On Friday we’re shooting a crazy scene where the main character chances upon a haphead party, where the party-goers are all showing off their physical skills they learned from playing videogames — martial arts, BMXing, parkour etc.

We’ve rented out a parkour gym (pictured above) made from a refurbished warehouse at St. Clair and Keele. If you’re free Friday evening and want to see a variety of tricksters do their thing, as well as be on film, drop anthony@lofiscifi.com a line!

We held auditions yesterday in the basement auditorium of the Parkdale library, seeing nearly fifty people in five hours. Having gone out for 300 auditions himself, Anthony masterminded the session, getting folks to try out for all the principal roles via ads on craigslist.org, aactionauditions.com, and Mandy.com — Mandy really brought in a lot of talent, and is quite a resource.

For me, it was the first time I’d been to an audition in any capacity, so I found it pretty fascinating. It was very cool to hear the actors bring the characters to life. There’s a ton of talented and focused actors in this city!

We’re still looking for DOP/director types and older Asian men who can speak Mandarin. Let us know if you have any leads!

Please forward to people you think might be into acting in the movie — if you’re posting, use this link:
http://nomediakings.org/vidz/ghosts_with_shit_jobs_casting_call.html
…as it’s viewable by the public.

We’re in pre-production for a new lo-fi sci-fi movie called Ghosts With Shit Jobs. Involving many of the same people as our last one, Infest Wisely (imdb / official site), it’s also a no-budget, multi-director project written by me — but with approximately a million times more planning. We’re going to be starting shooting this summer.

In 2040, a generation of Torontonians have grown up after the economic collapse of the west. The movie consists of episodes of a documentary series popular in mainland China about the bad jobs some white people have — the plucky and resilient souls unlucky enough to be born into the slums of North America are both amusing and moving to the Chinese audience.

We’re doing auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4. If you’re in Toronto, please check out the roles we’re trying to fill — there’s a variety of ethnicities and ages.

We are looking for non-union actors for the following roles. If you have any questions or are interested in trying out email your details to casting@ghostswithshitjobs.com/productionblog and we’ll give you the details for the auditions on Saturday, June 6, 12-4pm in Parkdale, Toronto.

Oscar is a digital janitor in his 20s/30s, and has to manually cover up logos for copyright reasons in the future’s answer to Google StreetView maps. He doesn’t really know why he’s on a show about bad jobs, because he thinks his job is pretty great — he gets to see history come alive in front of his eyes, like the garbagemen who fancy themselves like archaeologists. But the long hours and loneliness are getting to him, especially since the death of his mother.

Gary and Karen are baby-makers in their 20s/30s. They assemble robot baby dolls for the children of the wealthy in Asia. They’re so indistinguishable from real babies that the crying, diapers and feeding of a half-dozen units at once is driving the couple a little crazy and straining their relationship. Both of them are hugely overqualified for the job, but while Gary has a reasonable ten-year plan, the more ambitious Karen would do anything to be making battlebots now.

Anton and Toph are silk collectors in their 20s. Twenty years ago a herd of gigantic spiders ran amok over the eastern seaboard after a genelab outbreak, leaving behind buildings swathed in spider web silk. Although highly toxic and difficult to collect, people like Anton and Toph risk their lives to get it — it’s worth its weight in gold as an ultrastrong building material. Anton, the enthusiastic and delusional older brother, loves the idea of becoming famous for collecting the Tower silk. Toph, the more intelligent younger brother who actually does the collecting, knows it’s a deathtrap.

Serina is human spam in her 20s/30s. She makes a living by mentioning brands and products in casual conversation, and is credited based on their status and wealth. Because of the life she’s chosen, she’s disconnected from friends and family but protected by a lipstick-sized tazer and her “people” in the Nigerian cartel. A chameleon and professionally skilled at reinvention, her good humour and friendliness is only skin deep — beneath it is a cold and ruthless survivor.

Other parts

• the Documentarian, an Asian man (Mandarin speaking a plus)
• the show host, an Asian woman (Mandarin speaking a plus)
• Harry, a heavyset Caucasian in 40s/50s/60s
• Tom, an alpha male office worker in his 20s/30s
• Leo, a beta male office worker in his 20s/30s
• Avinash, an east Indian male in his 30s/40s
• Nat, a Caucasian male in his 20s/30s
• Mr. Wilson, a Caucasian male in his 40s/50s
• two eight year old boys
• two Asian men, 30s-40s
• a man in his 60s-70s

This is such an ambitious project that if you’re interested, I’m pretty sure we’ll find a part for you to play — it might be as a background extra or it might be as a Director of Photography, but you won’t know if you don’t get in touch!

We have access to one, probably multiple, babies with parents who are “cool”.

I have resisted posting a picture of Sidney here, but needless to say: STAR QUALITY.

Babies are weird and strange.