Mastering Low-Budget Filmmaking: Jaron Lockridge's Creative Approach to Casting and Locations

It is really hard. A lesson that I learned early on is, especially in the low budget realm, you can't get too picky. So what I started doing, a lot of the times were just generalizing things. I would generalize locations, I would generalize actors, and I would wait for an audition and see which one speaks to me. Like, especially when it comes to actors. I'll see how this actor, without any direction, says this line or treats this character. And a lot of times you're surprised by that. You're surprised by doing that and it turns out better than what you would have if you had pictured. Anyway, I still sometimes to make it through our picture a certain actor, like this mind, sometimes you can't control it. So I'll still picture a certain actor. I've even had a movie where I pictured Samuel Jackson. I know I'm not going to cast him, but I'll picture him in that role. I have many different ways to do it, but most of the time I try my best to generalize the character and locations so that if I get to this certain location and it's not how it is in my mind, it just won't bother me that much. I can just tweak and pivot however I have to get it done.