Casting Research

To begin with our casting research, we narrowed our search to female dancers exclusively. This was decided as the lead vocals of our song are by a female artist, therefore, it would make sense to have a female lip-synching to the song. Also, we specifically looked for dancers as we were certain of our decision of incorporating dance into our music video to conform with existing music videos from the dance genre. This refers to Goodwin's theory of music videos demonstrating typical genre characteristics.

Casting Scout

During our casting scout, we were looking for a group of a minimum of four dancers to perform a routine, including a dancer who would be the protagonist of our music video. We found a group of girls who are in the our school's dance company and have performed in our school's Gym & Dance show. This tells us that they are highly skilled in dance as they would have passed the auditions for our school's dance company and they are committed to attending dance practise after/during school. In addition, it is clear that they are confident and passionate with dancing to perform at our school's show. These characteristics are what we are looking for in our cast and to reflect the concept of our music video.

We contacted the individuals using Instagram direct message to ask if they would like to take part in our music video and an audition was arranged. Below is a screenshot of the direct message sent on Instagram to one of the dancers, the same message was sent to all four of the dancers.

Individual Profiles

Name: Bella Antinoro

Age: 14

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 8

Name: Holly Leedham

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 8

Name: Saffron Qureshi

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 8

Name: Ella Green

Age: 15

Gender: Female

Height: 5 ft 7

Audition

The audition consisted of the following five questions which were asked to each of the individuals:

1. Would you like to introduce yourself?
2. How long have you been dancing for?
3. Why do you think you are capable of fulfilling this role?
4. Have you got any previous experience to do with dancing/acting?
5. Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

This was followed by a dance routine/freestyle dance to the song used for the music video. With their permission, the audition was filmed for reference during the decision process. The video below shows footage from the audience that was held:

Final Decision

Our final decision was to include all four of the dancers into our music video, with Bella Antinoro as the protagonist. This decision was made because she appeared to be the most confident and comfortable on camera which is fundamental as the protagonist is involved in many shots such as lip synching. Furthermore, Bella came across as the most passionate about dancing which is communicated through her experience and dancing. This is important due to the concept of our music video and we concluded that her dancing will clearly demonstrate our concept.