As Live Production: Casting

Part of a director's role is to help cast actors and/or talent for the show (Owens & Millerson, 2009:43-44). However, to do this, it is first necessary for the team to know what the show involves, so that they know the skills a performer will need to be able to fill the role (Rooney & Belli, 2013:23).
For example, when holding auditions for our presenter (the commander) we knew that the actor would need to be able to:

• perform live, so maybe have previous experience in live TV or theatre
• hold children's attention for half an hour and guide the audience and contestants through the show - they needed to be energetic, have a good stage presence, and be able to deal with kids, perhaps from past experience of working with or entertaining children
• explain the games so that the instructions were not confusing or boring, thus the performer needed to be enthusiastic

Therefore, thinking about these things helped us ask questions during auditions and select the part of the script we wanted actors to read, also taking into consideration that:

"an actor must also be gifted in his craft and physically and mentally be able to handle the demands of the job"

(Rooney & Belli, 2013:23). 

Filming the auditions helped with this also, since it allowed us to see how the actors interacted with the camera, as seeing them audition in person helped us to see how they would react with the contestants and the audience.

Overall, knowing what we wanted, and what the demands of the roles would therefore be, helped us cast our talent.

References

Owens, J. & Millerson, G. (2009) Television Production. (15^thed.) Oxon: Focal Press.

Rooney, B. & Belli, M. (2013) Directors Tell the Story: Master the Craft of Television and Film Directing. Oxon: Focal Press.