Family Matters: Adding to the Characters

As stated many times before, Caleum and Abby are brother and sister. One thing we wanted to accomplish was to create a bond between them. We did a number of reads together. Even though it was just one scene, we ran through it a number of times. There are shots that take place in the home that Abby and Caleum live in and we wanted the house to maybe feel like they lived there. I than thought of an exercise that would kill two birds with one stone.

Family pictures.

Something like this.

I decided to do this for two reasons. One, to create a chemistry and bond between Ben Banks and Darcee Warner. Give them a brother and sister feel. Second, we needed prop pictures for their house and one in Abby's hospital room.

Once I got Ben and Darcee on board, I called my friend Judea Runs Through to act as photographer. Ben and Darcee brought multiple sets of clothing and we ran around taking pictures in different settings. While taking these pictures, I would give them directions. Basically, directing them to be a brother and sister. It was a bit weird. Then something happened. It started to click. They started to fall into this brotherly-sister relationship.

Ben acted like an older brother. Teasing Darcee and joking around. Darcee would then snap at Ben and the two of them would joke around. I wanted to get a serious family portrait of the two, but I pulled Ben aside and told him to bother Darcee and ruin the photo. Ben agreed and did just that. Darcee was getting a bit perturbed. I think the best moment came when she told Benny Banks:

"Imma cut you!"

I died. It was great. They were really acting like siblings. This was a fantastic exercise and I believe, helped in filming their scene together. Here are the best photos we got from this excursion.

Darcee don't give a SHIT!

Although we didn't really film anything, I feel that doing this really helped my actors and myself as a director. We really got to explore who they were and what they are like. I highly recommend this exercise. Besides, we now have props when we shoot interiors of Caleum's home and a prop for Abby's hospital room.