Thumbs up for Zoom auditions in short film casting

Declan’s BAI-funded short film “Location, location, location!”, that saw over 5,000 people apply for the cast through the TikTok social media platform, has moved one step closer to filming this weekend. The film maker held two days of video auditions over Zoom that saw over 100 people, from as far afield as the US, try out for speaking roles.

“To be honest, I was more than a little apprehensive,” Declan admitted. “I hadn’t held online auditions before, so there was, potentially, a lot that could have gone wrong. But it worked out really well. We had narrowed it down to about 10 people for each of the 14 speaking parts and this has put us in a position where we can get that down to about two or three people for each role who we’ll see in person. It means that we’re not asking quite so many actors to take a half-day out of their lives to attend an audition, and those that are called in know that they have a very realistic chance of landing the part.”

The film tells two parallel stories – one of a successful, trendy same-sex couple whose relationship is threatened by a ‘first world problem’ concerning a concert ticket. The second story, in contract, sees a member of the Irish Polish community faced with an existential problem when he finds himself homeless and unsupported in the middle of a housing crisis.

Cameras are expected to roll on the film in springtime.