[NEohioPAL] LILLIAN PYLES CASTING / 'DEATH METAL'

[via NEohioPAL]

The feature film ‘DEATH METAL’ is seeking musically inclined SAG & NON-SAG actors who can play an instrument and or sing in the Heavy Metal genre.

Not all of the characters actually play music on screen: that’s Ivan, Katon, Ba’al and Devin.  But the rest are definitely part of the scene and have a METAL ‘LOOK’.

Please submit your current headshot/photo and resume to be considered for an audition. If applicable - must provide samples of your musical ability.

If selected auditions will be held Monday March 6th through Saturday March 19th.

Send submissions to: deathmetalauditions at gmail.com (ONLY)
 
State your character preference as the {subject title}.  No multiple character preferences, (unless you play more than one instrument).  

Below please find the character descriptions, deadline for submissions
is Sunday March 12th.

All information will be forwarded if selected. Please no inquiries to this email, submissions only.

CALL BACKS: March 24th through March 28th…Film shoot JUNE 1ST.

DEATH METAL CASTING BREAKDOWNS 
SHADIA (female, 19). Shadia is a talented and beautiful young woman. She grew up in an abusive household, but was able to escape with help from her boyfriend, Ivan, with whom she now lives. She manages his band, and is determined to repay his kindness by helping him achieve his goals, while developing her own career in the music industry. Shadia sometimes doubts herself, and her past haunts her. But Shadia possesses incredible inner strength, and tries to find the best in every situation.
 
IVAN (male, early-20s). Ivan is the tall, rail-thin guitarist and leader of his death metal band, Abyssinister. His parents died in a drunk driving accident when he was a teen; he first met Shadia in Al-Anon. But, with talent and hard work, he was able to earn a full- ride musical scholarship to Juilliard. Ivan’s a very intense guy; he's ambitious and driven, but also overly serious and single-minded. He can only relax when he’s hanging around with Shadia, for whom he has a fierce love. His greatest fear is dying forgotten. He feels that, if he can find greatness through music, then he’ll be immortal. But while he has technical mastery, his stiff personality keeps him from good songwriting. He lacks the spark, and it kills him.
 
DEVIN (male, 20s). Devin is Abyssinister’s bass player. He’s an ironic, sharp-tongued guy who doesn’t take anything too seriously, including the band, his prodigious drug use, or his relationship with Anya. He loves to get under Ivan’s skin. Devin enjoys playing metal because he thinks it’s ridiculous fun. At heart, he’s a decent guy, but he’s cynical, and needs to test people and situations with humor to see if it’s for real before he commits himself. 

FLEMING (male, mid-40s). Fleming was a teenager when the Second Wave Black Metal scene got serious, and was at ground zero of that scene. His own bands never quite hit, but he found his real talents lie with producing. Years ago, his live-in girlfriend tried to murder him; he accidentally killed her while fighting her off. The death was ruled in self-defense but, from that point forward, Fleming became deeply cynical. He’s seen it all, done it all, and doesn’t give a fuck about anything but his own career. However, he still loves the music (when it’s good), and gets excited when something special catches his ear. 

RAMSEY (male, 30s). Ramsey is the kind of guy who fell into the industry through friend connections, but everyone likes him, so he’s stuck around and made a career out of it. The bands dig him because he’s actually relatively honest (though he still has to pass along bad news at the behest of his bosses), and he does his best to stick with the acts he signs. He likes the fun aspects of the job; to him, this whole gig is about hanging out with cool people, scoring free booze and drugs, and hunting for good music. Not bad, huh? 

KATON (male, 20s). Katon is the lead singer of Abyssinister. He’s at core a solid, blue collar guy who got into music mostly because Ivan needed a vocalist for his high school band, and Katon was one of Ivan’s few friends. He loves metal (he has a huge collection), but the whole band thing is more of a hobby; he mostly just enjoys performing and hanging out with his friends. Not that he’d mind being a working musician, but he doesn’t have anything near Ivan’s ambition. Katon has recently fallen madly in love with Devin’s girlfriend, Anya. They’re secretly seeing each other, and Katon hates the fact that Devin seems to care very little for her. 

BA’AL (male, 20s). “Ba’al” was born Jimmy, but he officially changed his real name to his stage name, as it’s the persona with which is more identifies. He’s a very intellectual, well-read guy who teaches at a community college when he’s not on tour. Ba’al is the band’s resident Satanist, though he’s a skeptic and an atheist, and ascribes to the Temple for philosophical (rather than religious) reasons. He’s a bit distant and cynical, with a wry sense of humor. As evidenced by the name change, though, when Ba’al does get serious about something, he devotes himself 100%. He loves black metal and, in his own quiet way, is star-struck by Fleming. 

ANYA (female, 19). Anya recently lost her mother, with whom she was very close, and since then has been somewhat adrift. She has become interested in ghost hunting and hauntings, mostly as a way to explore the possibility there is an afterlife. She likes getting wasted and hanging around with dudes in bands because it’s an empty-calories distraction from her grief. Anya isn’t a “bad” person, but at this moment in her life she’s somewhat nihilistic, and isn’t averse to doing stuff like dating two guys in the same band because... Why not? 

JOE (male, 30). Joe is a very logical, tech-smart guy, with a particular affinity for A/V. He’s the guy who grasps the math and science of recording, and can identify, tear down, optimize and repair any piece of gear. He recently took a job as Fleming’s right hand man in the studio. Joe is a stolid, dependable guy who never quite left his small town upbringing behind. He enjoys doing community service with his church, hunting, fishing, watching sports and drinking Coors. The nature of his job means he’s often the odd man out in a room full of creative types, the square guy who catches some ribbing. But he’s a good dude who has a way of winning people over. He originally got into audio thinking that he’d end up on Music Row in Nashville. But jobs were tight, so he grabbed this metal gig with Fleming to tide himself over. 

THE COMPOSER. The Composer is an earlier version of Ivan: incredibly talented, but lacking that certain something that would bring him the fame and fortune he craves. He made a deal with the darkness in exchange for immortality, thinking that would mean his music would echo through the ages; instead, he’s a nameless ghost trapped in the music’s curse until he’s able to find a replacement: Ivan. Once, he was just a kid from the French countryside who came to Paris with nothing but a violin and an artist’s heart; now, his soul has been thoroughly corrupted by evil. 

BEAUTIFUL WOMAN (female, 20s). The ghost of Fleming’s dead girlfriend appears to him. In life, she was an addict with mental health issues. While she was in the midst of a drug-fueled freakout, Fleming was forced to kill her in self-defense. In death, she comes to him in an idealized state, angelic but for the bullet in her head. She’s Norwegian. 



Lillian Pyles, CSA
lillianpylescasting.com