There is a lot of planning that goes in to a day of shooting. Weeks are spent scouting locations, scheduling crew and selecting talent. And so far, casting is one of my favorite parts of the planning process. It’s just like a big puzzle!

The LBP office has a large red work table and some days it is covered in lots of little faces. As members of the team pass through, they will say “must be casting day!”

We are currently casting for our upcoming Back to School shoot with Academy Sports + Outdoors. The cast consists of around 35 kids spanning from ages five to eighteen. One spot follows a mom and her two kids through the years and this spot presents a special casting challenge. We need a son and a daughter who age from six to seventeen, so this required casting three different boys and girls at three different ages. Not only do the three boys and three girls need to look like each other, they also need to resemble siblings. For this challenge, we once again called on Caryn Gorme of Gorme Casting to find us the perfect family. Caryn handles all of our casting needs whether we are looking for tractor drivers or the perfect little kid.

Caryn spends a day collecting head shots and audition tapes for lots of potential talent. She then brings in the tapes and the headshots and we spread everything out like pieces of a puzzle. We carefully whittle down the selection until we have the best of the best for what we are looking for. Then director Locke Bryan looks over the group and comes up with the chosen few.  For some spots it comes down to size issues; when it comes to Academy products, sizes are very specific so we search through the pieces until we find the girl who wears the 7 ½ size shoe. And other times it comes down to the vision the director has in his head. Once we have everything down to the number we need, we edit together a Casting Tape which then goes on to the client for approval. After the feedback comes in, we make any changes we need to and then proceed with scheduling fittings and call times.

This is the same casting process we go through for all of our shoots - big or small, whether we need one person or twenty. And the pieces always seem to fit together perfectly.

We shoot the Back to School spots next week and we’re going to make it rain - so stay tuned! I’m so excited!