Casting Real People, Not Actors

When The Feminist Cohort came to us for their activation film, the easy version was a script, a casting call and a controlled set. We pushed for the harder version instead: point the camera at the room that was actually happening.

That meant giving up a lot of control. No blocking rehearsals, no second takes of a reaction that only happens once. What we got back was a room full of people who forgot the camera was there by the second hour.

The trade-off shows up in the edit. Real footage is messier — harder to cut, harder to pace. But it's also the only kind of footage where the audience can tell the difference between something staged and something that actually happened.

We'd make the same call again. A story about real people gets weaker every time you replace one of them with someone playing a role.