Charlie Productions : How To Get Danny Dyer In Your Film

When we made "Free Speech" Danny had just finished on "The Football Factory" and so by the time our short was getting its first run of screenings he was a relatively recognisable face. In most screenings it wouldn't take long for someone to sidle up and ask how we'd got him, were we old friends, did we know someone who knew him, what did we have to do to get the script to him.

Truth is we did know someone who him, his agent. We knew his agent because Barrington, the film's producer, looked up who Danny's agent was and then rang him. On a telephone. There was no magic to it, besides the magic of a brilliant script and a charming producer. Barrington sent the script to Danny's agent, who loved it, gave it to Danny, he loved it, the end.

I often think about how easy this process was when I'm watching short films. Many things can ruin a short film but if there was one thing that successful shorts share and which separates them from the majority of others, it is the cast. Being a director I do generally blame directors for the awful performances of their cast but often the blame is simply for not seeing that these people are not actors. It is a crime that people continue to cast non-actors when the process of finding a professional is as simple as ringing their agent.

A crime that we have been guilty of ourselves. Our first experience of filmmaking was when we were still at school and so it was only natural that this would involve our friends, besides being seventeen we all believed we could act anyway. Also, to be fair, acting for the camera is one of those complicated tasks that can be performed well either by those who are very experienced or those who are very naive, like defusing a bomb. If faced with a bomb I'd like a bomb disposal expert but failing that I'd rather have someone who didn't fully understand the implications of getting it wrong because they'd be less likely to panic and make stupid mistakes.

Film acting is usually at it's most compelling when it is at its least self conscious. So occasionally you will find that there are "non-actors" who never-the-less are exceptionally good at being themselves and are completely unphased by being in front of a camera. On the whole though most normal people, let's call them your friends and everyone you know, find cameras innately confrontational, like a bomb would be.

After leaving school our first short films all involved actual actors found through advertising in the Stage Newspaper (this was before Shooting People existed). The results were patchy and for a while we returned to the bad habit of casting our friends. Partly this was because we were writing about our friends. The characters "Zee" and "Tim" in "If Looks Could Kill" are obviously Zee and Tim. The character of Russell in "Russell Square" was based on our friend Keith Malin, as was the character "Keith Malin" in "Danny's Found Jesus". As these characters came from life it seemed only natural for the real one to play the fictional. Also, being our friends, they weren't about to start asking for money. However I think we also fell back on our friends as a safety net.

Our first three films had produced only one real success and this had failed to lead us anywhere. Making films with ourselves as crew and our friends as cast was a way of working without opening our creative process to the harsh inspection of the outside world. We didn't have to explain our ideas to a professional crew, nor express any deep truths about our characters to a professional cast. Instead we had the good natured and ever willing help of our friends who loved us and trusted us and consequently would happily throw themselves under a train if we told them it'd be funny.

The turning point came with "Old Man Dies". The first time we shot it we worked in the old way, almost no crew and largely our friends as cast. The results, for all manner of reasons, were poor. One key weakness was that the story hinged on the unnamed old man's love for his wife, she had no dialogue though and we'd given very little thought to her casting. As a result there was no sense that this was a love for all time. In remaking the film we realised the blindingly obvious fact that an important role without dialogue requires an even better performer than one who has proper screen time to bring the character across.

Caroline Stoker who plays the prosaically named "Old Man's Wife" in the final version of the film had actually sent her details to us years earlier for our first short "Good Morning, Who Are You?" She'd always stuck in my head as having an interesting look and I think also because she wrote thoughtful rejection letters to our earlier projects. We auditioned her using the old man's monologue that forms the spine of the film and we spent a fair amount of time working with her to build the performance we wanted. Both she and the sublime Nick Simons who played the Old Man gave their time and energy to the project for free.

It was a brilliant experience. We gave ourselves time to work with a cast and we actually had a cast to work with. The impact of the end result improved exponentially and we've not looked back. We still often find ourselves writing about our friends, the character of "Mayover" in "Hallo Panda" is loosely based on our friend Alex Mayover. However rather than casting Alex (who you can see in our 48 Hour Challenge films) we cast the amazing Neil Edmond in the role and, as an actual actor, he was able to bring across the comic essence of the real Mayover whilst moving the character into a new, funnier place.

Acting is not the easiest way to make your living. Most actors do not join the profession simply to make money. They want to work on interesting projects and with interesting and talented people who are going to stretch them. You may not be able to get famous faces in every short film you decide to make, this isn't even something to aim for. However you can get brilliant, dedicated, creative performers who will push your film to a whole other level of success.

Actors are how the audience engage with a story, cast a professional and you take a massive leap towards your audience. This can be intimidating because you're going to have to engage with someone else's creativity. But it's worth it - working with our mates as a cast was fun but it was only once we opened ourselves up to forces that could stretch us that our films began to really take off.

Most of all it is so simple you'd be a fool not to.

Charlie Productions believe passionately in doing things and always trying to stop in time for tea.

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