Casting: Day 1

Exciting and gruelling is all that can describe the casting process. 35 people came after seeing an advert in a community centre or library or many newsagents we advertised in; or from word of mouth spread from previous theatrical contacts of mine (Dominique Festen gets a special mention here); or from various facebook groups set up or gate crashed (Cardiff University/Cardiff Asian Society). The first PIZZAMAN blanket canvas went into effect. Organised to the hilt we had two production assistants (Rob and Pallavi), audition forms, a video camera, 4 audition pieces, an actress (Teifi) to play against those auditioning, and a schedule with a who’s who coming at what time and wearing what just to be completely on top of things. The show of PIZZAMAN professionalism begin right here, right now. Booked in slots of 10mins or 20mins for our main character we over ran a few times meaning bringing two people in at once. Something I really didn’t want. I’m sure Teilo didn’t want it either but we had to get through it. We were focused, we took it in turns to lead or film the auditions. We worried each other slightly; Teilo because of me telling most people they had a part whatever, and each other because we’d have to pass over the leading of the auditions as our minds slowly turned to mush. (Next time I will be sure to train for it but how do you actually do that?) I was looking for that spark, the glint that said “I have something real. PICK ME!” It was the relaxation I was looking for, relaxation in another persons skin, not the acting but the ‘being’. Nerves were shown, emotions were felt and some just kept on giving – Kevin Welch needs to be singled out as we realised we really challenged him after seeing the audition footage (such a standout audition I even transcribed some of it and put it in the final script). Words came alive in many different ways, and despite all of our organisation one person turned up unannounced. Like a sign from a higher being Mr Sunny Patel walked in, that is, only after waiting 30mins for another auditionee to be late. There was something. He looked perfect, he acted with un-moulded electricity. Fate stepped in, dealt us a hand to scream at us, “pizzaman will get made!” Sunny was the only one that was right, our schedule went out the window, he was with us for an hour. It was from then on we knew we had a fighting chance.

Managing Locations

"Working on locations you're not paying for takes a degree of 
organisation and an understanding of respect. In Pizzaman this came 
from the recce, the process of viewing a location beforehand armed 
with a list of questions and an attitude to not get our hearts set on 
anywhere. We drew up floorplans of the houses or premisis with notes 
on where we were and were not allowed to go and of course where the 
nearest toilet was. Each location was put into a grid of information 
containing thoughts on what the location could be used for, who we 
should contact with a list of telephone numbers and email addresses, 
and an outline of it availability. We made note of the ambient light 
and a thought of what lights we might need; we made note of the 
ambiant sounds that may affect our filming; and we made sure the owner 
felt confident with us as people with a policy that they could contact 
us at anytime if they so wished. There were a few times when we had to 
keep our noise down so not to disturb neighbours at night. 
Communication and foresight was key to the smooth running of a 
location especially as we did not have a location manager to take this 
job off our hands. It was yet another hat to put on myself and Teilo 
on order to guarantee Pizzaman's professionalism."