CASTING CALL
We are looking for an actor/dancer for a lead role in our production of a 4-channel immersive film installation. This person will also help us with their character’s choreography and the movement for scenes that require dance. We are looking for someone who is female, female-identifying or non-binary.
We are looking for someone who can collaborate with us and bring their skills as a choreographer to help us develop the character and figure out how to express certain emotions through movement. Our ideal person has experience acting on film or in theatre (there is dialogue in our project) and excited about exploring the human condition through contemporary movement in this cross-disciplinary project.
We are looking for someone who is 18 years of age or older, but can pass for a younger teenager and a person in their 20s with the right makeup (our story line traverses about 20 years). Ideally this person is comfortable on a skateboard. A large part of the main character’s identity revolves around skateboarding in the 90s.
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
“EMDR” (Working Title)
Fully supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
Intended for exhibition in a gallery
“EMDR” is a one-hour long, surreal and cinematic 4-channel film installation that is synched to an immersive experimental electronic composition. Our project is a symbolic representation of a personal recovery journey from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) through the therapy method EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing).
CHARACTER & ROLE BREAKDOWN
The story we are depicting is a true story - it is a true story based on our main character's recovery journey from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) through the therapy method EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). When they were 14 years old, they were hit by a truck and suffered serious, life-threatening injuries. Because of a head injury, subsequent court case and a challenging recovery, our main character has dealt with the side effects from having PTSD as a young person throughout their life. In 2018, they decided to try EMDR for the first time and it has helped them immensely.
In this project, we would like to investigate the various mental spaces that our main character experiences when living with PTSD and while undergoing this treatment: the emotions that they feel (anxiety, loneliness, awkwardness, relief, joy), the memories that they experiences, and the mental spaces that they have visited. We would like to work with an actor that is well versed in contemporary movement and can help express these emotions conceptually through body movement. What does anxiety look like when shown through contemporary movement? What does alienation look like? How can we show these feelings so that our audience can understand and empathize?
TIMEFRAME / LOCATION
We will be filming everything in Vancouver (one or two scenes might happen in Maple Ridge), over 2-3 weeks in July and/or August of 2022. This includes time for workshopping our ideas together, rehearsals and the filming days. Our dates currently are flexible. The dates do not need to be consecutive.
PAYMENT
This project is a nonunion but paid project. We will follow the payment structure as outlined by the Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists/West Chapter (i.e. $30-60/hour).
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS, REQUIREMENTS & DEADLINES
Please send us a note about your experience (including your experience choreographing and whether you can ride a skateboard), your availability and interest in the project. Please let us know which role(s) you are interested in auditioning for.
Please submit a recent headshot and full length photo (if sending these images as attachments via email, please ensure each image is 1MB or smaller).
Submit at least 2-3 links of footage of you dancing and 2-3 links of footage of you acting. These links can be via Vimeo, YouTube, your website, etc. Please contact us first if you want to send us a link that has to be downloaded (i.e. through WeTransfer or Dropbox).
Please note that we are unable to pay for travel or accommodation, so only submit if you are a local or can act as a local.
We will be accepting submissions till June 1st, 2022. Afterwards we will contact those who are shortlisted for in-person auditions.
Please send all submissions and questions related to the EMDR project to theautomaticmessagecasting@gmail.com. Please have "EMDR Submission" in the email subject line.
General inquiries can be sent to info@theautomaticmessage.com
