Choice of Actors

Jessica Callan and Samuel Newsham - Photograph by Emma Taylor

The 'Songbird Productions' team decided on Jessica Callan and Samuel Newsham to be our lead actors in our thriller opening. Even though they are not conventionally what is expected in thrillers (middle aged, high up within their profession), they are suitable for our teenage target audience. As this is a coming of age psychological thriller, we wanted actors which our target audience could relate to and actors which we had access to. As both Jessica and Samuel were friends prior to shooting our opening thriller, and would inevitably make the relationship apparent on screen to create a 'true to life' connection, which will make our film more realistic, an aim which we hope to achieve.

Sam Newsham in 'Fame' - Photograph by Nigel Taylor

Tom Bailey, another 'Songbird Productions' member and I found these actors through a Musical Theatre company named 'Valley Academy', where both Jess and Sam have gained vast amounts of relevant acting experience (appearing in key principle roles in musicals such as 'Fame!', 'High School Musical' and 'Joseph and his Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat'), which will undoubtedly help our coursework have a professional standard of acting due to their previous work experience.

Jess Callan in 'Fame' - Photograph by Emma Taylor

Both these talented, aspiring young actors are very reliable, having both appeared in one of my short films previously, meaning that we could count on them to show up to film shoots which was definitely a key factor in choosing them to appear in our work. As they had both had experience in acting on films with Tom Bailey and I, they were undoubtedly the ultimate choices for the roles of 'Joe' and 'Kym' in our production.

Sourcing our actors outside our media production team also meant that each member of 'Songbird Productions' could work on set doing practical, technical activities such as camera, clapper board sound and lighting.