Chapel Hill High School students had the opportunity last month to audition for a New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts short film written and directed by Chapel Hill alumna Lily Newton.
Newton, a fourth-year film and television student at the NYU Tisch School of the Arts, held auditions for the main role of her thesis film Bait & Tackle, seeking actresses in Chapel Hill, Durham and Raleigh and encouraging all interested high school and college students to audition.
Bait & Tackle features a 14-year-old girl named Kimmy who goes on a beach vacation with her male-dominated family and befriends a woman who dresses as a mermaid in a hotel parking lot. The film will be shot in Atlantic Beach over four days in mid-March.
“Casting the character of Kimmy in North Carolina further maximizes how many people we can bring down from New York,” Newton said. “An added bonus, though, would be that I could cast someone who would already feel at home and comfortable in the setting.”
Senior Hadley Connell, who auditioned for Kimmy’s role, was interested in the way Kimmy “saw the best in the world.” Connell also found it “comforting” that Newton had graduated from Chapel Hill High School.
“We talked a bit about construction and classes before the audition began,” Connell said. “The audition process was organized, and the leaders were funny, welcoming and creative. They gave great constructive criticism and wanted to see the best I could give.”
Theater teacher Thomas Drago, who taught Newton, encouraged his students to audition for the film.
“It’s great seeing my former students excel, and, since my son is also a film student, I’m always pleased to see what I teach translate from the stage to the screen,” Drago said.
Newton’s writing process took off last summer when she saw someone dressed as a mermaid at a photoshoot on Atlantic Beach and thought that she would make “a particularly good character for a film.”
“I’ve known for a while that I wanted to shoot on the beaches of North Carolina, as it’s a region I’m familiar with and find really interesting,” Newton said. “Beyond that, it just became a matter of finding the right story that could be set at the beach, while still representing a lot of what I found unique about the area, such as the businesses, townspeople and infrastructure.”
The film was funded by the Tisch School of the Arts, and Newton is supplementing the costs with a fundraiser, which has raised, as of February 11, $3,650. Bait & Tackle actors will not be paid, but will be provided with food, lodging, credit and a copy of the film.
Newton expects to complete the film this fall, after which she plans on submitting Bait & Tackle to film festivals and to highlight her writing and directing capabilities.
“I consider this first and foremost a learning opportunity. I’m trying to learn as much as I can from the actual process of making the film,” Newton said. “Being able to refine my craft as a director, as well as continuing to discover what elements of filmmaking I’m drawn to, is what I’m most looking forward to in this experience.”
