Casting.By.2012.WEBRip.x264-ION10

The role of the Casting Director in Hollywood is presented, focusing largely on the career of New York based Marion Dougherty, who is seen as changing the face of the casting process, and to a lesser extent Lynn Stalmaster, her Hollywood counterpart who came onto the scene slightly after her. Up until the 1950s, casting was largely conducted by studio executives pushing their contract players in the types of roles they are most associated, rarely breaking out of that mold. The demise of studio contract system led to the rise of people external to the studio hired to assist in casting. In combination with the advent of a more naturalist approach to acting and the Method, Dougherty became renowned for seeing in actors inherent essences and the many facets to their being which would mesh with certain roles. She was not as concerned with any actor's resume, she relying on what she saw in them as people. She was also instrumental in introducing movie audiences to who were up to then primarily stage actors, and breaking through the color barrier, seeing actors as people and not certain roles as specifically white or black. Actors and directors discuss the role of the Casting Director in their work. The documentary also discusses certain controversies in the business, from calling people like Dougherty and Stalmaster Casting "Directors" (despite other non "primary director" functions being referred to as director, such as Director of Photography or Art Director), to the Casting Director being single carded as such in the opening credits of movies, to it being the only opening credits job that is not officially recognized by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. Associated with this latter issue was the campaign mounted in the early 1990s for the Academy to recognize the Casting Director within its in-competition awards, and most specifically to award a Special Oscar to Dougherty for her body of work.