These are the final snaps I’m showing; any more and I’ll give away too much of the story and, well, that’s not what I want to do. These shots feature Branden Goodman (high school senior RALPH) and Jordan Frank (high school freshman SCOTT) trying to get along with each other in the midst of a crisis. Remember, these are screengrabs from raw footage with no effects or color correction.
Today you’ll see a couple snaps of Branden Goodman (19), who plays the lead role of RALPH. I picked him because I liked the way he did Ralph in the audition and he had this look that could be hero or bad boy, like the guy who can fit into any group he wants –from Warcraft nerds to jocks to raucous musicians — the kind of guy we all wish we were like in high school (well, I was that way. Honest.) Anyway, Branden always made acting look so easy, he could pull off anything I wanted and added so much of his own stuff to the role. I pulled him back for a third night of filming and threw all sorts of brand-new stuff at him that
wasn’t in the script. The guy was able to deliver everything I needed while helping to build new scenes on the fly — and we were able to complete filming in one night with time left to spare for a game of darts. Now that’s a pro. He also formed a connection with his younger co-star, Jordan, which helped make the more sympathetic scenes completely genuine. I have to be careful not to spill too much, just know that you’ll be seeing a lot of Branden in film because he is going to be BIG.
SNAPS are screengrabs I’ve pulled from raw footage. Today I’m featuring the work of 14-year-old Jordan Frank, an actor who resides in Beaumont, Texas, but has been flying out regularly to Los Angeles with his mom and sister to build his career.
When I first auditioned Jordan for the role of SCOTT, I remember privately asking the guy auditioning with him (an older guy going for the role of RALPH) what he thought of Jordan’s performance. The older guy said, “oh, I remember being like that.” And I realized, that was exactly what I was looking for… an energetic combination of youth + vulnerability + courage + “old-soul-ness.” A guy who knows what being 14 is like because he’s in the middle of it, yet has the acting chops to express sincere emotion on cue and show the changes his character has to undergo in only 8 minutes of screentime. I can tell you already, Jordan delivered, and you can see it even in snaps from the raw footage.
Branden Goodman as Ralph.
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