So, for entry numero dos, I thought I'd talk a little bit about the casting. I'm not really big on VS casting to be honest. I'll paste something I posted on Monster Zero Productions in their discussion board.
I'm not a huge fan, but I look at this whole writing thing a bit differently. I grew up reading more books than watching television, so the art of storytelling is more a reading than viewing thing for me. As such, I came up with the mentality that I'll always be able to produce a better picture in my head of who the characters look like b/c it's my own interpretation than being shown a picture.
As a writer, I don't think it makes me any less attached to my vision b/c I don't cast every single person that gets time in my episodes and screenplays. I just like to allow the reader that freedom. 9 times out of 10, most people who read your work without looking at the casting will picture someone completely different to who you cast. Could actually make a fun game.
As for casting being "pointless" I think it's only pointless when you have an actor in mind for a character without knowing who the character is first. Invariably, you're going to be influenced by their prior work and basically end up typecasting the actor in the role. I like to figure out the character first, so picking an actor is just who looks the part instead of "ooh, I can finally work so and so into my show." There's a bit more of that going around than I'd like.
As a writer, I don't think it makes me any less attached to my vision b/c I don't cast every single person that gets time in my episodes and screenplays. I just like to allow the reader that freedom. 9 times out of 10, most people who read your work without looking at the casting will picture someone completely different to who you cast. Could actually make a fun game.
As for casting being "pointless" I think it's only pointless when you have an actor in mind for a character without knowing who the character is first. Invariably, you're going to be influenced by their prior work and basically end up typecasting the actor in the role. I like to figure out the character first, so picking an actor is just who looks the part instead of "ooh, I can finally work so and so into my show." There's a bit more of that going around than I'd like.
Having said all that, casting Creed was an interesting and at times frustrating experience, so here's how I came to settle on the faces for the eight regulars.
Bishop (Tony Todd) - Bishop the character was a holdover from The Damned, one of the series mentioned on the 'About the Series' section on the front page of the website. I always had Tony Todd in mind for that particular character. I imagined Todd playing the demon turned Heaven general Bishop as he did in Candyman.
Priest (Brandon Jay McLaren) - I'll admit McLaren was sort of an odd decision. Allow me to humiliate myself for a moment and admit that I used to be an enormous Powers Rangers fan back in the day. After the god awful garbage that was Lightspeed Rescue, I only caught episodes when there was nothing else on television, the exclusion to this being Dino Thunder when Jason David Frank returned. Anyway, I caught a random episode of SPD (Space Patrol Delta) while hanging out with my niece and that's where McLaren came from. I went back and watched his first episode and that sold me on him.
Rox (Taryn Manning) - Despite what Leigh Nguyen, one of GVP's Admins will tell you, Manning's not a bad actress. I fell for Manning when I watched Dandelion. At the time, I was mining for Vincent Kartheiser clips to use for the opening credits for my MZP series, Connor. Manning played lead opposite Kartheiser and I enjoyed her in it. So I saw a few other things and followed up. Manning was one of the casting options for the lead for Zero, the other series that helped give birth to Creed. Then... I saw the movie Hustle and Flow. Game over. Manning was the first person I cast on the show.
Salome (Joy Lauren) - Now, I'm not much of a Desperate Housewives fan, so I asked around for this one. Lauren was suggested to me as was Emma Stone. I ended up using Stone for Connor, so Lauren wound up here.
Tanya (Jaimie Alexander) - Welcome to my personal nightmare. In Tanya, I saw a humongous Amazon of a woman ala Nicole Bass. When I decided to soften the character just a hair, I still wanted someone tall and athletic, so an exhausting casting search began. You know what I found out? Hollywood ain't keeping women like that employed. Most of the time, you see a woman bulk up for a role, then lose the "movie muscle" just as quickly. Examples of this are Jessica Biel in Blade 3 (and she was a candidate), Kristanna Loken in Terminator 3, and most famously Charlize Theron in Monster. But naturally, they're just not that big. So I drop the size and stuck on the height. Alexander was a name that came up and a buddy of mine who is a big Kyle XY fan gave me the endorsement. Not to mention, I love the voice. She's got that sexy raspy thing going on.
Sage (Seth Green) - I love Buffy the Vampire Slayer. I love Can't Hardly Wait. I love The 70s Show. I love Greg the Bunny. Seth Green is a major reason for all of them. He's one of those quirky actors I'll watch in anything. End of story.
Lokesh (Maulik Pancholy) - I wanted an East Indian character that wasn't Kal Penn. I almost picked that dude from Heroes and was talked out of it by like fifty people. I've never seen the show, so 50 endorsements of "he has less range than Katie Holmes" was enough to dissuade me. So, I got so desperate that I was ready to go another way on the nationality and pick someone of Mexican/Hispanic heritage. In particular, I'd just finished a rewatch of The Shield season 4 and the movie 911 (awful, never watch it), so I was feeling Michael Pena. Then I remember how much I really enjoy Diego Luna's work. Finally, JT Vaughn, showrunner for MZP's Cult Hero pointed me in Pancholy's direction.
Bekah (Kathy Lamkin) - Now, this one was fun. Bekah was originally going to be a male character (with a different name obviously), but I'm sort of tired of jolly fat guys being represented on television. I come from a family of big women and it was startling how underrepresented larger woman were on television and in film. Shows like Married with Children and flicks like Shallow Hal made light of the girthy woman. For the most part, big women on television were relegated to comedies. So when I made the choice for this character to be female, the search was very difficult. All that did was really spur me on to use a heavy set female. I like working against type in my work and you don't see women like Lamkin playing roles like Bekah is going to play in this show. Despite her weight issues, this woman is smart (probably the most intelligent person there) and can handle herself. She's modeled after my own mother, actually. My mom's been big since she gave birth to my older brother, but never let it get her down and she's easily the most kind hearted person I know. Angelo Shrine, another MZP member, suggested her to me. I watched an ep of Nip/Tuck she guest starred in and that was that.