Life = Audition
“Everything you don’t want to happen on the day of your audition and everything you shouldn’t do on that day, so that it doesn’t draw out everything you would rather keep to yourself.” A young unestablished actress has an audition for a role in a movie that starts badly and ends up even worse.
A 15-minute comedy about a 25-year-old actress, Victoria (Lea Cok), who is late for an audition. She stumbles into the waiting room, soaked, because she was caught in a thunderstorm – everything you don’t want on the day of an audition. At the reception desk, she encounters an unfriendly secretary, Manja (Mila Pershin), who tells her that a supporting lead has been cast and that she can audition for the support to the supporting lead, which Victoria accepts. In the toilet, she meets her former classmate from the academy, Sanja (Eva Jurko), a seductress who tells her that the role is hers and, out of pity, lends Viktorija her T-shirt with a provocative inscription that might be suitable for the gym, but certainly not for an audition. In the waiting room, she meets Dorian (Matej Zemljič), with whom she will audition as a couple. While waiting, Viktorija unsuccessfully tries to learn the new text as her neighbour performs voice relaxation techniques. Before entering the audition room, Viktorija turns the T-shirt inside out. Dorian entertains the three-headed jury ( Urban Kuntarič, Marko Ujc and Gal Oblak), while being dictatorial towards Viktorija- everything that is not allowed in an audition, apart from soloing and asking her co-star to do what she doesn’t want to do. It escalates until Sanja’s interrupts the audition because she is unhappy with her costume. Viktoria decides to leave the audition. A drop over the edge is Sanja’s on-the-spot demand to return her T-shirt. Viktorija pompously takes it off and applause ensues: she has won the part. Of course, this was an inside joke by the jurors as a final humiliation for Victoria, and draws out of her everything she would rather have kept to herself…
If you are interested by Substantive report: the preproduction included the team composition – director and her assistant, director of photography and his assistant, lighting master and assistant, set designer, make-up artist, costume designer, photographer. It was necessary to set up a database on google documents, which facilitates the transfer of information and material for the team. After confirming the space and familiarising the sectors with the script, individual meetings followed with the elaboration and rough evaluation of the budget. With the technical team, we planned the equipment according to the vision of the film. This was followed by the booking of the equipment. Then came the development of the script according to the locations and the creation of a work plan, which involved 3 shooting days: day 1 at the Academy (toilet scenes and staircase), an intermediate day to transfer the equipment to the new location (the Puppet Theatre) and lighting the hall with the help of the Puppet Theatre staff. On day 2 is in the audition hall and day 3 in the waiting room.. In the meantime, we have also recruited extras for the cast, purchased props and costume accessories. This was followed by the creation of a disposition, where each member is informed of the exact time and sequence of the filming of the shots. This was followed by costume rehearsals and rehearsals with the actors. The day before the shooting, the whole crew was briefed once again. The first day of shooting (12.7.2021) started at 10.30 and finished at the scheduled time – 18.00. On 14.7.2021, the filming day lasted from 7.30 a.m. – 7.30 p.m. with a break in between (1 hour for lunch). The same applies to 15.7.2021. After each filming day, we copied the material and prepared the set for the next day. On the last day of filming, the equipment was returned. The material was taken over by the editor, who made selections according to the secretary’s notes and the technical soundness of the footage. In the meantime, I issued invoices. The director and I followed the film-making process on a weekly basis. After the first phase of editing, I contacted the sound department to record the voice-overs (the main character’s thoughts) and the visual department to continue with the final processing of the tone and image. I contacted the musician Jacuzzy Krall, who, in collaboration with the master of tone, composed the film’s soundtrack. The graphic designer produced the captions, subtitles and animation in the film.
The participants are:
Lea Cok Producer
Sara Polanc director
Anže Grčar assistant director
Andrej Kokalj DOP
Sara Ivanov Assistant DOP
Andraž Žigart Lighting Assistant
Tristan Dragan Lighting Master
Ana Grzetič Secretary
Uroš Škaper Set design
Aleš Škaper Assistant stage design
Andrej Supančič Sound Master
Katarina Škaper Costume Designer
Maja Razboršek make-up artist
Laura Butković Mask assistant
Jakob Hrecak editing
Aleksander Petrič Photographer
Ksaver Šinkar photographer
ACTORS
Lea Cok actress Viktorija
Mila Peršin secretary Manja
Matej Zemljič actor Dorian
Eva Jurko Actress Sanja
COMMISSION
Gal Cloud Danilo
Urban Kuntarič Tadej
Marko Ujc Samo
STATISTS
Dejan Žuna
Tina Skerlep
Arnika Matko Juvančič
Ana Krklec
Simona Dimovska
Sara Požin
Jan Filip Jordan Frangeš
Bonino Enlargo
Acknowledgements:
Ministry of Culture
Puppet Theatre
AGRFT
Aleš Loborec
MB Grip
Aleksander Petrič
Association for the Culture of Inclusion