As the shooting date for Talisman drew near, we decided to get the cast together to do a table read. We wanted to make sure the script was right and that the dialogue didn’t come across clunky. It was also a great way to meet the cast in person.
Our Director of Photography, Danny Gevirtz was away working on another project, and Jack Ligenza, who will play Connor in Talisman was starring in a production of Footloose three hours away. While there wasn’t much we could do to have Danny in two places at once, we were able to Skype Jack into the table read.
The cast arrived, along with producers John Manning and John Magee. It was great to finally get to meet everyone in person and also to see what kind of chemistry they had together. Hearing the cast deliver the lines that we had written was a strange yet exhilarating experience. And deliver they did. The cast did an excellent job of bringing the characters to life. Even through Skype in Jack’s case.
After a couple of small tweaks to dialogue and some clarifications, we ran through the script a second time. And that was even better. After, we had some snacks and refreshments and got to talk and discuss plans and answer questions. It struck me that we were really lucky to have chosen a cast that is talented, but also made up of great people.
The morning of the table read, I couldn’t shake a feeling of doubt. Not doubt in the cast that we had chosen or even the script… rather, it was doubt that I’d be able to pull this off. That maybe I’d bitten off more than I could chew. In reality, as a writer-director, I’ve only really shot 3 short films. And Talisman, by far, is the most complicated of them. A funny thing happened though… after going through the script and meeting everyone, my nerves calmed and the doubts went away. It was clearer than ever to me that we were on the right track. And even more so, that we had chosen the right actors.
Talisman is now only a few days away from beginning production. It’s exciting and scary at the same time. As I write this, we are busy moving furniture, hanging posters and turning a home into a film set. Final preparations are almost complete. Stay tuned for some behind the scenes looks and hopefully more posts on the making of Talisman
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