Casting Considerations

During the planning stages of my project, I had to decide upon actors and actresses that would best suit the style and imagistic ideas that I had, making sure that they complimented the plot.

For example, when writing the character of Jake, I wanted to follow the archetype that was set through the protagonist of my film of study, Donnie Darko. This meant having a character that coild be compared to Jake Gylenhaal.

For me, this meant that Jake had to be a dark haired, mysterious, young man. much like Jake Gyllenhaal (pictured below).

The name for the protagonist in Deadbeat was; in fact, named after the actor who played Donnie. Subconsciously, I think I found myself writing the character of Jake to be played by my good friend Shivam all along. and imagined him acting in all the events of the plot I had written. I had also written to accommodate Shivam's style of acting whilst also making sure that I kept Jake feeling real and relevant to the plot.

Physically, Shivam (pictured below) looks similar to Jake Gyllenhaal, in the fact that both could be described to be Dark, Mysterious and even brooding at times. I felt that Shivam was the perfect choice as soon as I had begun writing and establishing ideas on how I wanted Jake to look and present himself to the audience.

The other character I had within my keyframes was Ezraeil, based off of the Hebrew 'Angel of Death'. Despite Azrael being the most common name for this Angel of Death, it can also be spelled: "Izrail, Azrin, Izrael, Azriel, Azrail, Ezraeil, Azraille, Azryel, Ozryel, or Azraa-ee". I settled upon this spelling as I felt it was the most appropriate and similar to the name Ezra, which is a name often giften to both genders.

Azrael is often pictured to be a male (as seen below), however, I wanted to create a female Angel of Death as I felt that having a woman to portray such a role would suggest that death isn't always a harsh part of life, and I hoped that I could bring light to that by making Ezraeil a calming, soft character.

I wanted Ezraeil to be an innocent, angelic looking pale woman, with dark flowing hair, I found these exact features in another friend of mine, Hannah. Hannah was perfect for the role and, in real life, is the quiet, mysterious type that you'd expect Ezraeil to be.

Hannah fit this role perfectly, being an angelic looking young woman, whilst also being grounding and convincing with the storytelling, shown in her acting.