Pre-Production - Audtions and Casting

Auditions and Casting for Condemned

As a part of our casting process, we decided to set up an audition for all of our chosen candidates to take part in. In doing this, we only selected those who we felt could fit the bill by looking at both their appearance and their show reels. We would then get a look at who would be most suitable by watching their auditions.

We had given each of our candidates three options for which they could audition for their chosen role, they could either;

• Come in for a physical audition, meaning they would be able to meet us in person, have a quick chat and then perform their audition with some direction from myself and Josh. We would not cover any travel expenses for this audition.
• Hold a Skype audition, which would run in the same way as the physical audition except over a Skype call. They would still have the opportunity to speak to us and ask any questions, just without the intimacy that a physical audition would hold.
• Taped audition. For this option, I would send the candidate over a list of requirements for their taped audition so that they can get the absolute most out of it without worrying about missing any key elements.

Applicants

By the time our Job post had expired, a total of 72 people applied across all 3 roles and gained a total of 1032, proving to be a student project with a lot of interest and curiosity surrounding it. Interestingly, despite the large interest surrounding the project, Stephen's character only gained 5 applications in total (6 including Basil Massy who offered to audition for both characters).

Here is a list of all the actors we selected and then contacted in hope of an audition:

David

Basil Massy - Confirmed for audition

Mark Fletcher - Confirmed for audition

Ian Macnaughton - Skype audition

Phill Rees - Skype audition

George McCluskey - Taped audition

Daniel Godward - Dropped out

Stephen

Basil Massy - Confirmed for audition

Clive Woodward - Confirmed for audition

Robin Denys - Taped audition

Rory McCallum - Taped audition

Nick

Jitendra Kumar - Taped audition and Skype audition

Anthony James Donnelly - Confirmed for audition

Sumit Chakravatï - Confirmed for audition

Joshua Clow - Skype audition

Marco Biagioli - Skype audition

Alex Lipitch - Taped audition

David Wayman - Taped audition

Guy Samuels - Taped audition

Nicholas Anscombe - Taped audition

Jet Summan - Dropped out

In the end, only two of the applicants failed to turn in their taped auditions on time (Rory McCallum and Guy Samuels) and everyone else who had confirmed their availability showed up or handed in their tapes as planned.

Final Casting Selection

David

Basil Massy

Basil made the unusual decision of auditioning for both David and Stephen's characters and could have been a solid choice for either one of them, but in the end we decided to cast him as David.

Basil came to the audition having done a background check on David's character, conducting his own research. He even came in with a report about criminal amnesia, an unproven phenomenon where the criminal forgets the crime they have committed.

Stephen

Clive Woodward

Another applicant who had chosen to meet us in person for their audition, picking Clive was a very easy decision to make as his understanding of Stephen's character was second to none. He went into great detail as to what he perceived Stephen to be like and answered the scenario questions with ease. On top of that, his audition rehearsal was very well played out and his cough was consistent and realistic.

Nick

Anthony James Donnelly

This was easily the hardest character to pick an actor for. There were a good few that could have taken this spot, for example Nicholas Anscombe's audition tape was extremely well detailed and well rehearsed while Sumit Chakravatï's audition was itself very well performed.

It was Anthony James Donnelly who we casted in the end, his view on the character as well as his acting was right up there with the other two I mentioned. What set him apart from the others however was his own personal background. Anthony was himself a labour worker and understands the ins and outs of the business. He even came in with his own suggestions for the script.

A bonus detail that we was not aware of going into the auditions or when we came up with our final casting was that Basil and Clive have both worked together before on a production earlier this year.