. Holding it high above our heads, gleaming in the arctic sunlight, the script is finished and it is time to emerge from the depths Mount Doom and begin the long trek along the path of preproduction.

To many that have heard it's name, Hoodoo Voodoo has become a single speedily said word that has lost all trace of its original syntax and now only represents the title of the film itself. To most others though it the question remains, what exactly is a Hoodoo Voodoo?

The film is to be shot in Southern Alberta amongst the Hoodoos, which are large oddly shaped rocks created by millions, possibly billions, of years of erosion. My Uncle, a geography professor could probably explain it a lot better than I just did. Instead, I'll just show you a picture.

Pretty slick, hey?

But what does the Voodoo mean? Originally, I think it was just a cool word that rhymed with Hoodoo, but it has since come to represent a fictional ghost town in the story. Voodoo - Population 0.

As the locations are so important in the movie one of our first steps in the preproduction process was to get a lay of the land where we wanted to shoot.

Our first stop was Drumheller and surrounding area where apparently a lot of movies have been shot, including Unforgiven, The Assassination of Jesse James and Knockaround Guys, the latter of which I am watching now as I type this. ~~Not because it's necessarily a great piece of cinema or anything~~. It's actually a really solid modern day gangster/western. Either way, it's good to get an idea for what other people have done with similar locations.

It was a bit tough to visualize since there was still a lot of snow, but it was great to see some of the terrain we had to work with. A lot of potential.

Next on our list of locales was a ghost town an 8Km hike out from Frank Slide, in the Crowsnest Pass. I don't think I've ever wanted to kill myself more in my entire life. Uphill, both ways, through ankle deep snow.

And it would appear that we had some company on our trip.

But when we got there, it was pretty amazing. Just picture it in the hot July heat, without the snow.

Some kind of mining building.

Remnants of the old hotel.

That's it for now. Still have to drive down to Writing on Stone, so check back for some pictures of that as well as another blog about our recent auditions.

Aaron Kurmey

Auditions or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Script

The Adventure Begins: Location Scouting