TRANSITION UNIT: Character Profiles and Cast

As we have no producer in our group, we decided to share this role. Alex took on the job of creating the character profiles (which we then used to find the cast), I looked for locations and performed the location recces and Melissa performed the risk assessments.

Alex described the mockumentary as:

"Vet-man is a short 3-5 minute comedy mockumentary parodying factual entertainment shows such as 'The Supervet' and '24 Hours in A&E'. The film follows Dr. Tim Stewart, a confident yet incompetent vet as he attempts to treat his animal patients with unfortunate consequences."

The cast requirements:

"We are looking for: a male aged between 25 and 40 to play Dr. Stewart, a person of any age and gender to play his receptionist, and a woman aged between 50 and 75 to play a pet owner seeking treatment."

"We are also looking for a female voiceover artist to provide narration for the film."

Through the development of the script, we realised we only needed two cast members - Dr. Stewart and Sheila (the pet owner). The receptionist is no longer required as they are not in this section of the script.

Dr. Tim Stewart

When looking for this character, Alex (as writer/director) said he saw their dialogue being delivered in quite a dead-pan manner to add to the humour of the piece. The vet also needs to have a very sensible look to make it more humorous that, contrary to his sensible and confident appearance, he in actual fact doesn't know what he's doing.

Having worked with Aidan in multiple projects, we saw him as a good candidate for Dr. Tim Stewart. He has the ability to deliver lines in a dead pan manner and we know that he will be reliable for the shoot dates.

In order to make Aidan even more believable as a vet, he will be given smart clothes and glasses for the consultation room scene to establish him a sensible character. Then he will be given scrubs to wear for the operation scene to make him believable as a vet.

Sheila

The requirements for Sheila's character were a less stringent than those for the vet. Sheila just needed to be a 50-75 year old woman who's comfortable working with animals (specifically dogs).

Samantha fits this role perfectly. She is at the younger end of the age bracket but has the look we wanted to go for. She has a kind and caring look to her - this will work great for her interview scene and the idyllic shots of her and Coco in the park.

Samantha will wear ordinary clothes for the different scenes to display her as an ordinary pet owner.

Coco

Coco will be played by Alex's dog Coco. Coco is trained and as Alex's dog should be able to follow orders when given by him. As Alex will be directing the piece, this should work very well and shouldn't pose much trouble.