The Calm after the storm

First round of auditions are over.
It was an great experiance. Trent and I arrived at 1:15pm we set up camp, a table 3 chairs one for Matt, Myself and Anna. I brought out the packets filled with folders one folder for each role. On binder of roles for anna matt and myself. See I created review sheets for each actor and then put each actor in a folder based off the role they were auditioning for. Then took all of the roles put them in binders and gave them to my casting crew. Which incidently turned out to be just Anna and me or I or Mi'self. Anna and Trent were invaluable to the audition process. Matt couldnt make it which is a bummer, his oppinion would have been great. But things come up.
INVENTORY
waterbottles for actors check
actor review sheets (nicely sorted check
Chairs for the actors to sit on in the
hallway while waiting check
Sign up mailing list for actors in
hallway check
pens for checking review sheets check
Camera check
Tripod check
extension cords(we needed them
you will too) check
Masking tape(placing marks) check
Audition schedule check
Conflict schedule forgot dammit
List of inventory needed for auditions you guessed didnt make one.

I scheduled the auditions tightly and ran through them fairly well. If I had filled all of the time slots I may very well still be doing auditions right now. We made it through about 23 or so actors.
I enjoyed giving the actors sides and not giving them the whole script this really helped me see how well they could improvise and take direction. I would advise to do the same. however your auditions will run longer then 3 to 5 minutes a person. Give yourself 10 minutes per person and only schedule auditions for 2 hours the first time you do them. 2 hours was enough for me. It was actually 3 and half. One hour to set up 2 hours to auditions 30 minutes to tear down. After the audition dont plan anything but going home and soaking in a hot bath for a while this will help calm my.... I mean your nerves. This is advise for those of you who are thinking of doing this and never have. If you are a vetern film maker please feel free to continue reading my journal and donate free gear.
So now I am at home I have sent my email out to the actors thanking them for coming

"Hello to all who auditioned today,I first would like to thank everyone who came out and gave tremendous performances. It was a pleasure for us to get to know all of you and hear the story of Merlot come to life. We are still reviewing the audition tapes and will send out callback requests tomorrow night by 5pm. For those who do no receive a call back request, I would just like to thank you again for sharing your talent and time with us. " I think that is a nice way of letting people know that if they do not get a call back you still appreciate thier craft and desire to act. I think that everyones art should be treasured and respected. You may think someone is not good or bad, that is not how I like to look at things. Everyone has worth and thier art does as well. So now I go to continue reviewing the artist to see whos work will best bring to life the short story of Merlot.